2006:61
DOCTORAL T H E SI S
Towards a Methodological Design for Evaluating Online Brand Positioning
Robert Ankomah Opoku
Luleå University of Technology Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences Industrial Marketing & e-Commerce Research Group
2006:61|: -1544|: - -- 06 ⁄61 -- Abstract
With the continued growth of the Web as a viable marketing channel and brand-building tool, traditional bricks and mortar organisations have increasingly been moving their branding efforts to this digital “clicks” medium. As a result of this movement, the trend towards online branding does not appear to be slowing down, and is becoming an essential form of marketing communication to convey the brand image. To make an impact in this medium it is argued that the ability of an organisation to use a comprehensive and integrated marketing communications website strategy to differentiate itself from its competitors is becoming a necessity as more and more organizations use websites while trying to foster relationships with customers. However, as the language, the mode of expression and the words selected to communicate in this medium is crucial for online branding efforts, several studies have pointed to the fact that continued progress in content analysis research requires researchers to confront several challenges to developing reliable and valid analyses of World Wide Web based content. In line with the above, the core objective of this thesis is to develop and illustrate a relatively simple but powerful tool to examine the intended online brand personality positioning of organisational websites.
In order to accomplish this set objective, the thesis is divided into two sections – Study A and B. On the basis of a multistage research methodology, the first section otherwise known as Study A consists of the summary of a study (the author’s Licentiate thesis conducted in 2005) which was aimed at developing a method to evaluate the intended online brand personality positioning of websites of some 30 top business schools’ full-time global MBA programmes. This aim was accomplished by using a combination of computerized content and correspondence analyses. The content analysis was structured using Aaker’s five-dimensional framework whilst the positioning maps were produced by examining the data using correspondence analysis. Study B is made up of journal articles. The common character that runs through all the papers in Study B is that they are all in a way designed to explore the issue of branding in Africa – a much under-researched phenomenon. Of the four papers in Study B, three were designed to fill some gaps in some neglected but interesting areas of research by demonstrating the application of the earlier developed methodological design in different contexts: African countries and South African business schools. International SME restaurants were also selected as samples in one of our studies because of the important role SMEs play in every economy. A fourth study attempts to reinforce the importance of what we have been doing by looking at relationship between effective brand management practices and business performance among South African businesses.
Whilst logically providing a step by step procedure to be followed in evaluating online brand personality positioning, our findings also suggest that all the five brand personality dimensions (competence, sincerity, excitement, sophistication and ruggedness) put forward by Aaker (1997) could be identified in the intended online communications of the selected samples. Limitations of the studies and suggestions as to how further research would be essential for making the method of evaluating online brand personality to be increasingly valid, reliable, and practical are also provided. All in all, it is expected that the understanding of brand personality and brand management in all the chosen contexts in this thesis will provide a new insight into brand personality in particular and brand management research in general.
Keywords: African Countries, Business Schools, Brand, Brand Personality, Content Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, Food SMEs, Internet, Online Communication, Online Branding, South Africa
Acknowledgements
“A journey is easier when you travel together,” so goes an adage. Interdependence they also say, is certainly more valuable than independence. In this academic enterprise, I have had the opportunity to be accompanied, nurtured and supported by many people. It is therefore pleasing that I have this opportunity to express my gratitude to some of them.
First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Esmail Saheli-Sangari, the Chairman of the Industrial Marketing & e-Commerce Research Group, Luleå University of Technology who also doubles up as my co-supervisor. This Professor seems to have seen a ‘burning light’ in me and defied all odds to open this academic door for me. He did not rest there but cultivated my potential and armed me with the requisite tools. The result is all that we are witnessing in this thesis. His support throughout my graduate studies has been phenomenal. In fact, to him I must attribute a sizeable chunk of any success I have chalked up in academia. I salute him.
I also would especially like to acknowledge the guidance and encouragement of my lead research supervisor, Prof. Leyland F. Pitt, Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. His influence on me has had a pro-found effect on my learning experience. Throughout my doctoral studies, he has provided encouragement, sound advice, good teaching and lots of good ideas. Besides, he has not been economical with his ideas and support. His overly enthusiasm and the quest for providing ‘only little but high- quality work’ has made a deep impression on me. I owe him lots of gratitude. I do not think he can imagine how much I have learned from him. As part from being an excellent supervisor, Prof. Leyland was as close as a relative and a good friend to me. I am really glad that I have come to know Leyland in my life.
The chain of my gratitude would be definitely incomplete if I forget to thank my co-authors: Magnus Hultman and Jean–Paul Berthon (both PhD Students and members of Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce Research Group, Luleå University of Technology); Prof. Leyland Pitt; Russell Abratt, Associate Dean and Professor of Marketing, H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University, USA; Stavroula Spyropoulou, Leeds University Business School, UK; Mike Bendixen, Professor of Research Methodology, Nova Southeastern University, USA; Albert Caruana, Professor of Marketing, Centre for Communication Technology, University of Malta; Prof. Deon Nel, Former Head of Marketing Department, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and Pierre Berthon, Professor and Clifford F. Youse Chair of Marketing, MacCallum School of Business, Bentley College, USA. In fact, the strict and extensive comments and the many discussions and the interactions we made together have had a direct impact on the final form and quality of this thesis. Professors Abratt and Pitt further engineered many ways where they seem not to exist. I feel proud to be associated with them. It is also difficult to overstate my gratitude to Magnus. With his enthusiasm, brotherly advice, inspiration, and above all his great efforts to explaining things clearly and simply, also helped me to develop the brand personality dictionary and to make statistics fun for me. I could not have imagined having a better colleague and friend without his common-sense, knowledge and world-view.
This research has been supported and funded by various organizations and they need to be lauded. They include Längmanska Företagarfonden; Nordbankens Norrlandsstiftelse; Luleå University of Technology; Norrbottens Forskningsråd; Mål 1 Norra Norrland; Sparbanks- stiftelsen Norrbotten and Innovationsbron Luleå AB. Many people have the zeal to embark on this journey I have travelled but are constrained by finance. However, they came to my rescue when some of us were in dire need of research grant funding. I must acknowledge that, without their financial support, this challenging journey would not have been made possible. I thank them all for reposing their confidence in me.
A very special thanks is made to Associate Prof. Manucher Farhang; Lars Bäckström, Ted Karlsson, Lars-Ole Forsberg, Tim Foster, Assistant Professors Åsa Wallström, Lennart Persson, Håkan Perzon and Rikard Wahlberg, Affiliate Professor Abili Khodayar of IMI, Iran and all other Lecturers in the Industrial Marketing e-Commerce Research Group for the support that they have provided throughout my years at the Luleå University of Technology.
I am also indebted to my many PhD student colleagues for providing a stimulating and fun environment in which to learn and grow. I am especially grateful to Atanu, Thong, Marie- Louise (a co-author in other papers), Maria, Jinhui, Parmita, Ilena, Lena, Anne, Karla, Rana, Abolhassan and Pejvak. I thank you all for the many hours of stimulating discussions and interactions.
When it comes to friends, I am indebted to many, both home and abroad. However, I cannot bring my acknowledgements to an end without mentioning Dr. Mohammed-Aminu Sanda; Dr. Christopher Okpoti and his wife, Auntie Mina; Emmanuel Essel, a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics; Patrick Amofah and his wife Lea (a PhD Student at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, LTU); Raymond Boadi of Ordinance Survey, UK and his wife, Dina of Southampton University, UK; Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Barimah Kyeremeh of New York, USA; My in-laws (Abrefah Gyeabour, University of Salford, UK and Paul Owusu-Ansah, Glasgow, UK); Jesper Stjernberg, a PhD student of Division of Engineering Materials; Frederick Sarpong, a Master Student at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, LTU; Ebenezer Twumasi and Godfred Sebiawu (both Master Students at the Division of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering, LTU); Ken Lawani, a Master student in the Division of Mining and Geotechnical Engineering; Mr. Germaine Mukuri and family of Luleå; my sisters and nephews (Aicha, Eva, Eunice-Vida and Meikano all of Luleå); Roland Matsson, a Systems Engineer in the Helicopter Wing of the Swedish Armed Forces and Dennis Lundqvist, the District Pastor at Mjölkuddens Kyrka, his wife, Kerstin and the my fellow Church Hosts; Maj Nylund and Sture Johansson for being the surrogate family members during the years I stayed in Luleå.
I am also grateful to the educational administrators in the Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences, LTU for assisting me in many different ways. Brigitta Karlberg (Administrative Chef), Monika Öhman, Carola Strandberg and Tatiana Liljeström are especially thanked for their care and attention.
I also thank my wife, Martha who patiently supported my commitment by putting up with lost weekends and odd working hours. A very special thanks is made to my lovely son Fredrik who at times has to cope with my absence from home and the neglect of my fatherly duties.
I also would like to thank my parents (Agya and Maame Yaa) and two lovely sisters (Elizabeth and Rosina), for having supported me through it all and whose encouragement have also made this endeavour more meaningful and enjoyable. I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my father and mother who formed part of my vision and taught me the good things that really matter in life.
I would like to thank all whose direct and indirect support helped me to complete my thesis in time. Last but most important, I want to thank my Lord who surely planned it all-from its humble beginning to its fruitful end. To my fellow brothers and sisters who intend to embark on this academic journey, I say: “Put all your trust in the Lord and do not rely on your own understanding. At every step you take, keep the Lord in mind and He will direct your path.” (Proverbs 3: 5 – 6, The Revised English Bible).
Luleå, November 15, 2006
Robert Ankomah Opoku
DEDICATION
To my better half Martha, my lovely son, Fredrik (Yaw) and any fruit of our union.
Content
1.0 Introduction and Background ...... 1 1.2 Objectives of the Thesis ...... 5 1.3 Outline of the Study...... 5 2.0 Defining Some Concepts and Positioning the Thesis...... 7 2.1 What is a Brand?...... 7 2.1.1 Summary on the Definitions of Brand...... 8 2.1.2 Building a Strong Brand ...... 9 2.1.3 Branding Outcomes...... 9 2.2 Brand Equity Management and Business Performance...... 10 2.3 The Internet and Branding ...... 11 2.4 Online Branding Strategies...... 12 2.5 Summary of the Literature Review...... 15 2.6 The Study of Brand Personality and the Big Five Model...... 16 2.6.1 The Brand Personality Construct ...... 17 2.6.2 The Formation of Brand Personality ...... 19 2.6.3 Brand Personality and its Measurement...... 20 2.6.4 Positioning the Thesis in Brand Personality Research...... 20 2.7 Content Analysis...... 22 2.7.1 Definitions of Content Analysis...... 22 2.7.2 Summary on the Definitions...... 24 2.7.3 Purposes of Content Analysis ...... 25 2.7.4 The Quantitative versus Qualitative Content Analysis Debate ...... 26 2.7.5 Computer-Aided Text Analysis (CATA) ...... 27 3.0 Summary of Study A: Communication of Brand Personality by some Top Business Schools Online ...... 29 3.1 Research Problem of Study A ...... 29 3.2 Purpose of the Study A...... 29 3.3 Research Questions ...... 30 3.3.1 Definitions and Operationalization of Keywords and Variables ...... 31 3.3.2 Key Variables and Their Measurements ...... 32 3.4 Steps Involved in the Evaluation of Website Brand Personality Positioning...... 33 3.4.1 Step One: Selecting the Computer-Aided Text Analysis Software (CATA) for the Study...... 33 3.4.2 Step Two: Selecting the Unit of Analysis...... 35 3.4.3 Step Three: Selecting and Motivating our Chosen Competitive Samples and the Sources of Data for Analysis...... 35 3.4.4 Step Four: Designing the Dictionary of Terms ...... 37 3.4.5 Step Five: Data Collection...... 39 3.4.6 Step Six: Using the Software to Convert Data into Electronic Format and Categorizing it According to the Evaluative Criteria...... 41 3.4.7 Step Seven: Cross-Tabulation of the Categorical Data and Aggregation of the Number of Words Identified by the Analysis Software...... 42 3.4.8 Step Eight: Establishment of Dependency Between the Rows and the Columns... 44 3.4.9 Step Nine: Deciding and Justifying the Number of Dimensions to be Retained for Further Analysis ...... 44 3.4.10 Step Ten: Graphical Presentation of the Row and Column Profiles in a Two-Way Dimensional Space...... 46 3.4.11 Step Eleven: Interpretation of the Correspondence Analysis Map ...... 49 3.4.12 Step Twelve: Making Subjective Meanings of the Interpretations...... 55 3.4.13 Summary on the Interpretation of the Maps ...... 60 3.5 Other Quality Issues Considered in Study A...... 61 3.5.1 Issues Relating to Transferability and Extension of this Study ...... 61 3.5.2 Controlling the Number of Words on the Websites...... 61 3.5.3 Detailing Our Report...... 62 4.0: Summary of Papers in Study B ...... 63 4.1 Paper I: What I Say About Myself: Communication of Brand Personality by African Countries ...... 63 4.2 Paper II: Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for the Top South African Business Schools?...... 64 4.3 Paper III: Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for Food SMEs?...... 65 4.4 Paper IV: Brand Management and Strategic Performance: Some Evidence from South Africa ...... 66 5.0 Conclusions, Limitations, Implications and Future Research ...... 67 5.1 Conclusion...... 67 5.1.1 Empirical Findings ...... 67 5.1.2 Methodological Issues...... 70 5.1.3 Summary of the 12 Steps Involved in the Evaluation of the Brand Personality Positioning in this Thesis...... 70 5.2 Limitations of the Study ...... 71 5.2.1 Sample ...... 71 5.2.2 Instrument ...... 71 5.2.3 Interpretation of Data ...... 72 5.3 Research Implications...... 73 5.3.1 Theoretical Implications ...... 73 5.3.2 Research Implications for Content Analysts, Researchers, Web Administrators/Managers and Communication Experts...... 74 5.3.3 Further Research Directions...... 75 6.0 References ...... 77
7.0 Appendices ...... 98 Appendices
Appendix I: Paper I: What I say About Myself: Communication of Brand Personalities by African Countries Appendix II: Paper II: Communication of Brand Personality: Are the Websites doing the talking for Top South African Business Schools? Appendix III Paper III: Communication of Brand Personality: Are the Websites doing the talking for Food SMEs? Appendix IV Paper IV: Brand Management and Strategic Performance: Some Evidence from South Africa Appendix V: Dictionary of Brand Personality Dimensions and their Synonyms Appendix VI: Business School Samples, their URLs and total amount of words copied from their respective Websites Appendix VII: Paper IV’s Acceptance Letter
List of Tables
Table 3.1 Theoretical Definitions and Operationalisation of Keywords...... 31 Table 3.2 Theoretical Definitions and Operationalisation of Variables...... 32 Table 3.3 Key Variables and their Measurements...... 32 Table 3.4 Website Brand Personality Evaluation Criteria ….………………...... 38 Table 3.5 Distribution of Brand Personality Dimensions over Websites in Cluster 1…...42 Table 3.6 Distribution of Brand personality Dimensions over Websites in Cluster 2…...43 Table 3.7 Distribution of Brand personality Dimensions over Websites in Cluster 3…...43 Table 3.8 The Chi-squared Analysis for the Individual Clusters...... 44 Table 3.9 Dimensional Inertia Report for all the 30 Websites with Outliers ...... 45 Table 3.10 Dimensional Inertia Report for all the 30 Websites without Outliers...... 45 Table 3.11 Summary of associations between the 30 Cases and the Brand Personality Dimensions…...... 53 Table 3.12 Frequency of Usage of the Various Brand Personality Dimensions...... 54 Table 3.13 Percentage of Appearance of Brand Personality Dimensions...... 55 Table 3.14 13 Traits and Adjectives of each Brand Personality Dimension used by These Business Schools...... 56 Table 3.15 Some Curricula and other Instructional Delivery Methods employed by some Business Schools...... 57 Table 3.16 Environmental Situations Capitalized by some Business Schools in Creating their Brand Personality Dimensions...... 58 Table 3.17 How the Excitement Dimension is exhibited in a different way...... 59 Table 3.18 Some Business Schools and their Mode of Control or Governance...... 59 Table 3.19 Some Business Schools and their Philosophies and Orientations...... 60
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 The Brand as an Interface between the Firm’s Activities and Consumers’ Perspective………………………………………………………..8 Figure 2.2 The Big Five Factors …………………………………………………………17 Figure 2.3 Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Framework………………………………...18 Figure 3.1 Correspondence Analysis Map of the Top 10 MBA Programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions (Cluster 1)………….47 Figure 3.2 Correspondence Analysis Map of the Mid-10 MBA Programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions (Cluster 2)…………..48 Figure 3.3 Correspondence Analysis Map of the Last 10 MBA programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions (Cluster 3)…………………………………………………………………….48 Figure 3.4 Correspondence Analysis Map of all the 30 Selected Cases of the MBA Programmes’ Web sites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions……………………………………………………………………49 Figure 3.5 The Dendogram on all the Dimensions………………………………………54
1.0 Introduction and Background In this chapter, we introduce the area in which this thesis is conducted by initially presenting a general perspective and then narrowing it down to our objectives. An attempt also is made to demonstrate the originality of, and build a case for this thesis. Building a strong brand has assumed a centre stage in many organisations. The presumption is that, building a strong brand yields a number of marketing advantages. In consumer marketing for instance, brands often provide the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings and as such they have increasingly been recognised as occupying a cornerstone position in marketing strategies.
Brands are perceived to possess a personality that consumers use as an avenue for self- expression or to experience the anticipated emotional benefits by which the brand differentiates itself from others (Belk, 1988; Phau and Lau, 2000; 2001). Therefore, if brands are to succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace, they must develop an emotional and symbolic attachment with consumers. In this regard, it is argued that marketers often must link their brands to other entities, for example, people, places, things, or other brands, as a means to improve their brand equity1 (Keller, 2003a). Sweeney and Brandon (2006) also propose that a comprehensive understanding of brand personality can empower brand managers to better manage the brand and develop insights into problems and possible options for change in a brand’s personality position. Nonetheless, brand managers must recognise that it is through the communication of a clearly defined brand image2 (Park et al., 1986), manipulation and moulding of brand personality to suit the target market that a meaningful differentiation can be achieved. Against the backdrop of the above discussions, the concept of brand personality and its influence on consumer behaviour has become an attractive and appealing one (Aaker, 1996a) and also a critically important issue of concern for academicians and business practitioners alike. Brand personality has been defined by Aaker (1997, p.347) as “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand.”
The role of brands and the ways of managing brands are changing. One of major factors propelling changes in brand management is information technology (Shocker et al., 1994; Berthon et al. 1996a) and its off-shoot, the Internet. As Breakenridge (2002, p.3) suggests: “the Internet is the touch point of a company and a brand, which is more than any other channel has to offer in the 21st century...it includes the voice of the consumer…It’s all about the audience, their needs and preferences.” There is no doubt that if the Internet is used intelligently in managing brands, the results may seem to be as valuable, if not more valuable, than using the traditional channels of communication (Rao et al., 1998).
With the continued growth in the popularity of the Internet, traditional companies have increasingly been moving their branding efforts to this digital “clicks” medium. As a result, the trend towards online branding does not appear to be slowing down, and is becoming an essential form of marketing communication to convey the brand image. In the competitive conditions of online markets, online brand personality is agreed to be an important factor in securing distinctive identity (Su-e et al., 2005). Yet, most businesses are still struggling to figure
1 Brand equity can be defined as a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol, that adds to or detracts from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or the firm’s customers (Aaker, 1991). 2 Brand image “is the perceptions and beliefs held by consumers, as reflected in the associations held in consumer memory” (Kotler and Keller, 2006, p.286). From this definition, it becomes obvious that brand personality is an aspect of brand image.
1 out how to brand in this new medium (Levine, 2003) but it is argued that the economic and psychological forces inducing consumers to buy specific products have not changed (Lewis, 2000). Consumers no longer demand simply a product, but reliable companies and brands (Kunde, 2000). In other words, consumers still want to buy products and services from organisations they trust and like, and that they believe will be in business tomorrow to continue to inspire and assist them.
Communicating on the Internet, brand personality helps a website to powerfully differentiate itself from competing sites, although sites may necessarily be similar to each other, both in appearance and function(Kim et al., 2001). Therefore, an organisation’s ability to use a comprehensive and integrated marketing communications website strategy to differentiate itself from its competitors will become a necessity as more and more organizations use websites while trying to foster relationships with customers (Berthon et al., 1996a; Perry and Bodkin, 2002). In this thesis, we have chosen to concentrate on how brand personalities are communicated through websites with the view to helping entities gain competitive positioning. Websites in this thesis are compelling because they represent a medium that is easily accessible to all audiences, constantly available, relatively affordable (Berthon et al., 2001) and an important part of any organisation communication strategy. Hence, managers should be concerned with what brand personality their websites are portraying.
The way a brand differentiates itself (through positioning) is dependent on the choice of target market and relevant competitors(Keller, 1999). Keller describes brand positioning as the creation of an optimal location in the minds of customers, so that a brand is perceived in the desired way. It also involves establishing key brand associations in the minds of customers and other important constituents to differentiate the brand and establish (to the extent possible) competitive superiority (Keller et al., 2002) and sets out what the brand is, who it is for and what it offers (Rossiter and Percy, 1996). In all these, the brand personality chosen by any organisation must be distinctive, robust, desirable and constant (Lannon, 1993) when positioned with respect to either customers or competitors (Assael, 2004). In this thesis, brand positioning is defined as a process of fostering a desired and distinctive status for an organization in the minds of stakeholders in order to establish a competitive position among competitors.
The focus is on brand positioning evaluation because this underlies the reasons why companies are prepared to spend large fortunes building and protecting their brand and establishing relationships with consumers. Even, looking at brand positioning from the general point of view, it sets the track of marketing activities and programmes–what the brand should and should not do with its marketing.
A lot of studies have been conducted in relation to brand positioning. However, most of the earlier studies appeared to have touched on the effects of advertising on brand positioning (for e.g. Dröge and Darmon, 1987; Sujan and Bettman, 1989; Pechmann and Retneshwar, 1991; Philport and Arbittier, 1997; Alden et al., 1999; Gwinner and Eaton, 1999). Narrowing the discussions to the online environment, Chun and Davies (2001) looked at this phenomenom but their study was limited to a cross section of websites – positioning statements in the vision and mission sections. Whilst brands are losing their distinctiveness as a result of brand proliferation (Aufreiter et al., 2003), Ibeh et al., (2005) also concluded that a few of the companies studied had taken major steps to achieve the best out of their e-branding efforts. Further literature reviewed also indicated that only a few studies have focused on marketers’ communication efforts to convey particular personality traits of their brands with the view to securing distinctive identity. Therefore, extending the work by Aaker (1997) and taking into consideration her definition of brand personality (p.437) and the issues discussed on brand
2 positioning, we view brand personality in this thesis as “the set of human characteristics associated with a particular entity and how these are communicated through its entire website in order to aid the organisation position3 itself distinctly among its competitors.”
Obviously, this definition brings out that, this thesis in no way addresses the perceptions of the organisations that exist in the minds of stakeholders but rather how these entities intend to project as their brand personalities in their online positioning strategies.
Although it is possible to develop a brand image with two or more personalities, we assume in this thesis that organisations can, as a part of their marketing strategies, carve unique and distinct positions for themselves. Harbouring the same views as Park et al., (1986), the reasons for this assumption are not far-fetched. First, different personalities will require the use of different long-term positioning strategies and a brand with multiple personalities will provide inconsistent guidelines for positioning. Second, a brand with multiple concepts may be difficult to manage because it will compete against more brands. Third, a brand with multiple personalities may be less effective in establishing an image or position by making it more difficult for consumers to identify the brand’s basic meaning. This difficulty may in part increase the costs associated with implementing positioning strategies.
Once a differentiation attribute has been chosen, the means of communicating it to consumers poses yet another interesting dilemma (Pechmann and Retneshwar, 1991) especially in the online environment. The website has been acknowledged as a positioning opportunity by which an entity can communicate its intended position in the market (Chun and Davies, 2001; Berthon et al., 2001a) but arguably, the most effective means of differentiating a brand from a competitor in this medium is to use a clear and distinct message. In this milieu, an approach to researching into online communication will be to focus on language and rhetoric (December, 1996) but research in these areas has likewise discovered many insights into the structure and content of computer-mediated communication (Spitzer, 1986; Finnegan, 1988). Thus, as the language, the mode of expression and the words selected to communicate is crucial in such an investigation (Kassarjian, 1977), we opted to perform content analysis in all these website evaluative studies. We are of the view that whether it is intended or not, a website will communicate certain characteristics of a brand. Again, using website information in this thesis is consistent with the assumption that personalities will be constructed by organisations through explicit communications. Therefore, by analyzing the content of a website this can be understood, and by making comparisons with what is being communicated on other websites, the relative intended positioning of a brand can both be comprehended and managed.
In many respect, content analysis has proved to be a valuable technique. Due to the fact that it can be applied to examine most piece of writing or occurrence of recorded communication, content analysis is used in large number of fields, ranging from marketing and media studies, to literature and rhetoric, ethnography and cultural studies, gender and age issues, sociology and political science, psychology and cognitive science, as well as other fields of inquiry. Limiting our focus to the marketing arena, a plethora or research on content analysis in the marketing field has focused on searching for meaning in magazines (see Tse et al., 1989; Gross and Sheth, 1989; Kolbe and Burnett, 1991; Kolbe and Albanese, 1996); television advertisement (Resnik and Stern, 1977; Dowling, 1980) and best-selling books (Harvey, 1953; Mullins and Kopelman, 1984; Abrahamson and Mechanic, 1983).
3 A position refers to the place that an organization occupies in the minds of stakeholders relative to other competitors that compete for consumers’ disposable income. This position could be short, medium or long term.
3 The rise of the World Wide Web, computer and information technologies in general present researchers with significant opportunities. Faster computers and more sophisticated software are creating powerful new tools for the analysis of communication messages (Fan, 1997; McTavish, 1997, Miller, 1997). At the same time, researchers are gaining access to previously inaccessible or prohibitively inexpensive data through global works and electronic databases (Weare and Lin, 2000). Fielden (2002) hinted that analysis of textual data, via a process called text analysis, promises to be an important and perhaps commercially more important, than mining of structured, often numeric, data. To date, the use of text mining technologies is on the increase (Berry, 2004) but most studies on content strategy have focused on information quality. It is therefore advanced in this thesis that additional research is required to move beyond that and examine the persuasive themes that are built into the information.
By using a computer-aided content analysis as methodology, this thesis enumerates the steps and also illustrates a relatively simple but powerful tool for analysing words on websites and to help map out how organisations or products are positioned relative their competitors in terms of brand personality communications. The texts selected for analyses in all the studies are the lexical information provided on websites. As it is usual, though not mandatory in content analysis to derive the words or themes to be measured from some prior theory (Weber, 1985), we chose Aaker’s (1997) brand personality dimensions as a measurement because it has been widely referenced and peer-reviewed (see Austin et al., 2003), extended (see Siguaw et al., 1999; Davies et al., 2001; Slaughter et al., 2004; Venable et al., 2005; Sung and Tinkham, 2005; Opoku, 2005; Hosany et al., 2006) and replicated (Switzerland: Czellar, 1999; France: Ferrandi et al., 2000; Germany: Huber et al., 2000; Japan and Spain: Aaker et al., 2001; Russia: Supphelen and Gronhaug, 2003) and appears to be the most reliable tool to measure brand personality.
Although the factor analytical method used (Sweeney and Brandon, 2006) and generalizability of Aaker’s work has been questioned and criticised (see Austin et al., 2003; Azoulay and Kapferer, 2003), questions relating to the effectiveness of this brand personality scale are left to consumer researchers and marketing communication critics. This does not mean, of course, that further replication and refinement of the scale will not be valuable. On the flipside, we contend in this thesis that a content analysis approach followed by correspondence analysis will add to our knowledge in an area such as this. Whilst overcoming one of the methodological concerns of content analysis–namely, that of developing an accurate and reliable coding process (Kassarjian, 1977; Kolbe and Burnett, 1991), we also illustrate throughout this thesis that computerized text analysis is critical because of its importance in quantifying and presenting various aspects of marketing communication with ease and to help researchers make a better informed decision.
4 1.2 Objectives of the Thesis Spurred on by a growing body of Internet research on the topic of e-marketing and e- commerce, there does not appear to be any indication that branding efforts on the Web will subside, but rather grow and mature. Also, several studies point to the fact that continued progress in content analysis research requires researchers to confront several challenges to developing reliable and valid analyses of WWW-based content. In line with the above, the overall objective of this thesis is to develop and illustrate a relatively simple but powerful tool to examine the intended online brand personality positioning of organisational websites relative to competitors.
