CONSUMER PERCEPTION TO BRAND AWARENESS, BRAND IMAGE AND BRAND

LOYALTY

DV – Consumer Perception

IV – Brand Awareness, Brand Image and Brand Loyalty

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

1.1 Introduction

This study will be based on the consumer perception to brand awareness, brand image and brand
loyalty. Nowadays, the concept of brand becomes an important phenomenon to the consumer
needs and wants as well as their purchasing habits. There are many products now that have a
numerous branded, and it effects the consumer’s daily life. The brand of the product is more than
just a logo. Branding is important to the company because it will be present the image of the
company to the public. According to the Macdonald & Sharp (2000) brand awareness is the
factor that will influence the purchase decision even though the consumer are willing to buy the
product or familiar with the product. Thus, a top priority for businesses now is creating a strong
brands perception among the consumer. Since the higher the brand awareness of product/brand
will become a member of set of brand in consumer’s consideration, brand awareness has an
essential role in consumer decision making (Moisescu, 2009). Both of the factors which are
brands awareness and brand loyalty have a great impact on the consumer’s perception about the
brand equity. As a consumer, they will choose the brand that has a benefit to them in order to
meet their needs. According to Süer (2014, p. 212), the definition of brand is to distinguish and
differentiate business from their competitors and to promote the business. Consumer perception
is a marketing concept that includes a customer impression or awareness about a company and it
also affected by the advertising, reviews, public relations, social media, personal experience and
other channel. Perceptions are a process where the consumer tries to manipulate the information
of brand in order to get awareness which it can lead to brand loyalty. Then, brand loyalty is the
tendency of consumers whether they want to continuously purchase one brand product over
another. The patterns of consumer behaviors indicate that consumers will continue buy the
product from a company that has a trusting relationship. Loyalty is considerably beneficial to a
business because it can leads to repeat purchases by consumers, higher revenue and customer
referral. Based on Griffin and Herres (2002, p. 3) the companies continue to make a profit as
long as it keeps a loyal customer. The purpose of this study is to determine the consumer
perceptions to brand awareness and brand loyalty. The definitions of brand image are the
observation about the brand as replicated by the brand relations (Taylor, et.al, 2007). Brand
image also stated as brand that have a sense and it is established on customer considerations and
the position of the product or service but it also affected by the organizations symbol of their
external brand communications (Grace, 2004). The customer need to know about the brand
image because it can build with emerald marketing basics that encourages customers to buying
judgement of emerald brand (Norazah,2013). Brand image is also known as essential source of
brand equity.

1.2 Background of study

Perception is the process, by which people will regard, analyze, retrieve and react to information
from the environment. More precisely, the definition of perception in marketing is the process
where the customer selects, organizes, and interprets information to give meaning and orders of
the brands or the product around them. In the simple term, it is about how the customers see one
of the particular brands with whatever she or he has been able to understand by watching the
product, feedback or its promotions. It is important since it can impact the consumer awareness
and loyalty towards the brand. Thus, brands spend a lot on effect on awareness to retain the
consumers loyal to those brands. The particular of brands will success depends on its ability to
sustain the consumer loyal after achieve the consumers through awareness and keeping the
perception of brands good in the mind of customers. The loyalty and perception are not the same
thing, but they are related with each other as there is a difference between objective, perception
and loyalty. Then, consumer will know the brand properly if they see or listen about the brand
(Brewer & Zhao, 2010). The product/brand will turn into part of consumers deliberation set of
brands if the brand awareness play main role in consumer decision making. All the consumer
will obtain brand awareness with the marketing communication such as online and media
advertising. Brand awareness is how the consumer and brand linkage through the exact product
that they aspire to possess. According to Naghibi & Sadeghi, 2011 brand loyalty is known as a
high affiliation with a brand. The customer wants to repurchase the product is a loyalty, even
though competing brands are available (Rajagopal, 2010). Next, brand loyalty is a highly held
dedication to get a product again and again in the future times (wahid et al, 2011). Thus,
consumer perception will affect the level of brand awareness and brand loyalty will be affected
by the perception. The consumers believe that brand that has more awareness is better and well
perceived compared to the brand which is less well-known. The behavior of the consumer and
their perception can be evaluated by study the brand awareness and brand loyalty. Brand
awareness and brand loyalty is important to make sure the consumer perceptions higher than
what they target before purchase the product/services. Brand image is known as how the
customer perceive a particular brand while brand identity is the method which the companies
launched their brand in the market and they want to know the perception of customer. The
customer may have a different image at the end about the brand than that the company presented
(Bian X, 2011).

