SEVEN 'A''S - AN IMAGE INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF SUBURBAN MALLS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Several researches on the attractiveness of shopping malls from an image point of view had been carried out. However, an image model that is applicable for shopping malls in suburban areas remains limited. In particular, no image model that is applicable across all suburban shopping malls in Singapore exists currently. This study sought to find out the image domains of suburban malls held by local consumers and to identify the three most important image domains that these malls should portray. It also developed a suburban mall image instrument (Seven ‘A’s) to assess the attractiveness of local suburban malls as perceived by consumers with the objective of assisting the management of suburban malls in predicting patronage to their malls. The three most important image domains that suburban malls should portray could not be identified as the ranking results of the three most important image domains based on survey responses differed from those based on mean scores importance rating. It was found that the image domains ‘accessibility’, ’assortment’, ‘assistance’, ‘amusement’ and ‘amenities’ would be important for suburban malls to attract consumer patronage This study concluded that the seven ‘A’s image instrument appeared to be a reliable tool that could be used to assess suburban malls in terms of their attractiveness as perceived by the consumers. It would be able to assist the management of suburban malls in predicting patronage to their malls and in understanding the exact image domains that contribute to the success of their malls.