Driven by the generally accepted importance of brand positioning as a concept to both academic researchers and business practitioners (Aaker, 1996a; Keller, 1999; Kalafatis et al., 2000; Ries and Trout, 2001), this thesis, in other words, also introduces and elaborates the use of computer-assisted content analysis in evaluating brand personality positioning in the online environment. This is a relatively affordable and easy way for organisations to test their intended competitive position in the marketplace.
It needs to be alerted that all the studies in this thesis are part of an attempt towards the development of an effective tool for evaluating the brand positioning of entities in the online environment.
1.3 Outline of the Study In order to accomplish the overall objective, the thesis is divided into two sections. The first section consists of a summary of a licentiate thesis conducted in 2005 (herein referred to as Study A). The second section (herein referred to as Study B) comprises three fully accepted (Paper I and II, IV) and one yet- to- be fully accepted (Paper III) papers on the general theme of brand personality positioning in cyberspace and brand management. On the basis of a multistage research methodology, Study A was aimed at developing the methodology to evaluate the intended online brand personality positioning of some top business schools MBA programmes. The second section also referred to as Study B illustrates the application of this tool in evaluating websites in different contexts.
The common character that runs through all the papers in Study B is that they are all designed to explore the issue of branding in Africa – a much under-researched phenomenon. Of the four papers in Study B, three were designed to fill some gaps in some neglected but interesting areas of research whilst a fourth study tries to establish the relationship between effective brand management practices and business performance among South African businesses. International SME restaurants were also selected as samples in one of our studies because of the important role SMEs play in every economy. Kim and Kim (2004) also maintain that branding adds to the food service firms’ competitive advantage hence making them an interesting context to study. Our selection of the African contexts (business schools, South African business schools and businesses and African countries) originated from a belief that there is often a gap, if not a chasm, between developed and developing nations in terms of research and that there is therefore potentially great value to be gained from studies which explicitly sought to bridge this divide. This remains one of the latent but fundamental aims of this thesis. It is also expected that the further understanding of brand personality in these chosen areas will help provide a new insight into brand personality research in particular and brand management in general.
5 The two separate but linked sections (Study A and B) and the various studies involved (within the separate sections) are expected to contribute individually and collectively to the overall objective of this thesis in the following ways:
x Whilst providing new insight (by focusing on the application of this methodology in some neglected areas of research), each study helps to enrich the brand personality positioning evaluative method.
x All these studies seem to have been conducted in a way that has not been done in this area before, by looking at intended online brand personality positioning.
x Our studies also seek to provide empirical evidence as to whether any of the Aaker’s five brand personality dimensions are used by these entities in their websites’ communications and to the extent to which they have established clear and distinct brand personalities in the online environment.
x These studies also suggest in part that with careful nurturing on the part of marketers, brands have the potential to develop into a valuable strategic resource through positioning.
In order to demonstrate our familiarity with the body of knowledge in our chosen area and to strengthen the context for our analyses, we set out as follows. First, we examine the marketing literature on branding, branding and the Internet and brand personality. Drawing from the literature, opportunities for branding on the Internet are introduced and then specific recommendations for using the Internet to achieve branding objectives in order to enhance customer value are offered. As a sub-heading, we also look at content analysis as a research tool. Second, we develop and illustrate our tool in Study A and demonstrate it in various contexts in Study B (with three papers). Third, we present and discuss the implications of our findings to theory, practitioners and researchers. On the last note, limitations of the studies are addressed and avenues for future research in this area are also proposed.
6 2.0 Defining Some Concepts and Positioning the Thesis This chapter briefly focuses on published literature connected to our studies. Whilst demonstrating a familiarity with the body of knowledge in this area, we also position this study in the literature. We further attempt to do a critique on some of the earlier works or studies related to this area and to define and provide some working definitions to the concepts that are connected to this thesis.
2.1 What is a Brand? The term “brand,” traditionally came from the practice of cattle branding. This was a means of identifying suppliers and to differentiate one farmer’s stock from another, which acted as an assurance of quality to buyers (Breakenridge, 2001). Branding has evolved extensively upon its application to the marketing discipline, yet its fundamentals remain the same. Within marketing, however, the term “brand” has become a little unclear (de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998), and has adopted multiple meanings due to semantic confusion (Stern, 2006).
To some, a brand is simply the name of a product. A brand has often been defined as signifying “a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors” (Kotler and Keller, 2006, p. 274). It is also often used as shorthand for quality and provides a consumer with a bundle of information about what can be expected from a product or service (Zeithaml, 1988). The brand itself is said to be intangible and regarded as a promise made that reflects what the consumer can expect from a product, service, or company (Deighton, 1992). This promise is based on customer beliefs and expectations that are formed through time and interaction. This suggests that by recalling a brand name, consumers evoke beliefs, which means that the brand name develops a connotation of relative quality over repeated purchase (Prabhaker and Sauer, 1994).
These definitions seem to capture the idea that a brand is based primarily on customers’ perceptions, which are influenced by additional elements that make up the brand. Sterne (1999) sums these ideas up well by saying that:
A brand is said to be an extremely valuable intangible asset to any company, as it defines the company and carries a ton of information in a fraction of a second (Timacheff and Rand, 2001). The effect of a brand on a company is not easily measured, but can provide benefits if managed effectively. Thus, once a customer is accustomed to the brand it takes a lot to change them to substitute products (Rooney, 1995, p.48).
Much has been written about brands but in a form of a summary, de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley (1998) noted that the definitions in the literature variably regarded brands in the context of: (i) legal instrument; (ii) logo; (iii) companies (iv) shorthand; (v) risk reducers; (vi) identity systems; (vii) image in consumers’ minds; (viii) value system; (ix) personalities; (x) relationships; (xi) adding value; and (xii) evolving entities. They argued further that there are numerous stakeholders who have an interest in a firm’s brand (e.g. employees, shareholders, suppliers, partners, investors, regulators, etc). While not all brand definitions consider all the stakeholders, every brand theme takes the perspective either of a firm’s staff or its consumers (or both) in determining the antecedents and the consequences of the brand. Hence, a firm’s activities (input) and its consumers’ perceptions (output) emerge as the two main boundaries of the brand construct. These authors added that brands exist mainly by virtue of a continuous
7 process, whereby the values and expectations imbued in the brand object (product or service) are set and enacted by the firm’s staff, and interpreted and redefined by the consumers. This can be represented by a diagram like this in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1 The Brand as an Interface between the Firm’s Activities and Consumer’s Perspective
BRAND
CONSUMERS’ FIRM’S INPUT PERCEPTIONS
Source: de Chernatony, Leslie and Francesca Dall’Olmo Riley (1998), “Defining a Brand: Beyond the literature with experts’ interpretation,” Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 428 de Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley (1998) described the model above as a simplified representation of the cyclical process via which a brand becomes the interface between a firm’s activities and consumers’ perceptions. For example, the brand is positioned by the firm through the elements of the marketing mix, which work to convey a pre-determined brand identity and personality. By monitoring consumers’ perceptions of the brand, a firm’s input either can be rectified (to reduce the gap between company and consumer perceptions) or reinforced to make the brand more identifiable and relevant to consumers.
2.1.1 Summary on the Definitions of Brand Each of these definitions reflect not only on a common theme, but the fundamental objectives of branding strategy, which is to communicate the benefits and value that a business, good or service provides to customers (relative to competition). Another key aspect of a brand is that it acts as a point of differentiation, which is often used to make one product stand out from the competition. In other words, branding activity is ultimately used to create a competitive edge, while the customer receives added value in that their perceived risk is decreased. Overall, a brand and its intangible elements work in combination to create a picture of a brand in the consumer’s mind.
All of these definitions suggest that a brand is in fact an experience that a consumer has with a product, service or organisation. No one part defines what a brand is, as it is made up of a number of different characteristics. An organisation can attempt to create a brand name, however, customers are the ones who ultimately determine whether a brand will become alive (Timacheff and Rand, 2001).
It can also be inferred from the above analysis that branding is not easy, and considerable effort is required by a company to create a successful brand with positive associations. It may be simple to state all the aspects that form a brand, such as a creative naming or logo design, but branding is also about solid and strategic business planning.
It also came to light that brand has multiple meanings. This has reflected on the definitions put forward by the various authors and researchers. In this thesis, however, brand may be defined
8 in terms of an organization’s perception and personality. Brand will be viewed as an organization’s perception of the human personalities imbued within a product or service, personalities that continuously are set, revised and enacted by the organization.
2.1.2 Building a Strong Brand The purpose of branding is to facilitate the organisation’s task of getting and maintaining a loyal customer base in a cost effective manner in order to achieve the highest possible return on investment (de Chernatony and McDonald, 1998, p.17). Building a strong brand has been shown to provide numerous financial rewards to firms (Keller, 2001a), and has become a top priority for many organizations (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 1998). Yet, brands are losing their distinctiveness as a result of brand proliferation (Aufreiter et al., 2003). Additionally, Clancy and Trout (2001) reported that brands are becoming less distinct in 40 out of the 46 categories that they studied. Keller (2001a) outlines the Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model to assist management in their brand-building efforts. According to the model, building a strong brand involves four steps:
(1) establishing the proper brand identity, that is, establishing breadth and depth of brand awareness;
(2) creating the appropriate brand meaning through strong, favourable, and unique brand associations;
(3) eliciting positive, accessible brand responses, and
(4) forging brand relationships with customers that are characterized by intense, active loyalty.
Achieving these four steps, in turn, involves establishing six brand-building blocks–brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, brand judgments, brand feelings, and brand resonance. The most valuable brand-building block, brand resonance, occurs when all the other brand-building blocks are established. With true brand resonance, customers express a high degree of loyalty to the brand such that they actively seek means to interact with the brand and share their experiences with others. Firms that are able to achieve brand resonance should reap a host of benefits, for example, greater price premiums and more efficient and effective marketing programmes.
2.1.3 Branding Outcomes A lot has been written about brands and branding. A common thread the runs throughout branding research is that a brand identifies the seller and differentiates the seller and the seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the buyers (Kapferer, 1992; Aaker, 1997). Consumer research has brought to light that powerful brands also create meaningful images in the minds of customers, which help to differentiate brands (Shocker et al., 1994; Keller, 1993).
For the seller, a strong branding strategy can lead to brand equity, the added value a given brand name gives to a product beyond the functional benefits provided (Aaker, 1996). One of the reasons why marketers invest in branding is that brand image and reputation enhance differentiation and can lead to brand equity (McEnally and de Chernatony, 1999). Gardner and Levy (1955) point out that a brand name is more than the label employed to differentiate
9 among the manufacturers of a product. It is assumed to be a complex symbol that connotes a variety of ideas and attributes. It tells the consumers many things, not only by the way it sounds but, more important, via the body of associations it has built up and acquired as a public object over time. They further added that the net result is a public image, a character or personality that may be more important for the overall status (and sales) of the brand than many technical facts about the product.
Keller (1998) enumerates 10 major benefits of a positive brand image. These benefits include greater brand loyalty, less vulnerability to competing brands, less vulnerable to crisis situations, high gross margin, consumer demand that is more price inelastic, price elasticity when prices are lowered, increased trade support and cooperation, increased effectiveness of the Integrated Marketing Communications(IMC) programme, potential licensing opportunities, and potential opportunities for brand line extensions. Thus, by effective marketing programmes that create and reinforce positive, strong and unique brand linkage in memory, these potential benefits can be realized.
2.2 Brand Equity Management and Business Performance Widening the brand spectrum, Rubinstein (1996) argues that branding goes beyond communications and should be regarded as an integrated business process. Furthermore, brand management should be embedded in the whole company and should not be seen solely as a marketing department role. The brand essence – the major features that shape the brand and form its distinctiveness must always be present, from production to communication. Thus, brand equity management can be regarded as a formal component of corporate strategy (Shocker et al., 1994) and a critical part of a company’s programme (Roth, 1995). Keller (1993, p.1), defines brand equity “in terms of marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand– for example, when certain outcomes result from the marketing of a product or service because of its brand name that would not occur if the same product or service did not have that name”. Farquhar’s (1989) simple definition of equity as the value added by the brand to the product has been generally accepted (see Aaker, 1991). Kapferer’s (1994) innovative theories on brand equity and development also expand the boundaries of marketing theory. He hypothesizes that the primary capital of many businesses is their brands, which identify, guarantee, structure, and stabilize supply. In a global marketplace, he notes, brands are the only truly international language, the real capital of business.
Brand equity has been considered in many contexts: the added value endowed by the brand name (Farquhar, 1989); brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations, and other proprietary brand assets (Aaker, 1991); the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand (Keller, 1993); incremental utility (Simon and Sullivan, 1993); total utility (Swait et al., 1993); the difference between overall brand preference and multi-attributed preference based on objectively measured attribute levels (Park and Srinivasan, 1994); and overall quality and choice intention (Agarwal and Rao, 1996). All these definitions imply that brand equity is the incremental value of a product due to the brand name (Srivastava and Shocker, 1991).
In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker (1991) provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify for managers exactly how brand equity does contribute value. He concludes that managers really must understand the concept of brand equity and how it must be implemented in order not to cause irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name.
10 Although there is also a widespread sentiment that brands are being mismanaged (Aaker, 1991), there have been some claims of a positive correlation between brand equity and a firm’s performance (Park and Srinivasan, 1994; Aaker, 1996b). Park et al., (1986) has established the importance between a brand’s image and its market performance. Some studies also have found that a product’s brand equity positively affects future profits and long-term cash flow (Srivastava and Shocker, 1991). In a related research by Aaker and Jacobson (1994), they examined the association between stock returns and customer’s perception of brand quality. They found a positive association between perceived brand quality and stock returns after controlling for unexpected accounting returns. In their study among hotels, Prasad and Dev (2000) also suspected a positive correlation between brand equity and financial performance. In a form of a summary, Keller (1993) was of the view that one of the general motivations which underpins the study of brand equity arises from a strategy-based motivation to improve marketing productivity and its effect on overall organisational financial performance.
There have also been several important studies published on how firms might optimally manage their brands (e.g. Keller, 2000; Berthon et al., 2001b; Berthon et al., 2003) and the impact of brand management and corporate social responsibility (Orlitzky et al., (2003). There has, however, been little research that demonstrates empirically the impact a firm’s brand management practices on its financial and strategic performance. Given their final thoughts on challenges and opportunities facing brand management, Shocker et al., (1994) suggest that researchers must reflect a broad array of methodological approaches–from experimental design to survey methodology, from the examination of scanner data to the use of critical historical analysis to assess the impact of brand management on the over all corporate performance.
2.3 The Internet and Branding Marketers have gone over the issue of whether branding works, but are now confronted about how it can be applied online (Breakenridge, 2001). Most researchers and practitioners agree that the Internet is fundamentally changing how companies manage their brands. The basic premise is that on the Internet the brand itself must be at the heart of the business strategy and the emphasis shifts from brand to branded experience (Rubenstein and Griffiths, 2001) hence branding online is slowly becoming a more important element in many organizations integrated marketing communications strategy. Rowley (2004, p.137) enumerates the possible objectives of online branding as to:
x raise awareness of online and offline services; x encourage a higher level of use; x enhance the effective of communication between users and the organisation; x encourage more frequent visits to the website; x encourage users to use a wider range of online services; x get people to remember the brand mark; and x change people’s attitude to the organisation.
The issue of Internet branding has sparked some controversy. Some hold the view that the Internet eliminates the need for brands as it provides customers with the ability to gather large amounts of information and undertake price comparisons (Strategic Direction, 2002). It is suggested that due to the wealth of information available online, consumers no longer have to rely on the brand as a short-hand for quality. With this view, it is also suggested that there is no good reason for a company to even concern itself with branding online, as the Internet
11 actually decreases loyalty, which is often the main goal of establishing a brand in the first place (Strategic Direction, 2002).
However, this argument is based on the assumption that customers are price driven, and do not consider the brand in their decision-making. Ironically, it now seems that with the wealth of information on the Internet that brands are now perhaps of utmost importance to a consumer buying in the online environment. If a known brand is placed against an unknown Internet brand, it is presumed that the customer is more likely to put their trust into a company they have heard of previously and to which can be attributed brand values and promises.
It is clearly evident that the Internet is fundamentally changing the way business is conducted around the world and it is changing how brands are perceived as well. On the Internet, Rubenstein and Griffith (2001) propose that the key principles of how to develop the brand remain the same, but the need for speed and other experiential variables means that how you manage it will change forever. Lal and Sarvary (1999) investigated how the Internet can be used in branding and show that under some conditions, the Internet reduces customer search, thereby representing an opportunity for firms to leverage their brand loyalty and increase their profits.
In a related study, de Chernatony (2001) suggests that brand strategists need a new mental model to develop integrated brands in a digital age which goes beyond the classical models and which recognizes the new roles consumers are beginning to take. He reports the need to switch from the classical model of talking to customers to interactively communicating with customers, using systems which enable organizations to respond rapidly to customers’ enquiries.
It appears that the principal benefit of Internet branding is the potential to build relationships with customers. Relationship marketing is becoming an essential part of strategies to build loyalty, and is often said to be the “new paradigm” in marketing (Gummesson, 1997). This theory suggests that long-term exchange relationships are the most crucial in terms of corporate focus.
2.4 Online Branding Strategies Breakenridge (2002, p.66) posits that “traditional brands need the cyberspace aspect to forge ahead to meet consumers’ needs of the future, while e-brands require a bit of a traditional foundation and ‘roots’ to survive and flourish in the 21st century.” Ibeh et al., (2005) have also explored the e-brand building and communication strategies of a small sample of UK-based internet companies by providing rare empirical insights into the e-branding phenomenon. Their analytical results suggest a widespread appreciation of the importance of e-branding, and a prevalence of collaborative and customer-centric e-brand building strategies, including co- branding and affiliating with established online and offline brands, distribution partnerships, content alliances and personalized e-mail contacts. The following strategies have also been identified as those which have the potential to help build brand equity online. a) E-Customer Care: The Internet is essentially a self-service “help yourself medium” (Rowley, 2004, p.134). Customer service and support has long been a key component of any brand experience offline. Customers expect a high level of service in the offline environment, and their expectations are no different for online service. It also appears that customers are just as demanding of online service as well as for instant response and access to information.
12 However, businesses seem to allocate relatively little resources to online customer service. To deliver superior service quality, managers of companies with Web presences must first understand how customers perceive and evaluate online customer service (Zeithmal et al., 2002; Parasuraman and Malhotra, 2005). This appears to be a crucial part to any Internet strategy because if a company disappoints a user online, this can have an effect on both their on and offline brand equity, credibility and loyalty. b) Continual update of brand information: A major advantage of online branding is that a significant amount of detail can be showcased at a relatively low cost. In addition, this detail can be updated as often as needed. In fact, continually updating information may entice potential customers to visit the site often in order to see what is new (Berthon et al., 1996b). Another advantage is that when a potential customer is visiting the website he or she can examine the benefits offered by the brand that are of most interest to them. One of the major roles of website may be to educate (Schonberg, et al., 2000) hence the website can display both features, benefits and the type of brand personality that organisation would like to portray to its potential target customers. c) Customization and Personalization: It is becoming more and more common for people to customize their choice of product features from a menu that the manufacturer puts on a website. But going further with personalization, the customer can become a co-creator of the product experience (Payne and Frow, 2005). The customer collaborates with the brand to get exactly what he or she wants when he or she wants it. Peppers and Rogers (1997) use the term ‘one-to-one marketing’ to describe the powerful force of personalization and customization unleashed by the Internet. However, there appears to be a need to ensure that the brand remains strong while implementing personalization strategies. If the site redesigns itself for each user, it may become hard to define what the site stands for in the first place. One approach to help resolve the problem is to maximize the individual experience while creating a broader theme that defines and informs the customer what the brand is all about (Krishnamurthy, 2003). d) Transparency and Visibility: Travis (2001, p.16) reports that brands are now an open book for all to look into: “they can't hide behind the public relations department. The citizen, the zealot, and the crank armed with a laptop have the power to undo a brand's reputation with a single click.” He argued the Web has the ability to keep brands honest, to push products and services, but it also has the ability to “suck.” Rubinstein and Griffiths (2000) propose that branding is even more important on the Internet as it helps people to make choices and even people are faced with more choices and information because of this medium. de Chernatony (2001) also finds that in an electronic environment, chat forums and other communication channels enable consumers to gain access to credible information, and thus brand owners lose some control over their brands’ identities. This is not necessarily a negative thing. He suggests that a loser form of brand control is needed for a brand to thrive on the Internet, and one that welcomes the active participation of consumers and recognizes that their web pages are not the only information source which consumers use for brand facts. The Cluetrain Manifesto4 provides an extension of this argument and proposes that, in essence, if brands are to survive on the
4 The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organised and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets (consumers) and organisations. In addition, as both consumers and organisations are able to utilize the Internet and Intranets to establish a previously unavailable level of communication both within and between these two groups, the manifesto suggests that the changes that will be required from organisations as they respond to the new marketplace environment (Wikipedia.com, retrieved on September, 18, 2006,15:30)
13 Internet brand managers need to develop conversation with markets, rather than monotone monologues (Levine et al., 2000). e) Viral Marketing: The term “viral marketing” dates from the height of the Internet bubble economy (Moore, 2003). It is a name that is applied to a family of marketing strategies, although some of them are quite old. Word-of-mouth is one of the oldest and most effective of all branding and marketing strategies. Viral marketing proposes that messages can be rapidly disseminated from consumer to consumer, leading to large-scale market acceptance (Krishnamurthy, 2003). The beauty of viral marketing on the Internet is that it can turn every user into an involuntary salesperson. In viral marketing the brand seems to underwrite (or sponsor) acts of communication, transforming users of the service –i.e. authors of email messages sent over the network-into de facto product endorsers. Viral marketing is more powerful than third-party advertising because it conveys an implied endorsement from a friend. Tactics that involve people in playful ways, which are passed on and disseminated organically, are far more likely to be successful (Moore, 2003). f) Search Engine Optimization: Many managers have already adopted new ways of thinking about branding on the Internet. One way is to recognize how consumers use keywords on search engines to find suitable brands. Owen (2000) hinted that, with greater experience, the concept of search engines is accepted and users now want more consumer-centric engines and to capitalize on this opportunity, managers strive to get their brands listed at the top.
Brands are also becoming increasingly more valuable on the Internet as many web users are moving from the initial “surfing” phase (Murphy et al., 2003). More experienced customers are moving away from search engines and are relying on the use of guessable domain names. A crucial tactic in a businesses online positioning strategy should then be to gain appropriate dot-com domains and sub-domains relevant to the brand, with links to the appropriate home page. This helps in building traffic, reinforcing the brand, and anticipating consumer behaviour and mistakes (Murphy et al., 2003). g) Permission of Opt-in Email: This strategy involves allowing a customer to opt-in to marketing relationships voluntarily. “Opt-in e-mails are the opposite of spam; it’s the good twin that users do not mind receiving” (Breakenridge, 2001, p.141). E-mails, newsletters, reminder services and discussion lists can also help to steer customers online. Such activities can be deemed to be extremely cost effective ways of gaining new customers, and/or reminding existing customers. Additional Features that allow a user to unsubscribe should also be provided or they may develop a negative image or experience with the brand. This communication tool is another way to brand the business or product, and should also contain key elements of the brand to create a connection with the user. As with any Internet medium, this communication should be personalised and targeted in order to increase the users’ attention (Breakenridge, 2001). h) Pricing: Branding strategy on the Internet often leads to a discussion on pricing and competition. A number of studies consider both pricing and branding on the Internet. de Chernatony (2001) proposes that brands can respond tactically to the price pressure challenges brought by the Internet in several ways. One way is to vary prices geographically to reflect issues such as the costs to serve different segments, local market conditions, and perceived value. He indicated that other organizations electronically interrogate which sites a person has visited and then use algorithms to set prices based on inferences about peoples’ price sensitivities. He also added that one of the more fundamental branding and pricing aspects is
14 that while prices initially attract many consumers to an Internet site, added value brings them repeatedly back. i) Sales Promotion and Incentives: Consumers are used to incentive tactics in the bricks and mortar environment hence this cannot be taken for granted when one wants to reap the perceived benefits in the online environment (de Chernatony, 2001). This is because brands today are a primary medium through which consumers make contact with the market, and are a primary means through which corporations extend themselves into the world inhabited by consumers (Moore, 2003). j) Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): In order to create the desired level of brand awareness and an image that will help create positive brand equity, it is important to construct a fully integrated marketing communication (IMC) programme. IMC posits that a variety of communication disciplines (e.g. advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, public relations) must work together to ensure maximum clarity, consistency, and communication impact (Krishnamurthy, 2003) and should improve a company’s ability to reach the right customers with the right messages at the right time and in the right place (Shultz et al., 1993; Rooney, 1995). The idea of integrating marketing may seem simple but it can be an extremely complex process in application. A number of advertising media such as television, radio and the Internet can be used together. It is suggested that integrating an organisation brand message in all media will offer greater market penetration. Integrated marketing takes advantage of each of the media unique features and allows a company to reach more of the audience, establish a brand message, consistency and recognition through repetitive messages (Miletsky, 2002). The integration of the communication message allows the development of a unique and strong brand image and marketers should strive to achieve the synergy that can come when various communication options to reach the consumer with a common and compelling message. An IMC programme should be a considered in this regard.
2.5 Summary of the Literature Review The literature review brings to light that there exists significant evidence to support the importance of branding. There is less research available which focuses on online branding or how the Internet can be used to help achieve branding objectives. However, there are new theories and principles emerging which seek to exploit the unique opportunities and challenges the Internet offers whilst others seek to identify specific considerations in building brand equity online. Again, this review also supports the idea that any branding activity should also consider IMC in order to create the desired level of brand awareness and image consistent with present and potential customers’ expectations. It is also obvious that, research is needed into the effectiveness of IMC and its relation to online branding. How is online branding incorporated into IMC efforts? Such research results would help guide brand managers in their efforts to make the most out of their limited resources when allocating IMC budget.
15 2.6 The Study of Brand Personality and the Big Five Model The Big Five Model emerged as the ‘language’ of personality within the framework of a psycholexical approach. This approach originated from a hypothesis, formulated by Gordon Allport at the end of the 1930s and formalized by Raymond Cattell in the mid 1940s, called ‘linguistic sedimentation’ or the ‘lexical hypothesis’. According to this theory, nouns and adjectives that describe human personality are integral to the development and maintenance of social relationships. As such, they become part of the vocabulary used by people every day, and are transmitted from one generation to another through the process of socialization. The practical consequences are that the vocabulary of natural languages represents the main source of descriptors for personality characteristics (John et al., 1988 as cited in Caprara et al., (2001). Several studies, scanning thousands of adjectives and nouns in unabridged dictionaries in different languages (Saucier et al., 1999), selected terms denoting stable characteristics of human personalities, which mostly have been considered the least ambiguous, the most frequently used, and the most useful for human personality description. According to Caprara et al. (2001), factor analysis conducted on these data sets revealed a structure generally composed of only five broad personality dimensions/traits (the so-called “Big Five Factors”, see Figure 2.2). They are:
(1)Extroversion (active, competitive, dominant, energetic, happy, lively, resolute, strong), the preference for social interaction and for activity;
(2) Agreeableness (affectionate, altruistic, authentic, cordial, faithful, generous, loyal), the orientation toward compassion and caring about others, and away from antagonism;
(3)Conscientiousness (conscientious, constant, efficient, precise, productive, regular, reliable, scrupulous);
(4)Emotional Stability (calm, level-headed, light-hearted, patient, relaxed, serene, stable, tranquil), the ability to cope effectively with negative emotions; and
(5)Openness to Experience (creative, fanciful, informed, innovative, modern, original, recent, up-to-date), the tolerance for new ideas and new ways of doing things, experientially-oriented.
These traits were found to easily evoked by a limited number of adjectives (so-called markers) that showed a high loading in the desired factor and low loadings in the remaining factors (Goldberg, 1992). For complete reviews of these studies, see (Digman, 1990; Goldberg, 1993; McCrae and John, 1992; Wiggins and Pincus, 1992).
Further confirmations of this five-factor structure subsequently came from studies of personality traits using self-reported questionnaires and independent ratings (see, for a review, Ostendorf and Angleitner, 1992). Also, by re-analyzing factor solutions derived from human personality descriptions, Digman (1997) found second-order dimensions that account for correlations among the Big Five, resulting in two higher-level factors. According to Digman, these factors represent the highest level of a hierarchical model of personality characteristics in which personality terms are arranged in order of increasing complexity, from the most specific behavioural response to broader personality dimensions.