1.3 Problem Statement

Some of the companies are failure to maintain the effectiveness of their brand because they tried
to come up with the different brand which as a result it affect the consumer perception of brand.
They come up with the different brand from other competitors but some of them fail to perform
well even though they have a brand. The failure from the companies to build the effective brand
awareness and loyalty will actually lead to the failure in achieving the objective or organization
goals. This is because the company will not do well even if the companies have a brand. The
customer perceptions on the brand play an important role in maintaining the loyalty and
organization performance in the market place. Therefore, having the brand itself are not enough
because the company should have strong brand effectiveness to effect the consumer perception
on brand.
1.4 Objective of the research

The major aim of this study are:

1. To investigate the relationship between customer perception with brand

awareness.
2. To investigate the relationship between customer perception with brand
loyalty.
3. To investigate the relationship between customer perception with brand
image.
4. To compare the different with brand image, brand awareness and brand
loyalty.

1.5 Research Questions

The research questions present below showing how the study objectives will integrate into the
current research.

1. What is the relationship between brand awareness and customer perception?

2. What is the relationship between brand loyalty and customer perception?
3. What is the relationship between brand image and customer perception?
4. What is the difference between brand awareness, brand image and brand
loyalty?

1.6 Hypothesis

The brand image of a product that perceive by the consumer in his/her mind is a great
opportunity to make the positive perception. According to Nguyen and Leblanc (2001) the
degree of customer loyalty tends to be high in the businesses where the brand image is strong.
The marketers should play the important role by focus on the benefit of brand image in order to
achieve the customer loyalty. Nowadays, buyer will only purchase the brands which are well
known and convenient with their requirement due to technological developments. According to
Macdonald & Sharp (2000) the consumer are willing to purchase the product that are well known
but how it be perceived in their mind still influence the purchasing decision. When the customer
wants to buy any product, the first thing that comes in their mind is the brand title which show as
brand awareness. Considering the studies and analysis of the effect of brand image, brand
awareness and brand loyalty on customer perception, the following hypothesis have been
developed.

H1: Brand awareness affects customer perception in a positive way.

H2: Brand image affects customer perception in a positive way.
H3: Brand image affects customer perceptions in a meaningful way.
H4: There is a positive relationship between brand image, brand loyalty and brand
awareness.

1.7 Significant of study

Consumer is a person who purchases goods and services for their personal use and always
become backbone of the business. How the consumers perceive the brand make the brand owes
the position in market. For the consumer perception the brand awareness, brand image and brand
loyalty is important to keep it in consumer’s mind about the particular of brand. Next, brand
loyalty is the main stage and everything which the consumer can imagines and thinks about the
brand, good, bad, or ordinary. As a brand awareness, it need to keeps the consumer committed to
the brand because they can compared to their competitors and keep the consumers to loyal with
the brand even though there have the other market pressure. When consumers start to perceiving
well about a brand, it can increase their loyalty and relatedness about the brand. Next, as brand
loyalty become stronger and more strong and popular among its potential consumers. A brand
image is related to the consumer perception and how they see the entire personality of the brand.
Having a strong brand image can directly impact the consumer buying behavior and as well as a
top brand have a target of building positive image of brand. Then, a positive image also gives
confidence to the customers because they can fell that the brand is sincere and clear in its vision
to create the best. Thus, the study of the consumer’s perception about the brand and its relation
with brand awareness, brand loyalty and brand image is a significant topic to research on. The
research also significant to help make the useful conclusion which will be helpful to develop the
brands and can acquires the competitive advantages over other brands. The conclusion from the
basis research will help the brands to improve the awareness and image and then to increase the
loyalty of consumers with the brand to consumer perception about the brands. Research can be
used to construct and develop interest branding strategies using the conclusion of the research
regarding consumer perception, brand awareness, brand image and brand loyalty. The result
outcomes can be used to decide about the consumer brand loyalty, perceived image and
positioning of brand to determining the brand strength and standing in the market.

