Staffordshi

re
U N IVERSI
TY
STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY
Business School
Assessment Cover Sheet
Award Title: MBA (International)
Module Title BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT RESEARCH Module code:
BSB200!"M(#U$$"TIME)
A%%e%%&ent wei'(tin': !00)
A%%e%%&ent Title:
RESEARCH *R+*+SA$ Module $eader:
*(il ,e%ton
Moderated -.: INTERNA$
SCRUTIN/ *ANE$ E0TERNA$ E1ternall. a22ro3ed
-.: TBA
,ritten B.: !004056
1
IN7E
0
1) INTRODUCTION
2-3
2) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
3
3) LITERATURE REVIEW
4-7
4) METHODOLOGY
7-10
5) CONTINGENCIES
10
6) REERENCES
11
THIS IS AN A**$IE7"C+NSU$TANC/ RESEARCH
*R+*+SA$
THE TITLE OF THE PROJECT IS EFFECT OF BRANDING ON
CONSUMER CHOICE.
Introd!t"on
This research project is concerned with the effect of branding on consumer choice.
These days branding has been the newest topics for doing research and it varies from person
to person. This project also includes the study of consumer psychology with respect to
branding. Brands are everywhere and every product has competition these days and every
brands importance to marketing success is sure (Horppu et al., !!"#. Branding has been the
newest topics over the past few years. $ccording to %terne, a brand is a promise made to its
customers by the company so that the customers can trust the brand. &onsumer psychology is
one of the important studies of the organi'ations because their products totally depend on the
consumer re(uirements. The study of consumer is very beneficial for the companies and to
e)pand their marketing strategies. There are different types of branding that affects the
customer in new ways. The truth that mainly producers support that branding has an
important power on consumer choice (*gbuji, !!"#.
&onsumers are known as kings of the business and that is why it is more important to study
about them. &onsumers being producers who take it on themselves to make the things in real
(&ova and +emy !!,#. -n this business world where there is much competition and
technology growing rapidly brands have attracted marketing managers and academics. The
bond between the consumers and brand depends mainly on marketing and the more important
thing in relation between brand and consumer is trust (Hiscock, !!1#. The ma)imum
number of retailers has increased their brands online because the customers can get more
offers and choices on the brands and it has high consumer e)perience (+owley, !!.#.
-t is studied that some people do not pay attention towards fifty percent of brands while
purchasing the products (+usso et al., 1../#. There are different varieties of brands are
available in the market and it effects the consumers in two different ways. They are
1# How consumers are noticing the product and how much concentration they are paying
for that product.
# How rapidly the consumers are identifying and using the product.
-dentifying and concentration of the products by the customers play a very significant role in
decision making by the customer. By studying the effects of branding on consumers, we can
able to know the decision making on the different types of brands by consumers. $ccording
to $llison and 0hl(1..!#, the beer drinkers are able to identify their favourite brands easily
when compared to the blind taste test. By these, we can say that the by seeing the colour of
the brands in wines and juice we can recognise the brands.
A"ms #nd o$%e!t"ves
The main aim of research is to find the function of branding based on the consumer
choice in three different areas. They are
1# To find out the impact of the branding on customer option has been reduced over the past
years and how does the wrapping of branding results the consumer choice.
# The result of more percentage of non1 branded information on customer choice. How does
it effect on consumer choice2
3# To find out how the copycat brands effects on consumer choice when one of the brand is
relatively same as other brand.