16 Figure 2.2: The Big Five Factors
Big Five Factors
Extroversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotional Openness to Stability experience
x Active x Affectionate x Conscientious x Calm x Creative x Competitive x Altruistic x Constant x Level- x Fanciful x Dominant x Authentic x Efficient headed x Informed x Light- x Energetic x Cordial x Precise x Innovative x Lively x Productive hearted x Modern x Faithful x Resolute x Regular x Patient x Original x Strong x Generous x Reliable x Relaxed x Recent x Loyal x Scrupulous x Serene x Up-to-date x Stable x Tranquil
Adapted from Caprara, Gian Vittorio; Claudio Barbaranelli and Gianluigi Guido (2001), “Brand Personality: How to make the metaphor fit,” Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 22, No.3 (June), pp. 393
2.6.1 The Brand Personality Construct The idea as to whether brands can be described in terms of a set of traits appears to have been originally proposed by Martineau in 1958 and further developed by Plummer (1984). Plummer proposed that a brand might be described based on three main dimensions: physical attributes, functional characteristics or benefits associated to consumption and personality traits associated to the brand. The concept of brand personality has been considered important as it might help to differentiate brands (Plummer 1984; McEnally and de Chernatony, 1999) and to increase the personal meaning of a brand for consumers (Levy, 1959; Fournier, 1998). To Belk (1988), the existence of brand personality traits should help consumers to express their self- concept and to experiment symbolic benefits from their possession or consumption. Aaker, (1997) also claims that the symbolic use of brands is possible because consumers often give brands human personalities. Keller (1998, p.97) adds that “brand personality reflects how people feel about a brand, rather than what they think the brand is or does.” Other researchers such as Dobni and Zinkhan (1990) have argued that brand personification allows a better understanding and interpretation of the brand image concept.
In conceptualizing and measuring human personality, one of the ways often used is the trait approach. This approach states that personality is a set of traits (Anderson and Rubin, 1986). Empirical research that has been conducted in this area of measuring human personality tends to exclusively follow the trait approach (Aaker, 1997; Caprara et al., 2001). A trait is defined as “any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from others” (Guilford, 2003, p.23). Human personality traits are determined by multi-dimensional factors like the individual’s behaviour, appearance, attitude and beliefs, and demographic characteristics. Based on the trait theory, researchers have concluded that there are five stable personality dimensions, also called the ‘Big Five’ human personality dimensions (Batra et al., 1993).
17 Based on the ‘Big Five’ human personality dimensions (Extraversion/introversion, Agreeableness, Consciousness, Emotional stability, and Culture), Aaker (1997) has provided insights as to how the Big Five human personality structure might be used to develop a reliable, valid, and generalizable scale to measure brand personality across all product categories by proposing a 42 item Brand personality Scale (BPS) that assesses any brand across five key dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. Figure 1.1 demonstrates Jennifer Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality dimensions and their respective traits5.
Figure 2.3: Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Scale
Brand Personality
Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness
x Down-to-earth x Daring x Reliable x Upper class x Outdoorsy x Honest x Spirited x Intelligent x Charming x Tough x Wholesome x Imaginative x Successful x Cheerful x Up-to-date
Adapted from Aaker, Jennifer L. (1997), “Dimension of Brand Personality,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 34, No.3 (August), pp. 352
Aaker et al. (2001) propose that two dimensions-ruggedness and sophistication are representative of aspirational traits associated with for example, wealth and status and hence are less related to human personality than are other dimensions that are more intrinsic to personality. The brand personality dimensions correspond to three of the ‘Big Five’ human personality dimensions (Aaker, 1997). Both Agreeableness and Sincerity capture the idea of warmth and acceptance. Extraversion and Excitement both include the notions of sociability, energy, and activity, while Consciousness and Competence both connote responsibility, dependability, and security. The other two brand personality dimensions differ from any of the ‘Big Five’ of human personality. According to Aaker (1997), this pattern suggests these brand personality dimensions might operate in different ways or influence consumer preference for different reasons. Whereas Sincerity, Excitement, and Competence represent an innate part of human personality, Sophistication and Ruggedness are dimensions that individual’s desire but do not necessarily have.
5 These are the nouns, adjectives and phrases that are used to describe a brand personality dimension
18 2.6.2 The Formation of Brand Personality Brand personality traits are formed and influenced by any direct or indirect contact that the consumer has with a brand. Many studies concurred to the view that consumers accept the marketing actions to humanize brands. One explanation for this can be found in the theories of animism, which suggest that there exists the need by people to anthropomorphize objects in order to facilitate interactions with the non-material world (Fournier, 1998). Anthropomorphization occurs when human qualities are attributed to non-human objects, e.g. brands. Consumers easily assign personality qualities to inanimate objects like brands in thinking about brands as if they are human characters (Blackston, 1993; Aaker, 1997; Fournier, 1998).
In a direct way, personality traits are associated with a brand by the people associated to that brand (Aaker, 1997). One direct way to form and influence brand personality is user imagery. User imagery is defined by Aaker as “the set of human characteristics associated with the typical user of the brand” (p. 348). Associations with the company’s employees or CEO, and the brand’s product endorsers are also direct ways by which brand personality traits are formed and influenced. The personality traits of the people associated with a brand are transferred directly to the brand.
The theories of animism describe another process that directly explains the specific ways in which the vitality of the brand can be realized (Fournier, 1998). Spokespersons that are used in communication can have personalities that fit those of what the brands communicate about especially in advertising. Over time, the personalities of the spokespersons are transmitted to the brand. The brand-person associations can also have a more personal nature. Brands can be associated with persons who use or used that particular brand, for example a close friend or a family member. Also, brands received as gifts can also be associated with the person from whom the gift was received. These person associations serve to animate the brand as a vital entity in the minds of the consumers. It is quite obvious that this aspect is much less under the control of marketers.
Indirectly, the brand personality is created by all the elements of the marketing mix. Betra et al., (1993) suggest that the personality of a brand is created over time, by the entire marketing mix of the brand–“its price (high or low, odd or even), retail store location (imagery associations), product formulation (ingredients, benefits), product form (solid/liquid, etc.), packaging details (colour, size, material, shape), symbol used in all phases of the brand communication, sales promotion, and media advertising” (p. 93).
In sum, a large number of variables have been mentioned in the literature as influencing brand personality: brand name, brand symbol or logo, celebrity endorser, colour, shape, country of origin, price, music, packaging, sales promotions, etc. (Plummer, 1984; Ogilvy, 1985; McCracken, 1989; Batra et al., 1993; Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1996; Aaker, 1997).
19 2.6.3 Brand Personality and its Measurement Various researchers have attempted to develop brand personality measurements. Aaker (1997) has provided insights as to how the Big Five human personality structure might be used to develop a reliable, valid, and generalizable scale to measure brand personality across all product categories by proposing a 42 item Brand Personality Scale (BPS) that assesses any brand across five key dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. She defined brand personality as “The set of human characteristics associated with a brand” (p. 347). In simple terms, if a brand were a person, how would it be described? Fournier’s (1998) framework for understanding and extending brand personality makes use of a Brand Relationship Quality (BRQ)-model comprising six central factors: partners quality, intimacy, interdependence, self-connection and love). Using her brand personality dimensions in two different experiments, Aaker (1999) examines the self expressive use of brands and how a person’s self-concept and situational influences affect brand preference. The results indicate that consumers’ preference for brands that had personality traits consistent with their own self- schema was moderated by their degree of “self monitoring” (p.47) or propensity to conform to what was deemed socially acceptable in different situations. Through a series of experiments, Aaker et al., (2001) also determines that both situational accessibility and cultural differences influence individual perceptions of the personality of a brand. In their findings, they revealed a set of dimensions common to both Japan and United States (sincerity, excitement, competence and sophistication) together with culture-specific Japanese (peaceful) and American (ruggedness) dimensions. An extension of these studies to other countries yielded Spain and the United States (sincerity, excitement and sophistication) with a non-shared Spanish (passion) and American (competence and ruggedness) dimensions. Sung and Tinkham (2005) rated a set of global brands on the same personality attributes in the United States and Korea. They also found 6 common dimensions of brand personality (likableness, trendiness, competence, sophistication, traditionalism and ruggedness) and 2 culture-specific factors unique to both Korea (Passive Likeableness and Ascendancy) and USA (White Collar and Androgyny) were observed. In fact, Aaker’s scale has been found not to be perfectly stable in all cultural contexts but all in all, most of results of these studies have in a way found, confirmed, included an element of or the set of Aaker’s (1997) brand personality dimensions.
2.6.4 Positioning the Thesis in Brand Personality Research Organizations may reap some benefits as a result of associating their brand with a particular personality. One of the advantages of brand personalities are that based on their distinctive personalities, consumers are able to differentiate between brands. Another advantage is that the consumer can interpret the brand’s image in such a way that it becomes personally more meaningful. Brand personality encourages more active processing on the part of the consumer. Thus, the consumer puts more effort in creating and using the brand personality. A further advantage of brand personality is that life is given to a brand. By vitalizing a brand, another perspective of brand personality can be examined, for instance, the role of a brand as a relationship building in a consumer-brand relationship. Yet, brand equity and brand image have been variously researched (for e.g. Biel, 1992; Keller, 1993, 2003b; Rust et al., 2000; Ailawadi et al., 2003) whilst brand personality has relatively received little attention in academic literature. Therefore, it is suggested that further work is still needed (in this area) in terms of measurement, extension and managerial implications due to its importance to practitioners.
20 As already alluded to, a notable exception in brand personality research are the works of Jennifer Aaker (1997, 1999) and with others (Aaker et al., 2001). In the 1997 study, she identifies five dimensions of brand personality on the basis of a variety of inputs, including human personality traits, and models personality with a factor-analytical approach. In a way, Aaker’s (1997) original scale has been applied in different context and the results have been varied. Like most scales, this one has also come under academic scrutiny and subsequently criticised during the past decade. In fact, Austin et al., (2003) suggest the need of practitioners to be wary of such research which seeks to generalize to any context in which brand personality (or any other brand-related construct) is to be measured. In all these, Aaker’s scale has been followed by other studies with the view to better defining or measuring the concept of brand personality. Her important contribution in this area has been examined among French (Ferrandi et al., 2000), Japanese, and Spanish consumers (Aaker et al., 2001), global brands in American and Korean cultures (Sung and Tinkham, 2005), restaurants in the US (Siguaw et al., 1999), non-profit organizations (Venable et al., 2005), tourist destinations (Hosany et al., 2006) and extended to measure corporate reputation (Davies et al., 2001) with the view to better defining or measuring the concept of brand personality. In fact, all the research focusing on brand personality has likewise lead to insights but to our knowledge, previous studies have not examined the extension of brand personality research into business schools, African countries and International Food SMEs. Given that much less is known about brand personality in these aforementioned areas, these studies (Study A and B) attempt to contribute in filling these gaps. Again, anchoring our work in prior research, the dimensions of Aaker’s Brand Personality Scale (BPS) will further be extended and contextualised in this thesis. This is because, not only that most research papers on brand personality currently are based upon this scale but they also enable researchers to capture the symbolic meanings of brands (Austin et al., 2003) as if they were people. Though Aaker’s scale relied on customer perceptions as input to the determination of a brand personality, we use what is communicated on the sampled websites as input. Stated somehow differently, we do not measure an entity’s brand personality by what others think it to be, but rather, what the entity says about itself or intends to communicate.
21 2.7 Content Analysis According to Newbold et al., (2002, p.79), content analysis was introduced as a systematic method to study mass media especially propaganda by Harold Lasswell in 1927. However, it proliferated as a research methodology in mass communication studies and social sciences. As a primary message-centred methodology (Neuendorf, 2002), content analysis has been used to study a broad range of texts, from transcripts of interviews (Sackmann, 1992; Russell and Carrico (1988) and discussions in clinical and social research (Donnelly and Murray, 1991; Gottschalk et al., 1997) to the narrative and form of films (Abrahamson and Mechanic, 1983), writings and authorship (Mosteller and Wallace, 1964; Ellis and Dick, 1997); books (Horton, 1986; Laffal, 1995); TV programmes (Callcott and Lee (1994) and editorial and advertising content of newspapers and magazines (Todd et al., 1995; Pratt and Pratt, 1995; Bailey, 2006). A plethora or research on content analysis in the marketing field has focused on searching for meaning in magazines (see Tse et al., 1989; Gross and Sheth, 1989; Kolbe and Burnett, 1991; Kolbe and Albanese, 1996); television advertisement (Resnik and Stern, 1977; Dowling, 1980), print advertisement (Graham et al., 1993), best-selling books (Harvey, 1953; Mullins and Kopelman, 1984) and travel related websites (Choi et al., 2007).
2.7.1 Definitions of Content Analysis A widely used definition of content analysis which illustrates the early focus on quantitative analysis was provided by Bernard Berelson. He described it as a research technique for objective, systematic and quantitative description of manifest content of communication (Berelson, 1952, p.18, Newbold et al., 2002, p.79). Although this definition is often quoted, it has been found wanting in many respects. First, the word ‘objective’ is disputed by researchers including Berger and Luckman (1996). Obviously they pointed out that even the most scientific methods of social research cannot produce totally objective results. Second, this definition can also been criticised on the grounds that latent as well as manifest content can be analysed.
Many definitions have also surfaced as there are many researchers interested in content analysis. Some of the definitions include but are not limited to the following:
To Stone et al., (1966, p.5), content analysis “is any research technique for making inferences by systematically and objectively identifying specified characteristics within text.”
Holsti (1969, p.14) offers a broad definition of content analysis as “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages”. Under this definition, the technique of content analysis is not restricted to the domain of textual analysis, but may be applied to other areas. The problem with such definition is that it opens the floodgates because, in order to allow for replication, a content analysis technique can only be applied to data that are durable in nature.
Weber (1990, p.9) has this to say about content analysis: “Content analysis is a research method that uses a set of procedures to make valid inferences from the text.”
Berger (1991, p. 25) also defines content analysis as “a research technique that is based on measuring the amount of something (violence, negative portrayals of women or whatever) in a representative sampling of some mass-mediated popular form of art.” The problem with this definition is that, it is too narrow and only focuses on a few things that can be content analysed.
22 In close consonance to Berelson’s definition, Kolbe and Burnett (1991) define content analysis to include the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of a communication. This definition has been supported by Malhotra and Birks (2006).
Neuman (2003) also lists content analysis as a key non-reactive research methodology (i.e. Non-intrusive) and describes it as: “A technique for gathering and analysing the content of text”. The ‘content’ refers to words, meanings, pictures, symbols, ideas, themes, or any message that can be communicated. The ‘text’ is anything written, visual, or spoken that serves as a medium for communication.
To Wilson (2006, p.98) content analysis “involves the analysis of the content of any form of communication whether it is advertisement, newspaper articles, television programmes or taped conversation.”
The problem with the two latter definitions is that they are somewhat focused on what can be content analysed.
One of the most prominent contemporary researchers using and writing about content analysis is Kimberley Neuendorf. To her, content analysis is summarizing quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the scientific method… and is not limited as to the types of variables that may be measured of the context in which the messages are created or presented”(p.9). Noteworthy about Neuendorf’s definition is that she clearly states her position on whether content analysis is qualitative or quantitative method. She argues her position on the quantitative nature of content analysis very strongly by advocating the use of scientific methods including attention to objectivity-intersubjectivity, a priori design, reliability, validity, generalizability, replicability, and hypothesis testing” (Neuendorf, 2002, p. 10). On the other hand, Neuendorf’s definition seems to be focused too much on what researchers do in content analysis (methodology) other than what can be done with it.
Shoemaker and Reese (1996) however do not support Neuendorf’s strict interpretation of content analysis as quantitative research only. They put content analysis into two boxes- the behaviourist tradition and the humanist tradition. The behaviourists primarily concern themselves with the effects that content produces and this approach is the one pursued by social scientists. Whereas the behaviourist approach looks forward from media content to try to identify future effects, the humanist approach looks backwards from media content to try to identify what it says about society and the culture producing it. Humanist scholars in this sense draw on psychoanalysis and cultural anthropology to analyse how media content such as film and television drama reveal truths about society- what Shoemaker and Reese term “the media’s symbolic environment (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996, p.31-32). The crust of this dichotomy is that, it helps to explain the age-old debate over whether mass media create public opinion, attitudes, perception and culture (effects) or reflect existing attitudes, perceptions and culture. Shoemaker and Reese added that social scientists taking a behaviourist approach rely mostly on quantitative content analysis, while humanist approaches to media content tend towards qualitative analysis. To them, social scientist may use both types of research.
23 2.7.2 Summary on the Definitions It can be concluded that the early content analysts tried to define content analysis to meet the standards of the scientific method. They argued for the scientific nature of this analysis by agreeing on some distinguishing characteristics of content analysis such as objective, systematic and quantitative. For full appreciation of these early definitions see Kassarjian (1971). This seems natural in the sense that much of the scholarship in this area were still embryonic hence could not justify this research tool as scientific. Therefore, the early scholars in this area tried to look for support to justify the scientific nature of their tool. This, they did by relying on definitions. Consequently, and being mindful of their positions as content analysts, they seem to have chosen words that will help them to meet this objective. On the other hand, the more recent ones have been focusing on the context in which content analysis can be applied. This could in a way indicate that the battle over the scientific nature of content analysis as a methodology has somehow been won. In other words, the discourse as to whether a content analysis is scientific or not has been established. Hence, the challenge for modern content analysts have been “what to” or “what” can be content analysed.
Following the discussions, it is clear that all the definitions considered above have their own weaknesses. However, it is pertinent to note that there are common themes that run through all of them. That, content analysis:
x is a method of identifying text (Stone et al., 1966); x is a research technique for objective, systematic and quantitative description of manifest content (Berelson, 1952; Holsti, 1969) x is a research method of codifying text (Weber, 1990); and x is a research technique (Berger ,1991) x consists of gathering and analysing the content of text (Neuman, 2003). x is summarising….and may be measured… (Neuendorf, 2002)
Taking clues from the above themes and for the purposes of this study, content analysis can be defined as:
“a method of gathering and analyzing a text or content of a piece of writing into various groups or categories depending on selected criteria and by systematically identifying specified characteristics or patterns within the text or content in order to predict and make valid inferences from the data.”
Our motivation for settling on this working definition is that it has some advantages over the previous one in the following ways. It is:
x all round; x broader in scope; x methodologically-focused, and x outcome/result-oriented.
Considering these purported advantages, this definition will be used throughout this thesis.
24 2.7.3 Purposes of Content Analysis A research into literature reveals the following as purposes of content analysis. According to Neuendorf (2002, p. 52), Berelson (1952) suggested five main purposes of content analysis as follows:
x to describe substance characteristics of message content, x to describe form characteristics of message content, x to make inferences to producers of content, x to make inferences to audiences of content, and x to predict the effects of content on audiences
Carney (1972) broadly agreed with this view. However, he summarises the three main uses of content analysis as:
x descriptive, x hypothesis testing, and x facilitating inference.
Neuendorf supports Carney’s view of media content analysis as useful for facilitating inference even though it cannot directly prove it. Neuendorf further adds that content analysis has some predictive capabilities as well as other specialist uses. Neuendorf (2002, p. 53) concludes that there are four main approaches to and roles of content analysis:
x descriptive, x inferential, x psychometric, and x predictive.
To Neuendorf (2002), while psychometric refers to specialised medical and psychoanalytical uses of content analysis for interpreting the text of a patient interviews or statements, the three other approaches are highly relevant to social sciences and cultural studies. The first and most basic role-descriptive, provides an insight into the specific messages and images in discourse and popular culture represented in mass media. The inferential and predictive roles of content analysis–even though they are ‘facilitating’ rather than conclusive, allow exploration of likely effects of mass media representations on audiences and on societies.
However, the reliability of content analysis for describing mediated discourses, and particularly for drawing inferences or making predictions concerning likely effects of these mediated discourses, depends on the methodology employed. Therefore, some key methodological decisions and considerations in content analysis are discussed under the following sub- headings.
25 2.7.4 The Quantitative versus Qualitative Content Analysis Debate Researchers have approach content analysis in different ways, using “different conceptual and methodological tools” (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996, pp. 31). Cooper and Schindler (2003) noted that the breadth of content analysis makes it flexible and wide-ranging tool that may be used as a general methodology or as a problem-specific technique. However, many authors have been silent on whether content analysis as a research strategy belongs to the qualitative or quantitative approach (see Neuman, 2003). Some authors recognise it as quantitative (see Bryman and Bell, 2003, p.194; Berelson, 1952); others have positioned it squarely inside the qualitative domain (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Boyle, 1994; Tesch, 1990). While Neuendorf strongly advocates that content analysis is purely quantitative, Shoemaker and Reese’s categorisation of content analysis into humanist and behaviourist traditions indicate that content analysis can be undertaken using both approaches. The latter hinted that behavioural content analysis is not always or necessarily conducted using quantitative or numerical techniques, but the two tend to go together. Similarly, humanistic content study naturally gravitates towards qualitative analysis.” Shoemaker and Reese (1996) further note: ‘Reducing large amounts of text to quantitative data… does not provide a complete picture of meaning and contextual codes, since texts may contain many other forms of emphasis besides sheer repetition” (p.32).
Neuman (2003, p.273) also comments on the quantitative–qualitative dichotomy in content analysis. He hinted that “a researcher uses objective and systematic counting and recording procedures to produce a quantitative description of the symbolic content in a text”. However, there exist qualitative or interpretative versions of content analysis. He noted that qualitative content analysis is not highly respected by most positivist researchers. Nonetheless, feminist researchers and others adopting more critical and interpretative approaches favour it.
In a form of a critique, Newbold et al. (2002, p.84) hold that view that quantitative content analysis “has not been able to capture the context within which a media text becomes meaningful.” They added that qualitative content analysis examines the relationship between the text and its likely audience-derived meaning, recognising that media texts are polysemic- i.e. open to multiple different meaning to different readers- and tries to determine the likely meaning of texts to audiences. It pays attention to audience, media and contextual factors-not simply the text.
In conclusion, it could be deduced that qualitative content analysis relies heavily on researcher readings and interpretation of text. This intensive and time-consuming focus is one of the reasons why qualitative content analysis has involved small samples of content and been criticised by some researchers as unscientific. In other words, qualitative content analysis is difficult and may be impossible to do with scientific reliability. Quantitative content analysis can conform to the scientific method and produce reliable findings. On the other hand, qualitative analysis of texts is necessary to help understand their deeper meanings and likely interpretations by audiences. It is to this effect that others have argued for its dynamic nature by indicating that it used to be quantitative but in modern times it is gaining currency as a qualitative approach (see Marshall and Rossman, 1999; Cooper and Schindler, 2003; Krippendorf, 2004).
However, in questioning the validity and usefulness of the distinction between quantitative and qualitative content analysis, Krippendorf (2004, p.19) argues that “all reading of texts is qualitative, even when certain characteristics of a text are later converted into numbers.” In a less dichotomist view, it can also be concluded from Hansen et al. (1998) and Shoemaker and
26 Reese (1996) that a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis offers ‘the best of both worlds’ and further, that a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis methodologies is necessary to fully understand the meanings and possible impacts of texts. In fact, we have taken the same position as Hansen et al and Shoemaker and Reese in this thesis hence this study reasonably could be labelled as a multi-strategy research.
2.7.5 Computer-Aided Text Analysis (CATA) Upon the popularization of General Inquirer content analysis program by Stone et al. (1966), computer-aided content analysis of texts has gained wider usage. Various computer-aided text analyses has been performed and described in different studies. For some examples of its varied applications, see these studies (Weber, 1990; Erdener and Dun, 1990; Wolfe, 1991; Kabanoff, 1996).
Computer software programmes which are designed to facilitate content analysis have proliferated over the past few years. This has brought in its wake various discussions on this subject matter (see special issue of Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 7 (1-2), 1984). Using computers to facilitate qualitative data analysis has been given various names such as computer-assisted data analysis (see Maclaran and Catterall, 2002); computer-supported data analysis (see Romano et al., 2003) and computer-facilitated data analysis (see Wolfe et al., 1993). We choose not to engage ourselves in this ‘war of words’ but to stick to Computer-Aided Text Analysis (CATA) in this thesis. We also argue that computers can clearly support be it qualitative or quantitative content analysis by serving as a repository for coding data and providing power tools for analysing and reporting research. This will remain our position in this study.
Strengths of CATA A way to understand the contribution of computers to content analysis is to contrast computer-aided and manual approaches (Kelle, 1995). The contribution of computers to data analysis has been recognised in the following ways:
First, computerization allows the manipulation of large data sets (Gephart, 1991; Lissack, 1998; Morris, 1994; Wolfe et al., 1993). The complexity and potential interrelationships of concepts increase exponentially with the quantity of data. Software programmes offer features for organizing, searching, retrieving and linking data that renders the process of handling a large project much more manageable. For instance, Lissack (1998) described how parsing software can be used to sample concepts from a large corpus. This sampling approach allows the researcher to content analyze a reasonable amount of data representative of the initial corpus.
Second, computers reduce the time and cost of undertaking content analytic projects (Mossholder et al., 1995). Time savings stem from the minimization of the coding task, the reduction in coder training, the elimination of inter-rater checks, and the ease of running multiple analyses (Carley, 1997).
Third, the use of computers addresses several of the reliability concerns associated with manual coding (Morris, 1994; Gephart and Wolfe, 1989; Wolfe et al., 1993). Coding rules are made explicit which ensures reliability and comparability of results across texts (see Morris, 1994).
Finally, the use of network concepts has been one of the most exciting developments of the past few years in CATA research (Kelle, 1995). New linkage features between text memos,
27 and codes such as hyperlinks and graphical tools apply to the areas of theory building, hypothesis testing, and integration of qualitative and quantitative analysis. These developments of CATA seem particularly apt to diffuse concerns about the decontextualization of results that is inherent to a methodology based on coding and retrieval (Dey, 1995; Prein and Kelle, 1995). Gephart (1993) also observed the methodological fit of computer-aided text analysis with grounded theorizing because information can be retrieved in meaningful ways that allows for the mergence of grounded hypotheses (see also, Wolfe et al., 1993).
Limitations of CATA Despite the above advantages, users of CATA software are still confronted with some challenges (Carley, 1997; Gephart, 1991; Morris, 1994; Tallerico, 1991). The debate regarding manifest versus latent content cannot be left out (Woodrum, 1984). Although CATA software is increasing in sophistication, Morris (1994) revealed that measuring content with computers will miss some latent aspects within texts such as tone or irony of expression. Unfortunately, human coders still also exhibit low reliability for latent content. Further, it could be argued that the significance of these problems may be over-estimated for business texts appearing in corporate documents such as annual reports and websites. These documents are usually written for clarity because they are read by people from around the world. Still, validity may be particularly critical issue when dealing with metaphors, homonyms, colloquialism (Carley, 1997), and other aspects of natural language (Morris, 1994).
In terms of implementing CATA, three issues should be borne in mind. Obviously and in general terms, researchers should avoid the over reliance on a computer and the justification fallacy of using a computer programme (Tallerico, 1991) because computerization may never replace human judgement in all cases. Second, retrieval capabilities may be insufficient and limited in certain software categories (Gephart and Wolfe, 1989). Finally, the fragmentation of the field of CATA software (Kabanoff, 1996) and its proliferation on the market make the choice of the appropriate package difficult. However, for full appreciation of commonalities, differences and limitations of text analysis software see, Alexa and Zuell (2000).
28 3.0 Summary of Study A: Communication of Brand Personality by some Top Business Schools Online This chapter summarises the Licentiate Thesis6 conducted in 2005. This study focused on developing a methodology for the evaluation of websites positioning in terms of brand personality communication. As part of this summary, we also discuss research problem and questions used and the outcome of this study. We further provide the outcome of this study in a form of steps. An attempt is made to motivate and discuss the rationale behind and the quality criteria of each step.
3.1 Research Problem of Study A The personality metaphor seems suitable for brands(Aaker (1997). In this regard, marketers interested in shaping and reinforcing brands’ desirable features need to know whether the same adjectives correspond to the same dimensions when used to describe personalities of different brands online. Motivated by the above, organisations cannot only capitalize on this attractiveness by communicating their organizational traits to their prospective, potential and current audiences and but also try to demonstrate these traits on all available communication media.
