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Research shows that store image is an important component of a consumer's store choice and use of a store environment. Most of this research ignores how store image might vary across different consumer segments. Examines the impact of age on final consumers' perceptions of retail store image. Reveals that shopper age significantly affects perceptions of store image. Younger consumers feel more positive about both store characteristics and salesperson attributes than do older shoppers. Retailers employing store image research should be mindful of how the age of different consumers could affect their findings.

This research verified the underlying structure of retail store image. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test a store image scale based on the work of Zimmer and Golden and others. Findings revealed that the responses of subjects to three different retail image exemplars, comprising three between-subjects experimental conditions, were satisfactorily explained by a model specifying three image dimensions: (a) general (store) attributes, (b) appearance, and (c) salesperson/service. The three-factor measurement model is theoretically meaningful and demonstrated a high degree of invariance across the three samples.

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Integrated marketing communications (IMC) misrepresents the nature of marketing and systematically ignores at least 60 years of marketing literature. IMC reinvents marketing theory using different terminology for extant concepts. This article examines IMC, its history, and its relationship to the marketing literature. Although IMC has the potential to contribute to the development of theory as it relates to promotion and marketing communication, academicians need to debate its substantive contributions to the marketing and communication literature. This article provides a starting point.