Spousal Purchasing Behavior as an Influence on Brand Equity

A debate has been gaining notice between Wall Street (financial market) and Main Street (consumer market) as to what level the firm's brand equity actually is. Married household purchasing is a large segment of the retail sector and important to brand strategy. Furthermore, a thirty-year trend has been that more husbands are not working and more wives are. This has impacted marital shopping roles and its influence on branding efforts. This is a Main Street (consumer, retail market) study of customer-based brand equity that focuses on married males and females. Using comparative (t-test) and multivariate (regression) analysis of 263 hypermarket shoppers, particular influences are significant to brand equity. Store image, price deal, distribution intensity and purchase experience are important factors to married males and females and to build household brand equity. The results have implications for branding researchers and brand managers.