The study aimed to explore and describe consumers’ reliance on brands, specifically the Country of Origin (COO) of brands as a heuristic, i.e. the perceived quality of a selected category of interior merchandise and to subsequently explain how COO influences consumers’ quality perceptions and product choices. The study focussed on major household appliances, due to the prominence of brand names and the COO on these products. In other interior merchandise product categories such as furniture and textile products, the brand name and COO is not necessarily that prominent or visible. A survey was conducted in the Tshwane metropolitan, which is a wealthy urban area in South Africa and a key role player in the economic sector. The study was conducted in the context of an emerging economy, where international brands have penetrated the market and made a wider range of products and brands available to the consumer. The data was collected by using convenience sampling methods supplemented by snowball sampling. It involved the self-completion of a structured questionnaire by 450 willing respondents who fit the prerequisite for the study, i.e. males and females, 25 years and older who belong to the middle to upper socio-economic group (earn R5000 or more per month) and who have an education level of grade 12 or higher, regardless of population group. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, as well as exploratory factor analysis, specifically Principal Axis Factoring, using an Oblimin rotation with Kaiser Normalization to determine the underlying factors associated with the quality indicated by brand names and the associations consumers make of brand names and specific product characteristics. Calculations of means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s Alpha, Anova, t-tests and post hoc Sheffe’s tests were calculated where significant differences between demographics were investigated for further interpretation. The study concluded that consumers are relatively brand conscious, men more so than women and that they are brand familiar in terms of various major household appliance brands. Quality as the most important branded product meaning were confirmed, as well as the use of brands as an indicator of performance and functional product attributes, i.e. value for money. Brands are also frequently used, especially by females, as an indicator of the product’s environmental and ethical compliances, but less so to infer its status implications. The study did however confirm younger consumers use brand names to a greater extent to infer social status than older consumers. It also revealed that the Black and other population group use brand names as an indication of status characteristics significantly more than White consumers. Consumers seem to have little knowledge of the COO of brands; they do however have strong stereotypes of Western and Eastern countries as well as South Africa, where Western countries enjoy more positive stereotypes than the others. These stereotypes also seem to strongly influence their overall quality perceptions of major household appliances, especially in terms of durability, performance and prestige. The COO of a brand can therefore have implications for its brand equity and should be addressed in brand management and marketing initiatives. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science / Unrestricted

Research Questions: How do consulting companies work to strengthen the brand's structure?What impact does brand equity and its components have on consulting firms? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute with new knowledge as well as increase the understanding of brand equity and how its components contribute to strengthening the consultancy's brand. The study also aims to explore how companies create competitive advantages in a constantly evolving market.                                                                                                                              Method: Qualitative method with four semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: The result of this study show that the consulting companies are activelyworking with three aspects within the company in order to strengthen the brand and its structure. All aspects are about the company being innovative, working on and completing internal factors that develop the corporate culture and its values for them to be reflected externally as well as how the companies meet the customers’ needs in terms of results and performance. The result also show that the researched consulting companies work around strengthening the brand structure by taking into account of aspects that also are found in Keller’s Customer Based Brand Equity Model (CBBE Model). / Frågeställning: Hur arbetar konsultföretag med att stärka varumärkets uppbyggnad?Vilken inverkan har brand equity och dess komponenter på konsultföretag? Syfte: Syftet med denna undersökning är att med ny kunskap bidra samt öka förståelsen om brand equity och hur dess komponenter bidrar till att stärka konsultföretagens varumärke. Studien ämnar även till att undersöka hur företagen kan skapa konkurrensfördelar i en ständigt utvecklande marknad. Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ metod där fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts i syfte att besvara forskningsfrågan, som vidare analyserades genom tematisk metod. Slutsats: Resultaten av denna studie visar att konsultföretagen aktivt arbetar kring tre aspekter i syfte till att stärka varumärket och dess uppbyggnad. Samtliga handlar om att företaget ska vara innovativt, att bearbeta och komplettera interna faktorer som utvecklar företagskulturen och dess värderingar för dessa att speglas externt och om hur företagen uppfyller kundernas behov i form av resultat och prestationer. Resultaten visar även på att de undersökta konsultföretagen arbetar kring att stärka varumärkesuppbyggnaden genom att de tar hänsyn till aspekter som också återfinns i Keller´s Customer Based Brand Equity Model.

