Summary:
The research focuses on the use of different branding strategies, particularly brand equity, in order to retain brand loyalty. China is the fastest growing consumer market in the world, the study of Chinese consumer’s perception, attitude and purchasing behavior will assist in realizing the value of branding and it is important to implement the knowledge when striving to understand any particular subject. When the subject is put to practical use it is better to comprehend and find a logical conclusion. Every research has its own impacts and thus, it can be used as an increment of facts and ideas. Brand equity and loyalty highly contributes in obtaining a major edge in increasingly competitive markets therefore, it is essential to understand the importance of branding and how firms market themselves to build brand equity and attain brand loyalty. The primary purpose of this research will be to investigate the relationship between brand equity and brand loyalty and their significance as it is a crucial part of a firm’s marketing activities and how the research will be conducted using pertinent methodology and appropriate research paradigm along with its proposition.
Methodology
Research Paradigm:
In order to get a clear cut understanding of the effects and utilization of branding strategies to create high value; brand equity and achieve brand loyalty, the qualitative method will be applied to the research. It was believed that the usage of this method will facilitate to gain insight and describe complexity (Hanson and Grimmer, 2007). The research displays an inductive approach where the data will be assembled from the literature review and also by further field research such as interviews and observation. One major advanta...
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...esearch community have come to the forefront. This study might create some threats to the participants, such as crude or disguised observation (Boote and Mathews, 1999) and deception in data acquiring techniques. Obviously, ethical issues can be raised throughout all phases of research. Nevertheless, this research will be based by the set standards and ethical considerations used in the past. Hence, reporting and findings of the research study will be under consideration and high level of magnitude will be given to sentiments of the people and their opinions put forward in our study and honoring them with the right use of words. The research team will be trained to treat the participants with respect so that they are protected from exploitation. Subjective measures will be executed by the research team to ensure that the research proposal is exclusively biased free.
Sarkar, A. N., & Singh, J. (2005). New paradigm in evolving brand management strategy. Journal of Management Research, 5(2), 80-90. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/237238894?accountid=28644
The second step deals in creation of proper brand meaning through powerful and unique brand connection with the customers. The third step involves invoking positive brand response while the fourth one involves engaging the customers so as to build a brand affiliation aimed at enhancing active brand loyalty. However, some building blocks are requ...
...of brand equity in an organizational-buying context. Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 6(6), pp. 428-437.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Branding According to the Heinemann AVCE in Business, ‘brand is a particular product or characteristic that identifies a particular producer’. Branding is one of the common methods of differentiating the product from competitor products in the marketplace. Business organisations will use branding to build up brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is where consumers are satisfied with their purchase of a specific product, and will likely to return to purchase it again in the coming future. Branding is often classified into three categories: manufacturer brands, own-label brands, and generic brands.
Companies use a collection of brand equities to represent their products in the market (Voolnes, 2012). Brand equity refers to the commercial value that is derived from the perception of consumers on any given brand name of particular products in the market as opposed to the product itself. Ataman (2003) notes that the effect to the consumer is in the brand name and not the product itself. Companies use logos, trademarks and a collection of other symbols to present this information to the customers. The use of these symbols is meant to try and capture the customer mindset so that they can be thinking about the company products at all times through the items they possess at home (Estes, Gibbert, Guest, & Mazursk, 2012). This can well be explained by use of the customer-based brand equity model that brings together the requirements for a publicly renowned brand in the market.
