The Impact of Brand Name on Consumer Procurement

The Impact of Brand Name on Consumer Procurement

Dr. Imad M. Assali

Assistant Professor Chairperson of Interior Design Department,

College of Arts, Science & Education, Ahlia University, Kingdom of Bahrain,

Abstract- Nowadays, customer's behavior is influenced by the power of brand image and its effect on consumer buying decision. Brands have a strong relationship with a specific company and also have a correlation with a good perceived quality, wealth, social class, etc. Companies spend a lot of money each year on advertisement such as in movies, television shows, sports arenas, and outdoor billboards to present their brand names and to attract more customers for more expenditure for their products. The purpose of this research is to explore people purchase intension for brand names and the effect of advertisement on their decision. A sample of 85 questionnaires was conducted in Bahrain City Center Mall (BCCM) 1 72 responses were collected. The results of this research reveals that brand name have a strong image in consumer mind. Besides, brand names have a significant effect to persuade new customers as it represents wealth and specific social class. Finally, this research show that advertisement plays a major role flourishes any business performance as well as brand name which positively change consumers purchase behaviors.

Keywords – Brand Name, Purchase Intention, Consumer Behavior, Brand Loyalty, Bahrain City Center Mall (BCCM).

1. INTRODUCTION

   A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a customer. A product can be copied by a competitor, a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated, a successful brand is timeless [1]. Shopping malls in cities is witness the growth of towns and cities. During the early century the role of products was for functional purposes, nowadays their purpose has changed as the esthetical style of products becomes the main customer concern [2].

   As the main customers in malls for fashion, footwear, perfumes, etc. are teens and young people both men and women, therefore, companies create a specific brand image dictate the trends markets by creating specific brand image for consumers [3]. The purchase decision by consumers is influenced by higher brand awareness [4]. Furthermore, brands are different in their power, while some brands show high degree of awareness others are of less importance [1]. In addition, people display wealth through expenses, therefore, prefers to purchase brand products to show off their status symbol. However, little is known about its influence of brand names especially in low income countries. Further, advertisement and its elements of logos and symbol play a major role to attract more customers due to its positive impact on consumers buying

   behavior. Hence, companies spend a lot of money to make people buy their products using either price reduction or posters persuading the customers to make purchase.

   Therefore, the aim of this research is identifying the effect of brand name on consumer's behavior; it highlights elements that highly influence consumer involvement in branded products. Then, examine people motives to pay money for the branded products.

   Fig. 1: Pictures of Brands' window display in BCCM

   (Source: The Author).

   1. Research Hypothesis

      In order to satisfy the research aims and objectives, the main hypothesis of the research is:

      "Both Brands name and Advertisement have significant relationship with Consumer buying behavior".

   2. Research Objectives

   The objective of this research is to understand the consumer behavior in relation to brand name. It also takes into account the attributes, a brand should have, in order to be preferred by a consumer. In addition, to present the influence of brand name on customer purchasing decision

2. LITRETURE REVIEW

   Brand name gives the privilege for some companies to get more profits than other companies [4]. Logos and packaging help factories to improve their business by attracting more people. In marketing choosing a brand name is an important part of purchasing decision for people [1]. In addition, brand names seem to be targeted primarily towards influencing the product's desirability and people behavior. Further, customers recognize the reputation of

   brand and prefer to purchase brand name product no matter the price is for its quality [5]. Hence, quality is an important factor taken into account while purchasing any product and peoples' judgment depends on superiority and excellence of the product. Window display design and product quality influence customers purchase behavior [6]. Consequently, companies aim to increase the quality of their brands to attract more customers [7]. Factors influenced consumer's willingness to buy brand are durability, wide variety of colors, price range, celebrity endorser and design attractiveness [4]. Hence it becomes difficult for the marketer to conclude on what make them buy or not buy. On the other hand, store image such as: packaging, window display, coupons, price, or even store location plays a vital role to shift consumer's trends to new stores and products if these stores have images consistent to consume self-image. Income level for people affect brands purchase intention as brands are often expensive for low or medium income groups [8]. Therefore, it is vital for store owners and marketers to improve their store image in to assist consumers having a positive perception of a store and increase their competitive strength with other stores. As a result major department stores began to focus on store image for their outlet to attract loyal customers.

   Consequently, young people are the main customers to marketers and they are less aware about products quality rather than style. In addition, in terms of spending on clothing they are more purchasing than other groups [9]. Further, consumers prefer to purchase a well known branded product without taking the risk of trying a new branded product [10]. Loyalty of the customers to brand name is influenced by the store image, brand image, and customer satisfaction which lead to continuously purchasing behavior of the brand [11]. Usually, customer uses his past experience when he wants to purchase a brand regardless performance, quality and aesthetic appeal [1]. On the other hand, when customers have changed brand selections both sex purchasers have been influenced similarly influenced by promotion such as Television ads, therefore companies should give proper care for publicity to enhance their market portion [5]. This study shows that consumer behavior and purchase decision regarding brand, are influenced by celebrities ads and TV advertisement. Consequently, advertising has a vital role in influencing customers purchasing behavior [8].

