Dimensions Of Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Study On .

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IBIMA PublishingJournal of Marketing Research and Case CS/jmrcs.htmlVol. 2011 (2011), Article ID 821981, 10 pagesDOI: 10.5171/2011.821981Dimensions of Customer-Based BrandEquity: A Study on Malaysian BrandsGoi Chai Lee and Fayrene Chieng Yew LehCurtin University, Miri, MalaysiaAbstractAlthough Malaysian market is deluged with value-for-money Malaysian brands since decades ago,not all the Malaysian brand achieved national recognition. The objective of this research is todevelop a valid and reliable model of Malaysian brand equity by assessing the dimensions of thebrand equity and its constructs. Based on 30 constructs, which were compiled from literatures, fourvariables were included for brand awareness, seventeen variables for brand association, five forperceived quality and four for brand loyalty. Factor Analysis was conducted to identify dimensionsof brand equity and its constructs. Principal Component Analysis with subsequent rotation(varimax) was conducted on 30 constructs of a questionnaire. According to the four dimensionsproposed by Aaker (1991) in the brand equity literature, a four factor solution that reduced the 30constructs to four factors was chosen in this study. The factors produce a Cronbach alpha of 0.96,with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The brand equity constructs with a loading below 0.6 wereexcluded from further analysis. 14 constructs remained in this study.Keywords: Brand Awareness, Brand Associations, Perceived Quality, Brand LoyaltyMalaysian market is deluged with value-formoney Malaysian products in the pastdecades. However, not all Malaysianconsumers recall a Malaysian brand whenasked. Most of the Malaysian brands have notyet achieved national recognition. Whengiven a choice of different brands, Malaysianconsumers would often choose aninternational brand over Malaysian brand.However, there are a few Malaysian brandssuch as Proton, Perodua, MAS, the Shangri-LaHotel chain that had accomplished somemeasure of success in global stage (Sya,2004). Building strong brands has beenbecoming a marketing priority for Malaysianbrands.source of strategic intelligence for marketers.High brand equity levels are known to affectconsumerpreferencesandpurchaseintentions (Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995),profits and share returns (Srivastava andShocker, 1991; Aaker and Jacobson, 1994),market power (Farquhar, 1989; Wood, 2000)and sustainable competitive advantages(Bharadwaj et al., 1993), brand extension(Keller and Aaker, 1992) and consumer’swillingness to pay premium prices (Keller,1993; Anselmsson et al., 2007). Brand equityserves three important roles: (a) it acts as amagnet to attract new customers to the firm,(b) serves as a reminder to the customersabout the organisation’s products andservices, (c) it is customer’s emotional tie tothe organisation (Lemon et al., 2001).In today’s competitive business environment,the concept of brand equity is an importantA number of empirical researches have beenconducted to evaluate brand equity.IntroductionCopyright 2011 Goi Chai Lee and Fayrene Chieng Yew Leh. This is an open access article distributed underthe Creative Commons Attribution License unported 3.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided that original work is properly cited. Contact Author: Goi Chai Lee Emaill: goi.chai.lee@curtin.edu.my