Brand equity is crucial as it implies that the brand itself is an important (financial) asset and can be calculated in financial terms (Barwise, 1993). This is particularly important in the luxury sector as from a behavioural viewpoint, brand equity can differentiate a company or product from other competitors, adding to their competitive advantages based on non-profit competition (Aaker, 2004). The model created by Aaker (1992) states that there are four categories of brand equity; Loyalty, Awareness, Perceived Quality and Associations. Luxury branding relies on a high level of perceived quality, loyalty and associations, although potentially less so for awareness, as it is thought that consumers choose luxury brands based on their exclusivity and as such the more the awareness that surrounds the brand, there is potential for it to become less valuable (Phau and Prendergast,
Brand equity, in general terms, simply refers to how much a product is worth and how consumers behave and associates themselves with that product (Slotegraaf, Rebecca & Pauwel, 2008; Page 93-306). Consumer attitudes and the value of the product is linked to brand equity as it will determine how big of the market share the brand will occupy and how much the brand will earn in the long run. As the aviation industry is extremely competitive, many airlines have customer loyalty schemes and frequent flyer programmes to maintain or expand their brand equity, making the switching costs substantially high between airlines (Chen & Chang, 2008; Page 40-42). Chen and Chang (2008) also found out that brand equity is also linked to brand preference, purchase intentions and have an influence on consumers when they are thinking about switching brand products. Tigerair Australia’s brand equity was low in the Australian aviation market due to low brand awareness from consumers, the breaches of safety regulations by the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), and strong competition from competitors like Jetstar.
The review of relevant literature is to identify what's brand awareness and how to carry out in strategic marketing, and consumers' behavior. The study prove that the significant factors on brand awareness as a perception of product, service, and image of the company and has a tremendous effect on consumers’ evaluation of system results. From reading all of the relevant journals, it is understandable that the significant factors on building a successful brand image and awareness is consumers and their relationship with the brand, company, service and the product. Brand awareness is the vital importance to marketing strategy and marketing communications because it links customer behavior to firms’ financial metric. Keller (2001), noted, customers’ reaction toward brand awareness is associated profitably brand equity.
Simon, C.J., & Sullivan, M. W. (1993). “The measurement and determinants of brand equity: A financial approach”. Marketing Science, 12(1), 28-52.
The most significant feature of an investigative study is the precision and simplicity of the investigative problem. For a brief assertion, it definitely has a great deal of influence on the study. The statement of the problem is the central position of the study. The problem statement should affirm what will be studied, whether the study will be completed by means of experimental or non-experimental analysis, and what the reason and function of the results will bring. As an element of the opening, profound problem declarations satisfies the query of why the study should to be performed. The reason of this essay is to discuss the features of an investigative problem; in addition, the essay will center on what constitutes a researchable problem; the components of a well formed Statement of Research Problem; and, what constitutes a reasonable theoretical framework for the need of a study.
Secondly, some light has been thrown on the previous researches by various authors on the similar topics by providing with a summarised form of the same. It helps in better understanding of the ongoing concepts and perceptions on the concept of brand and its importance.
A brand audit is a detailed assessment of a brand’s current ranking in the market compared to other competitors. It provides information on how the business is performing in the market. A brand audit also aims at examining the image and reputation of the brand as perceived by customers. The two key elements of brand audit are brand inventory and brand exploratory. Brand inventory provides up to date itinerary of how a company markets and brands its products. On the other hand, a brand exploratory is an examination undertaken so as to comprehend what consumers feel about the brand. It seeks to conduct a consumer insight research in order to acquire consumers’ feelings and perceptions. This paper looks into the brand exploratory of Cadbury in terms of the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model.
The basic principle with customer-based brand equity is that the power of a brand lies in the minds of customer and what customer has experienced about the brand over the time. Customer-based brand equity can be defined as three different effects that brand knowledge of con...
A brand identifies a seller’s product from a competitor’s product. There are three main purposes for branding product identification, which is the most important purpose, repeat sales, and new-product sales. Branding has a lot of terms that marketers use there is brand equity, global brand, and brand loyalty. Marketers also have different brand strategies that they use for different products or customers. It all depends on the consumer for them to decide which strategy they will use. The different strategies are generic products, manufacturer’s brands, private brands, individual brands, family brands, and co-branding. The branding purposes and the branding strategy make up the importance of branding.
Branding on consumer purchase decisions. In order to comply with this a questionnaire was prepared and survey has been conducted among 100 respondents and data revealed that brands have strong influence on purchase decision.