   1. Brand Name

      Brand name is a valuable asset and has a vital role in marketing strategy. It should influences the customer purchasing decision, unique from other products and easy to remember. Brand name enhances company's financial status as they generate more profits.

   2. Customers versus Consumers

      The term customer refers to a person who regularly purchases brand or purchase from particular shop. Whereas consumer is a person engage in activities such as: search, use and dispose of products, services, etc.

   3. Customers Motives

      It has a strong relationship with the desire of customer to take a decision to purchase. Different factors influence customers will to purchase such as the stoe image, income, the quality of the product, etc.

   4. Brand Loyalty

      Brand loyalty is influenced by the quality customer perceives from a product that make him satisfy and encourage him to repeat the action of purchasing again. There are many factors influence brand loyalty and one important of them those companies should treat their clients with respect [2], [12].

   5. Purchase Intention

      It is believed that each product represent a specific social class of customers in relation to different income groups. In addition, store image has a positive effect on purchase intention.

   6. Brand Equity

      Brand image is the basis of brand equity. Marketing campaigns influenced customers positive brand image [13].

      Brand equity is a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to that firms customers [14].

   7. Packaging

      Package design focuses on producing a message to customers through symbols, logo and written staff on its container. Therefore, packaging main message is to attract consumer's attention and decision on whether or not to purchase using colorful graphics, shapes, or any other eye- arresting method.

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS

   The study was conducted in Bahrain City Center Mall (BCCM) in the kingdom of Bahrain where different stores were studies on the basis of size and variety of merchandise (See figure 1). The methods used in this research:

   • Reviewing related literature to examine consumer's behavior in relation to branded products.

   • Questionnaires: to identify constructs relating to consumer responses to brands store using a survey that was administered to eighty five (85) consumers. Questionnaire as an instrument for data collection, it consists of 32 close ended statements in order to collect particular information from the respondents regarding the research objective.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

   The questionnaire is of two parts:

   • First part deals with information including age, gender, marital status, education level and income level.

   – Second part questions contain brand image, advertising and consumer purchasing behavior.

   The target sample consisted of eighty five (85) participants in order to identify consumers behavior in relation to brand name, 72 out of 85 participants were collected. In addition, questionnaires were distributed on both weekdays and on weekends, and at different hours of the day (table 1).

   Table 1: Demographic information for the respondents

   Variables	Group	Frequency	%
   Gender	Male	21	29.1
   	Female	51	70.8
   Age	15-20	42	58.7
   	21-25	16	22.1
   	26-30	5	7.4
   	31-35	7	9.1
   	36-40	2	2.7
   Marital Status	Single	63	87.6
   	Married	9	12.4
   Education	intermediate, graduate	15	21.3
   	graduate	50	68.9
   	post graduate	5	7.6
   	higher education level	2	2.2

   1. Attribute considered before buying:

      Factories affecting consumers purchasing behavior namely past experience, brand, quality and price.

      Table2: (Source: Authors)

      	Number	%
      Price	21	30.2
      Price & Quality	13	18.1
      Brand name	29	40.2
      Design	7	9.1
      Others	2	2.4

   2. Quality perception of the Branded products The question regarding a branded product quality

      Table3: (Source: the Author)

      	Number	%
      Yes	51	71
      No	8	11
      I agree, but its not always true	13	18

   3. Brand and Group Income

      The respondents stressed that purchasing a brand is influenced by their income.

      Table 4: (Source: the Author)

      	Number	%
      Yes, I agree	41	57
      No, I dont agree	12	17
      Not necessarily	19	26

   4. Quality of Brand name

      The respondents agreed that brand name relative to product quality.

      Fig. 2: Brand name attributes (Source: the Author)

   5. Brand Name Loyalty

   The following table (table 5) represents people purchasing intention to brand name. The result indicates the importance of brand name to people as a result of its quality, wealth, and reliability.

   Table 5: (Source: the Author)

   	Number	%
   Always	42	59
   Frequently	11	15
   Sometimes	12	17
   Never	7	9

5. CONCLUSIONS

The result of this research depending on the questionnaire conducted in BCCM show the vital role of brand name on customers purchasing decision because people trust brand quality. The finding from 72 respondents showed that young people are influenced by brand name more than other aged group. Further females are more influenced by brand names more than males. In addition, brand name attracts single and educated people rather than other groups. Brand name shows that it is a driving force to attract consumers in spite of their income or social group for the quality and symbol the brand name present. Finally, advertisement has its role in shifting people purchasing intention to other brand names.

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