CHAPTER 2: Literature Review

2.1 Customer Perception

Customer purchase decisions are important to increase the sales of businesses. They also use
customer perception theory to advertising strategies and develop marketing to remain the current
customers and attract the new ones. There are three consumer perception theories which are self-
perception, price perception and the benefit of perception.

(i) Self-Perception

Self-perception theory is how the individuals develop an understanding of the motivations

behind their own behavior. Self-perception also relates to the motivations and values that drive to
the buying behavior. For example, the researchers from the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst addressed how the self-perception shaped the consumer’s buying behavior. The study
considered whether the consumers believed their buying decisions had an effect on
environmental impact issues. They conclude that consumer self-perception was a factor whether
or not they placed a priority on socially conscious purchase and consumption practices.

(ii) Price Perception

The factors that develop the price perception were the perceived quality of the merchandise or
service in question and price comparison with merchants that offering the same merchandises or
services. Researchers at the School of Business Administration at LaSalle University and LeBow
College of Business at Drexel University state that whether online shopper would repeat the
purchase on the same website or not. They concluded that price perception strongly influenced
whether the customers were satisfied with their purchase and whether they would make the
future purchased.

(iii) Benefit perception

Many consumers are familiar with the phrase “Its good, and it’s good for you” frequently
associated with food advertising. Researchers from Marquette University, Louisiana State
University and the University of Arkansas do the survey do determine how nutrition claims
associated with food affected their perception of that food's nutritional value. They found that
customers tend to reject general, unsupported claims of enhanced nutrition, especially
concerning high nutritional value for foods that are traditionally viewed as unhealthy. Consumers
would demonstrate a trend toward applying more scrutiny to nutrition claims and would demand
more specific information about the foods they purchase.

2.2 The factor that influence customer perception

There are many factors that influence the customer perception and it effect the buying decisions.
The experience that customer has can be negative or positive and it can make decision making
different between the customers. The following factor that influence the customer perception:

(i) Price
Price is very important to the consumers when they have to make the decision making
and it also effect the consumers perception. Nowadays, consumers are like to
purchase the product that cheap and valuable when it comes to the buying process.
Then, price should be the comprehensive marketing plan where the cheap products
are depicted as favorable alternative with the similar level of quality.
(ii) Quality
Quality is a part of consumer perception when they purchase the goods or services.
Definition of quality is the characteristic that can satisfy or disappoint the customers
including reliability, durability and usability. The consumer that experienced with
non-durable goods will determine the perception of quality.
(iii) Service quality
The excellent service quality can make the negative experienced customer feel
satisfied with the services. If a customer’s feel that they received the bad attention
from the services when encountering a problem with a product, they likely to trust the
brands without knowing that the companies provide the effective response to the
problem.
(iv) Packaging and Branding
Packaging and branding can give a big effect to the consumer perceptions when they
purchase the product. When the customer purchase the product for the first time, the
way the product presented can determine their perception to the item or product. It
also can cover everything to the attributes of the product that the companies want to
 highlight. A few of consumer are like to purchase the product by seeing the
packaging.
(v) Reputation
A product that a good reputation will built it up over time and it is a combinations of
actual experiences with the product, recommendations by the other person or
marketing campaign that attempt to share the view of the product or service. A
consumer perception about the reputation will determined by the brand image but the
whole chain of the companies. For example, if the customer trusts the product, the
customer may change their mind about the product when he/she seeing the cheap
product that is available.

