RM Research Proposal_II

Kathmandu university school of management

Research Proposal

Background, Problem Statement, Objectives & Literature Review On “Impact of Brand Image and Advertisement on Consumer Buying Behavior”

Submitted To:

Arjun Shrestha

Course Instructor

Submitted By

Kshitiz Gautam (12110)

Niyati Sharma (12129)

Shrizana Shrestha (12133)

Date: March 26, 2014

Background

IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT1

Branding in marketing is a practice that gives a name, symbol or some design to a

product which helps to identify and distinguish the particular product from other products.

Branding has, since long, been considered as one of the most important tools for effective

marketing. Just like a person without a name would be nobody to anyone, a product, or company

or a service without a name and a brand would be nothing and simply anonymous to its

prospective consumers.

Most of the researchers agree about the importance of stressing brand image. Aaker

(1991), for example, says image creates value in a variety of ways, helping consumers to process

information, differentiating the brand, generating reasons to buy, give positive feelings, and

providing a basis for extensions. However, the exact association of a brand image with the

purchasing intention of a customer is yet to be further analyzed.

Similarly, in today’s global market, organizations do not compete with each other only on

the basis of price but also customer attraction, loyalty and building relationships. At such times,

advertising plays a crucial role for any business to boost up its performance graph as it is

considered a very powerful strategy to attract one’s customers towards one’s products.

Advertising can hence be defined as a form of communication which is used to persuade

a specific group of people to purchase one’s products. It is regarded as a very powerful and

effective marketing tool which can be used to effectively communicate and convey one’s

messages to the audience and promote them. According to a study conducted by Smith et al.

(2006), consumer buying behavior is mostly influenced by liking or disliking of consumer

towards the advertisement of the product, advertised. To hence understand buying behavior, we


need to understand why consumers make certain purchases, what factors control consumer

purchases, and the altering factors in our society.

Generally, consumers purchase products based on previous past experiences. Out of

thousands of similar offering, they instinctively select the ones that have satisfied them in their

past. Thus, pleasant past experiences is highly conducive to consumers associating benefits to a

brand. However, frequent purchasing of a brand cannot always be linked to previous experiences

but can also be formed by embedded perceptions. A consumer might strongly favor a brand with

no prior purchasing experiences. This type of behavior is based on stimulus provided by direct

exposure to advertising campaigns. Hence, to affect a consumers buying behavior process, there

might be proximities that are linked to it.

The following study is hence conducted to study in detail the impact that branding and

advertising campaigns have on a consumer’s buying behavior. The study would try to measure if

the variables have any impact on the purchasing intention of potential buyers or not.

Problem Statement

With companies spending huge amount of money in advertisement and building brand

image of one’s products, with the sole aim of attracting consumers to purchase one’s products

and to increase sales, the study aims to analyze whether such advertisements and branding

activities do have a positive impact on the consumers buying behavior process or not. The study

would examine how people perceive any brand and how a brand image and advertising can

influence the consumer buying behavior of people.


Objectives

To analyze consumers’ general perception on brand

To study the impact of branding on consumer buying behavior

To study the impact of advertising on consumer buying behavior

Literature Review

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a ‘name, term, sign,

symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one

seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

From the consumer’s perspective, brand is a guarantor of reliability and quality in

consumer products. Roman et al.(2005) added to this stating that consumers would like to buy

and use brand-name products with a view to highlight their personality in different situational

contexts.

According to Khasawneh & Hasouneh (2010), customers realize the importance of brand

while in their purchasing decisions and customer’s demographic characteristics have no

significant relation and effect on brand awareness. People prefer the branded products with

higher price because they consider that branded items have more quality than non-branded

products. Brand preference is also a symbol of status

It is found that consumers’ emotions are one of the major determinants which affect their

buying behavior (Berry, 2000).According to a research conducted by LLC (1998) on shopping

habits, nearly one-fourth of the respondents impulse –buy products they have not budgeted for.

When deciding which products to purchase, consumers would have their preference, which are


developed in accordance with their perceptions towards the brand. Successful branding could

make consumers aware of the presence of the brand and hence could increase the chance of

buying the company’s product and services (Doyle, 1999).

According to Zeb, Rashid & Javeed (2011), female consumers who possess strong

positive attitudes towards brands show high level of involvement in fashion clothing, Similarly,

maximum women consumers are influenced by word-of-mouth and attracted towards the

marketing strategy through advertising. According to Sonkusare (2013), it has been found that

social and personal factors have more influence on buying behavior of the women customers.

Female consumers’ buying behavior is highly and positively affected by branding status, attitude

towards a brand, self concept and with others’ opinions (Malik, et al., 2013).

In addition, Niazi et al. (2012) said that advertising is an effective tool to attract people

and to divert their attitude positively towards products. There is a moderate relationship between

consumer purchase attention, environmental factors and emotional factors. If a consumer is

emotionally attached with a product, he/she will prefer to purchase that product. Similarly, male

and female are both equally influenced by advertising for brand choices. Among advertisements

too, TV ads are most preferred by people.

Likewise, according to Kumar (2010), consumers find celebrity endorsements more

attractive and influential as compared to non-celebrity endorsements. Moreover, the tested

attributes show positive relationship with purchase intention, i.e. celebrity endorsements

positively impact the purchase intention of the consumers.


References

Aaker, D. A. (1991). Managing Brand Equity. New York: The Free Press.

Berry, L. (2000). Cultivating service brand equity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,

28(1), 128-137.

Doyle, P. (1999). Building Successful Brands. In L. Butterfield, Excellence in Advertising: The

IPA guide to best practice (pp. 3-21). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Khasawneh, K., & Hasouneh, A. (2010). The effect of familiar brand names on consumer

behavior. A Jordanian Perspective. International Research Journal of Finance and

Economics, 33-57.

Kumar, A. (2010). Celebrity endorsements And Its Impact On Consumer Buying Behavior.

Bournemouth University.

LLC, F. M. (1998, September 22). Recent study finds gap remains between male, female

shoppers. Electronic Advertising and Marketplace Report, p. 17.

Malik, M. E., Ghafoor, M. M., Iqbal, H. K., Ali, Q., Hunbal, H., Noman, M., et al. (2013).

Impact of Brand Image and Advertisement on Consumer Buying Behavior. World

Applied Sciences Journal, 23(1), 117-122.

Moos, K. V. (December 2005). Branding - Its impact on the consumer purchase decision-making

process. London: European Business School.


Niazi, G., Siddiqui, J., Shah, B. A., & Hunjra, A. I. (2012). Effective Advertising and its

influence on consumer buying behavior. Information Management and Business Review,

4(3), 114-119.

Roman, K., Maas, J., & Nisenholtz, M. (2005). How to advertise: What works, what doesn't and

why. London: Kogan Page.

Seher, T., Arshad, M., Ellahi, S., & Shahid , M. (2012, June 11). Impact of colors on

advertisement and packaging on buying behavior. Management Science Letters.

Smith, E. G., Meurs, L. V., & Neijens, P. C. (2006). Effects of Advertising Likeability: A 10-

Year Perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, 1(46), 73-83.

Sonkusare, G. (2013). Impact of television advertising on buying behavior of women consumers.

International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), 31-38.

Zeb, H., Rashid, K., & Javeed, M. B. (2011, June). Influence of Brands on Female Consumer's

Buying Behavior in Pakistan. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance,

2(3), 225-231.

Documents

RM Research Proposal_II