L"ter#tre rev"e&
4veryday companies are trying to find new way to find the market share, improved
advertising and develop new products to improve their marketing strategy. They are spending
billions to improve their brand name among the consumers. The purpose of this research is to
see effect of products packaging and the brand name have on consumer choice. (5im and
&hung, 1..,# Believes that the competitions among the brands have become more comple)
because the brands which are evolving from the foreign countries are increasing. They have
found that two key things play a major role for the long term success of their brands in the
international markets they are brand reputation and country of origin of that brand. Brand
popularity is the most important key factor in business in both international and domestic
market.(6aye, 7an$uken and $ sacker, !!"# 8oticed that colour of the products of a
particular brand plays a very essential role in developing a branding strategy. They also found
that colour not only has an effect on the appearance of the item but also on the effects the
consumer behaviour while buying. -f a brand to be more effective it has to have a memorable
name, uni(ue slogan and it must have an easily identifiable brand logo. The logo acts as one
way of representation which symbolises the name of the brand (5apferer, !!"#. 9or
e)ample, apple, the logo of the apple looks like almost same as the apple but in silver colour.
-t represents brand name and the business. $ccording to :ind storm !!" there are three
things to keep in mind to increase brand strategy they are
1# 6ecide to which type of people focussed on.
# 6ecide precisely what message top brand conveys to the consumers.
3# 9inally decide what brand means to the customers.
By doing advertising of brands, one can increase the brand awareness among the consumers.
+epetition of brand advertising is used to maintain that particular brands in the consumer;s
consideration set. &onsideration set means the set the brands to which consumers give proper
attention to the products while purchasing the products. Brand awareness has important
effects on the consumer choice which type of brands consumers has in their consideration set
and which brands they will select from the consideration set (<acdonald and %harp, 1..=#.
The company has to make the advertisements in such a way that the brand products should
enter their consideration list so, the number of consumers or brand awareness among the
consumer increases. The study shows that in many purchase conditions, the consumer is a
passive receiver and they spend less time and fewer efforts for selecting brands (Hoyer,
1."/#. $dvertising increases the number of consumers an it also helps the brands to enter
their consideration list and results in more price sensitivity (8elson, 1.,! 1.,/#. %hwu1lung
and &hen1lein studied the consumers evaluate their brands based on the popularity of the
brand and other people suggest to the consumers that those brands are better than other
brands.
*ne thing we can do to increase the brand awareness among the consumers is corporate
branding. &orporate branding is the use of brand name same as the companies name. There
are four important things in corporate branding to develop a brand strategy they are visual
uni(ueness, brand promise, brand communication and brand personality ($bratt and 5leyn,
!11#. Harris and &hernatony (!!1# say that positioning, culture, relationships and
presentations are the important factors of corporate branding. This theory is not the best to
improve the brand identity when compared to $bratt and kleyn.
The main concept of corporate branding is to accept a single brand name for all the products
of the business when communicating with customers, stakeholders and employees (>ie and
Boggs, !!=#. By advertising corporate branding products, we can get more customers
because if we do advertising for one product of the business than all the products of that
brand will be covered and this is one of the ways of attracting the customers towards our
brand. &opycat branding has more influence on customers than the leader brand.
There are several copycat brands available in the market. &opycat brands are those which
copy the shape, si'e, packaging and brand name of the leading brand to get the consumer
attraction towards their products. &opycat copies the (uality of the major brands to free ride
their e(uity. %cott <orton and ?ettlemayer (!!/# made a study in the 0nited %tates and
found that fifty percentage of products in the super markets were similar in colour, si'e and
shape to leading brands. %o this copycat branding affects the consumers purchasing decisions
in the supermarkets. @hen all the features of a leader brand like si'e, shape, (uality and
colour are similar to copycat brands then it improves the consumerAs purchasing decisions on
copycat brands (9inch, 1..= :oken et al., 1."=#.
There is one disadvantage with copycat branding that is consumers has the negative impact on
the copycat branding because it is a copy of the leading brands and the products are unfair
and improper (Horen and Beters, !1b#. The customers cannot use copycat brands for more
days these brand products appearance is similar but in (uality will not be good. -n $sian
markets, there are more copycat brands available, for e)ample, the @al1<art is copycatted as
wumart and the Codiva is copycatted as dogiva.