The Web has been identified as a friendly and extremely convenient source of information for many customers (Watson et al., 2000) but while companies may have a website presence, only those that believe it provides a competitive advantage seem likely to use their website across a variety of marketing communication activities (Perry and Bodkin, 2000). Additionally, the findings of Chen and Wells (1999) brought to light that a good website is one that delivers relevant and well-organized information in an emerging manner. It is therefore likely that the top business schools can be considered among the numerous organizations that would have sufficient resources (certainly in terms of expertise) to engage in fully featured websites that could clearly and distinctively communicate their brand personalities online. Yet, it also possible that not all of schools engage in the same levels of marketing communications activities on their websites. To test the premise we raised the following research problem:
How do business schools use their websites to communicate brand personalities?
3.2 Purpose of the Study A As a way of looking at the research problem, the study introduces, develops and elaborates the use of computer-assisted content analysis in evaluating the intended brand personality positioning of some schools’ full-time MBA programmes in the online environment. The study involves multistage methodology focused on the websites of 30 full-time global MBA programmes, using a combination of computerized content and correspondence analyses. The content analysis was structured using Aaker’s five-dimensional framework whilst the positioning maps were produced by examining the data using correspondence analysis. This study also illustrates a powerful, but simple and relatively inexpensive way for organizations and brand researchers to study communicated brand personalities.
6 The full version of this thesis can be found online at http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1757/2005/53/LTU-LIC-0553- SE.pdf
29 3.3 Research Questions According to Krippendorf (2004), content analysts answer research questions by analysing texts, which are understood generally to include websites, provided they mean something in the chosen context. During the development of this study, we used our review of existing literature as a springboard to identify and reform our research questions. Thus, the literature review previously presented in Opoku (2005) lends credence to each of the two primary research questions. Importantly, we were of the view that exploring these questions potentially will benefit the quest to developing the brand positioning evaluative method.
Question 1 Wadia (2000) noted that organization’s relationship with customers has become one of the key differentiating factors between companies that succeed and those that fail, given the enormous choice customers are presented within each product category. Rubinstein (2002, p.39) observed an emerging shift in emphasis that “branding is about creating valued relationship with customers.” In an early attempt to identify the determinants of corporate success on the Internet, Moore and Andradi (1996) demonstrated the importance of incumbent companies leveraging and extending their existing relationship online.
Thus, the Internet provides an excellent platform on which companies can foster a genuine relationship with potential and actual customers based upon continuous dialogue. However, Perry and Bodkin (2002) concluded that only a small percentage of the many possible marketing communication activities currently are being used. In this milieu, it is likely that some dimensions of brand personality will dominate, whilst others will be less frequently used on business schools’ websites. To this end, we raised the first research question as:
Q1: Are there any of the Aaker’s five brand personality dimensions used by business schools in their websites’ communication?
Question 2 More and more products and services are seen as being at “parity” essentially having arrived at the maturity stage of their life cycle(Keller (2001b). As a result, points-of-difference that distinguish brands related to inherent qualities of the product or service have become harder to come by. In a cluttered, complex marketplace, marketing communications can allow brands to stand out and help consumers appreciate their comparative advantages. Brand personality also helps a website to powerfully differentiate itself from competing sites, although sites may necessarily be similar to each other, both in appearance and function (Kim et al., (2001).
To Perry and Bodkin (2002), the ability of organisations to use a comprehensive and integrated marketing communications website strategy to differentiate themselves from their competitors will become a necessity as more and more organizations use websites while trying to foster relationships with customers. To this end, using a website as a differentiating factor, we conceive that business schools can capitalize on the strength of websites to differentiate themselves from others when communicating their brand personalities. This is because the objective of marketers in establishing a website differs from one organization to another (Berthon et al., 1998; Kiani, 1998). Hence we ask the second question:
Q2: In what ways do business schools differ in their use of website information to communicate brand personalities online?
30 Every scientific investigation has a major goal in providing a description or explanation of a phenomenom in a way that avoids the biases of the investigation (Neuendorf, 2002). In order to answer the research questions in this study, we provide definitions of keywords and details of steps we employed in our subsequent discussions.
3.3.1 Definitions and Operationalization of Keywords and Variables The need for an orderly usage and consistent terminology is essential for scientific inquiry. This study cannot be left out. By moving from the abstract level of the theory to the concrete level of this study, we further provide the concepts and operational definitions.
According to Neuman (2003, p.174), “operationalisation links a conceptual definition to a specific set of measurement techniques or procedures and the construct’s operational definition.” Operational definitions “indicate the precise procedures or operations to be followed when measuring a concept” (Sullivan, 2001, p.35).
Tables 3.1 and 3.2 provide the theoretical and operational definitions of keywords and variables used in this study.
Table 3.1 Theoretical Definitions and Operationalisation of Keywords Keyword Theoretical/Nominal Operational Definition Definition 1. Brand Personality “The set of human characteristics Business schools’ perception about the set of human associated with a brand.”(Aaker (1997, personality characteristics they intend to associate p.347) with their respective full-time MBA programmes. 2. Business School “Any graduate school offering any study Any graduate school offering full-time study leading leading to a degree of Master of Business to a degree of Master of Business Administration in a Administration” (WorldNet, 2004) “physical” classroom setting. 3. Marketing “The means by which firms attempt to The means by which business schools attempt to Communication inform, persuade, incite and remind inform, persuade, incite and remind their consumers consumers directly or indirectly about the directly or indirectly about their brand personalities brands they sell” (Keller, 2001b) on their websites. 4. Website “It is a hierarchy of information, It is the intended textual information on brand Information connected via hyperlinks to an infinite personalities provided by business schools on their number of other sites” (Okazaki and websites. This textual information is derived from the Rivas, 2002). homepage and all roots connected or linked only to the business schools’ main portal.
31 Table 3.2 Theoretical Definitions and Operationalisation of Variables Variable Theoretical / Nominal Definition Operational Definition 1. Clear Easy to understand; fully intelligible; free from “Clear” is defined in this thesis as any brand obscurity of sense (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989, personality dimension/trait that is easily recognized, 2nd ed) understood and not subject to multiple interpretations. 2. Distinct Distinguished or separated from others by nature or Distinct is defined in this thesis as any brand qualities, possessing differentiating characteristics; personality dimension/trait that is separated from and individually peculiar in quality or kind; not alike stands tall among its colleagues, in terms of how it (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989, 2nd ed). consistently is communicated. 3. Frequent Commonly used or practiced; well-known; Frequent is defined in this thesis as a brand personality common; usual commonly occurring in (Oxford dimension/trait that is well used, common and English Dictionary, 1989, 2nd ed) commonly occurring among business schools. 4. Differ To put apart or separate from each other in qualities; Differ is defined in this thesis as how business schools to make unlike, dissimilar, different or distinct, to try to make something “unlike”, unique or sound cause to vary, to distinguish; differentiate(Oxford different while communicating their brand English Dictionary, 1989, 2nd ed) personalities online.
3.3.2 Key Variables and Their Measurements Measurement also refers to “the process of describing abstract concepts in terms of specific indicators by assigning numbers or other symbols to these indicants in accordance with rules” (Sullivan, 2001, p.118). Usually, there are multiple ways to measure a construct however the key is to fit the measure to the specific conceptual definition, both to: the practical constraints within which one have to operate, and the research techniques one already knows or can learn (Neuman, 2003). We therefore took the above issues into consideration when initially developing our measures.
Table 3.3: Key Variables and their Measurements Variables Operational Definition Measurement 1. Clear Any trait or synonym(s) of a dimension of brand personality scale that is/are consistently used on the website. This/these will manifest itself/themselves by the way a business school(s) is/are positioned close to this/these dimension(s). 2. Distinct A business school could be distinct from others when it The position of a school on a two-way chooses to position itself consistently or describe itself in a dimensional Correspondence Analysis peculiar and unique way in terms of how it communicates Plot/Map its brand personality on its website. 3. Frequent These are the dimensions that are commonly used and commonly occurring. It could be that these dimensions are not stressed in any way to be more important than others. 4. Differ These are the dimensions that are used as differentiating Some criteria such as number of words on a factors between schools or for a school to seem different in website, type of message, location and terms of its/their communication of brand personality on environment, control and governance, its/their website(s). philosophical orientation of the school etc. will be used in this differentiation.
32 3.4 Steps Involved in the Evaluation of Website Brand Personality Positioning Marshall and Rossman (1999) point out that research design serves three major purposes. First, they represent a plan for the conduct of a study. Second, they demonstrate to the reader that the researcher is capable of conducting the study. Third, they preserve the design flexibility that is the hallmark of research methods. We felt that our research problem, literature review, frame of reference and research methodology were fully appropriate to address the research problem we have chosen. As we will see later, we evaluated other alternatives and ultimately selected the ones we have used, deeming that they were the most likely to yield useful, and minimally biased results. However, by enumerating these steps we are of the view that researchers who are interested in replicating or conducting a similar study in another environment will find them useful.
3.4.1 Step One: Selecting the Computer-Aided Text Analysis Software (CATA) for the Study An array of programmes abound with breathtaking pace of future introductions to aid CATA. However, several interesting and important types of CATA software have been proposed. Tesch (1991; 1990) brought up a typology based on the two dimensions of methodology and technology that has been adapted by several authors (see e.g. Wolfe et al., 1993; Roberts, 1997) by making a blurring distinction between commercial and academic software. Weitzman and Miles (1995) established a practical list of types of CATA packages, ranging from simple to more complex programmes. Catterall and Maclaran (1998) also came out with seven categories (text retrievers, textbase managers, code and retrieve programmes, code-based theory builders, conceptual network builders, content analysis programmes and Artificial Neural Network programmes). Recently, it appears many programmes share common features thus narrowing the distinction to three general programme types. These are: text retrieval, text analysis, and database manager programmes. For this study, we were most interested in a text retrieval programmes because they are designed to help answer questions concerning words, word categories, and concepts represented by key-words (Wolfe et al., 1993).
In selecting software for this thesis, we strictly followed the procedure established by White et al., (2001). This helped us to draw a list of desired software requirements based on functionality. These are as follows:
x The software must be able to automatically identify words in a text and produce a frequency list of terms, counting at least occurrence and frequency within each text.
x The software must be able to identify frequently occurring words in the texts and be able to identify synonyms of the related words.
x The software must have its own dictionary which can further enrich the dictionary build-up.
x The software must be able to compare the batches of texts to identify differences and similarities within the text documents.
x Stop words and other items must be able to be excluded at the user’s discretion.
33 x The software must be able to establish relationships among words or categories as well as identify similarities using hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling analysis.
After contacting text retrieval experts for advice coupled with an extensive search on the World Wide Web using both search engines and recommended software sites, four software packages were identified as at March 2005 and which were further investigated: WordStat, Nudist, DICTION, and HyperResearch. Demonstration versions of all the six were evaluated using the above criteria. The search was narrowed down to two-DICTION and WordStat. However, it was later identified that the text to be processed by DICTION must not be longer than 500 words and also it uses a standardized dictionary. Neuendorf (2002) cautions the use of such dictionary since they do not reveal the precise nature of their measures or how they construct their scales and indexes. On the other hand, it was gathered that WordStat is inexpensive for a single user; fast way to identify all the most frequent words and phrases in use; helps to drill down to view the full context for each phrase identified and can add own dictionaries and handle other languages too. From this evaluation, it was clear that only WordStat could perform the required tasks in this thesis.
In particular, we opted for WordStat7 because it can perform analysis on text fields in various formats as well as on long documents. It can process texts reducing words to canonical form (e.g. “Dogs” and “Doggy” to “Dog”). It can perform univariate frequency analysis (keyword count and occurrence) and presents results in matrix form. Besides, it can perform bivariate comparison between any textual field and any nominal and ordinal variables (such as gender or age group of the respondents). There are many association measures in WordStat to help assess the relationship between the keyword occurrence and nominal/ordinal variables by the Phrase Finder (built in the software), e.g. the difference between keyword occurrence among the personal ads placed by men and by women. Keyword-in-context (KWIC) is a useful feature in WordStat that allows one to see the occurrence of either a specific word or all words related to a category in an actual text arranged in a table format. It is handy when one needs to assess the consistency (or lack of consistency) of meanings associated with a word. With WordStat, relationships among words or categories as well as document similarity may be identified using hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling analysis. Correspondence analysis and heatmap plots generated through this programme may be used to explore relationship between keywords and different groups of variables.
In comparing SAS Text Mining and WordStat, Davi et al., (2005) reveal that WordStat is among the text analysis software which offers a variety of features that effectively help researchers run associations and present results. In studying the patterns of co-occurrence within titles, Stephen (1999) used this tool to establish and map the relationship between concepts appearing in human communication research. Upon strict criteria, White et al., (2001) also have used it to identify frequently occurring terms in titles and abstracts of medical journals.
7 WordStat is an add-in module that must run from either of the base products SimStat or QDA Miner (www.provalisresearch.com).
34 3.4.2 Step Two: Selecting the Unit of Analysis It has been acknowledged that word counts are a preferred measure when researchers want to ascertain the importance of a topic in one or more texts (Krippendorf 1980). As a result, content analysis has been used to study words in texts on firms’ environmental disclosure practices (Deegan and Gordon 1996; Deegan and Rankin 1996), corporate financial status (Previts et al., 1994), and scholarly accounting thought (Buckmaster and Jones, 1997).
In this study, we also rely on words because the drift of computer supported-content analysis has been on the word as unit of analysis (Stone, 1997; Péladeau, 2003) rather than on sentences (Gottshalk, 1997) or semantic structures (Roberts, 1997a). This is the least to say that other units of analyses are less interesting but our perspective on the word as unit of analysis was also motivated by the huge amount of text to manage. Again, two major assumptions underlie the validity of counting word frequencies in brand personality communication. First, it is assumed that the language people use reflects what they are, attending to, concerned with or focusing on. In the case of this thesis, we assume that the words contained in these websites reflect what these organisations think are important attributes or characteristics of themselves. The second assumption is that the relative frequency with which particular words are used on a website is an indication of how the message sender is focusing on a particular brand personality dimension.
As it will be discovered later in this chapter, the WordStat text-analysis programme compares each word in the collected website information with all the dictionary categories. Each time a word is identified; it is tagged and counted to a category or dimension. When all the words in a text document have been analysed, the website is profiled based on a set of frequency counts across the various dictionary categories. The other detailed description of the methodology will be discussed under the subsequent headings.
3.4.3 Step Three: Selecting and Motivating our Chosen Competitive Samples and the Sources of Data for Analysis We utilized critical thinking to select the samples for this study by combining several sampling methods to achieve our purpose which was to select an adequacy and diverse sample. We decided to select clusters from our target population. This was done with the view to helping us understand what happens in each cluster relative to others. We also intended to produce a sample that could reflect certain segments of the population in different categories of placement.
The Sample and Motivation Behind the Selection The MBA degree is one of the most popular and sought-after degrees available today and has become the stamp of approval for hundreds of managers in the United States and abroad. It is also big business for over 500 accredited schools and universities in 25 countries and other 1,000 members in 70 countries are recognized by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB International, 2005). MBA programmes offer an important source of revenue and profit for most of their institutions, often boasting a 10-20% positive operating margin (O’reilly and Wyatt, 1994). With such positive financial contributions, MBA programmes and business schools in general often are the cash cows for universities, especially among public institutions (Friga et al., 2003).
35 MBA programmes are expensive. The average cost to attend such a programme is $40,000 per year (or $80,000 for two years) though some tuition fees are as high as $60,000 yearly. In general with MBAs, the more you pay the more you get. However, the cost is not just for the instruction; to a certain degree, consumers also are paying for the brand. There is no question that the reputation value of an MBA differs from one programme to the next. However, MBA programmes often do not behave like other competitive institutions. Usually when there is a market with many competitors, some organizations are highly aggressive in their brand marketing. This is unlike most MBA programmes, where competitors are many, but competition generally is gently and subtly pursued. Also, in traditional markets there usually are few (if any) major consequences if and when a brand product fails a customer. However, with MBA programmes, it is assumed that major consequences exist when a school fails to meet the expectations of its customers because decisions to attend a particular business school for a MBA degree are important not only in terms of direct cost, but also because of the indirect effect on the customer’s subsequent professional life.
Montgomery (2002) argued that part-time and full-time programmes are separate regimes and that for graduate business students, they are quite distinct. He further writes that school choices among part-timers with well-established jobs are more constrained by geography than those of full-timers (especially those who want to be in the physical classroom). Including both full- time and part-time programmes in our sample would serve little purpose, since data from the two forms of programmes should not be coalesced. Moreover, it would add complexity both to study design and data analysis. Again, likely questions that could come out are: What proportion of schools in our sample should be part-time programmes? Should we collect the same data and amount of data from the part-time programmes? Since some schools offer both full-time and part-time programmes, how should their data be handled? All in all, the biggest effects of including part-time programmes would be to reduce our effective sample size, complicate study design and data analysis, and jeopardize the accuracy of our conclusions. As it was necessary to start somewhere, the full-time MBA programmes seemed to be a logical sampling pool for this study. Luckily, there was no shortage of schools to sample, as full-time MBAs have become extremely popular over the past 50 years.
Full-time MBA programmes have attracted considerable societal interest over the last couple of decade and have become, rightly or wrongly, the focus of numerous rating systems and huge investments (Friga et al., 2003). Widely publicized rankings of business schools are now viewed with much anticipation and apprehension by many business school administrators and faculty (Siemens et al., 2003). See Opoku (2005) for further details on some of the popular rankings conducted from different perspectives and with different criteria and coverage levels.
The study sample was drawn from the Financial Times Top 100 full-time global MBA programmes in 2005. As of the first quarter of 2005, these rankings were by far, the most comprehensive, head-to-head, up-to-date, extensive and seasoned comparison of full-time MBA programmes among business schools worldwide.
Sampling the Cases to be Investigated The primary purpose of our sampling was to collect a diverse enough set of cases that could help us to comprehensively examine the phenomenom of brand personality communication within our target population; hence we opted for the non-probability sampling. We also were interested in the positions of the various samples selected and how well they influence their brand personality considerations. Regarding the number of cases to include, we selected 30 cases out of the FT 100 rankings of 100 MBA programmes in 2005, primarily because the use
36 of computer-aided statistical tools would help to overcome some of the challenges associated with qualitative data collection and analysis (Hedges, 1985).
We initially divided our 30 samples (from the population of Top 100 Financial Times full-time MBA programmes in 2005) into 3 main clusters to aid cluster analysis (McKinnon, 1977). The first group consisted of the 10 top-ranked schools. This group, we called Cluster 1. This cluster consists of programmes occupying the 1st to 10th positions on the FT 2005 ranking list. The second group is composed of the ten middle programmes, from the 46th to the 55th positions on the FT 2005 list. This group hitherto was called Cluster 2. The last group consists of the last ten listed programmes, the 91st to 100th ranked schools. This formed Cluster 3. The objective of this clustering was to facilitate the performance of within and multiple cluster analyses.
This sample selection criterion was of a purposive and judgmental in nature. This enabled us to use our own judgment in selecting cases that we believed would best help us to answer our research questions and to meet our objectives. We primarily took into consideration, the heterogeneity of the population. For cluster analysis to be meaningful there must be a broad range of cases. Any cluster patterns that emerge from a diverse cohort of cases likely would be of greater interest and value than what might materialize from a random and homogenous sample. Moreover, we sought to produce a sample that was at least somewhat stratified to represent the proportions of different school types in the target populations. In this study, random (probability) sampling could carry both the risk of 1) samples too homogenous to allow for meaningful cluster analysis, and 2) disproportionate representation of certain school types.
3.4.4 Step Four: Designing the Dictionary of Terms Dictionaries are applied to texts in computer-aided content analysis (Robert, 1989). Therefore, for our data collection instrument, we designed a comprehensive yet appropriate dictionary of terms by collecting and compiling synonyms of Aaker’s (1997) five brand personality dimensions. This was achieved with the help of the online version of Encyclopaedia Britannica’s thesaurus function (www.britannica.com). This database has been found to give the best search results because of the variety of information sources provided on the search results page (Hamilton, 2003).
The researcher could have relied solely upon this thesaurus but some synonyms of dimensions/traits it suggested could not be used in our circumstance. For instance, some synonyms of “rugged” such as “hairy” and “rude” would not be useful for our purposes, and might distort results. Besides the thesaurus, the Dictionary Builder of the software package also suggested some related words that enriched the data collection tool further.
37 Table 3.4: Website Brand Personality Evaluation Criteria Criteria Traits Sub-elements Down-to-earth Down-to-earth, Family-oriented, Small-town Sincerity Honest Honest, Sincere, Real Wholesome Wholesome, Original Cheerful Cheerful, Sentimental, Friendly Excitement Daring Daring, Trendy, Exciting Spirited Spirited, Cool, Young Imaginative Imaginative, Unique Up-to-date Up-to-date, Independent, Contemporary Competence Reliable Reliable, Hardworking, Secure Intelligent Intelligent, Technical, Corporate Successful Successful, Leader, Confident Sophistication Upper-class Upper-class, Glamorous, Good-looking Charming Charming, Feminine, smooth Ruggedness Tough Tough, Rugged, Masculine Outdoorsy Outdoorsy, Western Adapted from Aaker (1997)
The foundation for the synonym collection was the set of personality traits presented by Aaker in her original article. In her article, Aaker (1997, p. 354) introduced a table with a set of 42 personality trait norms that she suggested should serve as an aid for comparing brand personalities across different categories. In this thesis, our aim was primarily to find original synonyms for all of these traits, as well as synonyms for the five basic dimensions, in order to enrich our data collection instrument. The rationale behind this was to enhance content validity (Carmines and Zeller, 1979). The five dimensions and their respective traits are demonstrated in Table 3.4.
To further enhance the validity of the instrument, two parallel lists of synonyms were collected in the same manner by two independent reviewers (Kolbe and Burnett, 1991): one PhD student colleague who speaks both English and Swedish fluently and also functions as a Lecturer in Marketing; and a second individual, a lady who has a masters degree in Business Administration and can speak English, Swedish and French fluently. We believed that their multi-lingual background would add to the study, since it might aid in our understanding of how people with different linguistic backgrounds give meaning to such words. The coders were not made aware of the research questions guiding the investigation. This was to avoid the tendency of reviewers to try to give the researcher what he or she wants. Banerjee et al., (1999) point out the biasing effect of coder knowledge of variables extraneous to the content analysis. To enhance intercoder reliability, the two coders were brought together to argue and justify their choice of words. The words that were agreed upon by both reviewers were merged to form a new list. Further support was also sought from the English Section of the Department of Language and Culture of an European University. From this department, a third reviewer independently appraised the draft dictionary and provided further comments and suggestions which were incorporated into the dictionary tool. This was done in the form of triangulation. Miles and Huberman (1994) have explained the goal of such a triangulation. By employing this method, we feel that we can be assured of the comprehensiveness of our instrument for analysis.
To increase reliability of the instrument, we also tried to familiarise ourselves with the use and the operations of the software. Various preliminary studies were done using the study dictionary and the results were considered favourable by experts who previously had used or came across the usage and application of this software.
38 Taking into consideration the ability of computers to process large quantities of data quickly, coupled with their ability to process textual material quickly and reliably (Krippendorff, 2004), we opted for computer-aided content analysis. See Chapter Two for the discussions on computer-aided content analysis. The new dictionary was imported into SimStat software. Note that, our selected content analysis tool, WordStat is an add-in module that requires SimStat). The WordStat software scanned for duplication of words to ensure that words did not overlap. This was to ensure that no word was placed in two categories. We feel confident that this potential problem was averted because our selected software does not allow such an overlap. In many contentious circumstances, the Dictionary Builder embedded in the software decided under which dimension it should place potentially ambiguous (as to category) words with the help of its own dictionary. There were very few words that ultimately required investigator interference to decide where they should belong. Moreover, because words such as “business”, “business-related”, “education”, “learning”, “company”, “companies”, “corporate”, “organization”, “multinational” and “technology” were so commonly used on all business schools’ websites, they were ultimately eliminated from the dictionary.
This process helped us to develop a final list of 1625 words that were relatively and evenly distributed across Aaker’s original five dimensions of brand personality as demonstrated by the following percentages: Sincerity 21% of all words listed; Excitement 17%; Competence 20%; Sophistication 21%; and Ruggedness 21%. See Appendix V for the full dictionary of synonyms.
3.4.5 Step Five: Data Collection The units of data collection were the official websites of each of the thirty selected business schools. However, McMillan (2000) argues that the major ambiguity in Web content analysis is related to the question: What is really meant by the term “website?8” Okazaki and Rivas (2002) described a website as being “a hierarchy of information, connected via hyperlinks to an infinite number of other sites” (op.cit, p.383). Initially, one may be tempted to limit such a study to the homepage (initial screen) of the site (see Ha and James, 1998; Dholakia and Rego, 1998; Jo and Jung, 2005). Although homepages do provide much meaningful information, they usually consist of indices, icons and symbols that are linked to the next hierarchy of information. Hwang et al., (2003) also argue that the homepage is central to web-based communication because it takes on a role that is more than the headline of the traditional print ads. In order to broaden our data collection and hence augment our evaluation of brand personality in the online environment, we opted to define our unit of analysis to include not only the homepage but also the textual information derived from the homepage (initial screen) of each business school ‘sub-site’9 or ‘sub-portal’ and the relevant links connected only to the full-time MBA programmes’ portal.
Every web page is uniquely identified by an address called a URL10, which serves the purpose of locating the specific web pages on the Web. A web page usually contains hyperlinks, which are the URL addresses pointing to other web pages hosted by the same web server or other
8 The terms “website” and “homepage” often are used interchangeably but technically they are not quite the same. While a home page is a website, a web site need not be a homepage. Thus, each website contains a home page which usually is the first document users see when they enter the site (www.webopedia.com). It is useful to think of a homepage as the electronic door to a store, the first point of entry for most visitors. 9 The websites are termed ‘sub-sites’ or ‘sub-portals’ because full-time MBA programmes websites do not standalone but are part of the main portal of all the business schools investigated. 10 URL(Uniform Resource Locator) is a global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web (webopedia.com)
39 remote servers (Lee et al., 2003). When searching for information such as web pages on the Internet, search engines have become the paramount tools. In this study, however, we made sure that the right URL addresses of the various Business Schools and their full-time MBA programmes were selected with the use of the Google, AltaVista and Yahoo search engines. These global search engines were chosen particularly because of their widely usage (Smith, 2003; Mohammed, 2004). By cross-checking with other search engines, the links from the search engines were carefully scrutinized and compared upon entering each site in order to confirm their genuineness, appropriateness and representativeness. Only links which had their roots from the original URL were extracted for the analysis (see Appendix IV).
From March 31 to April 6, 2005, we initially copied all textual information from the main portal (starting with the first page) into a text document. We then clicked all links and roots on the main portal and copied all information available from these documents. We carefully and purposefully neglected all roots or links that were not directly associated with the sub-portal of the selected full-time MBA programmes. This rigid procedure was developed to avoid missing any valuable information about or connected with each full-time MBA programmes’ websites and hence to obtain all the available information that would otherwise would affect our study results. This systematic procedure generated a considerable amount of textual information from each selected website. See Appendix IV for details.
We also tried to collect the same information about each MBA programme as far as it was provided, and all data were collected within a one week period. This latter point is important because we wanted to perform a point-in-time assessment of existing websites. Collecting data from sites over an extended period of time might distort our results by ignoring inherent changes in the online environment. To ensure reliability and improve accuracy of data collection, we engaged a colleague to collect the same data from the same websites. The two different sets of data collected then were compared to improve accuracy and to measure the reliability of the initial data collection procedure itself.
We also followed the rankings of these MBA programmes for one and half years. The supervisor of this research project and thesis has had a considerable number of experiences teaching MBA classes at some of these top ranked institutions. His experience was brought to bear on the selection of the sample and the interpretation of the data. My interest in this area, coupled with the benefits that we hope this study will bring to bear on these and other universities urged us to read and understand this concept of brand personality in order to transfer it into the online context. In addition, this investigator had the opportunity to be guided by a supervisor who is one of the pioneers in Internet marketing research. He and others with somewhat opposing viewpoints aided the investigator in shaping and selecting the methodology and research questions. In addition, peers and colleagues in the Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce Research Group performed a critique on the research questions and methodology. This aided in fine-tuning these critical issues.
