No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-158). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many studies have been conducted on the occurrence of brand image transfer, but very few of them have focused on one of the most important determinants of such transfer namely, brand fit. Brand image transfer is the transfer of brand associations, attributed to another entity, to the brand, while brand fit has been defined as a consumer learning process that seeks to match those brand associations held of the relevant brands involved. This study proposes to assess brand fit. Since a variety of brands were involved in this study, conjoint analysis was used as a method of assesing brand fit. In particular, choice-based conjoint analysis was singled out because of its capability to allow the relative advantage of brands considered jointly to be ascertained. Brands might not be able to be measured if taken one at a time. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in order to assess brand fit using conjoint analysis, which was the main reason for this study. Rugby sponsorships were chosen to asses brand fit, as this particular game is the second most-watched sport in South Africa, with the highest monetary value attached to its sponsorships at the time of this study. The qualitative research was accomplished by using focus groups to determine which brands were typically perceived to be associated with the Springbok rugby brand. The different industries and brands used in the focus groups were selected on the grounds of their being current, previous, and potential sponsors of the Springbok rugby brand. The quantitative research was conducted by means of an online questionnaire, sent via a link in an email to a chosen database on the social networking site, ‘Facebook’. A screening question served to ensure that only rugby supporters would be eligible to complete the survey. The information was captured in ‘real time’ in the conjoint analysis software, thereby determining which brands were perceived to best fit the Springbok rugby brand. The realised sample was composed of a younger, more male-dominated group. All respondents were also Springbok supporters who possessed sufficient knowledge on the Springbok brand and sponsors. There were six brands identified to fit the Springbok rugby brand, namely, Castle, Vodacom, SASOL, Canterbury, Nike, and Adidas. These identified brands proved that the study did indeed assess brand fit using conjoint analysis. Conclusions were drawn that brand fit could be established in a variety of ways. The most dominant ways were by leveraging the sponsorship, and also by sponsoring on a continuing basis. These two ways serve to inform consumers of the sponsorship, making them aware of the brands, and building the basis of brand fit in their minds. Brand fit was also achieved based on similar brand images of the two different brands. It was found that brand fit was absolutely essential for a successful brand image transfer. Before undertaking a sponsorship, it is important to establish if a perceived brand fit between the various brands will be perceived. If not, additional leveraging of the sponsorship, by means of a marketing campaign, should be used to teach consumers the basis of the brand fit between the various brands. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Talle studies is reeds uitgevoer aangaande handelsmerk beeld oordrag, maar baie min van hierdie studies het gefokus op een van die belangrikste determinante van diesins, naamlik handelsmerk pas. Handelsmerk beeld oordrag is die oordrag van die handelsmerk assosiasies, toegeskryf aan ‘n spesifieke entiteit, na die betrokke handelsmerk, terwyl handelsmerk pas gedefinieër word as 'n verbruiker leerproses wat poog om die handelsmerk assosiasies van die betrokke handelsmerke te laat pas. Hierdie studie poog om handelsmerk pas te beoordeel. As gevolg van die verskeidenheid handelsmerke betrokke in hierdie studie is vereenigde analise gebruik as 'n metode om handelsmerk pas te beoordeel. Besluitneming-gebaseerde vereenigde analise is gekies aangesien dit die vermoë het om die relatiewe voordeel van handelsmerke wat as gesamentlik beskou word vas te stel. Handelsmerke sal nie akkuraat gemeet word op individuele basis nie. Kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe navorsing is gedoen om handelsmerk pas te beoordeel met behulp van vereenigde analise, en dit was die hoof doelwit van hierdie studie. Rugby borgskappe is gekies om handelsmerk pas te beoordeel aangesien dit die tweede grootste kykertal in Suid-Afrika het, asook die hoogste monetêre waarde geheg aan borgskappe gedurende die tyd van hierdie studie. Kwalitatiewe navorsing is gedoen, met behulp van fokusgroepe, om te bepaal watter handelsmerke geassosieër word met die Springbok rugby handelsmerk. Die verskillende industrieë en handelsmerke gebruik in die fokus groepe is geselekteer deur die navorser op grond van huidige, vorige en potensiële borgskap van die Springbok rugby handelsmerk. Kwantitatiewe navorsing is gedoen met behulp van 'n aanlyn vraelys wat gestuur is deur 'n skakel in 'n epos aan 'n gekose databasis op die sosiale netwerk, Facebook. 'n Siftings vraag het verseker dat net rugby ondersteuners die opname voltooi. Die inligting is, soos ingesleutel deur respondente, in die vereenigde analise sagteware opgeneem. Sodoende was handelsmerke waargeneem as die wat die beste pas het met die Springbok rugby handelsmerk, bepaal. Die steekproef het bestaan uit 'n jonger, manlike dominerende groep respondente. Al die respondente was inderdaad Springbok ondersteuners met voldoende kennis oor die Springbok handelsmerk, asook Springbok borge. Ses handelsmerke is geïdentifiseer om te pas by die Springbok rugby handelsmerk, naamlik Castle, Vodacom, SASOL, Canterbury, Nike en Adidas. Hierdie geïdentifiseerde handelsmerke bewys dat die studie inderdaad handelsmerk pas beoordeel het met behulp van vereenigde analise. Gevolgtrekkings is gemaak dat handelsmerk pas op ‘n verskeidenheid maniere kan ontstaan. Die mees dominante is advertering van die borgskap asook, om ‘n borgskap te onderhou op ‘n deurlopende basis. Dit lig die verbruikers in aangaande die borgskap, maak hulle bewus van die borgskap tussen die twee handelsmerke, en vorm ‘n basis waarop handelsmek pas by verbruikers kan plaasvind. Handelsmerk pas is ook bereik onder handelsmerke met soortgelyke handelsmerk beelde. Dit is gevind dat handelsmerk pas absoluut noodsaaklik is vir 'n suksesvolle handelsmerk beeld oordrag. Voordat enige borgskap onderneem word, is dit belangrik om vas te stel of verbruikers wel ‘n passing tussen die verskillende betrokke handelsmerke, waarneem. Indien nie, sal ekstra bemarking rondom die borgskap gedoen moet word deur middel van 'n bemarkingsveldtog, om die verbruikers in te lig, op grond van wat, handelsmerk pas tussen die verskeie handelsmerke gevorm kan word.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Various constructs are related to predicting consumers' perceptions of brand extensions. Among these, three constructs, perceptions of perceived quality (PQ) associated with the parent brand, product category similarity (PCS) of an extension to its parent brand, and brand breadth (BB) of the parent, are central to many brand extension studies. The purpose of this study is to clarify the roles of these three constructs and to pit predictions from an alternative theoretical perspective — cognitive response theory — against predictions based on categorization theory.