6ouble jeopardy is the other thing which influences the consumer choice on buying the
products. 6ouble jeopardy is a situation in which there is less number of buyers and that too
customers buy the products not very fre(uently moreover, that product belongs to small
brand. (<c Bhee, 1.=3#. He was the first person to observe this situation and termed it as
double jeopardy.
$ccording to (uncles it al, 1..D# the people who prefer small brands does less shopping that is
the reason the small brands suffer from sales. The main difference between the big brands and
small brands is in long run big brands perform much better than small brands. Big brands
most probably enter the customer consideration set because they give complete satisfaction for
the customers compared to small brands. %tudies have shown that both long run and
transaction e)act background are less when compared to small brands compared to big brands
(Barwise,4hrenberg, 1."DE <artin, 1.,3 and <cBhee, 1.=3#.
Methodo'o()*1
These research methods include primary data and secondary data. Brimary data is data
collected from individuals to answer the problem in the research. -n this research, the primary
data can be collected from the consumers through interviews, focusing groups and
(uestionnaires. %econdary data is the data collected from other e)isting researches. The
problem can be known by collecting data from secondary sources like journals, newspapers
and books.
-n this research study has to be made on the people about impact of branding on packaging by
using some methods. $s it is a study it comes under (uantitative research. -n (uantitative
research study, randomly some people are selected and study is made. -t comes under
structured so, structured techni(ues are (uestionnaires asked to people directly or through
telephone.
-n this research (uantitative method is used. Fualitative research helps the researcher to find
a deep understanding about the things as affect, behaviour and belief of the consumers toward
big brands than the use of copycatting brands among consumers. %o, (ualitative approach is
better than the (uantitative research. The data that is collected can be divided into two
parameters that are internal secondary data and e)ternal secondary data. -nternal secondary
data is obtained for that paper. 4)ternal data is to be collected from the other sources than the
firm.
The impact of copycat branding on consumers can be done by two methods one is interviews
and the other is focus groups. -nterviews are much better than focusing groups. The interview
has to be taken for customers to get their view. The goal of this research is to find the effect
of copycatting. %ome of the (uestions are doing good brands suffer as copycat brands come
into the market2 6o the consumers feel after purchasing copycat brand2 6oes the presence of
copycat brands take the knowledge of the consumers2
9rom the research they have found that customers make error when the copycat brand is
present nearby. $ graph has been plotted with conditions no supermarket brands, copy
supermarket brands and non copy supermarket brands on >1 a)is and 4rrors on G1a)is.
4
3!5
3
2!5
2
1!5
1
S"#$"% 1
S"#$"% 2
S"#$"% 3
0!5
0
&'
%()"#*+#,
"- .#+&/%
0')1
%()"#*+#,
"- .#+&/
&'& 0')1
%()"#*+#,
"- .#+&/
9rom this graph it can be said that there were more errors for copy supermarket brand then
non copy supermarket branded items.
To find the result decreased branding on consumer purchase decisions and the impact of
increased customers on non branded products. -n branding products there are different
features like colour, logo, brand name and appearance similarly in non branding products also
many different ways of packaging of products is made to attract the customers as good
colour, (uality of packing, etc.
$ccording to a study done by 6r. Hane :eighton and Ceoff Bird the branding effects can be
known from the below points.
1# To find the result of increased non branding products by the consumers made
based on the si'e of the nutritional label. 8utritional label is a list and (uantity of
ingredients used in the product.
The survey has to be made on the people how they select the products based on the food
products. 8utritional label has a significant effect on consumer purchase decisions. -f they
find the ingredient items large when compared to big brands. &ustomer;s opinion on a
nutritional label has to be taken to know their interest in the big brand products.
+esearchers have found the relationship between look duration and si'e of the nutritional
information. $ graph is drawn with nutritional information si'e of >1a)is and look duration
on G1a)is.
look
duration(ms#
8utritional si'e
9rom the graph it can be said that as the nutritional si'e increases the look duration of the
consumers also increases so, that is the reason nutritional si'e has an vital role on the effect of
consumer choice.