Journal of Marketing Research and Case Studies 2However, not much research has been doneto apply brand equity concepts and measuresto Malaysian brands. Thus, the objective ofthis research is to develop a valid andreliable model of Malaysian brand equity byassessing the dimensions of the brand equityconstructs.Literature ReviewOverviewThe reality that emerges from the variousresearches in brand equity through the yearsis that there is considerable debate regardingthe definition of brand equity and itsmeasurements (Yoo and Donthu, 2001).However, brand equity is accepted as theoverall utility that customers place in a brand(De Chernatony and McDonald, 2003;Vazquez at el, 2002). The deFinitions of brandequity can be classified into twoperspectives. The first perspective of brandequity is from a financial market’s point ofview where the asset value of a brand isappraised (Farquhar et al., 1991, Simon andSullivan, 1993).Recently, brand equity has increasingly beendefined in customer-based contexts, whichdefines brand equity as the value of a brandto the customer (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993;Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; van Osselaer andAlba, 2000). Aaker (1991) deFines brandequity as “a set of brand assets and liabilitieslinked to a brand, its name and symbol thatadd to or subtract from the value provided bya product or service to a firm and/or to thatfirms’ customers." Brand awareness, brandassociations, perceived quality, brand loyaltyand other proprietary assets were the fiveassets of brand equity. Keller (2003) arguedthat the power of a brand lies in the minds ofthe customers and what they haveexperienced and learned about the brandover time. He defines customer-based brandequity as “the differential effect that brandknowledge has on consumer response to themarketing of that brand”. Brand knowledgeconsists of brand awareness and brandimage.Keller (2003) described customer-basedbrand equity as a multidimensional concept.Several empirical studies on the dimensionsof customer-based brand equity (eg: CobbWalgren et al., 1995; Yoo and Donthu, 2001;Pappu et al., 2005; Washburn and Plank,2002) are all derived from Aaker (1991) andKeller (1993) frameworks where brandequity can be measured by four ed quality and brand loyalty.Yoo and Donthu (2001) developed multidimensional scale for measuring customerbased brand equity. This scale was latervalidated by Washburn and Plank (2002).However, the dimensionality of thecustomer-based brand equity needs to bereFined (Washburn and Plank, 2002; Pappuet al., 2005) as to improve the measurementof consumer-based brand equity.In this study, customer-based brand equity isconceptualized in accordance to Aaker (1991,1996) and Keller (1993)’s models. Adescription of the dimensions and theirconstructs on which brand equity is based isexamined and tested in the succeedingsections of this study.Brand AwarenessBrand awareness is a key determinant ofbrand equity (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 2003;Mackay, 2001; Yoo and Donthu, 2001;Washburn and Plank, 2002; Pappu et al.,2005). It is deFined as an individual's abilityto recall and recognize a brand (Aaker, 1996;Keller, 2003). Top-of-mind and branddominance is other levels of awarenessincluded by Aaker (1996) in measuringawareness. Awareness can affect customers’perceptions, which lead to different brandchoice and even loyalty (Aaker, 1996). Abrand with strong brand recall (unaidedawareness) and top of mind can affectcustomers’ perceptions, which lead todifferent customer choice inside a productcategory (Aaker, 1996; Kimpakorn andTocquer, 2010).

3 Journal of Marketing Research and Case StudiesBrand s that must precede brandassociations. That is where a consumer mustfirst be aware of the brand in order todevelop a set of associations (Washburn andPlank, 2002). Brand association contains themeaning of the brand for consumers (Keller,1993). It is anything linked in memory to abrand (Aaker, 1991). Brand associations aremostly grouped into a product-relatedattribute like brand performance and nonproduct related attributes like brandpersonality and organizational associations(Aaker, 1996; Chen, 2001; Keller, 2003;Netemeyer et al., 2004; Pappu et al., 2005).Customers evaluate a product not merely bywhether the product can perform thefunctions for which it is designed for but thereasons to buy this brand over thecompetitors (Aaker, 1996) such as brand’sfault-free and long-lasting physical operationand flawlessness in the product’s physicalconstruction (Lassar et al., 1995).Brand personalities include symbolicattributes (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 1993; Chen,1996) which are the intangible features thatmeet consumers’ needs for social approval,personal expression or self-esteem (Keller,1993; Hankinson and Cowking, 1993; Pittaand Katsanis, 1995). The symbolic attributesthat are commonly linked to a brand are:1. Social Image: Lassar et al (1995) arguethat social image which includes theattributions a consumer makes and aconsumer thinks that others make to thetypical user of the brand is more relevantin measuring customer-base brand equity.2. Perceived value: Consumer choice of abrand depends on a perceived balancebetween the price of a product and all itsutilities (Lassar et al., 1995). A consumeris willing to pay premium prices due tothe higher brand equity (Aaker, 1993).3. Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness refersto the level of confidence consumer placesin the organisation (Lassar et al., 1995).As a customer buys a good or servicebefore experiencing it, fostering of trust isa key to build a customer relationship(Kinard and Capella, 2006).4. Country-of- origin: Country of origin leadsto associations in the minds of consumers(Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993). Countryimage can influence perceived quality andbrand loyalty. (Pappu et al, 2007).Country of origin refers to the country oforigin of a firm or a product (Johansson etal., 1985; Ozsomer and Cavusgil, 1991).Organisationalassociationsincludecorporate ability and social responsibilityassociations (Aaker, 1996; Chen, 2001).Consumers will consider the organisation,which is related to people, values, andprograms that lies behind the brand. Brandas-organisation can be particularly helpfulwhen brands are similar with respect toattributes or when a corporate brand isinvolved (Aaker, 1996). Corporate socialresponsibility (CSR) is influencing thedevelopment of brands (Blumenthal andBergstrom, 2003) as the public is interestedto know what, where, and how much brandsare giving back to society.Perceived QualityPerceived quality is defined as the customer’sjudgment about a product’s overallexcellence or superiority in comparison toalternative's brand (Zeithaml, 1988; Aaker,1996) and overall superiority that ultimatelymotivates the customer to purchase theproduct (Aaker and Jacobson, 1994). It isdifficult for customers to make a rationaljudgment of the quality. They are likely usingquality attributes like colour, flavour, form,appearance of the product and theavailability of production information(Bernués et al., 2003) to ‘infer’ quality(Acebrón and Dópico, 2000).