40 3.4.6 Step Six: Using the Software to Convert Data into Electronic Format and Categorizing It According to the Evaluative Criteria. Afterwards, this list of synonyms was converted into electronic format and imported into SimStat. SimStat categorized the data according to Aaker’s brand personality dimensions through the WordStat (the content analysis) software package. With the help of the software’s exclusion function, words with little semantic value such as pronouns and conjunctions were excluded from the dictionary whilst the stemming function of the software reduced various word forms to a more limited set of words based upon their roots. Stemming typically is done by removing or substituting common suffixes, for instance by converting plurals to singulars and reducing adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to a common noun or word stem (Péladeau, 2003). For instance, words like “exciting”, “excitingly”, “excited” and “excitement” were reduced to “excite” based upon their root. All these words were treated as one word-“excite,” by the software. Phrases that constituted synonyms of their respective dimensions and traits such as “one and only”, “state-of-the-art”, “up-to-date”, “self-determining”, “self-reliant” and others of similar nature were fused together as one word with the help of the software.
These stop words were also excluded by WordStat: A, about, all ,almost, also, always, an, any, are, as, at, be, because, been ,being, both, but, by, can, could, do, every, feel, for, get, gets, got, has, he, her, him, his, how, if ,in, into, is, it, kind, like, lot, made, makes, me, more, most, much, my, myself, of, on, one, or, other, our, really, she, so than, that, the, there, these, they, this, to, too, type, us, very, was, were, what, when, where, which, who, will ,with, within, you.
We then performed two pilot studies to validate our instrument. We initially pre-tested it on some selected automobile manufacturing company websites namely Mercedes Benz, Volvo, VW and Ford. Taking into consideration the varied nature of the various models under these brands, this pilot study was done to ascertain whether or not we could obtain similar results with regards to some selected models based upon how they are promoted in terms of personality. This provided a fair idea about how the software works regarding output and interpretation. Further, this helped us to eliminate words which were found to be ‘too ambiguous’, ‘too common’ or ‘frequently used’, such as “just”, “open”, “nice”, “usual”, “very”, “well” and others which run through all the websites and hence were likely to distort our results.
Additionally, this instrument was pre-tested on African tourism websites. The results were very encouraging as it revealed for instance that Kenya is very ‘rugged’, Botswana is very ‘exciting’, South Africa is very ‘sophisticated’ among others. To help enhance external validity, results of this latter pilot study were developed and tendered into a Joint AMA/AM 2005 Conference as a competitive paper. This was accepted upon double-blind and peer-review. This writer and his co-investigator were invited to present this paper at the conference and the comments and suggestions from the reviewers later were incorporated into this study.
Having thoroughly pre-tested this newly-created automatic categorization dictionary, the textual information from the 30 selected MBA programmes’ websites was converted into an analyzable format and imported into the computer-aided programme. Following this, we performed a content analysis of the 30 selected business school websites to find out how the brand personality dimensions were distributed.
41 3.4.7 Step Seven: Cross-Tabulation of the Categorical Data and Aggregation of the Number of Words Identified by the Analysis Software One of the stages in content analysis is to apply statistical techniques to the coded data (Roberts, 1989). Cross-tabulation of categorical data is perhaps the most commonly encountered and simple form of analysis in research (Hoffman and Franke, 1986). In relation to the Aaker’s five brand personality dimensions, Tables 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 provide a two-way contingency table of frequencies. This was obtained by aggregating the number of words identified by the analysis software. The distribution of these brand personalities over respective websites is presented as they appeared in the three clusters.
Cluster 1 Table 3.5 Distribution of Brand Personality Dimensions over Websites in Cluster 1 BPS Dimension/ Competence Excitement Sincerity Ruggedness Sophistication Column Total Name of School Harvard 597 158 177 72 22 1026 Wharton 543 197 152 60 27 979 Columbia 626 239 100 18 16 999 Stanford 536 183 123 45 21 908 LBS 873 194 281 72 38 1458 Chicago GSB 348 119 61 16 11 555 Dartmouth 482 115 105 31 19 752 Insead 342 156 162 16 25 701 NYU Stern 602 406 117 18 31 1174 Yale 542 225 265 91 12 1135 Row Total 5491 1992 1543 439 222 9687 Ȥ2 1167.67 df 36 p< 0.0001 NOTE: For presentation purposes we have transposed rows and columns in this table. In the analysis, what appear here as rows were columns, and vice versa
The cell counts in Table 3.5 portray the number of times a particular brand personality dimension was found to be associated with a particular business schools’ full-time MBA programme website. The row and column marginal subtotals in the Table 3.5 and other subsequent tables with similar headings designate the number of mentions received by a particular dimension and website, respectively. In this table, it is apparent that the 5th placed school’s (London Business School) full-time MBA programme website contained the most words associated with brand personality dimensions with 1458 terms whilst the 6th school was the least associated. In terms of individual dimensions, competence was the brand personality dimension portrayed most in all the programmes’ websites under Cluster 1, accounting for 57 percent (5491/9687) of the total words whilst sophistication representing 2.3 percent was the least portrayed.
42 Cluster 2 Table 3.6 Distribution of Brand Personality Dimensions over Websites in Cluster 2 BPS Dimension/ Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication Column Total Rank of School Manchester 237 75 8 104 15 439 Rice Uni.: Jones 686 139 38 281 24 1168 Illinois at Urbana-C. 238 60 48 68 7 421 BYU: Marriot 316 155 13 125 13 622 Weatherhead 360 166 10 99 17 652 Michigan: Broad 733 494 125 196 32 1580 Minnesota: Carlson 1264 223 45 276 27 1835 Imperial Col: Tanaka 521 241 110 66 12 950 Warwick 414 187 39 320 35 995 Penn’s Smeal 286 107 17 72 2 484 Total Row 5055 1847 453 1607 184 9146 Ȥ2 3496.57 df 36 p< 0.0001 NOTE: For presentation purposes we have transposed rows and columns in this table. In the analysis, what appear here as rows were columns, and vice versa
As established earlier, the cell counts in Table 3.6 also reveal the number of times a particular brand personality dimension was associated with a particular business school’s full-time MBA programme website, among the ten schools in Cluster 2. The row and column marginal subtotals in this table indicate the number of mentions received by a particular dimension and website, respectively. In this table, it also can be ascertained that the 52nd placed school’s (Minnesota‘s Carlson School of Business full-time MBA programme) website contained the most words associated with brand personality dimensions with 1835 terms whilst the 48th school was least associated with 421 terms. With respect to individual dimensions, competence was the brand personality dimension portrayed most in all the programmes’ websites under Cluster 2, accounting for 55 percent (5055/9146) of the total words, whilst sophistication representing 2 percent was the least portrayed.
Cluster 3 Table 3.7 Distribution of Brand Personality Dimensions over Websites in Cluster 3 BPS Dimension/ Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication Column Total Rank of School Durham B. School 367 66 9 60 21 523 Pepperdine 738 50 14 82 26 910 Birmingham 380 72 18 106 18 594 Edinburgh 141 52 21 44 16 274 Washington B. School 650 258 15 124 5 1052 Bath School. of Mgmt 244 119 21 125 24 533 George Washington 277 151 13 29 8 478 Trinity College 188 100 22 49 8 367 Fisher 160 61 7 22 7 257 ESCP-EAP 111 18 3 26 6 164 Total Row 3256 947 143 667 139 5152 Ȥ2 2005.86 df 36 p< 0.0001 NOTE: For presentation purposes we have transposed rows and columns in this table. In the analysis, what appear here as rows were columns, and vice versa
43 Following the above discussions, it similarly can be acknowledged in Table 3.7 that the 95th placed school’s (University of Washington Business School) full-time MBA programme web- site contained the most words associated with brand personality dimensions with 1052 terms whilst the 100th school (ESCP-EAP) was the least associated with 164 terms.
With respect to individual dimensions, competence was the brand personality dimension portrayed most in all the programmes’ websites under Cluster 3, accounting for 63 percent (3256/5152) of the total words whilst sophistication (representing 2.7 percent was the least portrayed.
3.4.8 Step Eight: Establishment of Dependency Between the Rows and the Columns Under this step, we established whether there is a dependency between the row (in this case the brand personality dimensions) and the columns (in this case the websites). Table 3.8 provides the results from a chi squared analysis of the data on the 30 websites. Chi-square is a standardized measure of actual cell frequencies compared to expected cell frequencies. This is used by correspondence analysts to standardise the frequency values and form the basis of association. Values less than 1.0 indicate the model is “overfitted” hence insignificant (Hair et al., 1998). In order to perform the chi-squared results, one need to assess the degree of freedom (df). This degree of freedom also measures the difference between the number of covariances and the actual number of coefficients in the proposed model (Cooper and Schindler, 2003). Higher values indicate better fit but no threshold levels for acceptability have been established. However, values ranging from 2 to 5 indicate that the model needs improvement (See Hair et al., 1998, p.658). The chi-squared test helps the researcher to determine the dependency between the rows and columns and to indicate whether they are also related strongly or otherwise.
Table 3.8: The Chi-squared Analysis for the individual Clusters Cluster/Test Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Chi- Squared ((Ȥ2 ) 1167.67 3496.57 2005.86 Degree of Freedom 36 36 36 Probability Test p< 0.0001 p< 0.0001 p< 0.0001
The results show in all circumstances (Cluster 1, 2 and 3) that the row (i.e. the brand personality dimensions) and the column (i.e. websites) variables are related, confirming to evidence of strong dependency.
3.4.9 Step Nine: Deciding and Justifying the Number of Dimensions to be Retained for Further Analysis It has been documented that the number of dimensions needed for a ‘perfect’ representation of a contingency table is given by the minimum of (r-1) and (c-1) where r equals the number of rows and c equals the number of columns in the table (see Hoffman and Franke, 1986; Berthon et al., 1997). Unfortunately, for a large contingency this guideline clearly is not helpful. Berthon et al., (1997) advised that finding a lower dimensional representation of the table, preferably two or at most three dimensions will help provide an ‘adequate’ summary of results. Most researchers such as Bendixen (1995) and Hair et al., (1998) also agree that a two-way dimensional solution is preferable due to its ease of display and interpretability. To Greenacre
44 (1989), this type of solution also helps to avoid the problem of interpreting inter-spatial distances. We therefore opted for a two-way dimensional correspondence analysis plot, which also can be called a two-way dimensional correspondence map11. It is from these plots depicting the various clusters that all analyses (both within and cross-case) were based. As an example, Table 3.9 demonstrates the dimensional inertia report for all the 30 sampled websites and the number of dimension selected for correspondence analysis.
Table 3.9 Dimensional Inertia Report for all the 30 Websites with outliers Eigenvalues Percentage Cumulative 0.035 42.0 42.0 0.028 34.0 76.0 0.010 12.0 82.0
The above dimensional inertia report indicates a two-way dimension which accounts for 76 percent of the total variance, with eigenvalues and explained proportions of 0.035 and 0.42 for the first dimension, and 0.028 and 0.34 for the second dimension, respectively. In terms of reliability, 90% has been argued as absolute standard (See Chin, 1998; Shook et al., 2004), however, values below 70% have been deemed acceptable if the research is exploratory in nature (Hair et al., 1998, p.612). In this circumstance, the total variance is significant. However, upon a critical check, it was found out that the figure (76.0%) could be strengthened when some outliers are removed.
Table 3.10: Dimensional Inertia Report for all the 30 Websites without outliers Eigenvalues Percentage Cumulative Percent 0.036 47.0 47.0 0.028 36.0 83.0 0.010 13.0 96.0
When the results were viewed on a three-way dimensional plot, outliers were clearly identified. Two outliers were identified; the 10th and 48th ranked schools. In a three-way dimensional map, these two websites moved closer to ruggedness from where they had been in the two-way dimensional map. Yet, all the other websites align themselves within a straight line with their respective personality dimensions. These outliers do not help in portraying a true picture of the situation and when they are removed from the plot, the analysis map now explains 83 percent of the variance (see Table 3. 10). Hence, the two-way dimensional solution provides an acceptable description of the data.
Coupled with the above discussions, Greencare (1989) and Bendixen (1995) also added that the eigenvalues12 and the cumulative proportion explained by the dimensions (in this case brand personality) must be examined in order to determine the dimensionality of a solution. In this study, the eigenvalues and cumulative proportions have also been reported. To identify the associations between the websites and the brand personality attributes, the data from the 30 websites were subjected to correspondence analysis.
11 Plot and map are synonyms in this study hence used interchangeably. 12 Eigenvalues are the sum of the variances of the factor values. When divided by the number of variables, eigenvalues yield an estimate of the proportion of total variance explained by a given factor (Cooper and Schindler, 2003)
45 3.4.10 Step Ten: Graphical Presentation of the Row and Column Profiles in a Two-Way Dimensional Space The primary goal of correspondence analysis has been to transform a table of numerical information in a contingency table into a graphical display to in order to facilitate the interpretation of this information (Greenacre and Blasius, 1994; Greenacre, 2000). In this thesis, we opted for correspondence analysis plots to help position the various websites in relation to another. Berthon et al., (1997b; 2001) have used correspondence analysis maps to evaluate the positioning and distinction between websites. Shanka et al., (2005) employed this tool to map international students’ choice of an education destination. Thanks to WordStat, one of its unique characteristics is how it can visually display the sub-groups in a high resolution line and bar charts and through 2-D and 3-D correspondence analysis biplots.
Correspondence Analysis (CA) The development of correspondence analysis was championed by Benzecri (1969) in France. This researcher did much to champion this geometric approach to multivariate descriptive data analysis. In fact, the term “correspondence analysis” is a translation of the French “analyse factorielle des correspondence.” Complete chronologies of correspondence analysis have been provided by Nishisato (1980) and Greenacre (1984). The popularization of this tool into the English world is to a large extent should be attributed to Greenacre (1984). Quite apart from that, the work of Hoffman and Franke (1986) and Bendixen (1995) had a sizable impact as they introduced this form of analysis into the marketing arena. Other known works (Underhill and Peisach, 1985; Berthon et al., 1997; Inman et al., 2004) provide excellent examples of applications of correspondence analysis. These works also have contributed, in no small way, to the manner in which output from the correspondence analysis computer programme is analysed and interpreted.
Basically, correspondence analysis is a mapping technique. It cross-tabulates data and converts them into a joint space map by using the chi-square value for each cell (Bendixen, 1995). This technique is not new in the area of perceptual map construction (Greenacre, 1984; Lebart et al., 1984; Hoffman and Franke, 1986; Hair et al., 1998), in the clustering of brands (Bendixen, 1995; Hair et al., 1998) and choice evaluations (Shanka et al., 2005). The perceptual map created through correspondence analysis is useful in uncovering structural relationships between different variables (Inman et al., 2004) and its graphic nature facilitates interpretation of data that otherwise would be difficult to comprehend (O’Brien, 1993). Correspondence analysis is best suited for exploratory data analysis (Hair et al., 1998). Since our study is exploratory in nature, our choice of this analytical tool seemed fitting.
Reviewing what Inman et al. (2004) have written about correspondence analysis, this tool appeared to be quite useful for our purposes, for several reasons. First, its ability to consider multiple categorical variables simultaneously would enable us to map jointly the categories elicited by the website data. Second, as with other graphical algorithms (e.g., multidimensional scaling, factor analysis), correspondence analysis would assist us in uncovering the structural relationship among variables. Thus, the displays have similar interpretations and appearances, which would facilitate the detection of relationships (Berthon et al., 1997) that could not have been revealed in a series of pair-wise comparisons (Hoffman and Franke, 1986). It would also show us how variables are related, not just that a relationship exists (Hofmann and Franke, 1986). Finally, correspondence analysis will help us to generate a dual display of both the columns and rows.
46 In analyzing correspondence analysis map, Hair et al., (1998) indicate that a researcher may describe a map in terms of known characteristics. Therefore, a common-practice to be undertaken is to interpret the maps in terms of proximity (for e.g., the linear distance from brand to brand, from the centre of the map to brand or attribute, and from brand to attribute). The subsequent maps reveal the underlying structure and positioning of the investigated websites in relation to the brand personality dimensions. The graphical output also provides information about how the websites and attributes are positioned in relation to each other. Figures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 provide the pictorial presentation of the graphical output on the correspondence analysis conducted by the WordStat software. The circles are inserted to make the associations clearer.
Figure 3.1: Correspondence Analysis Map of the Top 10 MBA Programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions (Cluster 1)
10
8 SINCERITY EXCITEMENT
9
RUGGEDNESS
2
SOPHISTICATION
1 4 5
COMPETENCE 3 6
7
In Figure 3.1, the two-way dimensional correspondence map accounts for more than 88 percent of the variance, with eigenvalues and explained proportions of 0.032 and 0.63 for the first dimension, and 0.013 and 0.25 for the second dimension, respectively. Thus, a two-way dimensional solution should provide an ‘accurate’ description of the data.
The two-way dimensional correspondence map in Figure 3.2 also accounts for 86 percent of the total variance, with eigenvalues and explained proportions of 0.052 and 0.55 for the first dimension, and 0.029 and 0.31 for the second dimension, respectively. As before, in terms of reliability, the total variance of greater than 70% is significant because of the exploratory nature of the study (see Hair et al., 1998, p.612).
47 Figure 3.2: Correspondence Analysis Map of the mid-10 MBA Programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions (Cluster 2)
54 SOPHISTICATION
SINCERITY
EXCITEMENT
49 51 46
50 RUGGEDNESS 47
55 48 53
COMPETENCE
52
Figure 3.3: Correspondence Analysis Map of the Last 10 MBA Programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions (Cluster 3)
97
EXCITEMENT 95 99
COMPETENCE 92
98 91
100
93
94 96 SINCERITY RUGGEDNESS
SOPHISTICATION
The two-way dimensional correspondence analysis map for Cluster 3 explains 89 percent of the total variance, with eigenvalues and explained proportions of 0.055 and 0.58 for the first dimension, and 0.029 and 0.31 for the second dimension respectively. In terms of reliability,
48 the total variance of greater than 70% is significant due to the exploratory nature of the study (see Hair et al., 1998, p.612)
To further cross-check our findings and re-examine our arguments from the previous discussions, we juxtaposed all the 30 cases against each other in Figure 3.4. The figure below reveals the final positioning of these schools in relation to each other, and also how the brand personalities relate to one another.
Figure 3.4: Correspondence Analysis Map of all the 30 Selected Cases of the MBA Programmes’ Websites with respect to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions.
54
SINCERITY
10 96 RUGGEDNESS 8 46 47 SOPHISTICATION 94 49 48 5 1
51 2 98 93 EXCITEMENT 50 55 4 7 100 53 COMPETENCE 52 9 6 95 91 99 3
97
92
3.4.11 Step Eleven: Interpretation of the Correspondence Analysis Map Hoffman and Franke (1986) noted that, as the distances between the row and column variables cannot be specifically interpreted, one also should exercise some caution when analyzing a perceptual map. This is due to the fact that the columns and rows are scaled independently. The implication is that, just because a certain website is positioned near a certain brand personality dimension does not necessarily mean that the site and dimension are closely related. Conversely, the angle between the words and websites does portray a meaning in this regard. Thus, an acute angle indicates that two characteristics are positively correlated, whereas an obtuse angle indicates negative correlation. Lebart et al., (1984) have provided details about this.
Again, as the between-set distances cannot be interpreted strictly in our circumstances, a web- site tends towards a position in its space that corresponds to the dimensions that are the most
49 prominent in its profile. In other words, the specific distances between the websites and the brand personality dimensions should not only be interpreted, but the ordinal proximity of particular websites to certain dimensions may have meaning. Thus, in this study we also rely on the category positions from the correspondence analysis rather than the distances from particular dimensions.
In the subsequent paragraphs, we provide the summary of the interpretation of the correspondence maps in Figures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4
Figure 3.1 It could be established from the map that business schools are clustered near to the brand personality dimension that they mostly communicate on their websites. In Figure 3.1, for instance, sophistication is the dimension mostly communicated on the 2nd ranked school’s website; yet, the reverse holds for the 9th ranked school (NYU) in relation to the same dimension on the correspondence analysis map. NYU is positioned in the opposite quadrant to sophistication. In terms of degree, the closer a school is to a dimension; the stronger that message is being championed by that school. For instance, Wharton (rank #2) is much closer to sophistication (as indicated on the correspondence analysis plot) than the University of Chicago GSB (rank #6). In other words, the message promoting sophistication is clearer with Wharton than it is with Chicago GSB. In another vein, if a school falls in between or among the dimensions, the scenario might be interpreted that the school’s message primarily is spilt between those two dimensions, or that it is not clear what is being communicated. It also could be a branding strategy in order to milk or take advantage of the two most frequently used dimensions, given the keen competition amongst the schools. A clear example that can be offered in this scenario is Stanford (rank #4).
Figure 3.2 As with Cluster 1, the graphical output for Cluster 2 provides information about how the websites and dimensions are positioned relative to each other. In this instance, complex groupings can be identified among the websites with the aid of a group Dendogram (see Opoku, 2005 for further details on this). One group consists of the MBA programme websites of the 46th, 47th, 48th and 52nd ranked schools (namely, Manchester, Rice, Illinois and Carlson respectively). All the members of this group associate themselves with competence. A second group, consisting of the 49th, 50th and 55th ranked schools (namely, Marriot, Weatherhead and Smeal, in that order) identifies itself with sincerity. The third group consists of two members, the 51st and 53rd ranked schools (Michigan’s Eli Broad and Imperial College’s Tanaka) which positioned themselves close to the excitement dimension, whilst the 54th ranked school (Warwick) associates itself strongly with sophistication.
As with all correspondence analysis maps, Figure 3.2 also provides an impression of how the different brand personality dimensions relate to each other. In this cluster, the two dimensions, sincerity and sophistication, appear to be related to each other as they primarily occupy the upper right quartile of the figure. However, the excitement and competence dimensions are relatively on their own in the upper-left and lower-right quartiles of the figure, respectively.
As already established, schools cluster in close proximity to the brand personality dimension they mostly portray on their websites. For instance, excitement is strongly portrayed by the 51st ranked school (identified by the rank #51 in the correspondence analysis map). Conversely, the school with rank #52 positions itself far from the excitement dimension, being in the opposite quadrant of the map (in the right lower quadrant versus the left quadrant were the excitement dimension is found); it therefore can be argued that excitement is not a
50 significant part of the brand personality the 52nd ranked school wishes to portray, at least on their website.
If a school is not particularly close to any dimension, falling outside or setting itself apart from every dimension could mean that it is not communicating a strong brand personality on any dimension. This can be said about the 53rd ranked school on this correspondence analysis map which stands far from every dimension, being entrenched deep in the left lower quadrant.
With respect to potency of message, the message for sophistication and excitement is clear in the case of the 54th and 51st ranked schools, respectively. Each school is centred close to its dimension and relatively distant from others. This is less clear with the other schools that associate themselves with competence and sincerity. The 55th ranked school is the most obvious example of this relative ambiguity. Although positioned within the borders of sincerity dimension, it also is positioned in the left lower quadrant, apart from the majority of the sincerity tracing in the right upper quadrant. Of all the three schools promoting sincerity, it also is positioned closest to competence.
Figure 3.3 The graphical output on Cluster 3 also presents details on how the websites and dimensions are positioned in relation to each other. In this cluster, five clear groupings can be identified among the schools’ websites. As found in the blue circle, the 91st, 93rd and 100th ranked schools (Durham, Birmingham and ESCP-EAP, respectively) make up a group that associates itself with competence. Although, two schools (Birmingham and ESCP-EAP) fall in the lower-right quartile of the figure, they loosely associate themselves with competence more than sophistication. A second group located in the red circle is comprised of the 95th, 97th, 98th and 99th ranked schools (Washington, Trinity College, George Washington University and Fisher). These four schools align themselves with excitement, albeit loosely. The third and fourth groups can be seen in the lower-left quartile of the map and are made up of one member each. Edinburgh (rank #94) identifies itself with sincerity and for the first time, a school in the sample associates itself with ruggedness. This latter school is the University of Bath (rank #96) which interestingly, strongly identifies ruggedness as its brand personality. Finally, the 92nd ranked school (Pepperdine Business School) has no clear focus in terms of brand personality. It appears to be struggling to create a brand personality for itself by aligning itself somewhere close to but outside of the competence dimension.
The plot also highlights how the different brand personality dimensions relate to each other. In Figure 6.3, the sincerity and ruggedness dimensions appear to be related to each other for the first time as both occupy the upper-left quartile of the figure. However, the competence and excitement dimensions each stands alone in the upper-left quartile and upper-right quartile of the figure, respectively.
As previously established, schools cluster near to the brand personality dimension that they mostly communicate on their websites. For instance, Edinburgh (rank #94) communicates sincerity on its website, whereas George Washington University (rank # 97) positions itself distant from this dimension. In terms of degree of association, the schools that appear to portray their brand personalities most convincingly are Edinburgh (sincerity), Bath (ruggedness) and, to a slightly lesser extent, Durham (competence).
As explained earlier, if a school’s website is not close to any of the dimensions, then it is not communicating a strong brand personality on any of the dimensions. A special case in point is the 98th ranked school (Trinity College). Though a Dendogram and the map reveal that this
51 school tries to communicate excitement, the message is not clear; in fact, its message appears to fall half way between excitement, sincerity and ruggedness.
Figure 3.4 This final plot (which is the combination of Cluster 1, 2, and 3) highlights the positioning of all 30 cases in this study. This portrays a picture of the ‘state-of-affairs’ and a snap-shot of how every school’s website and the brand personality dimension relate to one another. In Figure 3.4, seven of the top ten schools (apart from the schools with rank numbers 3, 9 and 10) are located in the black circle; mostly align with competence and sophistication. As identified earlier, this reinforces the consistency of the messages which the top 10 schools portray regarding their brand personalities. As before, NYU positions itself apart from the other top ten schools due to its strong association with excitement. On a three-way dimensional plot, Columbia (rank #3) aligns itself most with sophistication (as opposed to what the two-way dimensional plot suggests).
The second group generally embraces the mid-ranked schools (i.e. Cluster 2 schools); five of the 10 cluster schools fall within this group. Warwick (rank #54) again associates itself with sincerity, and Michigan State (rank #51) and Tanaka (rank #53) with excitement, the latter much more weakly as seen before.
Most of the 10 bottom-ranked schools locate themselves inside the violet circle. Birmingham’s (rank #93) location in the black circle is not surprising as it earlier had showed its relationship with competence (see Figures 6.3 and 6.4). Again, George Washington University (rank #97) aligned with excitement. The University of Washington Business School (rank #95) previously aligned with excitement, cannot withstand the test this time; it drifts away from excitement to join the schools in the violet circle. Pepperdine (rank #92) once again stands apart from all other schools and all dimensions.
All in all, Figure 3.4 provides a summary on how all the 30 schools’ websites are associated with the brand personality dimensions. It needs to be reiterated that this summary provides details on how the schools fared when they were placed side by side with their peers. This is important because schools often wish to portray themselves in one way, but may be swayed from these personalities due to the relative strength of their messages as compared to those of their peers. By relying on the two sources, we hope to provide and further strengthen the answer(s) to the research questions and our analysis.
Out of the 30 cases, Table 3.11 clearly demonstrates that 28 schools’ websites identify themselves with one particular brand personality dimension while one seems to identify itself with two and one has no clear identity at all. Therefore, 93 percent of the sample identifies itself with at least one brand personality dimension. Only Stanford and Pepperdine did not. Stanford identifies itself with two dimensions whilst Pepperdine exhibits the least propensity to identify itself with any brand personality. Recalling that it is a new entrant into the Financial Times’ rankings, we recommend that it would do better to communicate a stronger brand.
52 Table 3.11: Summary of Associations between the 30 Cases and the Brand Personality Dimensions Rank Dimension/ Competence Sophistication Ruggedness Sincerity Excitement None Name of School Top 10 1 Harvard X 2 Wharton X 3 Columbia X 4 Stanford (X)13 X 5 LBS X 6 Chicago GSB X 7 Dartmouth X 8 Insead X 9 NYU’s Stern X 10 Yale X Middle 10 46 Manchester X 47 Rice Uni. X 48 Illinois Uni. X 49 BYU Marriot X 50 Weatherhead X 51 Michigan X 52 Carlson X 53 Tanaka X 54 Warwick X 55 Smeal X Last 10 91 Durham X 92 Graziadio X 93 Birmingham X 94 Edinburgh X 95 Washington X 96 Bath Uni. X 97 G. Washington X 98 Trinity X 99 Fisher X 100 ESCP-EAP X Total 10 9 5 1 4 1
Within the individual clusters, only one school, the University of Bath (rank #96) associated itself with ruggedness. However, in Table 3.11, four other schools (Insead, Yale, Manchester and BYU Marriot with rank numbers 8, 10 and 46 and 49 respectively) also identify with ruggedness. This should not be entirely surprising, as at least the three schools (Insead, Yale and Manchester) varied in their dimensional associations over the various plots. On individual plots, all the four schools aligned with or adjacent to sincerity in a way. In combination plot (see Opoku, 2005), however, Manchester sometimes was seen to be very strongly aligned with sophistication and at other times more adrift. In fact, all the three schools ultimately wander from their initial positions to much weaker associations (see figures 3.2 and 3.3). This emphasizes one of the inherent weaknesses with this form of analysis. Because data are examined with several different perspectives and in several different contexts (for example, with different comparison of schools), precision suffers. The important message is that this form
13 On the correspondence analysis map, Stanford communicates two brand personality dimensions – sophistication and competence but a Dendogram reveals that it was stronger on the former than the latter.
