Factors Affecting Consumer Buying Behavior And Branding Strategies: A Case Study Of Woolworths

The Significance of Branding in Marketing

Question:

Write an essay on Branding.

Branding is a process that involves creating a unique name and image for a product through advertising campaigns and differentiated presence. Branding helps in attracting and retaining loyal customers. Branding is a marketing practice of creating a symbol, name or design that adds to product differentiation. An effective branding strategy helps in giving edge at the competitive markets. The brand strategy includes how, where, what and when to plan communication and deliver brand messages (Aaker, 2012). The organization chosen for preparing this report is Woolworths. Woolworths is Australia’s largest supermarket chain with hundreds of stores operating across the country (Woolworths.com.au, 2016).

Branding is an attempt to harness, influence and control the perceptions in people’s mind. The advancement in digital technology has transformed the balance of control and consumer’s voice has become more public. The digital technology empowerment also affects brand prominence. Branding is necessary for few reasons. Branding helps an organization to stand out from competitors and creating a difference. Branding creates emotional resonance in consumers’ minds from both pragmatic and emotional judgments. Branding adds value to the product as well as organization. Branding also helps in connecting with people and embodies attributes which consumers will feel drawn to (Kapferer, 2012).

The brand managers or organizations face issues related to branding. One of the common marketing problems faced is duplicity of products. Small business organizations make duplicate products of giants for selling in the market and attracting consumers. Another problem faced by organizations are emerging risk markets. According to the study conducted by ACE European Group, the luxury brands have to struggle for maintaining their reputation when they emerge in new markets (Elliott, Percy, & Pervan, 2011).

Not only the damage is done to organizational revenue, but for increasing consumer demand when flooding rogue websites are emerging, such counterfeiting damages brand reputation. Knockoffs or counterfeiting are imitated products offered by third parties and it is difficult for the consumers to recognize the products thereby tarnishing brand reputation. The problem for the brand owner is evident as they devote effort, time and money to enhance market reputation. Many organizations are hit by piracy and counterfeiting globally that robs the owner of their production and innovative processes. The counterfeited goods also affect the consumers as they are charged at a similar price to that of the original product. Therefore, the face value of products appears genuine but they are not. It is difficult for an organization to manage such issues and they have to be addressed (Poddar et al., 2012).

The paper has the following research objectives:

• To study customer perception of celebrity personality and buying behaviour through celebrity endorsing.

Celebrities enjoy public recognition and the paper helps in studying the factors that attract consumers towards celebrity endorsement. The study further assesses the age group and gender that is mainly attracted towards celebrity endorsed products (Roy & Bagdare, 2015).

• To understand buying behaviour of customers for different brands.

Consumer buying behaviour occupies a critical place in the marketing process. This paper attempts to understand the buyer decision making process on how the quality and standard of the product affects purchase decision. The research also attempts to understand if the age and gender makes a difference in opinion while choosing a brand (Sashi, 2012).

• To determine the methods of enhancing company management and reputation by implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application software (Khanna, Jacob, & Yadav, 2014).

Importance of Branding for Organizations

The overall aim of this project is to investigate the factors affecting customer buying behaviour for a particular brand. This study aims to answer the following research questions:

• RQ1: Why celebrity endorsements are changing customer perception in term of product advertising?
• RQ2: Why customers select competitive brand; rather than any normal brand equity?

Branding is a critical aspect for every organization. The companies invest a significant amount on advertising and promotion via celebrities. The first question is important as the celebrities play a critical role in influencing the purchase decision of the consumers. This research question shall provide in-depth analysis in terms of product advertising (Shimp & Shimp, 2013).

The second question implicates on the reasons why consumers prefer a renowned brand rather than a regular one. The factors influencing the buying behaviour of consumers are determined. It is necessary to have superior perceptions in the consumer minds rather than the product being superior. The brand school considers it difficult to change consumer perceptions and every company tries to get into consumer minds before their competitors (Goh, Heng, & Lin, 2013).

Branding is one of the most efficient ways to show the consumers what the business is all about. Branding is the key to any company and it is necessary for all businesses. Branding adds to uniqueness and helps in differentiating from the competitors. Branding also helps in assisting companies to get a stronger foothold in the market. The technologies and products may change for an organization, but the brand name is carried for years through all these changes. It also helps in adding economic value through tangible and intangible assets. This research shall be supported by extensive literature review on the factors affecting branding and consumer buying behaviour (Emory, 2015).

