Customer perception and the way this phenomenon impacts customers' choices when purchasing products is an extremely significant marketing aspect in any industry. In a competitive market and economy, understanding and being able to predict consumer perceptions and responses is a crucial competitive factor that all suppliers should have an in–depth knowledge and understanding of. This applies especially to the South African beer market with more than forty competing beer brands. This study examines the aspect of customer perception in terms of the three central variable perceptions of price, taste and brand image. Furthermore, the study takes into account the interaction between these variables and attempts to ascertain whether one is more significant than the other. To this end an empirical research study was undertaken by means of a questionnaire that examined the responses from 225 participants. These responses were analysed in terms of a number of significant variables in relation to perceptions of price, taste and brand image. The results were also compared to the literature and theory on the subject. Among the findings from this research was that while all variables were important, price was considered by the participants to be a constant factor in the decision–making process. However, it was also found that price as a perception could not be viewed in isolation as a separate and autonomous variable. It was found that aspects such as brand image could have a significant impact on other perceptual factors such as taste. The study concludes with the recommendation that the perceptions of price, taste and brand image should be considered in terms of their affect on each other and should be further researched in terms of a more holistic understanding of their interconnections. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Customer perception and the way this phenomenon impacts customers' choices when purchasing products is an extremely significant marketing aspect in any industry. In a competitive market and economy, understanding and being able to predict consumer perceptions and responses is a crucial competitive factor that all suppliers should have an in–depth knowledge and understanding of. This applies especially to the South African beer market with more than forty competing beer brands. This study examines the aspect of customer perception in terms of the three central variable perceptions of price, taste and brand image. Furthermore, the study takes into account the interaction between these variables and attempts to ascertain whether one is more significant than the other. To this end an empirical research study was undertaken by means of a questionnaire that examined the responses from 225 participants. These responses were analysed in terms of a number of significant variables in relation to perceptions of price, taste and brand image. The results were also compared to the literature and theory on the subject. Among the findings from this research was that while all variables were important, price was considered by the participants to be a constant factor in the decision–making process. However, it was also found that price as a perception could not be viewed in isolation as a separate and autonomous variable. It was found that aspects such as brand image could have a significant impact on other perceptual factors such as taste. The study concludes with the recommendation that the perceptions of price, taste and brand image should be considered in terms of their affect on each other and should be further researched in terms of a more holistic understanding of their interconnections. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

In today’s competitive labor markets, successfully recruiting a large pool of skilled and qualified job applicants is a prime concern of many organizations. In Study 1, I focused on how organizations can successfully employ four traditional recruitment practices (sponsorships, job fair activities, word-of mouth endorsements and corporate advertisements) simultaneously to disseminate information about their positive recruitment brand images to job seekers to enhance organizational attraction. The results which supported all my hypotheses indicated that, communication of an organization’s brand images to job seekers through the simultaneous use of these four traditional recruitment practices can indeed influence job seekers’ positive perceptions of an organization and result in enhanced organizational attraction. In Study 2, which was built on findings in Study1, I theorized that social media may have become a prominent source of information for job seekers. In this study, I predicted that job seekers’ use of four social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and LinkedIn) in job search will explain incremental variance in organizational attraction over the use of traditional recruitment methods. I also predicted that job seekers’ utilization of social media in job search will be positively related to organizational attraction through enhanced perceptions of instrumental and symbolic attributes. Surveys for both studies were posted on and data collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results from the second study were mixed; but the results confirm findings from prior research, which showed that the instrumental-symbolic framework can be used to predict potential job seekers’ perceptions of organizational attractiveness. Overall, results in the two studies reveal that organizations can better enhance recruitment by using a combination of social media and traditional recruitment methods to attract potential job seekers. / Business Administration/Human Resource Management