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Literature review on factors influencing Brand preference
Bibin Thomas
Introduction
A brand can be a label of ownership,
name, term, design, or symbol. Further brand can be product, service or
concept. Brand preference is measure of brand loyalty in which consumers will
choose a particular brand in presence of competing brands
(http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-preference.html). Also it
can be defined that the degree to which consumers prefer one brand over another
(http://www.answers.com/topic/brand preference). Brand has a great importance in the competing world.
“All our factories and facilities could burn
down tomorrow but you’d hardly touch the value of the company; all that
actually lies in the goodwill of our brand franchise and the collective
knowledge in the company” (Roberto Goizueta, the late CEO of Coca-Cola). A
brand saves people time, and this is worth money. A brand is a storehouse of
trust that matters more and more as choices multiply. People want to simplify
their lives (Niall Fitzgerald, chairman of Unilever). Companies must work hard
to build brands (David Ogilvy 2014). The aim of branding, according to one
cynic, “is to get more money for a product than it is worth.” A greater
brand loyalty among consumers leads to greater sales of the brand (Howard and
Sheth, 1969). Brand loyalty leads to certain marketing advantages such
as reduced marketing costs, more new customers and greater trade leverage (Aaker,
1991). Quality and personal habits thus influence this situation because
consumers prefer risk reduction in familiar products not as in a trial (Nilson,
1998). Hence analysing the brand preference of consumers is an interesting area
for the marketers to develop the marketing strategies for their brands.
The literature review aims to find
out the factors that majorly influence the brand preference. Brand preference can be defined as degree of
customers’ engagement with the brand, from simple brand awareness to brand loyalty. (Ove Haxthausen and Pankaj
Kumar, 2014). By reading the relevant literature, various factors have
been found, based on which the consumer prefer brands. The previous researches
provide a range of variables which affect the brand preference. Theories
related to brand preference (Rogers, 1995; Tornasky and Klein, 1982; Mason,
1990; Cherney, 2003) emphasize on the importance of complexity, compatibility,
observability, triability, relative advantage, risk, cost, communicability,
divisibility, profitability, social approval, and product characteristics on
brand preference. The relative importance of each factor depends on the nature
of goods/services under consideration, culture and social characteristics of
the consumers of the different brands.
Literature review
Ho-Shui Li and
Jack E. Houston (1999) apply stepwise
logistic regression to identify significant socio demographic factors (such as
gender, age, and others) which influence the choice of each of the six major
types of food markets and to identify the promotional factors which positively
or negatively influence consumers' preferences for the most often used market.
Female consumers have almost four times higher odds of frequently using
traditional vegetable markets in the past year. The unmarried,
divorced/widowed, and/or those who had higher family monthly incomes
demonstrate lower odds of frequently using traditional markets. For purchases
of fresh foods, female respondents, older consumers, and/or those living in
northern Taiwan have higher odds of choosing traditional vegetable markets as the
most frequently used market.
Gilpatrick D.
Hornsby (2005) says that the
country of origin has the great influence on brand preference. The study also
find outs the other factors that influence brand preference. The study included
516 responses with 40 unusable surveys leading to a 57% usable response rate. Results were gained through descriptive
statistics and organized by scenario situation. The factors are Price,
Appearance, and Country of Origin.
Karjaluoto et
al (2005) conducted a research to find out
the factors influencing consumer choice of mobile phones. The study uses focus
group interview with 79 graduate students followed by a survey of 196
respondents. Price, brand, interface, and properties are the factors which
affects purchasing behaviour of mobile phones in Finland.
Gihan
Wijesundera et al (2008) try to find
out Factors Influencing the Demand of Beauty Soap among Female Consumers in the
Greater Colombo Region. Purpose of this study is to explore how the marketing
mix & demographical factors influence the brand preference & purchasing
behaviour of beauty soap among the female consumers in the greater Colombo
region. Sample consisted of 91 female consumers in greater Colombo region. Data
were gathered by administrating questionnaires. The independent variables are
4Ps, Age, Income Level, Education, Marital status, Occupation, skin type,
social factors, substitute products & dependent variable is the brand
preference. Analysis was done using the Chi-square method at the significant
level of 0.05. The results indicated that there were statistical relationships
between price, product, education, occupation and band preference and there was
no statistical relationship between place, promotion, age, income level,
marital status, skin type, social factors, and substitute product with the
brand preference.