53 of analysis is less helpful in determining the accuracy associated with any given case and more helpful in providing accurate global impressions. Hence, in absolute terms and taking into consideration the sample and context of this study, one may conclude that the sampled schools’ full-time MBA programme websites reflect the variety of brand personality dimensions proposed by Aaker (1997).
Figure 3.5 presents results of how these brand personality dimensions related to each other when a Dendogram analysis was conducted on all 30 cases in order to establish some similarities between and among the dimensions. Competence and sophistication are seen here to be related to each other; sincerity and ruggedness seem to be ‘bed-fellows’; whilst excitement stands alone.
Figure 3.5: The Dendogram on all the Dimensions
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness
Sincerity
Excitement
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0
Similarity Index Key: In this diagram, the complete lines and same colour signify similarity hence strong relationship whilst dotted lines and different colours indicate weak relationships.
Further, we examined how frequently each brand personality was used. This we ascertained from the number of websites that were associated with a given dimension. This is demonstrated in Table 3.12.
Table 3.12: Frequency of Usage of the Various Brand Personality Dimensions Dimension Number of Associated Websites Competence 10 Sophistication 9 Ruggedness 5 Excitement 4 Sincerity 1 None 1 Total 30
54 Using a five point Likert Scale14 (most frequently used, more frequently used, less frequently used and least frequently used) we assessed the various brand personality dimensions vis-à-vis their corresponding websites. From this, we determined that competence and sophistication are the most frequently used brand personality dimensions. The ruggedness dimension is used frequently. Excitement is less frequently used whilst sincerity is the least used.
However, the Table 3.12 does not provide the true picture of the situation. It only provides a snap-shot of websites associated with a given dimension, but not details on the number and frequency of words used to portray a given brand personality dimension. For instance, competence is portrayed in Table 3.12 as one of the most frequently used dimensions but we lack the details about how many times it was frequently used on a given website. Additionally, one of the schools’ websites did not associate itself with any of the dimensions. It is probable that it had an element of some personality traits, though they could not strategically help it to be positioned close enough to any of the dimensions. Table 3.13 therefore provides a fair view of each dimension’s frequency of appearance as a percentage of all communications. This may represent the most accurate estimate of dimensional usage.
Table 3.13: Percentage of Appearance of Brand Personality Dimensions Frequency of Percentage of Dimension Number of cases appearance of frequency shown in analysed dimensions in each the maps case Competence 30 13802 57.5% Excitement 30 4786 20.0% Sincerity 30 3817 15.9% Ruggedness 30 1035 4.3% Sophistication 30 545 2.3% Total 30 2398515 100%
On the same five-point Likert Scale, competence was most frequently used; excitement was more frequently used; sincerity followed as frequently used; ruggedness was less frequently used; and sophistication was the least frequently used. This agrees with earlier findings by Chun and Davies (2001) that competence was the most frequently used dimension among the Fortune 500 companies they investigated.
3.4.12 Step Twelve: Making Subjective Meanings of the Interpretations In many ways, it must be recognized that correspondence analysis is a subjective technique. Many different portrayals of a data set often are possible, leading to different analysis categories and solutions. By its flexibility, correspondence analysis can lead to greater insight into the phenomenon being studied because it affords several different views of the same data set. However, subjectivity of analysis is part of the price of this flexibility (Hoffman and Franke, 1986). Hair et al. (1998) argue also that interpretation of correspondence analysis maps always must include some element of a researcher’s judgment. Accordingly, in all the sub-sections that
14 A Likert Scale, the most widely and frequently used (Cooper and Schindler, 2003) was preferred over a semantic differential scale because the objective of this study was to determine the extent to which business schools’ web sites can be described by Aaker’s brand personality dimension rather than to determine whether sites are associated with these brand personalities in a positive or negative sense. 15 This figure corresponds with the total sum of all the brand personality dimensions distributed over websites in Tables 3.2,3.3 and 3.4.
55 ensue, an attempt will be made to qualitatively discuss the results from the correspondence analysis map by also bringing into focus our subjective interpretation as highlighted by Hair et al., (1998) and Hoffman and Franke (1986). Find below a summary of the subjective interpretation offered on the various websites positioning. a) Proximity to a Brand Personality Dimension At a simple level, it has been established that schools communicate dimensions that they associate themselves with but how strong this association is, distinguishes one school from another. From Table 3.11, one could surmise that Dartmouth (ranked 7th on the FT 2005 list) and ESCP–EAP (ranked 100th) might similarly be identified with competence. Although, Dartmouth and ESCP-EAP align themselves with the same personality dimension (competence), they differ in terms of magnitude in communicating this personality (see Figure 3.4). Clearly, Dartmouth communicates a stronger brand personality dimension than ESCP- EAP as evidenced by its top-ten versus bottom ten ranking. The same thing applies to Wharton and Fisher with regards to the sophistication. The former seems to be communicating a stronger brand personality than the latter. b) Types of Words Used on the Websites Websites also differed in terms of the words the designers used in the construction of sentences and phrases. This means that whatever a school’s intended brand personality, it is presumed to be affected by the type of words used on its website. Again, one of the issues in any computer- aided content analysis is to return to the original text to find examples of the themes (Weber, 1990). Table 3.14 provides some 13 examples of personality traits and adjectives of each dimension used by the sampled business schools in communicating their brand personalities. We must state that these words were picked haphazardly and are used as examples to illustrate this point. The positions of the words in the table do not necessarily correspond to their level of usage or appearance.
Table 3.14: 13 Traits and Adjectives of each Brand Personality Dimension used by these Business Schools Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication smart active external straight elegant thorough colourful rigorous original excellent guarantee cool robust open attractive enterprise current difficult helpful exclusive industrious exciting stony real royal successful exhilarating tough standard charm comprehensive modern enduring practical elegant venture present endeavours authentic stylish able recent trek relationship beautiful leader state-of-the art wild humane distinction adept unique challenges friendly cosmopolitan knowledgeable vibrant physical positive high-profile intellectual younger gruelling civil exquisite
56 c) Communicating Curriculum and Instructional Delivery Rowley (2004, p.137) argues that website design still remains important in terms of usability yet, the central focus in the branding process is the communication and messages. As a result, another difference between schools’ websites information is how well they articulate their curriculum and instructional delivery in a clear and distinct manner. In this study, the association of a school with a particular dimension appeared to be related to the type of curriculum and the instructional delivery system the school employs. For example, schools that associate themselves closely with competence mostly rely on one method of instructional delivery, whilst those who portray sophistication as their personality dimension rely on two or more. In Table 3.15, the business schools that communicate these dimensions strongly on their websites are listed to illustrate this point.
Table 3.15: Some Curriculum and other Instructional Delivery Methods employed by some Business Schools Dimension School Curriculum and Instructional delivery Harvard Case Method Columbia Cluster System Competence Dartmouth Tuck Leadership Forum Rice Uni.: Jones Action learning Programme Durham Boardroom Simulation Wharton Multidisciplinary approach: Learning team approach, leadership development, experiential opportunities Sophistication Chicago GSB Multidisciplinary Approach: Fundamentals, flexibility, variety and personal growth Stanford Multidisciplinary Approach: Flexibility, Collaboration and Teamwork Sincerity Yale Learning Throughout Yale Programme Insead Multiculturalism as a ‘source of learning and enrichment’
In general, it also appears that the more sophisticated a school portrays itself, the more expensive it becomes. A careful look at the tuition fees charged among the schools which associate themselves with competence and sophistication attest to this. Isolating all the US schools from the others, Stanford MBA is seen here as the most expensive followed by Wharton MBA. Stanford is an established top ten school that communicates both sophistication and competence strongly; Wharton aligns itself strongly with sophistication. This probably should not come as a surprise since it appears that there can a positive correlation between money/financial strength and sophistication.
Again, websites represent status symbols for their organizations (White and Raman, 1999) and are ‘brand carriers’ and an extension of the organization’s operations (Palmer and Griffith, 1998). In this regard, most of the schools whose websites are strongly associated with competence and sophistication are top players in this game and apart from their “innovative curricula”, “small class cohorts” and their global nature/focus, it also could be argued that they target the “elite”- those who can afford tuition and other incidental fees ranging from US$36,000 to $45,000 annually.
57 d) Location and Environment Location and environment both appear to have influenced the choice of a brand personality dimension by some schools. Esrock and Leitchy (1998) revealed that most corporate websites addressed issues concerning the ecology and the environment. As a result, some MBA programmes in this study also appear to have adopted the brand personality dimension of whatever environment in which they find themselves. For instance, New York University, located in Manhattan, portrays excitement while Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah, the centre of the Mormon faith, portrays sincerity.
Overall, it appears that schools which associate themselves with their environment usually adopt either the excitement or sincerity/ruggedness dimensions. In Table 3.16, examples of the sites most closely related to these dimensions are listed.
Table 3.16: Environmental Situations Capitalized by some Business Schools in creating their Brand Personality Dimension Dimension School Environment NYU Stern The New York Connection
Michigan State: Broad The big ten experience-sports, recreational facilities and its closeness to other big cities George Washington Champions its unique location as a next door neighbour to Excitement University the White House, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, as well as the headquarters and offices of thousands of national and multinational corporations. Imperial College: London Connection Tanaka Ruggedness Bath school of Mgt The history of the city of Bath
Sincerity/Ruggedness Edinburgh Ranked as one of the very fine cities in the UK due to its pleasant, historic and aesthetic nature.
Actually, the perception of brand personality traits can be influenced both by the direct and indirect experiences the consumer has with the brand (Plummer, 1984; Dichter, 1985). Therefore, based upon our value judgment, those schools closely related to the excitement dimension normally portray excitement-inspiring text and graphics on their websites.
Apart from the textual message, this element of excitement is also communicated in a different way (see Table 3.17 for further details) by the choice of colours and the moods of people portrayed on a website. The physiological and psychological responses to colours have been investigated and acknowledged (Nakshian, 1964; Wilson, 1966; Meyers-Levy and Peracchio, 1995). According to Dooley and Harkins (1970), coloured ads are able to provoke emotions. This clearly was exhibited by the three websites (NYU’s Stern, Michigan State Eli Broad and George Washington MBA) which were the most closely related to the excitement dimension.
58 Table 3.17: How the Excitement Dimension is exhibited in a different way Dimension School Other Characteristics of the Website16 Michigan State: Eli Broad Some students used on the sites portray happiness whilst some are seen gazing up into the sky. One may be tempted to say that, the colours coupled with the mood of the featured people on the site could in a way physically reveal this personality dimension. NYU’s Stern The front page of the NYU’s Stern full-time MBA programme’s website reveal an animated flash of the school’s old building architecture, with three men and Excitement two women standing close to the UN headquarters and happily chatting; a faculty member gazing up and smiling broadly, presumably signifying how happy he is. George Washington The frontal page also exhibits some students who are happily reading and enjoying sunny weather in an open space. Some are sitting whilst others are standing close to a fountain and in the midst of tall structures exhibiting typical city life. e) The Control and Governance Within the context of this thesis, it also can be argued that most of the privately-funded universities appeared to have relied on competence and sophistication whilst their publicly- funded counterparts fall on other brand personality dimensions. This is demonstrated clearly when one look at the top 10 full-time MBA programmes which are mostly privately-funded. Most of them have taken on the competence, sincerity and sophistication dimensions. Table 3.18 throws more light on this.
Table 3.18: Some Business Schools and their Mode of Control or Governance Dimension School Control or Governance Harvard London Business School Competence Dartmouth Rice University: Jones Private University of Minnesota: Carlson Wharton Sophistication Stanford Columbia Excitement Washington State Public Michigan State Insead Private Sincerity Yale Trinity College Edinburgh Public Ruggedness Bath
In this study, schools in Cluster 1 strongly associated themselves with competence, sincerity and sophistication. Based on this premise, it can be argued that these are relatively old, well- established, and basically privately-oriented institutions that have distinguished themselves in this industry. Another plausible explanation that could account for the potency of their message may be the issue of ‘survival’. One could argue that private schools rely on the
16 These characteristics were noted on the respective websites on May 2, 2005 at 13.00
59 attributes of sophistication, competence and sincerity to create a distinct niche for themselves in this increasingly competitive market in order to attract students who have the propensity to pay for higher tuition fees.
Even though, we have very few of the publicly-funded schools in this study, their websites variedly associate themselves with dimensions other than competence, sincerity and sophistication. f) Orientation of the School As highlighted earlier, most corporate websites reveal issues concerning social responsibility (Esrock and Leitchy, 1998) but, in this study, it can also be inferred that some business schools’ websites take on brand personality dimensions in consonance with the philosophy of their parent institutions or faculties. A school’s philosophy may be defined in terms of its religious inclinations, moral values, quality orientation and/or world view. In this study, most of the philosophically-oriented schools aligned themselves with sincerity. Table 3.19 demonstrates the schools which strongly associated themselves with the sincerity dimension and their related philosophies.
Table 3.19: Some Business Schools and Their Philosophies and Orientations Dimension School Orientation Message Warwick Quality Highlights its accreditation from AACSB International, EQUIS, AMBA, PIM, GMAC, UK Research Assessment Exercise etc. Insead World-view Highlights its multicultural learning environment. The premier business school to Sincerity have launched a parallel MBA programme in a dedicated campus in Asia. BYU’s Marriot Religious As a Christian-oriented organization, BYU MBA “offers a world class business education with the added benefit and absolutely vital component of spiritual growth and learning.”
3.4.13 Summary on the Interpretation of the Maps In sum, these clusters were analysed separately and then cross-analysed in various combinations in order to clearly establish similarities and differences across cases. Schools did differ in:
x their choice of brand personality dimensions, x the strength of their associations with their chosen dimension, and x the way they communicate their brand personality.
Analysing the data from different perspectives, one cluster alone versus various combinations of two clusters, versus all the three clusters (hence all thirty websites) together, resulted in relatively subtle differences in results. For full appreciation of the results on the cluster combinations, see Opoku (2005). Some schools, which seemed to be more strongly associated with a particular brand during single cluster correspondence analysis, saw those associations weaken when compared across two or three clusters. Some schools actually saw their brand personality affiliation changed, though usually this transfer was from one relatively weak association to another. Schools which strongly communicated their brand personality in single cluster tended to maintain their brand personalities throughout all analyses.
60 3.5 Other Quality Issues Considered in Study A Besides the quality measures we considered under the various steps, we also took the following issues into account:
3.5.1 Issues Relating to Transferability and Extension of this Study Research can be relevant when the findings fit within the context outside the study situation. In this study, we have adhered strictly to the norms of robust research design (developing relevant and clear research questions, a good frame of reference and very rigorous and highly structured research methodology). Coupled with these, we selected a sufficient sample size. All these decisions were duly justified. We have applied all these principles in the context of our research. Our records (especially the Dictionary at Appendix V) can be examined by other researchers or investigators to help them understand the details of our methodology and to enable them to re-use the data that we have collected. Therefore, this research can help us to make inference regarding the intended dimensions of brand personalities that are communicated by business schools when marketing their MBA programmes online. All the same, this study may, in a way, open up further hypothetical propositions in relationship to brand personality online. This will further advance the study of this phenomenon.
3.5.2 Controlling the Number of Words on the Websites Intuitively, one would have expected that schools with more words on their websites would describe their brand personalities more than those with few. To reduce the risk of bias stemming from over-representation of one site versus another (something called ascertainment bias17), we considered limiting the number of words reviewed from each website. One option was to limit the number of pages reviewed. This option unfortunately creates bias (called selection bias18) because it cannot be done randomly without potentially missing critical data. Another option was to select websites with relatively equal numbers of words. With this latter option, we would have had no choice but to be very selective in choosing the cases. Remembering:
1) that our intention was to produce a sample that could reflect a diverse array of schools to allow for natural clustering, and
2) that as our choice was not to generalize our results, we decided that the process of controlling word counts itself would add unacceptable levels of subjectivity (or bias) and complexity to the study.
We accept however, the controversial nature of this issue but all things being equal, one would expect that business schools with a greater number of words on their websites should communicate stronger brand personality dimensions than those with few words. In most instances, our study established the opposite. In Cluster 2, Rice University and Carlson School of Business (the 47th and 52nd ranked schools), used the most words on their websites (1168
17 Ascertainment bias is an error in the way scientific research is conducted such that a false association is produced by unintentional non-random sampling of two study populations. An unequal result is then erroneously attributed to the phenomenon under study rather than to the method of sampling (Wikipedia.com). 18 Selection bias, sometimes referred to as the selection effect, is the error of distorting a statistical analysis due to the methodology of how the samples are collected. Selection bias can be the result of scientific fraud which manipulate data directly, but more often is either unconscious or due to biases in the instruments used for observation(Wikipedia.com, retrieved on October 10, 2006, 18:00 ).
61 and 1835 words respectively). Both aligned themselves with competence, but neither did this particularly well. Conversely, Warwick, with only 995 words, clearly and strongly associated itself with sophistication in the within cluster analysis. In a similar vein, the 92nd and the 95th ranked schools (Pepperdine and the University of Washington) in Cluster 3 have 910 and 1052 words on their websites respectively, but they do less well communicating their brand personality than Edinburgh and the University of Bath, which have 274 and 533 words, respectively. Pepperdine, in fact, was the only school unable to associate itself with any brand personality dimension. We can therefore infer that the number of words used on a website is not a predictor of the strength with which a school communicates a brand personality at least in this study.
3.5.3 Detailing Our Report Most criticisms about research relate to the low quality of documentation and reporting of the findings (Sinkovics et al., 2005). These issues cannot be ignored in this study. Following a formalised organization procedure, we have attempted to overcome these criticisms by providing a detailed report and by giving the reader sufficient information to allow him or her to estimate the reliability and validity of our methods and results. We have defined our research setting, units of analysis, materials and procedures. We also tried to present the facts as encountered. As the following chapters will reveal, we have answered each of our two primary research questions and have tried to illuminate our thought processes as we were reaching our conclusions. We also followed a simple and clear structure when conducting our analysis and presenting our conclusions. We have attempted to cover all important issues pertaining to this research, hence making it relevant, informative, and we hope will be worth applying.
62 4.0: Summary of Papers in Study B Under this chapter, we provide a brief summary of the papers that came out as a result or in connection with Study A. Attempt is made to provide a snapshot of the motivation behind and objective(s) of the studies, the methodology employed, the results and the conclusions drawn from the various studies.
4.1 Paper I: What I Say About Myself: Communication of Brand Personality by African Countries
Many African countries suffer from negative perceptions first as a simple consequence of their location in the world’s economically least successful continent, and second, in the case of some nations, because of their proximity to particularly unstable countries. Therefore, we argued in this paper that African countries need to assess their brand personality as part of a marketing strategy to promote themselves as tourism destinations of choice.
The prime objectives in this paper are to analyze website brand communication by African nations using Aaker’s (1997) brand personality dimensions, and also to demonstrate a relatively simple but powerful tool for identifying and then portraying this brand personality compared to other players. The method used to analyze the websites was content analysis whilst the positioning maps were produced using correspondence analysis.
It was found out in this study that some African countries appear to create strong online brand personalities for themselves by clear and distinct positioning. This is done by consciously communicating strong brand personality dimensions, such as ruggedness, competence, sophistication or sincerity. Others seem either not to position themselves clearly on a particular brand personality dimension, or, more disconcerting, not to communicate any of the brand personality dimensions at all.
We concluded that the approach followed in the study as described in this article can offer good general insights to international marketing managers and managers of tourism organizations. The approach can obviously be extended to other countries, but is equally applicable to other brands of products and services in the international environment. The technique is reasonably easy to conduct at low cost, and the results are also quite easy to interpret. The approach also permits international marketing and tourism executives to ensure that the personality of their brand is being communicated online as they intend it to be. It will also allow an international marketing manager to understand their brand personality relative to others, especially competitors. At another level, the regular use of the technique will permit the international marketing executive to track their own brand’s personality as well those of competitors over time. This has two advantages: First, changes in brand personality as communicated by competitors can be identified, and the necessary adjustments in own strategy made if deemed necessary. Second, the information gleaned from this type of research can be utilized in brand personality decisions at a strategic level, but also in website design decisions at a tactical level. While the article is limited to the analysis of African country brands, we contend that the techniques used can have wide applications in international marketing by both academics and practitioners. We also suggest that Destination Marketing Organization’s (DMO) should give attention to brand personality dimensions when developing their websites as this effectively positions the brand against competing websites and their brands.
63 4.2 Paper II: Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for the Top South African Business Schools?
Though, a business school’s website is a very important element of its corporate identity as it tells ‘who we are’, it appears that no academic research has focused on how business schools communicate information on brand personality about their MBA programmes in the online environment. Also, studies on brand personality communication have been limited to products and services in western economies whilst little attention has been devoted to brand communication online (in cyberspace). Thus, the mainstream academic literature has largely neglected the growing importance of online communications as part of corporate identity management. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to highlight these issues; add to brand personality research and to put forth a simple and effective methodology that combines content analysis with correspondent analysis that can be used by academics and practitioners.
South African’s MBA programmes have also been a subject of quality evaluation from different perspectives and are going through a lot of challenges. For instance, it is on record that the South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) de-accredited 15 MBA degrees in May, 2004 and continues to police the MBA programmes’ landscape. These developments have further fuelled various discussions and criticisms on MBA programmes in this country. Because of the competitive nature of South African Business schools, one can argue that schools in such an environment need to examine their brand personality profiles in order to stay competitive. In this study, we contend that brand personality differentiates business school offerings in a competitive market and thus is beneficial to business school leaders as well as brand managers and researchers. We therefore aim to investigate whether South African business schools communicate clear and distinct brand personalities in the cyberspace. The method used to analyze the websites was content analysis whilst the positioning maps were produced using correspondence analysis.
The results of the study indicated that some of the schools appear to have created a strong brand personality for themselves by clear and distinct positioning. Some schools were able to achieve this by relying mainly on the uniqueness of their curriculum and instructional delivery, philosophy, environment and location. Whilst some of them seem to do this ‘loosely’, others seem either not to position themselves clearly on a particular brand personality, or more disconcerting, not to communicate any of the brand personality dimensions at all. At another level, one would expect that business schools with a greater number of words on their websites should communicate stronger brand personality dimensions than those with fewer words. The opposite appears to hold true in this study. This is in line with previous findings which indicate that, the amount of words used on a website does not predict the potency of the message communicated. Rather, success of the message likely depends upon a given organisation awareness about and commitment to communicating brand personalities online. More words also do not necessarily make a message clearer. We concluded that business schools must be aware that their website is a key element of their corporate identity and must be managed. For many prospective students, the website is their first ‘visit’ to the campus.
64 4.3 Paper III: Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for Food SMEs?
The SME sector has been described as the engine of growth of an economy and in most economies they account for the vast majority of firms. Marketing problems have been cited by small business owners as one of their biggest concerns. As part of the solution we contend that branding is a critical issue in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector because brands allow actors, such as organizations, to say things about themselves in ways that everyday language cannot convey. Marketers and entrepreneurs should there be rightly concerned with brands because they facilitate the repeat purchases on which sellers rely to enhance corporate financial performance and the survival of the firm. Although, brand management is a critical element of marketing strategy, yet according to some researchers, brand management receives little or no attention in the daily run of affairs in SMEs. Brand management is not given the priority it needs for a strong brand image.
Our objectives in this paper are first, to explore whether SMEs in the restaurant industry communicate clear and distinctive brand personalities on their websites, and second, to demonstrate a relatively simple but powerful qualitative tool for identifying and then portraying this brand personality relative to other players. The method used to analyze the websites was content analysis whilst the positioning maps were produced using correspondence analysis.
It is clear from the results of this research that SMEs are able to communicate brand personality by way of their websites. Considering the limited resources available to SMEs relative to their “big brand” competitors, this form of communication could be used cost-effectively to enhance their overall brand image. The retail food franchisers appear to create strong online brand personalities for themselves by clear and distinct positioning. This is done by consciously communicating strong brand personality dimensions, such as excitement, competence, sophistication or sincerity.
Additionally, this study adds to our earlier proposition that the combined use of content analysis and correspondence analysis represents an important and powerful approach to analyzing qualitative data. Using the technique, we were able to identify brands that have singular as well as mixed personalities as well as brands that have weak personalities based on the communication from their websites. While this represents a more functional rather than purely interpretive approach to the analysis of qualitative research data, it illustrates the power of the application of mixed methodologies.
We concluded that marketing managers and SME owners should consider what they are communicating through their website. They must consider the brand personality antecedents when designing the website. Factors that should be taken into account include the overall reputation of the SME, the overall profile of the owner or manager, and the previous history of the restaurant. In addition, the restaurant’s ‘products’ must be considered. What part of the restaurant will be featured, the location, the decor, the service, or the menu? The brand personality portrayed by the website will influence the various stakeholder attitudes about the SME. The same approach can be used for most brands in many industries and geographical areas.
65 4.4 Paper IV: Brand Management and Strategic Performance: Some Evidence from South Africa
Brand management aims to establish a favourable disposition towards the organization by its stakeholders. For instance, strategic brand management can help make consumers perceive the brand as an avenue for self-expression or to experience the emotional benefits by which the brand differentiates itself from others. This paper encapsulates the overall concern and the ultimate aim of brand management and strategic performance. That is to say, the essence of developing a tool to evaluate brand personality positioning will help corporate management to assess and manage their brands in order to enhance the over all strategic performance of the organisation. We argued in this paper that, for while it might make good common sense to manage brands well, the impact of brand management practices on performance needs to be assessed, and specific issues identified. Again, while much of the work on brand management has been conducted in North America and Europe, additional evidence is needed from other parts of the world. This work attempts to address brand management practice from an African perspective.
The primary objective of this paper is to address the research question “is there a positive relationship between effective brand management practices and business performance among South African businesses?” A secondary objective is to report on some of the psychometric properties of a previously published instrument, designed to audit perceptions of brand management effectiveness.
The results of the study reported here indicate that senior marketing executives in South African firms perceive their organizations to be doing a reasonable job of managing brands. This should be a matter of some satisfaction, for branding is a critical issue. Furthermore, as shown in this study, the effectiveness of brand management has a positive effect on financial measures of a firm’s performance such as profitability, and also on indicators of strategic success, such as market share and rate of growth. The obvious implications of these results are that all South African firms should give attention to the management of brands in terms of marketing strategy, recruitment and selection, training and development, and also in terms of overall corporate strategy.
Overall, this article addresses a number of gaps in the field. First it clearly demonstrates the impact of brand management practices on firms’ performance. Second it explored the issue of branding in Africa – a much under-researched phenomenon. Finally, it adds insight into the psychometric properties of the brand management instrument developed by Pitt et al. (2003).
66 5.0 Conclusions, Limitations, Implications and Future Research This chapter includes a discourse on the conclusions, limitations and implications of this thesis. We also identify and suggest several research opportunities this perspective stands to afford.
5.1 Conclusion We discuss the results of this thesis under two headings-empirical and methodological issues. This is to help provide clearer discussions on the phenomenom we studied.
5.1.1 Empirical Findings There is no gainsaying the fact that, the prime objective of this thesis is to develop a tool to help evaluate the online brand positioning of organisations. In order to achieve this set objective, some general research questions were posed in all the studies (especially Study A) as to:
x whether any of the Aaker’s five brand personality dimensions are used by these entities in their websites’ communications and
x how these entities differ in their use of website information to communicate brand personalities online.
Throughout this thesis, we have found that all the five brand personality dimensions (competence, sincerity, excitement, sophistication and ruggedness) put forward by Aaker (1997) could be identified in the intended online communications of the selected samples. Though, we are aware that, “using personality as a general indicator of brand strength will be a distortion for some brands, particularly those that are positioned with respect to functional advantages and value” (Aaker, 1996b, p. 113), we seem to, in way, suspect that all the five brand personalities resonates in our studies. This could be due, in part, to the samples chosen or contexts. On the flipside, we also established further that various organisations utilize their websites in various ways and to varying degrees to associate themselves with a particular dimension and hence, to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This is consistent with the assertion made by Perry and Bodkin (2002) that being able to use a comprehensive and integrated marketing communications website strategy to differentiate one firm from its competitors will become a necessity as more and more organizations use websites in trying to foster relationships with customers.
