Consumer 's Response And Reaction Of Brand Named Products Versus Generic Products

The research design and methods of a study are constructed based on identifying the research problem, developing the theoretical framework, and reviewing the literature (Merriam, 2009). However, the heart of any research design, according to Maxwell (2013), is the research questions. The research questions help to focus the study and influence the choice of research design and methods for data collection. “More than any other aspect of your design, your research questions will have an influence on, and should be responsive to, every other part of your study” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 73).

A brand is a portfolio of qualities associated with a name, which in turn invokes certain images to individuals and hold values beyond the benefits of a product (Iacobucci, 2018). Brand association occurs when customers make a cognitive or emotional association with a particular brand. For instance, when a customer sees a certain color, symbol, logo, or name they automatically can make a connection to a particular brand. Brands start with a name that conveys information, suggest their benefits, or can even be named after their founders (Iacobucci, 2018). In the marketing perspective marketers can control the brand which they are marketing by using catching logos, colors, slogans, or even the products shape and appearance. In marketing a marketer can control the message they are trying to convey but cannot really have control over an individual’s association with that particular brand. Once a customer has an association with a particular brand they may favor the brand based on a past experience or even that individual’s sense of style or they may dislike a brand because of an association they

It has been acknowledge (Romaniuk & Sharp 2004) that Brand salience can be defined as the propensity of the brand to be thought of by buyers when they are in a buying situations. A brand awareness strategy depends on how well known the brand is, Brand Salience is forming image to refresh their memory about the brands that can linked to consumer mind as well as the quantity and quality of the cue to brand links (Olson & Peter 2005), it is very important that consumer can connect to their mind as many cues as possible . The level of consumers’ brand awareness necessary to induce purchase varies depending on how and where they make their purchase decision for that product category or form. The brand attitude is focus on evaluating the brand, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) “attitudes are relevant to purchase behavior are formed as a result of direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth information acquired from others, or exposure to mass-media advertising, the internet, and various forms of direct marketing”

After a research topic has been established the researcher must develop a “question” for research as well as a hypothesis that relates to the study being conducted. This question will be in the formulation of the research question should be developed before the research study begins. The question will guide the research and will focus the research study throughout the research project. The researcher should be looking to answer the question throughout the research study. CTU MUSE. (2012)

The intangible value of a product is largely subjective, therefore is linked to private consumers’ perception. Bearing that in mind, the marketers focus their effort on creating a desired image in the shoppers’ minds, surrounding the conventional products with extra benefits in the form of intangibles such as extended consumer service, recognizable design and social features (Thrassou & Vrontis, 2009). A combination of such features form different brands. So, brands represent the intangible “value-added” to the product. According to an empirical research, conducted amongst 472 Australian students the prior knowledge of preferred brands (brand awareness) is an important part of consumers’ decision making process when purchasing a product. Specifically, 85.5% of subjects chose the familiar brand over others available. Additionally, the study has shown that the choice is made substantially faster (9.8 seconds against 15.1 given the experiment conditions) (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). Clearly, a product’s brand name, being a classical value of an intangible nature appeared to have played a heavy role in a perceived value of the sample group. Though brands facilitated the process of choice, the final purchase decision belonged to the end-buyers.

Consumers also like to develop a relationship with a brand and are loyal to those brands sometimes regardless of change, appearance, or price. Each brand has its own personality just like individuals who seek to be unique. Anything that is personable an individual gravitates to it. Brands now have the power to market to different segments utilizing personalization and personality to create a relationship.

Once a researcher has developed a research question they are seeking to answer, they must consider what methodologies and methods they will employ in the research; what theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology; and

Building enduring relationships with customers is a key marketing objective for most firms (Elbedweihy et al., 2016). Customers choose to identify with brands they perceive as attractive, motivated by their self-definitional needs fulfillment (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003). Identifying with a company that has an attractive perceived identity may result in benefits to customers in terms of self-enhancement (Marin et al., 2009). Customers will feel the motivational impulse to attain a psychological attachment to a brand when they perceive the brand as attractive and as partially fulfilling one or more of their fundamental self-definitional needs (Currás-Pérez et al., 2009).

Research Questions of the Study: The following are the questions which will be addressed in this research-

Impact of congruity between self-concept and brand image on brand preference in the automobile industry

The dawn of 20th century is the initiation of production of goods and services which were consumer focussed, instead of the usual trend of mass production. Due to economic growth and diversified consumerism, there arises a need for the manufacturers to give additional products of to the market for their survival while still retaining their so called “BRAND” name. Knowledge of the brand communities assists manufacturers preceding the launch of new products so as to retain the positive attitude towards the product and brand as a whole. The influence of brand has grown to the extent that even in accounting there is value allotted for intangibles like goodwill of a company, which mostly contributes to the brand name. Consumers are happy to pay more to get more sophisticated products to blend in the community than left aloof. More brand oriented groups are evident; credit goes to the social media which is prevalent and influential around the globe and contributes to the growing consumer base of reputed brands like Apple, Microsoft, Harvey Davidson motorcycle, etc. (Stratton & Northcote, 2014)

The dawn of 20th century is the initiation of production of goods and services which were consumer focussed, instead of the usual trend of mass production. Due to economic growth and diversified consumerism, there arises a need for the manufacturers to give additional products of to the market for their survival while still retaining their so called “BRAND” name. Knowledge of the brand communities assists manufacturers preceding the launch of new products so as to retain the positive attitude towards the product and brand as a whole. The influence of brand has grown to the extent that even in accounting there is value allotted for intangibles like goodwill of a company, which mostly contributes to the brand name. Consumers are happy to pay more to get more sophisticated products to blend in the community than left aloof. More brand oriented groups are evident; credit goes to the social media which is prevalent and influential around the globe and contributes to the growing consumer base of reputed brands like Apple, Microsoft, Harvey Davidson motorcycle, etc. (Stratton & Northcote, 2014)

When people go to a store in order to buy food or commodities, they are faced with a problem of a wide choice of goods because nowadays there is a huge range of different producers. Moreover, all of them try to be recognized on the market by creating a significant image. As a result, companies create own brands. According to American Marketing Association (2013), a brand is “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Also, the process of creating connection or association between emotional perception of the consumer and company’s product with target of creating distinction and building loyalty has known as a brand management (Hislop, 2001). For

As mentioned in the introduction, Gil, Andrés and Salina (2007) have mentioned that family can affect brand awarenss, associations and perceived quality of a brand. Brand awareness is linked with brand salience. It refers to the ability of customers to recognise a brand in various circumstances. It can be seperated into breadth and depth of brand awareness. Breadth of awareness represents the different circumstances among various products offered that customers can recall the brand. Depth of awareness represents the degree to which a customer can recall a brand (Keller K. L., 1993). Values and memories of a family can influence customers to perceive the brand (Gil, Andrés and Salina,

Brand personality is defined as “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand” (Aaker, 1997, p. 347), and it can serve as a set of traits inferences used by consumers to trigger a specific pattern of attitudinal and behavior responses (Fournier, 1998). In her work, Aaker (1997) creates a scale to measure brand personality and extracted five dimensions, including sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, and received empirical support from succeeding studies (i.e. Aaker, Benet-Martinez, & Garolera; 2001; Ekinci & Hosany, 2006; Lee & Back, 2010). In general, theses studies found that customers do perceive brands differently, and such differentiation enables customers to have a reference to make comparisons more easily. It also enables brands to create their own niche and identities to gain competitive advantages, such as emotional attachment to the brand that result in trust and loyalty (i.e. Fournier, 1998; Lee & Back, 2010). It was also suggested that trust and loyalty will