Journal of Marketing Research and Case Studies 4Brand LoyaltyAaker (1991) deFines brand loyalty as ‘theattachment that a customer has to a brand’.Two different levels of loyalty are classified:behavioural and cognitive loyalty (Keller,1998). Behavioural loyalty can be indicatedby a number of repeated purchases (Keller,1998) or commitment to rebuy the brand asa primary choice (Oliver, 1997, 1999).Cognitive loyalty refers to the consumers’intention to buy the brand as the first choice(Keller, 1998; Yoo and Donthu, 2001).Another indicator of loyalty is the customer’swillingness to pay higher price for a brand incomparison with another brand offeringsimilar beneFits (Aaker, 1996; Chaudhuri andHolbrook, 2001; Srinivasan et al., 2002).MethodologyResearch DesignThis questionnaire is divided into two parts.The first is concerned with the demographic.The second part is thirty variables associatedwiththebrandawareness,brandassociations, perceived quality and brandloyalty. The data collection instrument is astructured questionnaire. A pool of 30 itemscompiledfromtheliteraturewasincorporated in the questionnaire (Table 1).Four variables were included for brandawareness, seventeen variables for brandassociation, five for perceived quality andfour for brand loyalty. A Likert-scale of 1 to 5was adopted for all the brand equitymeasures with the anchors ‘stronglydisagree’ (1) and ‘strongly agree’ (5). Theitems were developed with reference to theempirical studies of Yoo and Donthu (2001)and Lassar et al (1995). The reason forreferring to their scale development studiesis that their scales are the most commonlyaccepted measure of customer-based brandequity (Washburn and Plank, 2002).

5 Journal of Marketing Research and Case StudiesTable1: Dimensions of Brand Equity and its 7.18.19.20.21.22.23.24.25.26.27.28.29.30.I have difficulty in imagining this brand in my mind.I can recognise this brand among competing brands.This brand is the only brand recalled when I need to make aBrand Awareness (Aw)purchase decision on the product.This brand comes up first in my mind when I need to make apurchase decision on the product.The brand is made so as to work trouble free.This brand is safe to use/consume.During use, the brand is highly unlikely to be defective.I can quickly recall the logo of this brand.In its status and style, this brand matches my personality.The brand is well regarded by my friends.I am proud to own a product of this brand.I consider the company and people who stand behind the brand arevery trustworthy.The brand is well priced.Considering what I pay for the brand, I get much more than myBrand Associationsmoney’s worth.(BA)I can get the same benefits from this brand when compared to theimported brand(s).I buy/use this brand of product because it is a Malaysian brand.The brand’s country of origin/manufacture is important in choosingthis product.I consider the company and people who stand behind the brandhave the expertise in producing the product.I believe that this company and people who stand behind the brandare socially responsible.I believe that this company does not take advantage of consumers.I believe that this company is contributing to the society.This brand is of good quality.I can expect superior performance from this brand.This brand is very reliable.Perceived Quality (PQ) I don’t have difficulties in finding the information that I need fromthe label of the package.This brand is better as compared to other brand(s) of the product interms of the colour/flavour/form/ appearance.After using the brand, I grow fond of it.I will definitely buy this brand of product again.Brand Loyalty (BL)I will definitely buy this brand of product although its price is higherthan the other brand(s) of the product that offer similar benefits.I will not buy other brands, when this brand is available at the store.Data Collection500 questionnaires were sent to all parts ofMalaysia, especially major cities like Kuching,Miri, the area around the Klang Valley, KotaKinabalu, Johor Bahru. Respondents wererandomly selected. However, only 489 validsamples were used for the analysis. Overall,six months was used to collect all thequestionnaires. Malhotra (1999) suggestedminimum sample of problem solving is atleast 200 samples. Thus, we have used the