No description available.

Brand imitation is viewed as an infringement of the imitated original brand. (Zaichkowsky, 1995). Although brand managers and researchers have looked into ways to fight against imitations, these are still prevalent in today's market. Researchers have found that one of the major reasons for the growing volume of imitations has been consumer demand. Thus, rather than studying ways to reduce imitations, it is first important for brand managers and researchers to understand why consumers would knowingly buy imitations. The major issue is to understand how consumers evaluate brand imitations. Several studies have explored factors that might have an influence on consumer evaluations of brand imitations. However these findings are limited. For example, similarity of the imitation to the original brand is an important factor in consumer evaluations. However, very little research has studied this aspect. Thus, this research is motivated to further investigate the influential factors of consumer evaluations of brand imitations. This study replicates d'Astous and Gargouri (2001), a study that examines a comprehensive set of factors that might influence consumer evaluations of brand imitations. The purpose of this study is to re-examine their hypotheses in various product categories, with a focus on luxury brands. Moreover, this study has extended the d'Astous and Gargouri (2001) study by investigating product similarity which had not been previously explored. However, hypothesis testing did not completely support the hypothesized effects. The results indicate that consumers who purchase luxury brand imitations are heavily influenced by the price and store image. The results show also that the factor of product similarity is unimportant to a customer purchasing imitator brands.