Some entities appear to succeed better than others in creating strong brand personalities for themselves by clear and distinct positioning. Other organisations seem not to be communicating their message clearly, since they seem to affiliate with no brand personality dimensions at all especially in the case of the African countries’ websites. This echoes the conclusion of Kim et al., (2001) that distinct and effective brand personalities do not just happen, they must be developed via planning and efficient communication methods if they are going to have an effect on the marketplace. This is because communication plays a vital role in creating and maintaining brand personality. Keller (2001b) also cautioned that one of the keys to the success of many brands and one of the culprits leading to the failure of many brands is marketing communications. With this in mind, it is clear that many of these entities we have
67 studied can revisit their brand strategies to determine how best to communicate their messages clearly and distinctively.
We also identified that some of Aaker’s five dimensions are communicated more than others. The competence dimension was the most frequently used; excitement was more frequently used; sincerity followed as frequently used; ruggedness was less frequently used; and sophistication was the least frequently used. This concurs with the findings of Chun and Davies (2001) that competence is the most frequently used dimension among the organisations studied. Again, Aaker (1997) found out that whereas Sincerity, Excitement, and Competence represent an innate part of human personality, Sophistication and Ruggedness are dimensions that individual’s desire but do not necessarily have. This could add up to the reason why competence, excitement and sincerity are frequently used in this thesis. This study also affirms to the assertion that different types of marketing information are found to thrive on commercial homepages, consistent with the notion of multiple evolutionary paths of web establishments by organisations (Quelch and Klein, 1996).
Another conclusion we have reached is that the amount of words used on a website does not predict the potency of the message communicated. Rather, success of the message likely depends upon a given entity awareness about and commitment to communicating brand personalities online. More words also do not necessarily make a message clearer. This was demonstrated in Study A and Paper II.
From our findings, we also argue that if organisations successfully can associate themselves with the brand personality dimension they are communicating, it also is possible that the dimensions can establish some relationships amongst themselves. In Study A for example, competence and sophistication were identified as being related to each other, sincerity and ruggedness appear to be inter-related, whilst excitement stands alone. This suggests in part that entities communicating competence disproportionately will communicate sophistication. A special case in point is Stanford Business School. Similarly, organizations which communicate sincerity will be more likely than average to communicate some level of ruggedness too.
We further ascertained that some organisations differ in how the information on their websites communicates brand personality. In the case of business schools, schools choosing the same brand personality may select different words for their messages, which may affect the strength of the message and associations with other personality dimensions. For example, NYU Business School promotes excitement, but also sophistication because it highlights the many multi-cultural events that New York has to offer. Michigan State University Business School also promotes excitement, but by focusing on the many sporting and outdoor activities available in and around East Lansing. In Figure 3.4, when all thirty schools are analysed concurrently, Michigan State’s brand personality is excitement, but the next closest personality dimension is ruggedness, which is consistent with the sports and outdoors message conveyed. Thus, two schools promoting the same brand personality, use two different messages. However, organisations wishing to brand their products with multiple personalities should note, however, that conveying multiple personalities can be quite tricky and risky. If the personalities representing the same brand do not fit well, the resulting confusion among consumers can culminate into a brand being perceived as either having no distinct personality or none at all. Thus, this confusion could in a way cost the organisation in terms of product differentiation and positioning.
We also observed that certain type of brand personality appears to be a reflection of the type of curriculum offered, the mode of instructional delivery, and the tuition fees charged (see Study
68 A and Paper II). This attests to the claim that websites also represent status symbols for their organizations (White and Raman, 1999) and are ‘brand carriers’ and extensions of the organization’s operations (Palmer and Griffith, 1998).
It also came to light that entities consider some factors more critical than others when adopting a brand personality. This was demonstrated in Study A, Paper I and Paper II. This is likely because the objectives of marketers in establishing a website differ from an organization to another (Berthon et al., 1998; Kiani, 1998). However, which branding strategy an organisation employs could depend on the organisation’s targeting and positioning decisions (Dann and Dann, 2004). Hence, it is crucial for organisations to know where they wish to go and how to achieve this. This requires the development of specific strategies and tactics for the purpose of online branding. Our analysis highlights some key elements that can inform the decision of an organisation to go for a certain brand personality dimension. This can also guide other organisations in the future. These include, but are not limited to:
x Location and environment (where the country is geographically positioned; whether the school is situated close to or in a big city, commercial centre, recreational/sports centre, etc).
x Control and governance (whether the school is privately or publicly funded).
x Philosophical orientation of the school (quality, worldview, religious, what a country would like to achieve with its message).
x Natural resource endowment (especially countries).
This thesis further reveals the implications that brand communications have taken on a new form and can no longer be just a simple communication of a name or benefit. Brand communications have to evolve into the communication of an entire concept about living based on symbolic values and meanings (Tan and Ming, 2003).
In the nutshell, the strongest brands that exist today are strong because they stay focused on one aspect of singular distinction. This is because it is rarely possible for a brand to be all things to all people (Gardner and Levy, 1955). To successfully differentiate a brand, Lannon (1993) is of the view that the personality must be distinctive, robust, desirable and constant. It needs to be noted that when an organization presents different messages to the consumer, the brand becomes confused and its impact diluted. This stands to mean that once an entity tries to position its brand to be many different things to many different people, then the brand begins to not really mean much of anything to anyone. Therefore, we also suggest in this study that when a brand is positioned properly, it will go a long way to enjoy a leadership position within its market and to acquire a significant mind-share.
69 5.1.2 Methodological Issues Regarding the methodologically position of this thesis, there are many different views on the value of qualitative and quantitative analysis in a study such as this. Problems that are cited include the volume of data and the perceived complexity of analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1984; Richards and Richards, 1987; Pettigrew, 1990). On the contrarily, this study has brought to light how such a task can be managed by the using of simple collection and analytical tools that appreciably simplify and reduce the duration of time required to perform the essential tasks. Our results lend credence to the concept promoted by various researchers and authors (Dey, 1993; Davies, 1993; Weitzman and Miles, 1995). They all share the same conviction that large volumes of data can be managed, especially with the advances in computer-aided analytical technology. This thesis also supports the value and illustrates the power of mixed methodologies herein referred to in this study as a multi-strategy approach (combination of qualitative and quantitative) research (for details of this approach see Bryman, 1988; Hammersley, 1996; Sinkovics et al., 2005).
Other researchers have complained about the ‘extremely time-consuming and confusing nature’ of evaluating entire websites (Ha and James, 1998; Okazaki, 2005). However, this thesis proves that this needs not be the case when an investigator arms him/her with the appropriate data collection and analytical tools. We evaluated all the samples of each study within one week and without much complexity. The secret was taking the time to find, develop and/or validate tools in conjunction with having methodologically-sound study architecture. In fact, one of the strength of this thesis lies in its clear and simple approach to measuring website content.
In conducting research, there is always the expectation that the findings ultimately will be useful in addressing situations beyond the one studied (Calder et al., 1981, p.197). As procedures for conducting research on web content continue to be refined (McMillan, 2000), we also provide a summary of the steps we followed in evaluating the brand personality of the organisations we sampled in this thesis. This can serve as a road map to those who would like to replicate this methodology or build upon it.
5.1.3 Summary of the 12 Steps Involved in the Evaluation of the Brand Personality Positioning in this Thesis
Step One: Select the Computer-Aided Text Analysis (CATA) software.
Step Two: Select the unit of analysis.
Step Three: Select competitive samples of websites for analysis.
Step Four: Design a rigorous dictionary of terms by collecting and compiling synonyms of evaluative criteria.
Step Five: Collect data.
Step Six: Use software to convert data into electronic format and categorise the data according to the evaluative criteria.
70 Step Seven: Cross-tabulate the categorical data and aggregate the number of words identified by the analysis software.
Step Eight: Establish the dependency between rows and columns.
Step Nine: Decide upon the number of dimensions to retain for further analysis and justify the dimensional solution used.
Step Ten: Present the row and column profiles graphically in a two-way dimensional space with each or more of the dimensions representing a different region. Each brand/ product/organisation is expected to be positioned in this space according to its profile.
Step Eleven: Interpret the correspondence maps.
Step Twelve: Make a subjective but informed meaning out of the interpretations.
5.2 Limitations of the Study It stands to be highlighted that it is impossible to perform a perfect study. Every study is prone to some biases and limitations. Therefore, limitations in interpreting the outcomes of this present study should be noted whilst other caveats should be borne in mind in generalizing the results of this study. The following are identified to be the most significant limitations of this thesis:
5.2.1 Sample We relied on our own value judgments especially in selecting and clustering samples in Study A and Paper III. This makes our selection of samples somewhat arbitrarily, though it certainly seems logical and reasonable to include schools from the top, middle and bottom of any sampling pool chosen and to select food SMEs from different parts of the world. Although not random, our method of selection at least seems likely to have yielded relatively good results. However, the major intention we had among others was to investigate the suitability of a research approach and research instruments. In this wise, the websites used in this thesis were chosen to illustrate this phenomenon. This, we achieved without a random sampling technique.
5.2.2 Instrument We are duly aware of the somewhat controversial nature of using content analysis software as an analytical tool in the current context. As with all computer-aided tools, this software is not a ‘fool-proof’; it comes with its own challenges. This is mostly noteworthy when it comes to the construction of the dictionary. It is our belief that we were very fastidious in our approach to develop this dictionary by drawing from the expertise of several independent reviewers using several independent sources. We also painstakingly tested our instrument in two pilot studies, one of which was presented in a peer-reviewed forum. Although we believe all the necessary measures were taken to avoid possible bias in creating this dictionary of brand personality terms, our understanding of the meaning of words and how they were selected to assemble the dictionary could be influenced by personal values, interpretations, experiences and knowledge. This is true of any instrument developed for any purpose. However, our pilot studies give us reason to believe that our instrument had both content and construct validity.
71 5.2.3 Interpretation of Data The investigator tried to interpret all data from the quantitative point of view, but most of the analyses of the maps were at least somewhat influenced by value judgments. Hair et al., (1998) recognise that, when utilising correspondence analysis, interpretation always must include some element of the analyst’s judgment. However, the results of this study could have been further enriched if some stakeholders also were asked to validate the results. This was not in the case in this study. The investigator described the dimensions in terms of perceived characteristics and experience.
Relying on a two-way dimensional plot may be risky as it is rare to see such a plot telling a complete or even an accurate story. For full appreciation of the challenges of using correspondence analysis maps, see Whitlark and Smith (2001). Anyway, we did utilise three- way dimensional plots to identify outliers, and this was useful. However, two-way dimensional plots were used in the thesis itself for ease of presentation and interpretation.
As content analysts are acutely aware of the dangers of generalizing from co-occurrence of words to assertions of relations among words existing within specific sentences (Roberts, 1989; 1997b), we never sought to generalise to all entities. Thus, we only formally analysed text. In terms of ambiguity, we are also aware that a word can have different meanings semantic-wise, therefore, contextual knowledge would be required to determine the meaning of a sentence. This could also impact on our interpretation of the data.
Moreover, visual or graphical images also represent cues and may convey strong multiple meanings to the website visitors. In other words, it is much more than just simple words that make the positioning. It could be how the message is framed; how words are connected to each other, how they are connected to visual and audio elements and the overall impression of the site. Since, in this thesis, only text information was analysed, it is possible that the entire brand image may not be truly examined. This could impact on the portrayed brand personalities of these investigated websites. However, we opted not to consider the visual aspects of websites primarily because it would have made the study unmanageable. Even, the aspect of website design and brand personality has already been looked at (see, Su-e et al., 2005). Therefore, we add through these studies that the message conveyed and the wording used on a website is likely to play a most salient role among prospective visitors and stakeholders interested in a particular organization.
Context Aaker’s (1997) conceptualization of brand personality is based on the assessing of the consumer’s perceptions of a brand. In this thesis, our focus was based on communication of the brand personality as expressed on entity websites, an issue we addressed by content analysing what these organizations intend to communicate. No consideration was given to the perceptions of some of the stakeholders, especially the potential or existing students/ customers/tourists, media or recruiters/managers. In other words, we do not claim in any way to provide insight into how customers of these entities perceive their programmes or offerings, but just into how these organizations use their websites to communicate a message-brand personality.
72 Time Factor All attempts have been made to present this thesis as a forward-looking document. However, studies of this nature and others relating to the Internet often are regarded as historic within some months. Given the current level of competition in this industry, together with regular websites updates and the rapid advancement of web technology and web designing, it is possible, or even probable, that one may not get the same results if the same study were to be conducted in a few months time. Unfortunately, there is no way to adjust for this, short of continuously repeating the study, which is outside the objectives of this thesis.
5.3 Research Implications Convincing a reader that a given study is significant and should have been conducted entails building an argument that links the research to important theoretical perspectives, policy issues, concerns of practice, and/or persistent social issues that affect people’s everyday lives (Marshall and Rossman, 1999, p.34). In the following paragraphs, we will attempt to link this study to the above perspectives. Under the last sub-heading, we also suggest the many areas in which further research would be essential for making the method of evaluating online brand personality to be increasingly valid, reliable, and practical.
5.3.1 Theoretical Implications As an extension of Aaker’s theory on brand personalities, this study has provided a holistic perspective on how entities communicate their intended brand personalities online in a clear and distinct manner. It also has helped us to indirectly assess whether the change in the context could have had an effect on Aaker’s (1997) brand personality dimensions. Additionally, it has revealed and provided empirical findings as to whether entities consciously or subconsciously communicate their brand personalities in their attempt to manage their brands online. This will help accelerate the pace of research in this area.
This thesis has also offered a description of the phenomenon of brand communication in a very specific setting (the online environment) and is presumed to serve as a basis for further research. The results of these studies which have culminated into a thesis hopefully will also serve as a foundation for future studies. This is because past research provided us with theories upon which we formulated our research purpose and questions hence this thesis could be replicated or built up in the other contexts for further validation.
Our contribution to theory again is based on the online situation. Our findings can be added to what has been examined and described by previous research so as to help advance the understanding of online brand personality communication especially from a different cultural perspective. We therefore believe that this thesis may serve as a spring board for future researchers/investigators interested in exploring this new online phenomenon further. Our conclusions could form the basis for future hypotheses.
We have look at intended online brand personality communication from different contexts. In a way, this thesis also provides empirical support to the use of the web by different organisations for different objectives in their online communication efforts.
73 5.3.2 Research Implications for Content Analysts, Researchers, Web Administrators/Managers and Communication Experts From the academic perspective, this thesis represents a systematic and rigorous approach to studying the emerging and growing phenomenom of website evaluation. In addition, it has some revelations to share with content analysts, researchers, web administrators/managers and communications experts.
Many and varied potential benefits of using content analysis has been registered by both academics and practitioners but the manual application of this research technique has traditionally made it use potentially unreliable and tedious. To content analysts, this thesis is reassuring them that computer-aided analysis can minimize both problems. We advocate that removing the human element in coding maximizes reliability, while the ability to scan text into a computer and have it analyzed in a matter of minutes removes much of the time and tedium of content analysis. Therefore, content analysts, scholars and marketing communication experts should be able to analyze more of a naturally occurring online marketing text such as advertisement, corporate annual reports, focus group transcripts, newspapers and magazine publicity and so on with less difficulty.
The content analysis of intended brand personality communication reported in this paper further illustrates how computers can read as well as count (Kabanoff, 1996) and how content analysis is a fundamental tool in communication research. Similar word frequency analysis of other kinds of written text can make a major contribution to our understanding of a range of marketing practices and provide new insights into marketing communication. As part of the efforts of researchers to achieve a necessary level of scientific rigour in marketing communication, it is our firm belief that this is a journey to an optimal approach to conducting sophisticated content analysis which will benefit in terms of cost, flexibility, and reliability and at the same time maintain satisfactory levels of validity.
To researchers, this thesis has brought to the fore the need to further develop the idea of brand positioning management strategies by entities in the online environment. To date, little scholastic appreciation of these strategies exists. Hence, we hope that this study offers helpful general guidelines for already existing and would-be organisations when they are embarking on the development of a website or otherwise want to communicate their brand. In other words, those sites which do not already achieve satisfactory brand personality results may improve, and those that had success may reap even greater benefits.
The vast majority of published research on websites has been practical, descriptive, marketing- oriented and futuristic (Jo and Jung, 2005). This also is what we have attempted to achieve. As the web increasingly is becoming an important medium to reach target audience, marketers/brand managers and web administrators must begin to monitor the competition and to devise new strategies in order to create unique brand personalities. In fact, this study has illustrated that the words we use to communicate brand personality are a vital part of fulfilling the tremendous potential that brands have to augment marketing results.
Based upon the findings in this thesis, it can be argued that when messages are creatively expressed, communication becomes distinctive and memorable and consequently strengthens a brand. This study hopefully also has served as an eye-opener to communication experts about the need for them to target their online audience by exhibiting identifiable, consistent and memorable messages about brand personality dimensions/traits so as to reap the best outcomes
74 out of online communication. Also, these studies enable brand marketers to appreciate the dynamics of competition and to develop stronger strategies for their brands.
A well-established brand personality is thought to heighten emotional ties with the brand, increase preference and patronage, and augment sense of trust and loyalty (Sigauw et al., 1999). This means that a much closer look at what the organisation’s brand mean to people- their symbolism, their positioning, their leadership status and the effective platform to communicate these ideals. To marketers/brand managers and web administrators, this thesis therefore sheds light on the significance of regular website updates to continuously monitor and upgrade the brand personality they intend to convey. By this process, managers can maintain old customers and attract new ones.
Last but no mean least and perhaps most tellingly, one of the seemingly pioneering roles of this study has been the introduction and demonstration of the ability and advantages of combining content and correspondence analyses in evaluating websites. For instance, the correspondence analysis as exemplified here empowers all website managers to visualize their intended brand personality of their organizations’ websites relative to their competitors, as well as relative to benchmarks at a very low cost. In today’s fiercely competitive business environment, this combination of techniques affords organisations the ability to assess how their brand is positioned online, and how they are mirroring themselves in the minds of their stakeholders. Moreover, for the layman, interpretation of correspondence analysis maps is easier and more accurate than before. Compared to other outputs generated by many other statistical tools and procedures, these easy to interpret maps may aid brand managers to make faster, better informed decisions.
Yet, this area of study is in its rudimentary stages and may change quickly; therefore there still are many issues that need to be explored, described and examined. This then leads us to the implications for further research.
5.3.3 Further Research Directions There is variety of ways to extend the empirical results from this thesis. Under this sub- heading, we outline some choice-related areas of research that can be explored by interested researchers.
The trend in content analysis which is toward increasingly employing computerised management of textual has become the rule rather than the exception. This evolution has been welcomed as an important development with the potential to improve the rigour of analysis. However, this thesis has focused in part on brand personality communication in the online environment. To fully understand the communication dynamics, additional research is warranted in the examination of how brand personality perceptions of organisations are formed in the online environment. One can also look at extent to which people are influenced by website communication other than advertising and other media portrayals.
Consistency of message is paramount because consumers form impressions of the brand from many different sources which must increasingly be co-ordinated. There must be no differences in the way the organisation is perceived on-and offline in terms of brand personality. In fact, Ibeh et al., (2005) found out that their sampled companies seem to have employed a variety of traditional, offline methods and leading-edge online tools in communicating their key e-brand values and promoting their online platforms and offerings. These communication vehicles
75 included newspapers, radio, magazines, television, public relations, trade events and promotions, personalized e-mail notifications, affiliate programmes with other websites and banner advertisements. As website communication is one of many integrated marketing communication tools, content analysis of textual information on the web could also be compared with other communication media such as brochures, press reports and releases, annual reports, and broadcast and print advertising in order to determine the extent to which marketers communicate consistent brand personality messages across all media. Then, these relationships could be compared with stakeholder-based perceptions of brand personality.
There are new theories and principles emerging which seek to exploit the unique opportunities and challenges the Internet offers and identify specific considerations in building brand equity online. Current research results help us to evaluate brand personality in the online environment. Another interesting area is to look at how online communication of brand personality can be effectively incorporated into integrated marketing communication (IMC) efforts. Such research results would help guide brand managers in their efforts to make the most of their limited resources when allocating IMC dollars.
Across the world, the issue of leadership is recognised as a vital element for the effective performance of organisations. In fact, good leadership is increasingly viewed as one of the critical components in the development of continents especially Africa but the argument that all leaders can only see what their cultural lenses allow them to see, also still holds. One area ripe for future research is to look at the effect on the organisation’s online brand personality as a result of a change in leadership or leadership style in any of the organisations or countries studied.
This thesis provides a preliminary outlook on what is communicated online, but it does not directly examine the impact of brand personality on the organisations’ websites. Further work remains in exploring the effect of communicating a certain brand personality dimension on the organisation’s website performance. Future research could longitudinally track this overtime.
Subsequently, the techniques described here can aid longitudinal research, so that the effect of online brand communication on other variables, such as press coverage, and of course customer perceptions, can be tracked over time and conclusions drawn accordingly.
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97 7.0 Appendices
We attach the various papers and other additional explanations connected to this study.
98 Appendix: I
Paper I: What I Say About Myself: Communication of Brand Personality by African Countries
Article in Press
Tourism Management (ISSN: 0261-5177)
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Tourism Management ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman Research paper What I say about myself: Communication of brand personality by African countries
Leyland F. Pitta, Robert Opokub, Magnus Hultmanb, Ã Russell Abrattc, , Stavroula Spyropouloud
aFaculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6 bDivision of Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce, Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden cH. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova South-Eastern University, 3301 College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA dLeeds University Business School, Leeds University Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Received 7 November 2005; accepted 15 June 2006
Abstract
This study analyses website brand communication by African nations using Aaker’s brand personality dimensions. A multistage methodology focused on 10 African countries, using a combination of content analysis and correspondence analysis. We found that some countries have specific brand personalities while others are failing to communicate their brand personalities distinctly. This article illustrates a powerful, but simple and relatively inexpensive way for international marketers to study communicated brand personality. Although there are 53 countries on the African continent, only 10 countries were covered by this research. The intent was, however, to demonstrate a research method, rather than have comprehensive coverage of the African continent. The major contribution of this study is the use of a new research approach and set of tools that both tourism researchers and managers can use. The technique is easy to use, and the results are easy to interpret. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Brand personality; Countries as Brands; Tourism websites; Africa
1. Introduction Internet site as a significant competitive weapon within their industry and about 60% describe the Internet as being It has been acknowledged that electronic commerce has substantial in acquiring new customers (Mullin, 2000). a far-reaching impact on the way travel is marketed, Hotel companies continuously redesign their websites for distributed, sold and delivered (Pollack, 1995; Williams & ease and convenience, and upgrade web technology to Palmer, 1999), and is becoming an increasingly important make their websites more personalized for customers. They destination-marketing tool for tourism organizations, initiate web campaigns, develop brands and integrate including state tourism offices and national tourist branding strategy on the web, gather customer informa- organizations (Lee, Cai, & O’Leary, 2005). According to tion, improve customer service, and streamline online the Travel Industry Association 64.1 million people had reservations (Baloglu & Pekcan, 2006). used the Internet to make plans for travel in 2003 (TIA, Brands are symbols around which social actors, includ- 2004). Thus, websites have become an important medium ing firms, suppliers, supplementary organizations, the in travel industry promotion. public, customers and even nations construct identities. According to Internet Week’s survey, more than two- Branding is a critical issue in international marketing thirds of the travel and hospitality companies view the because brands allow actors, such as organizations, individuals and indeed countries to say things about à Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 954 262 5123. themselves in foreign markets in ways that even language E-mail addresses: [email protected] (L.F. Pitt), [email protected] could not convey. For example, Visa is the international (R. Abratt). credit card, Perrier is French, McDonalds is American,
0261-5177/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2006.06.003
Please cite this article as: Leyland F. Pitt, et al., What I say about myself: Communication of brand personality by African countries, Tourism Management (2006), doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2006.06.003 ARTICLE IN PRESS
2 L.F. Pitt et al. / Tourism Management ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]]
Porsche is German, and Malaysia is ‘‘truly Asia’’ according the development of Africa’s fragile economies that lack to the country’s tourism advertising. Marketers are rightly finance and expertize. These resources are needed to concerned with brands because they facilitate the repeat increase the economic surplus, without which many of purchases on which sellers rely to enhance corporate these countries will continue to rely on international aid to financial performance; permit the introduction of new support development efforts (Dieke, 2000). products and assist promotional efforts by giving market- The World Tourism Organization (2004) contends that ers something to identify and a name on which to focus. Africa’s strength in terms of tourism is to be found in its This enables premium pricing, as well as the market originality and authenticity. Africa has unique sites with segmentation that makes it possible to communicate a some of the greatest viewing in the world in terms of coherent message to a target customer group. Marketers natural resources, culture, traditions and custom attrac- are also concerned with brand loyalty, particularly tions. Dieke (2000) shows that there are a wide variety of important in product categories in which repeated purchas- different types of tourism in Africa, ranging from safaris, ing is a feature of buying behavior. to beach vacations, and ‘‘roots’’ tourism. Others include Brands have been the focus of significant attention in the cultural/heritage, archeological tourism, and ethnic tour- international marketing literature, where researchers have ism. International tourist arrivals, however, are currently addressed such issues as the differences between interna- concentrated in a relatively small number of destinations in tional and local brands (e.g. Schuiling & Kapferer, 2004), the north-west and south-east of the African continent. On global brand equity (Hsieh, 2004), and international brand a global scale, the tourism growth rate has been counterfeiting (Green & Smith, 2004; Gillespie, Krishna, & phenomenal, with worldwide international arrivals rising Jarvis, 2002). The importance of the country has long been from 25 million in 1950 to an estimated 699 million in 2000 acknowledged in international marketing research, where (WTO report, 2002). Yet by 2004, no African country had there has been a stream of inquiry into the ‘‘Country of made it to either the World Tourism Organization’s origin’’ effect (cf. Laroche & Mourali, 2005;Verlegh & (WTO) top 25 destinations or the top 25 tourism earners Steenkamp, 1999; Peterson & Jolibert, 1995) that acknowl- in the world (World Tourism Organization, 2004). This edges that the country of origin of products and brands can performance in terms of attracting significant numbers of have an influence on customer decision making above and tourists into this region may indeed, in marketing terms, be beyond the physical and technical attributes of the offering. a branding problem. The country as ‘‘brand’’ has also received attention in the academic and practitioner oriented marketing literature. 3. The branding of nations For example authors such as Kotler and Gertner (2002), Brymer (2003) and Papadopoulos and Heslop (2002) argue One of the reasons why nations continue both explicitly that nations can be viewed as similar marketing entities to and sometimes implicitly to shape and reshape their products and brands, and discuss the marketing implica- identities, or re-brand themselves, is because their reality tions and applications that adopting such perspectives changes. Post-apartheid South Africa is a case in point. A hold. Even whole regions, such as Europe, can be viewed as stable peaceful South Africa can become one of the world’s brands according to some scholars (Manrai & Manrai most desirable tourist destinations. As such they need to 1993; Whitelock, Roberts, & Blakely, 1995), and one project this real change symbolically to all the audiences practitioner publication argues that promoting one’s (both internal and external), with whom they relate (Olins, country as a brand in order to overcome competition, is 2002). According to Anholt (2003) branding means that ‘‘patriotic’’ (Anonymous, 1990). In this paper our focus is countries behave in many ways just like branded products, on countries as brands, and we give attention to African services and other branded offerings and will be perceived nations, and their web promotion of themselves as host in particular ways by large groups of people both at home destinations. and abroad by being associated with certain qualities and characteristics. Furthermore, country brands generally 2. Tourism and Africa stand for a limited number of qualities (power, wealth, sophistication) so there is an opportunity for countries to Tourism has become one of the world’s major economic brand themselves with qualities such as creativity, music, activities, and one of the fastest growing elements of global philosophy, trust, innocence, wisdom, challenge, safety and trade (Seddighi, Nuttall, & Theocharous, 2000). Growth in so on. the industry can be attributed to improved technology, As already alluded to, the branding of places is now a rising disposable income, changing work patterns and common phenomenon (Hankinson, 2004) and has gener- consumer lifestyles. In general, Africa, like most develop- ated much interest in recent years especially in Europe, ing regions, has its tourism industry as an integral part of North America and Australia. Olins (2004, p. 150) its economic activity (Bendixen, Cronson, & Abratt, 1996). contends that ‘‘national branding is one of the most These economic activities include substantial employment contentious political concepts of our time’’. A lot of and significant contribution to foreign exchange earnings. research in this area has focused on cities and towns. The Tourism has been perceived as an important industry for success of campaigns such as Glasgow’s ‘‘smiles better’’,
Please cite this article as: Leyland F. Pitt, et al., What I say about myself: Communication of brand personality by African countries, Tourism Management (2006), doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2006.06.003 ARTICLE IN PRESS
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New York’s ‘‘I Love NY’’ are well documented (Ward, Destination-marketing organizations (DMOs) are 1998). According to Otabil (2004), countries in Africa must increasingly interested in exploiting the Internet’s unique behave like companies in terms of branding because it has features such as low-cost accessibility world-wide, to been shown that major global brands like Nokia, BMW attract more tourists and better position their state in the and Mercedes-Benz are a lot more popular and much intense competition for visitors. An important way in better known than countries like Burkina Faso. which the DMOs can use the Internet to serve their African countries need to assess their brand personality branding needs is by selecting a consistent brand element as part of a marketing strategy to promote themselves as mix to identify and distinguish a destination through tourism destinations of choice. Many African countries positive image building (Cai, 2002; Lee, Cai, & O’Leary, suffer from negative perceptions first as a simple conse- 2005). One way of achieving this is to ensure that the quence of their location in the world’s economically least marketer portrays the desired brand personality on the successful continent, and second, in the case of some DMOs website. nations, because of their proximity to particularly unstable According to Hogan (1991), the term ‘‘personality’’ has countries. For example, at the height of Zimbabwe’s had two completely different meanings throughout psy- political crisis, in 2001, South Africa’s currency, the Rand chology’s history as a discipline. The first connotation depreciated by around 80% against the US dollar, despite concerns an individual’s internal processes and propensities the fact that the country was itself economically and and helps to explain why they act in a particular way; in politically stable (Lodge, 2002). Countries will also this sense, personality is internal and must be inferred. In compete with neighbors or block regions for tourism, and simple terms, this view of personality corresponds to a therefore for tourists and investments, as these resources simple, ‘‘what I say about myself’’. The second meaning are limited. Countries that start with an unknown or poor concerns one’s social reputation or the manner in which a reputation or brand will be limited or marginalized person is perceived by others, such as family, friends, co- (Brymer, 2003). workers and the public. In this sense, personality is public Our objectives in this paper are to analyze website brand and verifiable; it is concerned with the amount of esteem, communication by African nations using Aaker’s (1997) regard, and status accorded a person by outsiders. In this brand personality dimensions, and also to demonstrate a sense and in simple terms, personality has to do with relatively simple but powerful tool for identifying and then ‘‘What others say and think about me.’’ portraying this brand personality compared to other The notion of brand personality results from the transfer players. While the article is limited to the analysis of of the personality concept from individual psychology to African country brands, we contend that the techniques the marketing context. The assumption thereby is that used can have wide applications in international marketing brands, like individuals, can develop personalities that are by both academics and practitioners. We proceed as indeed similar in their characteristics (Aaker, 1997). In this follows: First, we briefly describe the concept of brand paper, we concentrate on how a brand personality is personality, and review the extant literature on the topic. communicated by means of a website. In the literature, Then we describe a study aimed at identifying and brand personality is often discussed with clear reference to describing the brand personalities of a number of African product, corporate brands, or countries but not how this is countries as communicated by them online. The methodol- communicated online. Research in this area is important ogy used enables a comparison of the brand personalities because of the complex, vicarious and unpredictable of different counties, and also permits marketers to identify process of country branding in relation to tourism. In the strengths and weaknesses of the national marketing contextualizing this study and taking into consideration strategies used by countries. We conclude by identifying Aaker’s (1997, p. 347) definition, brand personality is the limitations of the study and our approach, and viewed as the ‘‘the set of human characteristics associated highlight avenues for future research. We argue that the with a particular country and how these are communicated approach used has wide application, and show how it can through its official tourism website’’. be used by international marketing executives in a number There have been various attempts to develop measures of of ways. brand personality. Aaker (1997) proposes a 42 item Brand Personality Scale (BPS) that assesses any brand across five 4. Branding and the concept of brand personality and its key dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophis- measurement tication and ruggedness. Fourniers (1998) framework for understanding and extending brand personality utilizes a Branding is the process of creating a brand image that brand relationship quality model comprising six central engages the hearts and minds of customers and is what factors, namely partners’ quality, intimacy, interdepen- separates similar products from each other (Duncan, dence, self-connection and love. Aaker’s (1997) original 2005).Branding as a concept is still in its infancy in the scale, developed in the USA, was found to have some hospitality and tourism industry (Morrison, 2002) international applicability in subsequent work (Aaker, and branding is practiced less vigorously in destination Benet-Martinez, & Garolera, 2001) in extensions con- marketing than in the general marketing fields (Cai, 2002). ducted with Spanish and Japanese brands.