This research proposal shall prove beneficial for the following reasons:

• It shall help Woolworths in understanding the importance of branding and enable them to enhance brand equity.
• The results shall be beneficial for broadening the concepts of branding and the ways in which it promotes brand equity.
• This research proposal shall prove beneficial for the market researchers and academicians as they can assess buying behaviour of people.
• This proposal would help the graduates in understanding real business value and typically enter as industry practitioners.

The outcomes of this report shall provide an analytical framework for assessing the factors affecting consumer buying behaviour in relation to branding. This shall help the organizations in enhancing brand image and survive market changes. At the theoretical level, it is expected that the research would reflect results as a positive relationship between brand endorsement strategies and consumer buying decision. It is expected that the customer wants a variety of aspects from the advertisements or endorsements such as acceptability and credibility.

All the research objectives identified in the proposal shall be answered on the basis of data collection, findings and analysis. The research is important for the organizations as the problem of branding shall be beneficial for the organization. The research shall mention the importance of branding for organizations as it is one of the most important tools for marketing. The research shall also state the components or effects if the branding strategy is not applied appropriately.

According to Aspara (2013), importance of brand confidence directly affects the shopping behaviour of individuals. Maintaining strong brand positions in the market is the primary goal of an organization as it creates a wide range of benefits such as greater profits, reduced risk, greater cooperation and opportunities for brand extension. Brand contributes to maintaining competitiveness in the market as it occupies certain image in the minds of consumers. Brand creation helps in strengthening brand image of the organization. Brand image also enhances consumer confidence in the product qualities produced or sold by the organization. The studies conducted by Christodoulides, Cadogan, & Veloutsou (2015) consider brand trust as a market-based asset. The marketing practitioners suggest that trust is a major factor or link between customer and brand.

Consumer Behavior and Buying Decision Process

Consumer buying behaviour can be referred as the sum total of preferences, attitudes, decisions and intentions that is considered while purchasing a product or service. Consumer perspective is a collection of attributes that helps in meeting their needs. Purchase behaviour is a stage prior to making purchase decisions in the decision making process. According to the theory of planned behaviour, attitudes help in predicting behaviour of interest. The marketers test the different elements of marketing mix that influence buying behaviour by advertising strategy, product concepts, brand or packing. The marketers must make efforts to measure the purchase intention of consumer and the factors that influence the intentions. When the consumers have a positive attitude towards the delivered good or service, the factors tend to have a positive interest for strengthening customer relationship with the brand or organization (Cant, Brink, & Brijball, 2012).

The research further states that consumer makes purchase by several dimensions such as measurement of culture, social measurement, personal measurement and psychological measurement. The culture measurement is the most extensive and influencing behaviour of consumers. The marketers need to understand the influence of social class, culture and sub-culture. The social measurement consists of consumer responses as it affects the marketing strategy. The personal measurement comprises of certain dimensions such as economic situation, personality, self-concept, occupation, life-cycle and self-concept on what is purchased. The psychological measurement comprises of perception, motivation, beliefs, attitudes and learning as it influences selection of consumer purchases (Robinson at al., 2013).

The buying behaviour can be classified into five stages:

Need recognition- The consumers recognize their needs or problems. The consumer discovers the unmet need that he wishes to fulfil. This step is considered as crucial and one cannot move forward without considering a product purchase. A need can be triggered by stimuli where the personal perception is experienced by the consumer (Solomon, 2011).

Information search- After the need is recognized, the consumer searches information from personal experiences and other sources such as friends, family or internet. The consumers acquire and store information obtained while buying products. The customer seeks value in a prospective product or service (Solomon, 2011).

Evaluation of alternatives- This stage is useful when the consumers have large number of alternatives. For instance, as Woolworths is chosen for preparing this paper, the consumers have other alternative supermarkets to purchase from such as Coles, Aldi, Wesfarmers and various others (Solomon, 2011).

Purchase Decision- After the evaluation process, the consumers makes a decision for which product to purchase. In the given case, the consumer has to decide if he must purchase from Woolworths or any other brand. The consumer makes decision based on various factors such as brand image, quality, price or advertisement (Solomon, 2011).

Post purchase behaviour- The post purchase behaviour can be obtained after the consumer makes the purchase. After the consumer makes the purchase, he matches the level of experience with the expected product experience.

