Differences in retail store images within husband-wife dyads

Aggregate measures of purchasing influence generally produce similar results whether husbands or wives serve as the respondents. However, this study indicates that wives should not be used as surrogates for husbands in studies measuring retail store images. The findings of this study indicate that developing marketing strategies based on the images held by wives may not be successful in dealing with the male segment of the market. There is substantial within-couple variation in the evaluation of specific aspects of specific retail stores. However, both groups do appear to use similar evaluative criteria. The differences are in the evaluation of the store characteristics, not in the underlying criteria.