Identifying the dimensions to retail centre image

First feelings and first impressions largely govern and delimit the kinds of experiences one expects and seeks. This paper reviews the application of multidimensional scaling (MDS) to retail market research and discusses how MDS is able to map these impressions and hence explain the retail centre image held by consumers. It proposes that retail centre image is not just relevant to marketers and retailers, but is also of importance to property managers who need an informed and holistic consumer orientation in order to create and sustain property value. By means of illustration MDS is applied to data based on shopper evaluations of seven retail centre items and an interpretation the results is offered.