Bikash et al
(2010) studied the factors influencing
purchasing of Nano cars. This study attempts to find the factors, which are
important for choosing the revolutionary car ‘Nano’ launched by one of the
leading Indian automobile industry called ‘Tata Motors’. The report published
by Cygnus research ranked Indian automobile sector to be number one on the
basis of sales growth and Profit After Tax (PAT) growth during October-
December 09 over October- December 08 over other 14 manufacturing sectors. The
paper considers 22 factors, which may be important in the customer
decision-making process. The factors are price is a affordable, because of Tata
product, many love the name "Nano", available in attractive colours,
style/look, high fuel efficiency, financing option, interior design,
comfortable, space inside, value for money, environment friendly, running cost,
warranty, power, status / prestige, safety features, resale value, accessories
available, performance
Sääksjärvi and
Samiee (2011) examined the
relationships among brand identity, brand image, and brand preference in the
context of cyber and offline-based extension retail brands over time. They
examined a conceptual model with survey data collected over three time periods
and found out that offline-based extension brands had an advantage over cyber
brands when it came to translating a brand identity into a successful brand
image, especially in the early Internet stages.
Zeenat Ismail
et al (2012) find out the
Factors Affecting Consumer Preference of International Brands over Local
Brands. This study was conducted in order to determine the consumer preferences
of global brands instead of local ones. The research was conducted in Karachi
and the samples selected included 200 people of age 16-24. The data collected
for the research was through a questionnaire and was conducted in two popular
shopping malls of the city and two universities since the target audience was
largely the youth. Calculations were then analysed and interpreted using a
percentage of respondents and through frequency distribution tables and charts.
There are a number of factors affect the consumer purchase decisions. The
results suggest that most important factors that influence a consumer’s final
decision are the price and quality of the product in question. Since the
consumers usually associate the price of the brand with its quality, a brand
priced too low is generally perceived as a low quality product. Similarly, a
product priced too high may not be affordable by many. Other factors that have
an impact on the consumer preferences are: consumer ethnocentrism, country of
origin, social status, price relativity with the competing brands and family
and friends.
Azad et al (2013)
present an exploration study to detect important factors
influencing car accessory market. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in
Likert scale consists of 16 questions, distributes it among 200 experts and
analyses it using factor analysis. Cronbach alpha and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
Measure of Sampling Adequacy are calculated as 0.823 and 0.863, which validate
the overall questionnaire. The results indicate that there are three
influencing factors including brand capability, brand characteristics and consumers’
believe.
Prasanna et al (2013)
conducted a study to find out factors influencing
customers’ brand preferences of the economy segment SUV’s and MUV’s. A total of
143 respondents were included among which 98 met the target group criteria set
for the study. The data collection was made through direct interaction and
customer intercepts survey using printed questionnaires. Descriptive Analysis
was used to transform data into understandable format and factor analysis was
used for identification of factors influencing customer preference. Friedman’s
test was used to identify the prominent emotions customers associated to the
utility vehicle. The study identified the six factors that influence brand
preference they are Product reliability, monetary factor, trendy appeal,
frequency of non-price promotions offered, trustworthiness and customer feeling
or association towards brand.
Malviya et al (2013) said about brand preference
on the basis of research conducted on the Factors Influencing Consumer’s
Purchase Decision towards Smartphones in Indore. The basic purpose of the
research is to identify the key factors which have a dominating effect on the
consumers’ minds while making a purchase of Smartphone. The collected data were
analysed and interpreted using chi-square, reliability analysis, Factor
analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis. It was found that data is reliable for
factor analysis. The measurement model suggested four factors price, brand
preference, social influence and features having a dominant influence on the
purchase decision of consumers in Indore.
Conclusion
Consumers are potential purchaser of
products and services offered for sale (Davis et al 2002). Consumers are
rational and logical problem solver, (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Consumer’s
taste and preference changes at all time. It is difficult to find out certain
definite behaviour of consumers. The above researches try to find out common
factors which influence brand preference of consumers. The marketing mix elements, brand equity, Advertisements
etc. will influence brand preference. But these researches lack social,
personal, Psychological, and cultural factors which influence the brand
preference.