Journal of Marketing Research and Case Studies 6recommendations of Malhotra (1999), whichare at least 200 samples.Data AnalysisFor purposes of data analysis, SPSS was usedto analyse the Cronbach's alpha, factoranalysis and correlation.Findings and AnalysisDemographicsmales (51.7%) and females (48.3%). Majorityof the respondents are those age 35 (60%)and monthly income of RM3,001-RM5,000(41%). With respect to the regionsrespondents currently stay, majority is fromSabah and Sarawak (32.5%) and followed bycentral region (19.8%) and southern region(19.2%). The breakdown of the study interms of regions could be consideredrepresentative of the population of Malaysiasince most of the regions are represented inthe sample (Table 2).The sample indicates a balance betweenTable 2: DemographicsGenderMaleFemaleTotalAge18 - 2526 - 3536 - 4546 - 55 55TotalIncome(Monthly) RM1000RM1001 - 3000RM3001 - 5000RM5001 - 7000RM7001 - 10000 RM10000TotalEducationSecondary SchoolCertificate/ DiplomaBachelor DegreeMaster DegreeReliability and Validity of the ConstructsInternal reliability of the 30 construct scalewas assessed using Cronbach’s Alphatechnique. The scale produced an alpha of0.96, which is highly acceptable for .712.71.42.2100901042632618.421.353.85.3attitude scale (Burns and Burns, 2008). Thevalidity of the constructs is justified as themeasures were developed based on atheoretical framework that was derived fromextensive literature review.

7 Journal of Marketing Research and Case StudiesFactor AnalysisThe 30 constructs were tested by principalcomponents analysis, using varimax rotation.According to the four dimensions proposedby Aaker (1991) in the brand equityliterature, we have chosen a four factorsolution that reduced the 30 constructs tofour factors (alpha 0.96), with eigenvaluesgreater than 1.0 except the brand awarenessfactor which has an eigenvalue less than one.These four factors explained 59% per cent ofthe total variance.By convention, the factor loadings should beat least 0.3 but for a variable tounambiguously represent a factor, theloading should be 0.6 and above (Burns andBurns, 2008). In this study, the brand equityconstructs with a loading below 0.6 wereexcluded from further analysis. 14 constructsremained in this study. Table 3 lists thefactors in the order in which they wereextracted from the data.With reference to the rotation, Factor 1 isloaded on 3 constructs that reflects perceivedquality of Malaysian brand and accounted for47% of the variance. Factor 2 is loaded with5 constructs and accounts for 5% of thevariance. Factor 2 is labeled as brandassociations. The third factor accounted for3% of the variance and is loaded on 3constructs suggesting it is measuring brandloyalty. The last factor, measuring brandawareness, is accounted for 3% of thevariance and loaded with 3 constructs.Table 3: Result for Factor Analysis, Factors Variance, Loadings and Brand Equity ConstructsFactorF1F2F3F4Factor Interpretation(% of varianceexplained)Perceived Quality(47%)Brand Associations(5%)Brand Loyalty (3%)Brand Awareness (3%)Brand equity constructsLoadingThis brand is very reliable (PQ1)This brand is safe to use/consume.(PQ2)This brand is of good quality. (PQ3)I consider the company and people who standbehind the brand have the expertise in producingthe product. (As1)I believe that this company and people who standbehind the brand are socially responsible. (As2)I believe that this company does not takeadvantage of consumers. (As3)The brand is well priced. (As4)I believe that this company is contributing to thesociety. (As5)I will not buy other brands, when this brand isavailable at the store. (L1)I will definitely buy this brand of product althoughits price is higher than the other brand(s) of theproduct that offer similar beneFits. (L2)I buy/use this brand of product because it is aMalaysian brand. (As8)I have difficulty in imagining this brand in mymind. (Aw1)I can recognise this brand among competingbrands.(Aw2)This brand comes up first in my mind when I needto make a purchase decision on the product. 0.6990.6930.7330.7110.517

Journal of Marketing Research and Case Studies 8Conclusion and Future ResearchThis study focuses on four dimensions ofbrand equity, which are perceived quality,brand associations, brand loyalty and brandawarenessanditsmeasurements.Conceptualizing brand equity from theconsumer’s perspective is useful because itsuggests both specific guidelines formarketing strategies and tactics and areaswhere research can be useful in assistingmanagerial decision making. Two importantpoints emerge from this conceptualization.First, marketers should take a broad view ofmarketing activity for a brand and recognizethe various effects it has on brandknowledge, as well as how changes in brandknowledge affect more traditional outcomemeasures such as sales. Second, marketsmust realize that the long-term success of allfuture mar

dimensional scale for measuring customer-based brand equity. This scale was later validated by Washburn and Plank (2002). However, the dimensionality of the customer-based brand equity needs to be reFined (Washburn and Plank, 2002; Pappu et al., 2005) as to improve the measurement of consumer-based brand equity.

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