Project Report

Topic: Grocery retailer’s brand performances from brand personalities and

marketing offerings

Submitted to: Dr. Ateeq Ur Rehman

BY

KASHAF UL WARA (20020920-078)

BISMA ZAFAR (20020920-079)

Course Title

Research Methods

Submission Date

18 Jan,2024

Department of Management Sciences

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 Table of Contents

Serial No. Contents Page No

Abstract
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Background story 4
1.2 Problem statement 4
1.3 Research Objectives 4
1.4 Research Question 5
2 Literature review 5
2.1 Creating customer-brand congruity 5
2.2 Hypothesis Development 5
3 Research Framework 6
4 Research Methodology 6
4.1 Target population and sample size 6
4.2 Data collection tools 7
4.3 Data analysis techniques 7
5 Data analysis 8
5.1 Factor analysis 8
5.2 PSL-SEM 9-10
6 Conclusion 11
7 Limitations 11
7.1 Future research recommendation 12
8 References 13

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Abstract

Despite competition some retailer brands were ranked top. This research article studies the
performance of grocery retailer brands from brand personalities and market offerings. It has also
tested the mediating role of brand equity and brand loyalty in this scenario. It collected cross
sectional data from 480 customers through online questionnaire. Brand equity also have an
impact on repurchase intention and brand preference. This research investigates all the factors
that contribute in the good performance of top grocery retailer brands.

1: Introduction

This article studies the impact of specific brand personality dimensions on performance of
grocery retailer’s. Grocery retailer brands are used to sell products in stores. These brands
are also known as Private Label brands or Store brands. These are less expensive as
compared to other brands and quality of these products can also vary. In the past few years
retailer brands such as ZARA, Amazon, H&M emerged as the top global brands due to
strong customer ratings. South Africa which is a developed country has also recognized
retailer brands Woolworths, Pick n Pay and Checkers among 25 South African brands. And
Woolworth’s is the top valued grocery brand by customers. This shows strong consumers
attachment with their shopping brands and favorite retailers is strong.

Brands with rich brand equity and market offerings are most loved. Brand equity is built by
modifying your offerings according to consumer likes and preferences. Brand equity is like
asset of a company. It helps brands to increase customer loyalty and trustworthiness. When
brands offer such products that are according to customer demands it improves
performance.

In this world of technology, brands should make a customer management mindset (CMM)
to build brand equity. This approach mainly focuses on changing trends in customer
preferences. Another approach known as BMM (Brand Management Mindset), this
approach examines that how personality and image of brand attracts customers and

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differentiate it from its competitors. Customers behavior is influenced by the brand which
they consider ideal. It means BMM approaches take into account creativity and innovation
in the offerings of retailer brands. These both approaches BMM and CMM are useful to
use but for implementation of these strategies brands must allocate resources.

So in this paper we examined the importance of these strategies in the offering successful
retailer brands. It also aims to find out the key drives of these successful retailer brands in
the highly competitive retailing industry.

1.1 Background of Study

Grocery retailer brand showed best performance in the past few years despite era of Covid-19
outbreak. We conducted this study to examine the factors behind the good performance of
that grocery retailer brand. It also shows a relationship of brand performance with brand
personality and how efficient are its market offerings. Retailers must understand the
importance of favorable consumer responses is important for their success. Another thing
brand equity is also important for brands and retailer brands. Brand Equity is image of a
brand in consumer minds. It is how much they trust on a brand and how much they are loyal
with a brand.

It is identified that Successful retailer understands what their customer wants and then they
provide customized products and services. Brand mindsets and customer mindsets when both
work in a symmetry it makes brand perform well. The personality of brand like its values,
core beliefs, competence are shaped by customer purchase intentions.

1.2 Problem Statement

“Assessing performance of Grocery Retailer brands with respect to brand personalities

and market offerings”

This research focuses on two factors first is brand personality which includes brand excitement,
trustworthiness, brand competence and sincerity. And second factor is about market offerings
which includes product, price, place and distribution. This research examines effect of brand
personality and market offerings on the performance of grocery retailer brands.

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This study formally investigates the contribution of brand personality and market offerings in the
success of Grocery retailer brands. Because it is noticed that retailer brands performed very well
in past year despite Covid-19 pandemic. It motivated us to study the factors that make retailers
successful. The aim of conducting this study is to identify factors that contribute in the success of
grocery retailer brands.