The consumers consider the attributes of a product before making a purchase decision. Brand image plays a critical role as it creates perception in the consumers mind. Brand image helps people to think about various perspectives from the business side. It is evident that the brand image can benefit company in the long run. According to Severi & Ling (2013), image of a brand is a concept assumed as personal perception and subjective reasons. The brand image can be referred as the customer perception or emotion towards a particular brand. The issue with brand is related to the limited selection of name or logo. However, a good brand name can create strong distinction and trust that is looked forward by a consumer (Riley, Hand, & Guido, 2014).

The trust, which, an organization creates upon the perceptions of its customers through its brand name, helps in influencing their purchasing intentions. The brand trust of the organization in the market is created by the components including its brand value and brand equity. The organization can acquire competitive advantage by maintaining all the importing complements of its brand equity and values in the market. The influence of the brand on the perceptions of the consumers can be comprised of the various factors including the brand assets, brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, and the brand loyalty of a particular company (Laroche et al., 2012).

Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Behavior for a Specific Brand

The purchasing decisions of the customers follows the steps including their requirements and problem awareness, evaluation of alternatives, information search, purchase, and evaluation after the purchasing process. The purchasing decisions of the customers evaluate the alternatives for the purchasing of a particular product, which is mostly influenced by the brand value of a particular company (Gao et al., 2012).

The following methodologies shall be undertaken for analysing the aims of the research proposal listed as under:

Literature Review- The literature review shall be provided using in-depth analysis of the theoretical concepts and models are available on the internet. Secondary sources for journals such as Science Direct, Google Scholar, JSTOR and other open access journals are utilized for presenting theoretical models. A thematic content analysis of these documents shall be undertaken for examining the factors that affect brand perception, brand image and organizational sales.

Data Collection Methods- The data can be collected from series of surveys or questionnaires. These questionnaires shall help in providing insight about consumer perception towards role of branding and consumer buying behaviour. The survey shall help in collecting data about the factors that influence branding such as Brand Name, Quality Conscious, Impulsive Shopping, Price Conscious and Celebrity Endorsement are also assessed.

Additionally, questionnaire shall be prepared and handed out to the shoppers at Woolworths for assessing their purchase behaviour. The key influences and impacts on consumer behaviour shall be assessed. The ways in which the product quality, price and brand image jointly affect the consumer purchase decisions.

The main visitors of Woolworths are the females. Both the young and old female population is targeted as they are the regular visitors or shoppers. The middle-class consumers are selected as they are the most frequent shoppers at a supermarket (Sehib, Jackson and Gorton 2012). Depending on the variable agreement, the Likert-scale questionnaire has five attributes: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree.

Two methods shall be used to analyse the data- Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. The list of primary and secondary research questions mainly focuses on the attitudes and behaviours of the regular shoppers in the supermarket. The questions and data collection sources are selected in a manner that suits the purpose of this research paper. The research questions also ask the preference and convenience of the shoppers so that an informed decision can be made after analysis of the results.

The qualitative research is designed to reveal the underlying behaviours, attitudes and perceptions of the participants. In-depth studies are used to support and guide the logical assessments. The dynamic processes of interviews help in engaging respondents in a better manner than the structured survey. Qualitative methods help in identifying intangible factors such as social norms, emotions, relationships and opinions. The quantitative research methodology helps in seeking information for logical assessments. Highly structured methods such as surveys and questionnaires are used to conduct this research. The questionnaire used comprises of both open ended and closed ended questions. The numerical values are assigned for the data.

The Role of Celebrity Endorsements in Product Advertising

This piece of research shall consider a mixture of above methodologies for arriving at an appropriate conclusion for the problem identified in the problem statement. The in-depth analysis of the literature review as obtained from previous literature. Data is also prepared from previous surveys and questionnaires. The relevant findings shall be arranged and grouped together into various factors such as profile data, primary sample characteristics, and factors that influence consumer behaviour.