The effect of reduced branding on packaging can be done by doing a survey on the
consumers. -t depends on the branded elements, si'e of the logo present on the product. The
main goal of this is to know the customers view towards packaging of brands and how the
brand logo affects the consumers. The food product brands like crisps, biscuits, drinks, etc.
are collected with one top brand and other non branded item and it has to be seen that how
much attention customers are paying to the branded items than non branded items. These can
mainly depend on the si'e of logo and si'e of the brand.
There is relationship between the si'e of the logo and look duration. Therefore, it has been
analysed how look duration changes with respect to logo si'e. $ graph is plotted with si'e of
the logo on >1a)is and look duration on G1a)is. $s the si'e of the logo decreases the look
duration of the people also reduces.
L'',
D(#+-$'& 2*%)
L'3'
%$4"
#'* -5" +.'6" 3#+)5 $- $% %+$/ -5+- -5" 0'&%(*"# )(#05+%" /"0$%$'&% /")"&/%
'& -5" 7'3' %$4"! $8 -5" .#+&/ &+*" $% 7+#3" $& %$4" -5"& -5" 0'&%(*"#% 3"-
+--#+0-"/ -'9+#/% -5" )#'/(0-! S': .1 $&0#"+%$&3 -5" %$4" '8 -5" .#+&/ '&" 3"-
-5"$# %+7"% $&0#"+%"/!
C'&-$&3"& 0 $" % ;- I 9'(7/ 7$," -' /' *'#" #"%"+#05 '& /$<"#"&- -1)"% '8
0'&%(*"#% -' ,&'9 -5"$# ')$&$'& +.'(- -5" .$3 .#+&/% +&/ %*+77 .#+&/%! T5$%
*+1 $&07(/" $&-"#6$"9%: 8'0(%%$&3 3#'()%: =("%-$'&&+$#"%: "-0 -5$% 0+& 5"7) -'
3"- -5" *(05 $&8'#*+-$'& +.'(- -5" .#+&/%!
Re+eren!es
5--);>>999 !"*"#+7/$&%$35-! 0 '*!"4)#'?1!%-+ 88%!+0!(,>@'(# & +7%!5-*A$%%&B0C5C-
0552D6' 7(*"B3ED$%%("B11>1 2 D+#-$07"$/B1E C 5C47D%5 ' 9B5-*7
5--);>>99 9 !"*"#+7/$&%$35-!0 ' *!"4)#'? 1 !%-+<%!+0!(,>@' ( #&+7%!5-*A$%%&B1361-
2026D6' 7(*"B17D$%%("B4D+ #-$07"$/B170C 5 E00D%5' 9 B5-*7
5--);>>99 9 !)+0,+3$&38"/&! 0 '!(,>$*+3"%>#") ' #-%>T5"F20E<"0-F20'8 F 20B#+&/$&3
F 20'&F20C'&%
(*"#F20C5'$ 0 "!)/8
5--);>>99 9 !"*"#+7/$&%$35-!0 ' *!"4)#'? 1 !%-+<%!+0!(,>@' ( #&+7%!5-*A$%%&B1361-
2026D6' 7(*"B17D$%%("B1D+ #-$07"$/B1707 E 160D%5' 9 B5-*7
5--);>>%'0' !(&$-,'"7&!/" >G7"%>JMRH95"&H5$35H%$ * $7+#$-1 !)/8
5--);>>%'0' !(&$-,'"7&!/" >G7"%>IJRMHVHHRIH2 0 12!)/8
5--);>>99 9 !00%"&"-!' #3>@'(#&+7>$&/"?!) 5 )>$@.*>+#-$07">6$"9$7">1 0 E24>767E
E6+&%: M!: W"/+&/": G!: R+7%-'&: L!: +&/ V+&-
H(7: S! 22001)! C'&%(*"# $&-"#+0-$'& $& 6$#-(+7
E#+
12