Retail personality and the Hispanic consumer: An exploration of American retailers

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify the personality characteristics Hispanic shoppers ascribe to US retailers. This study is an exploratory attempt to uncover inconsistencies between Hispanic shoppers' views of US retailers and how those retailers believe they are identified. Design/methodology/approach - Focus group methodology used in the study allowed Hispanic shoppers to attribute personality characteristics to some of the most prevalent retailers in the USA. Findings - Analysis revealed Hispanic shoppers' personification did affect their beliefs about retailers. Research limitations/implications - There are many implications for retailers wishing to capture more of the Hispanic market segment including the importance of brand identity of the retailer and the buyer's self-image. Originality/value - This paper explores Hispanic shoppers' actual beliefs about US retailers, and is unique because of the different type of data collection techniques utilized to capture the data. The personification technique allowed individual, detailed descriptions of US retailers to emerge.