The organisation of the study shall be as follows:

• Chapter 1 provides a presentation of the objectives, aims, background, research questions and brief structure of the work. The rationale and significance of the business research topic is justified.
• Chapter 2 lists the theories, concepts of consumer behaviour, brand perceptions, brand image and stages of purchase decision is described. The theories state the reviews based on past studies. The research themes are informative and comprehensive.
• Chapter 3 comprises of the data collection tools, methodology and analysis required to prepare this paper. The research methodology is chosen based on the theoretical framework presented in the literature review. Primary and secondary data is collected using appropriate research tools and procedures. The sampling method would help in formulating logical assessments.
• Chapter 4 discusses the results based on literature and research. The linkage between the variables is described for enhancing brand image. A full analysis of behavioural statistics and descriptive characteristics are analyzed. Several recommendations are also provided from the research work.
• Chapter 5 summaries the business research topic to the research results. The limitations experienced in conducting the research are stated. Lastly, suggestions are made for this topic to conduct future research.

The budget for the proposed research is estimated as $5000. The project shall be completed within the specified time frame, i.e. 31^st August 2016, as stated in the Gantt chart.  A justification is provided for the budget as follows:

Literature review shall be undertaken using external sources such as journal articles, online resources and textbooks. The access to these resources shall cost approximately $1100.

Data Collection in the form of questionnaires and surveys include travelling, printing and mailing costs. It is better to approach the shoppers at Woolworths in person and distribute questionnaire sheets. The research shall also make use of posts. The entire cost for this section shall be approximately $2400.

For accessing other charts, tables from restricted sources, the budget is allocated as $1500.

 References

Aaker, D. (2012). Building strong brands. New York: Free Press.

Aspara, J. (2013). The Role of Product and Brand Perceptions In Stock Investing: Effects On Investment Considerations, Optimism and Confidence. Journal Of Behavioral Finance, 14(3), 195-212. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15427560.2013.819803

Cant, M., Brink, A., & Brijball, S. (2012). Consumer behaviour. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta.

Christodoulides, G., Cadogan, J., & Veloutsou, C. (2015). Consumer-based brand equity measurement: lessons learned from an international study. International Marketing Review, 32(3/4), 307-328. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/imr-10-2013-0242

Dall’Olmo Riley, F., Hand, C., & Guido, F. (2014). Evaluating brand extensions, fit perceptions and post-extension brand image: does size matter?. Journal Of Marketing Management, 30(9-10), 904-924. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257x.2014.926962

Elliott, R., Percy, L., & Pervan, S. (2011). Strategic brand management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Emory, W. (2015). Business research methods. Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin.

Gao, J., Zhang, C., Wang, K., & Ba, S. (2012). Understanding online purchase decision making: The effects of unconscious thought, information quality, and information quantity. Decision Support Systems, 53(4), 772-781. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2012.05.011

Goh, K., Heng, C., & Lin, Z. (2013). Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content. Information Systems Research, 24(1), 88-107. https://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.1120.0469

Kapferer, J. (2012). The new strategic brand management. London: Kogan Page.

Khanna, M., Jacob, I., & Yadav, N. (2014). Identifying and analyzing touchpoints for building a higher education brand. Journal Of Marketing For Higher Education, 24(1), 122-143. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2014.920460

Laroche, M., Habibi, M., Richard, M., & Sankaranarayanan, R. (2012). The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty. Computers In Human Behavior, 28(5), 1755-1767. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.04.016

Poddar, A., Foreman, J., Banerjee, S., & Ellen, P. (2012). Exploring the Robin Hood effect: Moral profiteering motives for purchasing counterfeit products. Journal Of Business Research, 65(10), 1500-1506. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.017

Robinson, J., Shaver, P., Wrightsman, L., & Andrews, F. (2013). Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes. San Diego: Academic Press.

Roy, S. & Bagdare, S. (2015). The Role of Country of Origin in Celebrity Endorsements: Integrating Effects of Brand Familiarity. Journal Of Global Marketing, 28(3-5), 133-151. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08911762.2015.1073413

Sashi, C. (2012). Customer engagement, buyerâ€Âseller relationships, and social media. Management Decision, 50(2), 253-272. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251741211203551

Severi, E. & Ling, K. (2013). The Mediating Effects of Brand Association, Brand Loyalty, Brand Image and Perceived Quality on Brand Equity. Asian Social Science, 9(3). https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n3p125

Shimp, T. & Shimp, T. (2013). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western.

Solomon, M. (2011). Consumer behavior. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Woolworths.com.au,. (2016). Woolworths Supermarket – Buy Groceries Online. Woolworths Online. Retrieved 30 May 2016, from https://www.woolworths.com.au/

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