Branding strategies is an important theme in business research. The purpose of the study was to explore how the growing industry of craft brewing are using branding strategies in order to strengthen their brand. The study was based on the theory of Kapferer’s brand identity prism and Keller’s Brand Equity model. The method used to gather data was interviews with several breweries spread across Sweden that were then analyzed using thematic data analysis. The findings show that craft brewer are using branding strategies to a large extent, however, not all the elements of the models are included in their strategy. The findings suggest that the reason for this is that the craft brewing industry is unique due to co-opetition and the nation’s strict regulations on marketing of alcohol. Organizations can use these findings to strengthen their brand as well as get a general understanding of how the industry is using branding strategies. This can be beneficial for newly established craft breweries or breweries that desire a stronger brand.

Background: The widespread use of social media has offered brands a great opportunity to engage with their customers and promote sales. In China’s mobile gaming market, the huge user base of social media marketing provides companies with an excellent opportunity to develop their brand image and cultivate further awareness. However, the research regarding social media marketing’s influence on mobile game’s brand equity is still limited from a literary perspective. Purpose: Firstly, the research aims to identify the factors of social media marketing that influencing mobile game companies’ brand equity. Secondly, this research will evaluate the importance of identified impact factors. Method: In order to investigate the research subjects and answer research question properly, the positivism research paradigm has been implemented in this research. In addition, the deductive reasoning approach is applied to formulate and test hypotheses to generate reliable results with a high level of generalization and prediction. The theoretical foundation of this research has been formulated through the frame of reference. Then, the quantitative research methods were applied to the collection and analysis of the data. The primary data has been collected through a survey and the samples have been randomly selected. The main method for the data analysis was regression analysis. Conclusion: In general, the research has demonstrated that social media marketing is a useful tool to develop brand equity for mobile game companies in the Chinese consumer market. Brand popularity and information quality are considered the most important influential factors of social media marketing on mobile game company’s brand equity in China.

While pursuing profits, modern firms begin to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR). Different ways for firms to implement CSR have diverse impacts on consumer-based brand equity that reflects the meaning of the brand in consumers’ minds and is of considerable significance to corporate marketing strategy. However, previous research on CSR rarely uses signaling theory to explain the internal mechanism of generating consumer-based brand equity. It is also a gap of existing literature to study how to strengthen the impact of a firm’s CSR on consumer-based brand equity. This thesis, based on stakeholder theory and signaling theory, analyzes the effects of the degree of a firms’ CSR on consumer-based brand equity, including brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty, and how these effects are moderated by consumer involvement in CSR. This study adopts the quantitative approach and receives 201 valid questionnaires by taking Alipay (a Chinese firm providing online financial services) as the target of the survey. The results indicate that the degree of a firm’s CSR positively impacts brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty through empirical analysis. Meanwhile, as a moderator, consumer involvement in CSR positively moderates the relationship between the degree of a firm’s CSR and perceived quality but shows no significant moderating effects on the other two associations. By uncovering the relationship between CSR and consumer-based brand equity through the signaling theory and by introducing the variable of consumer involvement in CSR, this study advances CSR research. It extends the application of signaling theory in a new research area as well.

As private labels have developed and increased in recent years, customers’ options have grown. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how customers reason when they choose a brand in a Swedish sportswear store, which offers both private labels and national brands. More specifically, the following attributes, private labels versus national brands, customer behavior, and store layout are considered in order to address a possible complexity in the brand choice. The empirical material was collected through twelve exit interviews outside Stadium stores in four cities, combined with four observations in four Stadium stores. The findings revealed that private labels and national brands seem to have similar product characteristics, which may cause complexity in customers’ brand choices. This thesis contributes with an insight into a new dynamic within the walls of a sportswear store and discusses what aspects influence customers’ brand choice.

