Abstract:
In the constant competition for customer acquisition and retention, organizations must create innovative strategies to set their respective brands apart. Store atmospherics have been determined to have effects on image building of brands. As such, this study aimed to examine the relationship of store atmospherics with customer perception on the brand personality of McDonald’s. A survey was administered to 97 students from the University of the Philippines Manila who had visited a selected McDonald’s branch at least 3 times. Three main aspects of the store atmospherics of the branch were studied, including layout, color, and style of décor, to determine the importance of store atmospherics in branding. The study also sought to identify the specific dimension of brand personality of McDonald’s as perceived by customers using the Big Five Theory of Brand Personality. Store atmospherics scores for all three aspects were obtained using a 14-item questionnaire, and the descriptive level of each brand personality dimension for McDonald’s was measured through a 9-item questionnaire.
It was revealed through statistical analysis of the data that all three aspects – layout, color, and style of décor – were perceived by customers to be impactful on how they view the brand. In general, layout was determined to be the most important of the three aspects. The dimension of brand personality that was most descriptive to McDonalds was found to be Competence, followed by Excitement. A statistical comparison of the brand personality scores of males and females detected no significant difference indicating that the sex of the customer had no effect on perception of brand personality. Finally, the relationship between store atmospherics and brand personality was revealed to have a significant positive correlation. Color and style of décor had a positive correlation with the Competence dimension, while all three aspects had a positive correlation with the Excitement dimensions. All correlations were determined to be weak but significant at a 0.05 alpha level.
