The link between offline brand attributes and corporate brand image in bookstores

The purpose of this paper is to look into the relationship between the physical aspect of a retail store, product‐related attributes, personal interaction with customers and perceived reliability and corporate brand image in an offline or bricks and mortar context.

The study is based on 511 interviews conducted in various bookstores and uses structural equation modelling as a statistical tool for concluding the above.

The paper argues that physical aspect of a retail store, product‐related attributes and personal interaction with customers will have a significant and positive direct effect on the offline corporate brand image whilst there was no significant connection between reliability and corporate brand image.

The research has been conducted in one organisation, albeit a number of bookstores were scrutinized.

The paper's managerial contribution lies in its lessons for practitioners who want to understand what are the key drivers of corporate brand image in an offline context. It also provides a background for further studies which can extrapolate the current thinking into other sectors in order to validate or refute the results presented here.

The paper scrutinizes the impact of: physical aspects; product related information; reliability; and personal interaction in the corporate brand image of a retail organisation.