1.3 Research Objectives

This research is done to achieve the following objectives:

 The goal is to investigate how different personality elements like sincerity, brand
competence, excitement and its trustworthiness level has contributed in best rating
of retailer brands
 Analyzing which aspects of brand personalities and its offerings like (price,
product, place and promotion) are impacting brand loyalty
 To examine how brand equity influence the purchase decision and intentions of
customer
 To assess how brand loyalty is a mediator in impact of brand personalities and its
strategies of marketing offerings
 To identify the role and impact of brand image on customer preferences and
purchase intentions.
1.4 Research Question
Our research question is:
“Assessing performance of Grocery Retailers brand with respect to brand
personalities and market offerings”

2: Literature Review

1.5 Creating customer-brand congruity through customer and brand management

mindsets

Customers feel more attached to the brands that relates with their values, perceptions and
mindsets. It is asserted that CMM plays an important role in creating brand equity and it also
contributes in brand loyalty. Studies also asserts that if retailers provide more customized
products it will not easy for competitors to copy or interpret those products. All the

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 customers cannot be same this can be problem for retailers. When brands managed to
becomes congruent with customer’s perceptions the outcomes are in the form of brand
engagement and loyalty. And sometimes customers are willing to pay extra price for
products.

1.6 Hypothesis Development

Following are the hypothesis proposed:

H1. Brand personality impacts brand loyalty

H2. Positive impact of brand competence on brand loyalty
H3. Brand trustworthiness impacts brand loyalty
H4. Positive effect of brand excitement on brand loyalty
H4. Brand loyalty of customers increases brand equity
H5. Brand advertising activities contribute in customer perceptions
H6. Positive impact of retailer brands prices on (a) brand loyalty and (b) brand equity
H7. Positive influence of brand equity on purchase decision
H8. Positive impact of brand equity on customer perception
H9. Brand loyalty act as a mediator between marketing factor and brand equity
H10. Brand Equity act as a mediator between brand loyalty and brand preferences

3: Research Framework

Brand
Retailer’s
Preference
Personalities
Brand
Loyalty
Retailer brand
Equity

Retailer’s
Offerings Brand Repurchase
Intentions
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This research paper depicts the relationship between retailer brand personality dimensions, brand
loyalty and brand equity. Brand personality are symbolic features that differentiate brand from its
competitors and increase brand preferences and attachment. Four important personality traits of a
brand are sincerity, trustworthiness, brand excitement and competence.

4: Research Methodology

4.1 Target population and sample size:

This study basically targets the frequent customers of a specific grocery retailers of South Africa. They
approach to those customers by employing questionnaire. The questionnaire conduct online.

Total 480 customers responds to Questionnaire. so the sample size of 480 drawn in this study for
assessment. due to COVID-19 pandemic, data was collected through an online questionnaire, whose
link was posted on the researcher’s social media pages. Therefore, non profitability convenience and
snow bowling sampling techniques were used. The snow balling technique is to interact with customers
who are available at that time or show willingness for interacting with researcher and non-profitability
technique is to select random persons in population.

The questionnaire which was developed previously was measured with measurement scales. The sample
size they take are 35 Woolworths customers. After testing for reliability and validity, some items were
deleted. Brand competence was also deleted because of poor reliability scores. So only three topics
which are brand sincerity, excitement and trustworthiness were further analyzed. The measurement on
which these topics were extracted was started with a screening questions to obtain only respondents who
have frequently shopped at Woolworths. The questions were measured on five point scales with of 1=
strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree. The sincerity, excitement and competence were measured with
Aaker’s (1997) scale.

4.2 Data Collection Tools:

The author used an online questionnaire distributed through the researcher’s social media pages to gather
data from 480 frequent customers of a specific grocery retailer in South Africa. The questionnaire
contained closed ended questions to measure participant’s perceptions of the retailers brand personality,
marketing offerings like price, place, promotion end product, brand loyalty and brand equity.

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 The questionnaire responses received were 540 from which 480 we’re fully completed. the male
respondents were 57.5%. Most 90.7% of the respondents were with in the age group of 26-65 years old.
From which 7.5% were young adults. Their age was 18-25 years. And the other 1.9% was those who were
65 years old. This tells that most of the customers that were shopping at Woolworth are in the working
age 18-65 years old in South Africa. In which 59.5% were financially well off while 40.5% were not so
well off. The white were 10.4% and Asians were 4.4%.

4.3 Data Analysis techniques:

This study utilize mainly two data analysis techniques which are as follows:

 Factor Analysis:

This technique were used to identify the dimensions of retailer’s brand personality that are perceived by
the respondents. the paper mentions it identified three key dimensions which are sincerity, excitement
and trustworthiness. by understanding these dimensions, the researcher could gain The understanding
that how various aspects of brand personality influences the behavior of customers.

 Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM):

This technique was used to test the hypothesized relationships between the factors which are brand
personality dimensions, marketing offerings(Product, place, promotion and price),Brand loyalty and
brand equity. this technique is particularly suitable for complex models with variables which was the
case in this study.

There are several findings that are revealed by using PLS-SEM:

 Brand excitement and trustworthiness significantly impacts the brand loyalty while the effect of
sincerity was not so much important.
 The 4 marketing mix elements have a positive effect weather direct and indirect on brand loyalty.
 Brand loyalty plays an important role in mediating the relationships between brand personality,
marketing offerings and brand equity.
 Brand equity positively influences the brand preference and repurchase intentions.

5.Data Analysis:

5.1 Factor Analysis:

 Method:

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 The paper used exploratory factor analysis with principal component to identify the factors from the
survey questions related to brand personality.

 Number of factors:

The analysis identified three key factors which are sincerity, excitement and trustworthiness.

 Factor loadings:

This reveals the strength and direction of the relationship between each question and the factors.

This table shows that the brand personality was the most prominent and beneficial brand personality
dimension of Woolworths with the variance of 28.582%. As this factor is related to genuineness, honesty
and authenticity. Customers perceiving the retailer as sincere that they believe it delivers on its promise
and act with integrity. The brand excitement with a variance of 20.336%. Brand excitement is the factor
that related to innovation, adventurousness and trendsetting. Customers perceiving the retailers as
offering new products and services. Trustworthiness has a variance of 18.854%. Trustworthiness is a
factor that involves the reliability and competence. Customers perceiving retailer as trustworthy as they
delivers products and services on time.

5.2 PSL-SEM:

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 Model structure:

The model had variables brand personalities dimensions, marketing offerings, brand loyalty and
brand equity with relationship between them.

 Path analysis:

This analysis assess the direct and indirect effects of every variable on their variable. This analysis
highlights the influence of brand personality and marketing offerings on brand loyalty and equity.

 Medication analysis:

The brand loyalty factor acted as mediator which means that it explained the impact of brand
personality and marketing offerings on brand equity.

 Goodness-of-fit measures:

This model fit explains the variance of model.

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The means in this table is greater which tells that the respondents all are agreed to the statement
measuring the items. This table also shows that the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) figures of all
items are above the recommended 0.5. The mean ratings of these three brand personality dimensions in
which sincerity have mean 4.10 which is highest, excitement has mean 3.90 and then the last one
trustworthiness is 3.87. This table have Cronbach alpha (CA) and composite Reliability scores (CA) to
evaluate the reliability of these factors. This table also tells that the CA and CR exceeds their values than
recommended threshold of 0.70 to confirm reliability.

6. Conclusion:

This study is the further added elements of Das (2014) brand personality loyalty model. This study is
conducted to examine the outcomes of Woolworths brand equity. The brand personality dimensions
particularly excitement, trustworthiness and significantly influence brand loyalty. This paper also tells
that the retailers who cultivate an exciting and trustworthy image can foster strong customer relationships.
The 4 p’s also contributes to brand loyalty which demonstrate the importance of customer engagement.
Brand loyalty act as mediator that cultivates excitement and trustworthiness through marketing efforts.
This influences preference and repurchase intentions.

This study also highlights the importance of investing in building is a strong brand personality that targets
the customers. Managing the 4 p’s effectively that builds the brand loyalty and also improves brand
performance. This study also focuses customer loyalty that is a stepping stone towards stronger brand
equity.

7. Limitations:

 The study only focus on specific grocery retailers in South Africa that limits the general findings
to other retailers.
 480 is a big survey study that is larger and more diverse sample which is difficult to conduct.
 The study also relies on self reported survey data which increases the measurement errors as
participants might not accurately perform the questionnaire.
 The cross sectional design limits the ability to check the relationship between the variables and
assess the changes.

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  This study only focus on brand loyalty rather than brand awareness, purchase frequency or
customer satisfaction which also plays a crucial part in brand performance.
 This study does not focus on the influence of competitive environment on brand performance.
 Other than brand personality and marketing mix, other factors like store atmosphere, customer
service or product quality can also influence brand performance. But this study didn’t focus on
these factors.
7.1 Future research recommendations

The future usage recommendation is further research should try some experimental methods to
reduce social desirability bias issue. It just studied top retailers not others next time it scan
include other retailers also. Data collection from more customers can also be more effective.

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8. References

All the references from where data is taken are mentioned below:

www.bard.com

www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.com

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