2.3 The Brand Awareness

According to the (Heding et al. 2009, p. 9) a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design or
combination of them to identify the goods or services of one seller or many sellers to
differentiate them from the other competitors. Having a brand is not enough to make the
consumer purchase the product. It is important to building the brand in the customers mind to
target the audience. Brand awareness is the effort that companies create to recognize by the
consumers with a particular product or service. Brand awareness is important to help the
businesses stand out with their competitors and it will generate more leads. A higher level of
brand awareness will increase the sales and will prevent competitors from gaining more profit or
market share. The brand awareness are important to promote the businesses, to successfully
introduce the product or service, to build the business reputations, to make the differentiate from
the competitors and to find and remain the loyal customers. The effective ways to build brand
awareness is create the custom hashtag, post regularly to the social media or participate in the
events or any sponsor.

There are three widely that use for measure the brand awareness which is top on mind,
spontaneous and aided. Top of mind or another name is the first brand was the first brand
awareness measure to get the attention. The other two commonly used measures are spontaneous
awareness and aided awareness. Brand awareness also important to the customer decision
making influencing notably which brand(s) enter the consideration set. According to the
Macdonald and Sharp, 1996 it also influenced which brand are selected from the consideration
set. The consumer also relying their memory when deciding to purchase even the option are in
front of them (Romaniuk, et al. 2004).

When the consumers wants to buy the product for the first time, the first thing comes in their
mind is the brand title which show as a brand awareness. According to the Dodos, Monroe, &
Grewal, 1991; Grewal, Monroe & Krishnan, 1998 the decision that make by the customers when
they want to buy the product can be influenced if the brand have a higher perceptions.

2.4 Ways to Increase the Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is important when the businesses want to launch new products or services and
it make the consumer decisions different with the competitors. The ways to increase the brand
awareness:

1. Target the specific audience segments

The companies must know who the audiences and understanding who exactly you want
to reach. When they have the greater focus on the audiences, the consumers will purchase
the product or items and the companies can increase the recognition and perception about
the brand among the buyers.
2. Leverage search engine optimization
Most of the customers now are constantly searching the Internet using the keyword that
relate directly to the product or brand. This way also can improve search ranking in
Google or other search engines. As a company that wants to attract more customers, they
need to granular keyword inquiry by uncover the terms that customer are searching at.
This will help to be the top of search ranking and can increase the brand awareness.
3. Establish the social media presence
Customer likes to use the social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to look up
the information about the product and will ask their friend for recommendations.
Establish the social media presence will make the opportunity to reach out with the
consumers.

2.5 Brand Image

Brand image is the logical or emotional perceptions that the consumers have toward particular
brands (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990). According to Dolich, 1969 brand image consist of many
functional and symbolic brand beliefs. The brand image will become the part of product category
and can be customized for the unique property of a certain brand categories (Park and Srinivasan,
1994). In simple terms, brand image is the first thing that customers will remember when buying
the product. Brand image are important element for businesses because it have the ability to
influence perceptions of customer regarding goods and services (Suharto and Kandampully,
2003). This significant will affected the purchasing decision and behavior of customers. The
customers will cooperate with the business and ignoring the competitors and helping the business
to maintain the profit in the long run when they decide to buy the product 9Minsung et. Al.,
2011). The strong brand image would add value to the business and will provide the customer
loyalty (Schulz and Omweri, 2012). However, according to Robinot and Gianelloni, 2010 brand
image are not enough to support the customer loyalty but the customers will be satisfied with
other services such as, value, comfort or the quality. According to Kandampully and Suharto
(2000), brand image can affect the marketing activities to be positively or negatively. Customers
knowledge about the brand image will built the encourages customers to buying judgement with
the emerald marketing basics (Norazah, 2013). According to Mishra & Datta, 2011 the creation
of brand image has an effect on brand equity and it also known like a essential source of brand
equity. Perceived value also can help consumers to have a personalize judgement about the value
of the product that contains a salient differentiation and become more choosy brand in
consumer’s minds (Aaaker, 1991).