This research study is focused on the buying behaviour of modern consumers. The literature indicates that modern consumers are sophisticated, discerning and are less loyal to a particular brand than they used to be. Consumers today are more concerned with buying a product that not only meets their needs but also provides them with pleasurable experiences. There are many ways to explain buyer behaviour; however for this thesis storytelling, dream theory, and "Lovemarks" have been used to examine the usefulness of the selected theories to the visual communication design industry. The research has focussed on an homogeneous product (bottled water) as a vehicle to establish whether all the plans and strategies in recently published literature can be trusted and be used for design strategies for planning a marketing campaign. The reason for doing this is to establish some new knowledge that could contribute to the design industry in terms of criteria for branding, marketing and design strategy in visual communication design. An extensive secondary research of the literature has been made to inform this study. Primary information has also been gathered by using carefully designed and comprehensive materials involving professional interviews, and a major case study of bottled water has been conducted, which includes a field study, focus groups and surveys. Information and raw data generated by the research have been analysed either quantitatively or qualitatively. The result generated by this study is not conclusive, however, pointing to the fact that the buying behaviour of consumers is complex and variable. There was also little agreement among the professional interviewees in terms of the role of human behaviour and its application in the design campaign.

Consumer perceived value is an important concept in marketing and plays a significant role in purchase decision-making. Consumer perceived value can be markedly influenced by product cues. The current research investigates the impact of extrinsic cues (country-of-origin, brand name, store name and price) on consumer perception of product quality, sacrifice and value developed by Teas and Agarwal (2000). Since little research has examined the generalisability of Teas and Agarwal's (2000) work in less economically developed countries, this research is conducted in a Chinese population.The relationships among four manipulated extrinsic cues, perceived sacrifice, quality and value are tested. Since Teas and Agarwal (2000) did not investigate the mediation affects of perceived sacrifice in the relationship between perceived quality and perceived value, this will be also explored as an additional study for this paper. Thus, the current research expands on previous work on perceived customer value by examining the mediation affects.After the conceptual model of Teas and Agarwal (2000) has been examined, the findings support hypothesized linkages between each of the four extrinsic cues and perceived quality, price and perceived quality, perceived quality and perceived value, perceived sacrifice and perceived value. The results show that perceived sacrifice mediates the relationship between perceived quality and value. The results also indicate that the linkages between the extrinsic cues and perceived value are mediated by perceived quality but are not mediated by perceived sacrifice. Although the results show that one hypothesized mediation affect is not supported, the overall structure of the model is supported across countries.The findings are similar to the study of Teas and Agarwal (2000) which suggests that Chinese and Western consumer behaviours are alike in most situations. For example, brand building is a critical cue to the desired success because it can promote perceptions from both quality and value perspectives. However, this research found that Chinese consumers use product evaluation cues in a different way from Western consumers. The major difference is that, if the price is lower than the reasonable average price-level, Chinese consumers may consider the product to be a big bargain with perceived high quality. This may suggest that marketing managers can use discount and price promotions in China. Therefore, discussions and managerial implications of this research provide advice for managers to formulate appropriate strategies.

The battle of the brands is being waged in an ever increasingly competitive and global business environment, a battle which generates the largest body of academic and professional literature in the field of marketing communication. Although much of the ground has been repeatedly ploughed, the literature conveys an impression that the &quotBrand" is perceived to lack clarity and agreement on its definition, strategic deployment and evaluation measures and that the overall concept of the brand is fraught with complexity and confusion. This thesis attempts to categorize and frame these impressions using content analysis to systematically unpack and analyze the layers of meaning embedded in the literature. The output from this study will inform the development of a simplified brand schema representing both sides of the brand equation, consumer and manager, recognition of which holds significant implications for the custodial guidance of this most vital business asset.