Many companies have exploited the power of brand equity in B2C markets as a source of competitive advantage. The trend in B2B, however, seems to be slightly different where many decision makers still believe that branding is not relevant to their business as it is to B2C. This paper investigates the role of brand equity in B2B businesses and shows how long-term investment in brand equity can change the rules of the game radically in favor of those B2B companies who have invested in their brand with a "holistic" approach which conform the overall strategy of the company. Caterpillar Inc. has been chosen as the case study and the role of its brand equity in its superior performance over its competitor, Komatsu Ltd, is investigated. The qualitative part of the research analyses the brand associations and the roles that these associations together with other brand elements play for Caterpillar and its customers. The quantitative part investigates two particular areas of recovery from market difficulties and efficiency in market communications and proves the role of higher brand equity in superior performance in recovery from market difficulties and marketing communications efficiency. The results are then tested further on the second case study which compares Intel to AMD. The results also open up new lines for further research on the subject both in depth and breadth where suggestions are made for generalizability of the research as well as determining the role of brand equity in companies' performances more precisely.

With the internet's rampage, the possibilities for consumer-driven distribution of information are massive. One way to use this inter-consumer approach is to encourage existing customers, or ambassadors, to invite their friends and family to become a part of the brands success. But how can companies motivate existing customers to play a more important role in the brand expansion? The purpose of this thesis is to explore the motives and triggers for existing customers to invite friends, to become new customers. This by combining the empirical data collected from telephone interviews and web surveys, with theories on brand equity and inter-consumer marketing. To delimit the thesis, only motives connected to the marketing of premium products with a high customer involvement have been analyzed. For this purpose, Mackmyra Svensk Whisky AB was chosen. The empirical delimitation of this thesis is thus the customers of Mackmyra. The results showed that the motives that are perceived motivational differ from person to person. The incentives identified as more prevalent than others were access to unique products, priority to limited editions, possibility to experience the company from the inside, invitations to exclusive events, price reductions and points to exchange for merchandise.The identified incentives were segmented. After the segmentation, every company should carefully consider which segments to target, as those best suited for incentive programs differs from case to case.

With a fast-evolving digital society that offers individuals the option to shop from anywhere in the world, in a matter of seconds, competition amongst brands has never been tougher. It is therefore of greater importance for brands to distinguish themselves from competitors. Providing an extraordinary experience can be the distinguisher that sets a brand apart from competitors. The purpose of this thesis is to find out how brands build brand experience in e-servicescapes and to explore the relationship between brand experience and brand equity.    The empirical findings were gathered using a qualitative multiple case study. With a purposive sampling method three companies were selected. With the strategy of semi-structured interviews, information was gathered and later analyzed, discussed and compared with the previous literature findings, with the help of a thematic analysis method.     The conclusion shows that the selected cases for this thesis do in fact put a lot of emphasis on brand experience. A commonly found theme is that the selected cases all implied the direct relation between brand experience and brand equity, according to the empirical data they were highly interlinked. This thesis provides useful insights on how to build a strong general brand experience in e-servicescapes, whilst also giving the reader useful tools on how to build brand experience.

Background and Purpose: The process of rebranding requires a lot of consideration and analysis in order to be successful. In 2020, a rebranding movement of stereotypical brands began in the USA, and the effects also transpired to the Nordics, leading to multiple brands in the food industry initiating a rapid rebranding process. However, due to its complex nature and the balancing act between different stakeholders, it raised the question whether rebranding was necessary from a business perspective. The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers perceive the rebranding's of stereotypical brands, whether they regard it as a necessary move for the companies, and how it affected brand equity.   Method: In order to successfully achieve our purpose, a qualitative research design was implemented through an interpretivist and exploratory research design. Data collection was conducted through ten semi-structured interviews and analyzed through a thematic analysis enabling us to expand a presented framework.   Conclusion: Our research identified the rebranding of stereotypical brands as a highly complex process, where the consumers perceive rebranding in various ways and where brand equity is impacted in multiple ways. Rebranding affects brand awareness, brand associations and brand loyalty. In addition, we identified that on many occasions, the negative effects of rebranding on brand equity are stronger than the positive effects. We also observed that although acknowledging the potential issues with stereotypical brands, consumers might not care about it in the end. Overall, we argue that listening to one’s own consumers and extensively analyzing the pros and cons of rebranding is the optimal approach for companies to successfully rebrand.