2.6 Brand loyalty

The definitions of Brand Loyalty

The definitions of brand loyalty is the continuous process of a customer to repeatedly purchase a
product of a same brand rather than switching to other brands from the competitors. In other
words the psychological and social attachment of a customer with a particular brand is said to be
brand loyalty.
2.7 Elements of Brand Loyalty

2.7.1 Pricing

Pricing is the important key of marketing factor which are closely related with a brand
positioning in market segments. All the product has adopted with the different pricing strategies
for the different market groups. This is because the right prices for the product are suitable for
the right value of product in a brand loyalty. This concept of this element has not only to meet
the customer requirements but to give something extra than the customer expectations.

2.7.2 Personal Service

Brand loyalty is the personal bondage with the brands. A customized service plays a vital
role in building the personal bandage. The customers need to get ready to go an extra mile to get
the same brand product instead of switching his/her choices. Special offer will bring more &
more referrals for brand and for loyal customers.

2.7.3 Finance

Finance refers to the revenues and profits that come with the sales. All the product around
the world has a massive amount of sales. It also needs to add value for the services with the best
prices to maintain brand loyalty and brand image.

2.7.4 Value added services

Value added services can add the value to the customer experience of buying a product
and pays back more than the expectations of customers. The brand life is also associated with the
value addition. When more the value of product increase, the brand will grows and inversely and
would decline to die if there is no value-addition. It is important factor for sustaining brand
equity as well.

CHAPTER 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction
This project does the comparative study of following perspective of marketing related to the
brands:
(i) Consumer perception
(ii) Brand Awareness
(iii) Brand image
(iv) Brand loyalty

A methodology will be designed, implemented and analyze the consumer’s perception about a
brands, their awareness, image and loyalty towards these brands so that a comparison can be
made between the particular brands.

3.2 Research Design

To determine the consumers perception on brand awareness, brand image and brand loyalty
were made.

BRAND
AWARENESS

CONSMERS
PERCEPTION

BRAND BRAND
IMAGE LOYALTY
 According to the research design, the existence of the consumers perception on brand
awareness, brand image and brand loyalty were tested. The research design of the study will
be includes those variable that are identified from the literature. Brand awareness, brand
image and brand loyalty are independent variable of the study. The study identified the
relationship among above variable. A conclusion and recommendation are provided on the
basis of these variables.

3.3 Population
Questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The population for this study was gathered
among people in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu. The sample of the study consisted of customers
living in Kuala Nerus.

3.4 Sampling size

The subject were individual consumers, household, student, people from the different
professions with different age, gender, social class and local people. To keep the research time
convenient and time bound, a sample size was taken in order to collect the sufficient reliable
to make sure the case of access for the data. The questionnaire consisted of 6 part included
questions about demographic information of participants. In the second part, questions were
asked about the consumer perceptions. In the third and fourth part, there are question about
brand awareness and brand image. In the fifth part, there are question about the brand loyalty
and in the last part there were question to measure about the repeat purchase behavior of the
participants. The convenience sampling technique was used because by using the technique,
we can select the cases on the basis of ease of access. Reasons of using the convenience
sampling technique are:
 Involves a low cost of doing research
 Saving the time
 Convenience of reaching to the sample population
 Fast, easy and effective cost for the research
3.5 Instrument
There were four construct in the study which is consumers perception, brand awareness, brand
image and brand loyalty. All the constructs were estimated with the statements adapted from
the past research. A 5 point Likert type scale ranging from (1) strongly disagrees to (5)
strongly agree.

3.6 Data collection

All the data for the project was gathered using the questionnaire in order to determine the
specific responses of the sample population. The other different sources of the data were used
in order to collect data for other uses. The used sources for this purpose were some previous
research work, reports, reviews and case studies about brands. During collect the data, there
are ways to make sure about the quality of data;
1. Utilizing and assuring authencity of sources
2. Assuring data consistency
3. Re-checking the data and error omission
4. Avoiding the biasness by consumers
5. Protecting the data loss

3.7 Data Analysis