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The dimensions of Aaker’s BPS are used in our study investigating the African countries’ main portals, we chose because they enable researchers to capture the symbolic to define our units of analysis as the textual information meanings of brands as if they were people. Aaker’s (1997) derived from the websites’ main portals and four levels scale uses a list of adjectives that describe the most down in the hierarchy of information. In other words, we important personality differences between people from first copied all textual information from the main portal previous measures used in psychological and marketing into a text document; we then clicked all links on the main research. The questionnaire can be presented to a group of portal and copied all information available from these into respondents in their perceptions of a brand measured by the same document. This procedure was repeated three considering the extent to which they believe it possesses the levels down the website hierarchies so that all available text characteristics that comprise the BPS dimensions. How- from the main web portal and four levels down had finally ever, in our study, as will be seen, we do not use customer been obtained. This rigid systematic procedure produced a perceptions as input to our determination of country brand considerable amount of textual information from each personality. Rather, we use what is communicated on a country’s website (see Appendix A). country’s official tourism website as input. Stated some- From the remaining 25 websites, an additional sample what differently, we do not measure a country’s brand was drawn based on word count leaving us with a final unit personality by what others think it to be, but rather, what of analysis consisting of the textual information from the the country says about itself. 10 African country tourism websites that were richest in terms of text. The reasons for this final exclusion were first, 5. The study to create a more manageable basis for data presentation and second, to create a critical mass of textual data for the In this section of the paper, we discuss our sample upcoming analysis. Ideally, we also wanted to incorporate selection and data sources, the data analysis techniques countries from various regions of Africa–North, South, used, and also present the results. East and West, as well as different levels of development.
5.1. Sample selection and data source 5.2. Data analysis techniques
Africa comprises 53 countries. However, not all coun- The method used to analyze the websites was content tries in Africa have an official tourism website and a analysis. Content analysis is a technique for gathering and random selection of countries was not deemed prudent. analyzing the content of a text. The content may include Our objective was not so much to be able to generalize words, meanings, pictures, symbols, ideas, themes, or any regarding the brand personalities of African countries message that can be communicated (Neuman, 2003). It is communicated through their websites as to be able to also a method of codifying the text (or content) of a piece of determine how well the methodology worked, and whether writing into various groups (or categories) depending on countries do indeed communicate reasonably specific selected criteria (Weber, 1988). Content analysis is com- brand personalities. The sampling frame consisted of a list monly regarded as a useful method for social science studies of the official tourism websites of African countries especially in advertising (Kassarjian, 1977; Kolbe & Burnett, compiled by the World Tourism Organization (www. 1991). We used a computerized content analysis program world-tourism.org). Based on this list, a total of 55 called WordStat (Peladeau, 2003). For a good overview and websites were initially investigated in order to determine discussion of qualitative techniques and analysis, see the how many were in English and how many were actually work of Sinkovics, Penz, and Ghauri (2005). functioning. The non-English and non-functioning sites (in The first step in the research involved collecting and total 30 websites) were then excluded from the sample for compiling synonyms to Aaker’s (1997) five brand person- practical reasons. This left 25 African tourism websites (see ality dimensions. This was achieved using the online Appendix A). Also of course, for illustration purposes, version of Encyclopedia Britannica’s thesaurus function even 10 countries can make the correspondence analysis (www.britannica.com). The foundation for the synonym map very ‘busy’ and showing more than 50 would achieve collection was the set of personality traits presented by very little. The advantage of this approach, however, is that Aaker in her original article. In her article (1997, p. 354), once a Wordstat dictionary is set up, it can be used to Aaker provides a table with a set of 42 personality trait analyze the positioning of any country brand, either alone, norms that she suggests should serve as an aid towards or against the existing set of 10, or any other combination. comparing brand personalities across different categories. According to McMillan (2000) the major ambiguity in Our aim was to find original synonyms to all these traits, as web content analysis is related to the question as to what is well as synonyms to the five basic dimensions, in order to really meant by the term ‘‘website’’. Okazaki, Javier, and enrich our data collection instrument. The five dimensions Rivas, (2002) point out that any given website is, ‘‘a of brand personality, in more detail are: hierarchy of information, connected via hyperlinks to an infinite number of other sites’’ (op. cit. p. 383). In order to Sincerity (domestic, honest, genuine, cheerful) enrich our basis for analysis as opposed to solely Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date)
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Competence (reliable, responsible, dependable, efficient) To identify the associations between the websites and the Sophistication (glamorous, presentation, charming, brand personality dimensions, we used correspondence romantic) analysis. This is a perceptual mapping technique based on Ruggedness (tough, strong, outdoorsy, rugged) cross-tabulation data that is converted into a joint space map by using the chi-square value for each cell (Bendixen, 1995; Greenacre, 1993). The perceptual map created To increase reliability, two parallel lists of synonyms through correspondence analysis is useful in uncovering were collected in the same manner by two different structural relationships between different variables (Inman, persons, one male and one female. These two lists were Venkatesh, & Ferraro 2004) and its graphic nature thereafter merged into one by only selecting the synonyms facilitates interpretation of data that would otherwise be that had been identified by both persons. This procedure difficult to comprehend (O’Brien, 1993). Moreover, Hair, generated a final list totaling 922 words that were fairly Anderson, Tatham, and Black (1998) state that correspon- evenly spread across Aaker’s original dimensions of brand dence analysis is best suited for exploratory data analysis, personality (Sincerity 20%, Excitement 19%, Competence and since our study is exploratory in nature, its use in this 21%, Sophistication 21%, and Ruggedness 19%). type of study is appropriate. This list of synonyms was thereafter converted to electronic format and categorized according to Aaker’s brand personality dimensions through the WordStat soft- 6. Results ware package. Using the software’s exclusion function, words with low semantic value such as pronouns and Table 1 provides a two way contingency table of conjunctions were excluded from the dictionary whilst the frequencies obtained by aggregating the number of words stemming function of the software reduced various word identified by the analysis software related to the five brand forms to a more limited set based on their roots. Stemming personality dimensions (Aaker, 1997). is typically done by removing or substituting common The cell counts signify the number of times a particular suffixes, for instance by converting plurals to singulars and brand personality dimension is associated with a particular reducing adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to a common noun website. The row and column marginal subtotals in the or word stem. (Pe´ladeau, 2003). After a thorough pre- table designate the number of mentions received by a testing of this newly created automatic categorization particular dimension and website respectively. For in- dictionary, the textual information from the 10 selected stance, it can be seen in Table 1 that Kenya’s tourism African tourism websites was converted into an analyzable website contain the most words associated with brand format and imported into the program. Following this, we personality dimensions, with 5344 terms. In the same way, performed a content analysis of the websites in order to ‘‘ruggedness’’ was the brand personality dimension por- find out how the brand personality dimensions were trayed most in the African websites considered, accounting distributed. The WordStat dictionary thus created is for 38% (6688/17 530) of the total words. A chi-square test available on request from the authors. While our direct (w2 ¼ 18 753.43; df ¼ 36; po0.0001) shows that the row intention was to use it to study country brands, it is general (i.e., the brand personality dimensions) and the column enough to the BPS dimensions to allow it to be used to (i.e., websites) variables are related. Fig. 1 illustrates the investigate content related to any kind of brand or brand perceptual map generated by the correspondence analysis situation. procedure.
Table 1 Brand personality dimensions distribution over websites
BPS dimensions/country Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication Column total
Angola 735 264 83 259 57 1398 Botswana 399 356 594 416 211 1976 Ghana 70 69 78 78 74 369 Kenya 514 327 3421 541 541 5344 Malawi 88 78 372 184 93 815 Morocco 86 74 98 200 157 615 South Africa 847 251 145 323 152 1718 Swaziland 205 208 264 242 316 1235 Zambia 436 428 973 697 457 2991 Zimbabwe 160 56 660 145 86 1107 Row total 3540 2111 6688 3085 2106 17 530 w2, 18 753.43; Df, 36; Po0.0001. Note: For presentation purposes we have transposed rows and columns in this table. In the analysis, what appears here as rows were columns and vice versa.
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Morocco SOPHISTICATION Swaziland Ghana SINCERITY Zambia EXCITEMENT Botswana Malawi
RUGGEDNESS Kenya South Africa Zimbabwe
Angola COMPETENCE
Fig. 1. Correspondence analysis map of 10 African countries’ tourism websites in relation to the five brand personality dimensions.
In order to determine the dimensionality of a solution, Table 2 the eigenvalues and the cumulative proportion explained Details of correspondence analysis by the dimensions must be examined (Bendixen, 1995; Eigenvalues Percentages Cumul. percent Greenacre, 1993). Most researchers agree that a two- dimensional solution is also preferable due to its ease of 0.224 77.839 77. 839 display and interpretability (Bendixen, 1995; Hair et al., 0.054 18.612 96.451 1998). We therefore chose a two dimensional correspon- 0.006 2.209 98.660 Variables coordinates dence plot, which accounts for more than 96% of the total Country Axis 1 Axis 2 Axis 3 variance, with eigenvalues and explained proportions of 0.224 and 0.759 for the first dimension, and 0.060 and 0. Angola 1.713 1.389 0.957 204 for the second dimension respectively. The details of Botswana 0.322 0.271 1.388 Ghana 0.578 1.193 0.117 the correspondence analysis are shown in Table 2. Kenya 1.200 0.563 0.322 The plot reveals the underlying structure and positioning Malawi 0.458 0.483 1.027 of the investigated websites in relation to the brand Morocco 0.632 2.117 0.624 personality dimensions. The graphical output also provides South Africa 1.483 1.147 1.495 information about how the websites and dimensions are Swaziland 0.437 1.676 2.024 Zambia 0.127 0.937 0.737 positioned vis-a` -vis each other. For example, three clear Zimbabwe 0.919 0.762 0.034 country groupings can be identified among the websites: Words/categories coordinates one group containing the tourism websites for Angola and Brand personality dimension Axis 1 Axis 2 Axis 3 South Africa, a second group with Morocco, Swaziland, Competence 1.221 1.398 0.802 Ghana, Zambia, and Botswana, and a third group Excitement 0.892 0.381 1.330 representing the sites of Kenya and Zimbabwe. Malawi’s Ruggedness 1.260 0.462 0.105 website is on its own in the upper-right quartile of the Sincerity 0.419 0.910 0.832 figure. Fig. 1 also gives an indication of how the different Sophistication 1.789 2.059 0.006 brand personality dimensions relate to each other, the ‘‘sophistication’’, ‘‘sincerity’’, and ‘‘excitement’’ dimen- sions seem more closely related to each other than the to be more closely correlated to sophistication than ‘‘competence’’ and ‘‘ruggedness’’ dimensions for instance. Morocco’s, the latter should be identified as possessing Caution should always be exercised when analyzing a more of this dimension since it is situated at a steeper angle perceptual map as the distances between row and column and further away from the origin (see Lebart, Salem, & variables cannot be specifically interpreted due to the fact Berry, 1998). that the columns and rows are scaled independently It can be deduced from the map that the countries are (Hoffman & Franke, 1986). This implies that just because clustered near to the brand personality dimension that they a certain website is positioned near a certain brand mostly communicate in their websites, for example personality dimension, this does not necessarily mean that ruggedness in the case of Kenya, and the reverse for they are closely related. However, the angle between words Angola in relation to the same dimension. If a country’s and websites does provide meaning in that an acute angle website is not close to any of the dimensions, then it is not indicates that two characteristics are correlated whereas an communicating a strong brand personality on any of the obtuse angle indicates negative correlation. For example, dimensions, if indeed at all (as in case of Malawi). although Swaziland’s tourism website graphically appears However, if a country falls in between or among the
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L.F. Pitt et al. / Tourism Management ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] 7 dimensions (for instance Ghana to sincerity and sophisti- communicating a strong brand personality on any of the cation), the case could either be that the country’s message dimensions, so that while it may have a lot to share with is mainly split between these two dimensions, or that it is potential tourists, the message is not clear. In terms of not clear what it is communicating. ‘‘sophistication’’, the official tourism websites of Swaziland and Morocco are clustered the closest to this dimension. In 7. Discussion Swaziland’s case this sophistication may be manifested in cultural beliefs towards kingship and some of the finest The perceptual map generated by means of correspon- hotels and casinos. The kingdom of Morocco is known for dence analysis shows that the official tourism websites of its rich Arabian heritage, its exclusive cuisine and hotels, as Kenya and Zimbabwe mainly communicate the brand well as the numerous traditional kasbahs that a tourist personality dimension of ‘‘ruggedness’’, whilst South might encounter on shopping trips. The website of Malawi Africa and Angola primarily convey the dimension of on the other hand is, not really communicating any of the ‘‘competence’’. These countries’ websites are communicat- brand personality dimensions clearly. Located right in ing strong brand personalities in terms of ruggedness and between ‘‘ruggedness’’, on one hand, and ‘‘excitement’’, competence, respectively. An examination of the content of ‘‘sincerity’’, and ‘‘sophistication’’ on the other, this African these tourism websites will show this summary to be nation is not really saying anything specific to web visitors reasonable accurate and representative—Kenya empha- in terms of brand personality. sizes the environment, with packaged safaris, beaches, In summary some African countries appear to create sport, adventure, and great scenery to adventure seekers strong online brand personalities for themselves by clear and tourists alike. Kenya claims that it has boundless and distinct positioning. This is done by consciously wilderness and the largest big game population in the East communicating strong brand personality dimensions, such Africa region and has long attracted adventure seekers as ruggedness, competence, sophistication or sincerity. from all over the globe. Zimbabwe offers a variety of Others seem either not to position themselves clearly on a holiday options that include the unspoilt environment, particular brand personality dimension, or, more discon- adventure activities like white water rafting, bungee certing, not to communicate any of the brand personality jumping, the pleasure of abundant wildlife and the Victoria dimensions at all. We are suggesting that DMOs should Falls, one of the great natural wonders of the world. give attention to brand personality dimensions when South Africa’s tourism website portrays a brand developing their websites as this effectively positions the personality of competence; the country was recently chosen brand against competing websites and their brands. to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the first African country to organize such an event, and it also has by far the 8. Limitations of the study largest and most developed economy in Africa. After a decade of war and strife, Angolans are now at peace and Out of the 53 countries that make up the African working to build a stable, democratic and free market. continent, only 10 countries were covered in this study, Their attempt to catch up with the rest of the world is which makes our selections of countries somewhat manifested in how they are trying to communicate arbitrary. Most of the countries covered in this study are competence in terms of tourism. The country is blessed in eastern and southern Africa, making the sample less with considerable resources such as oil and diamonds, and representative of Africa as a continent. However, our so should have the means to develop a viable tourist intention here was to investigate the suitability of a economy. research approach and set of tools. Our focus on The official tourism website of Botswana communicates representativeness was to determine whether what was the brand personality dimension of sincerity and, to some communicated on country websites was descriptive of the extent, excitement. Botswana boasts splendid waterways, country, rather than on whether the content represented great abundance of wilderness and above all the Kalahari African countries in general. Desert with its unique landforms. In terms of sincerity, We are also aware of the critical issues in using content Botswana has long been the most stable and peaceful analysis software as an analytical tool, the most significant country in Africa, known for its friendly and helpful of which is how the dictionary is constructed. Although people. Zambia also emphasizes ‘‘sincerity’’. Although the specific measures were taken to avoid possible bias, our site is situated at a rather skewed angle, thus representing a construal of the meaning of words and how they were weaker correspondence, the positioning mix of sincerity selected to assemble the dictionary could be influenced and to some extent sophistication does reflect its overall by personal values, interpretations, experiences and tourism offering. The Zambian tourism website emphasizes knowledge. ‘‘sincerity’’ terms such as honesty, cheerfulness, and Aaker’s (1997) conceptualization of brand personality is genuine in order to create a niche for itself. based on an assessment of the consumer’s perceptions of a Ghana’s official tourism website is close to the sincerity brand. Our focus in this study was based on communica- dimension, and a little farther from those of sophistication tion by the brand personality online, and used a content and excitement. This implies that the website is not really analysis of what brand a country is communicating, not the
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8 L.F. Pitt et al. / Tourism Management ] (]]]]) ]]]–]]] perceptions of potential or existing or tourist customers. In course customer perceptions, can be tracked over time and simple terms, we do not claim in any way to give insight conclusions drawn. into how customers perceive African country brands, but rather into how countries use websites to communicate 10. Content analysis of brand personality using brand personalities. We also acknowledge the fact that correspondence analysis: managerial insights countries may not have a planned branding strategy. However, whether they do or do not in a planned way is The approach followed in the study described in this not an issue, as they still communicate the brand’s article can offer good general insights to international personality online. It is therefore important for all marketing managers and managers of tourism organiza- countries to have a planned branding strategy, because tions, despite the fact that it has concentrated specifically the choice of words can have an impact on their brand on how brand personality is communicated by African personality on the web. countries using their websites. The approach can obviously be extended to other countries, but is equally applicable to other brands of products and services in the interna- 9. Future research directions tional environment. So for example, an international marketing executive could make comparisons of their The study and techniques described in this paper provide brand with other brands across countries, or within a number of future research opportunities for international countries. In addition, top management concerned with marketing and tourism scholars. Obviously at a simple the positions a firm’s brand occupy in the various countries level it would be possible to include more countries, in which it is marketed, could use the approach either as a especially some non-English speaking ones, in order to confirmation of consistency (or standardization) or of improve the generalization of the results. It would also be their relative uniqueness with regard to each other (or interesting to look at this study in terms of regional blocks. adaptation). This could help unearth the similarities and differences in The technique is reasonably easy to conduct at low cost, terms of the brand personality dimensions that are and the results are also quite easy to interpret. Although associated with a given block. research of this type is not based on a customer survey, and At a more advanced level, it would be worthwhile can therefore not be claimed to be representatives of comparing a content analysis based profile of a brand(s) customer perceptions, as was Aaker’s (1997) original against customer-based perceptions of the same brand. For intent, the approach itself is nevertheless objective. Once example, if South Africa communicates its brand person- the dictionary has been constructed (and the dictionary ality on the main dimension of sophistication, how would now exists so will be independent of whoever follows the current and potential tourists to the country respond to the approach in the future), all categorization and subsequent items on the Aaker (1997) BPS? Would they indeed analysis is conducted by computer. perceive the South African brand to be as sophisticated The approach permits international marketing and as its marketers intend it to be? Most studies of brand tourism executives to ensure that the personality of personality follow the second perspective on personality in their brand is being communicated online as they intend our general discussion of psychological perspectives on the it to be. It is one thing to strategically determine that a topic discussed above. Essentially, they are interested in brand may for example be communicated as sophisticated ‘‘What others say about me (the brand)’’. They involve the and exciting, and another to find that what is commu- use of a brand personality measure in consumer surveys nicated online is different, perhaps concentrating on that solicit respondent perceptions of a brand(s). Our another dimension, or worse still, communicating no approach follows the first perspective discussed above—it particular brand personality at all. The approach analyzes the website content of countries to determine what also allows an international marketing manager to they are in essence saying about their own personalities, or understand their brand personality relative to others, in brand personality terms, ‘‘What I say about myself (the especially competitors. This could be important in a brand)’’. current market, in order to evaluate various brand- Other opportunities in this regard might involve a positioning strategies, but could also be a useful tool in comparison of website communication and other commu- the investigation of markets to be entered. By examining nication media, such as brochures, press reports, and what is currently being communicated in a market to broadcast and print advertising in order to determine the be entered, the manager can better craft the brand extent to which national marketers communicate consistent personality to be portrayed in the new market, in a way brand personality messages in all media. Then, these that will permit the brand to stand out as something unique relationships could also be compared with customer-based and be valued. perceptions of brand personality. The techniques described Obviously, regular use of the technique will permit the here can also aid longitudinal research, so that the effects international marketing executive to track their own of any changes in the brand personality as communicated brand’s personality as well those of competitors over online on other variables, such as press coverage, and of time. This has two advantages: First, changes in brand
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Please cite this article as: Leyland F. Pitt, et al., What I say about myself: Communication of brand personality by African countries, Tourism Management (2006), doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2006.06.003 Appendix: II
Paper II: Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for the Top South African Business Schools?
Article in Press in The Special Issue on Corporate Branding, Identity and Communications of Journal of Brand Management (ISSN: 1350-231X)
Communicating brand personality: Are the websites doing the talking for the Top South African Business Schools?
Received (in revised form): 16th August, 2006
ROBERT ANKOMAH OPOKU is a PhD student at Lulea University in Sweden. His research interests are in e-commerce and branding.
RUSSELL ABRATT is Associate Dean and Professor of Marketing in the Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, USA. His research on brands and branding has appeared in publications such as Business Horizons and the Journal of Product and Brand Management amongst others.
LEYLAND PITT is Professor of Marketing at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. His work on branding and e-commerce has appeared in publications such as the Sloan Management Review, Journal of Brand Management, MIS Quarterly and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, amongst others.
Keywords Abstract brand; brand personality; This study extends the conceptualisation and measurement of brand personality to the online content analysis; MBA environment. We contend that websites are an important element of corporate identity programme; South Africa management in today ’s competitive environment. We investigated the websites of South African Business Schools in order to fi nd out what brand personality each school features. Our multistage methodology revealed a measure of business school brand personality that to some extent portrays the dimensions Aaker postulated. This study illustrates a powerful, but simple and relatively inexpensive way business school managers can study communicated brand personality. The results also offer new ways for business schools (and other organisations) to strengthen their brand and market position in a competitive environment. It also is a relatively simple way to differentiate their school in the crowded MBA education marketplace. Journal of Brand Management (2006) 0, 000 –000. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550052
INTRODUCTION sionals have passed the centralised board Branding and Corporate identity have exam signals that they are competent. But, increasingly been recognised as occupying a question that is sometimes asked of key positions in corporate and marketing MBA graduates is: ‘From which school or strategy. As a result, the concept of brand programme did you graduate? ’ This ques- UNCORRECTEDpersonality and its infl uence on consumer PROOF tion arises from the latter instance because
Russell Abratt behaviour has also emerged as an impor- there is no centralised system of assess-
Nova Southeastern University, tant issue of concern for academicians as ment that signals a minimum competence 3301 College Road, Ft. well as practitioners. An accountant is not level of an MBA graduate. Usually stake- Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA. Tel: + 1 954 262-5123; asked where he or she studied. For most holders settle for a type of relative measure Fax: + 1 954 262 3965; E-mail: [email protected] stakeholders, the mere fact these profes- by relying on, for example, how powerful
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the brand is, or the reputation of the different parts of the world as their target school to assess the competency of the populations. Many institutions such as graduate. In the marketing of higher Harvard University have levelled their education, a brand can help a business own criticisms of these public rankings school facilitate its promotional efforts and they have remained the subject of and communicate a coherent message to considerable debate. Nonetheless, these its target market; differentiate its offering rankings have established themselves as a in order to charge a premium price; measure that is used by prospective enhance and sustain customer loyalty; and students and therefore they are diffi cult to smooth the progress of the introduction ignore as they provide a snapshot of a of new offerings. Thus, a business school’s school’s reputation. brand is no different from any other brand MBA programmes have been under and the classic functions that brands academic scrutiny during the past decade. perform apply.1 Questions and criticisms on the quality2,5– 8 and their purpose9 have been raised. Others studies have identifi ed their prob- Business schools and their MBA lems,10,11 structure,12 marketing,3 strategic programmes as brands options4 and the future 9 of MBA The importance of MBA programmes as programmes. No academic research has a source of revenue and profi t for most focused on how business schools commu- of the parent institutions as well as a nicate information on brand personality provider of well-trained business execu- about their MBA programmes in the tives for organisations ’ have been well online environment. A business schools documented.2–4 MBA graduates are website is a very important element of its perceived by many to be the corporate corporate identity as it tells ‘who we are’. elite in the domain of management educa- Also, studies on brand personality commu- tion and hence there has been a world- nication have been limited to products wide increase in the number of business and services in western economies13–15 schools that offer MBA programmes. while little attention has been devoted to Presumably, this has moved the MBA from brand communication online (in cyber- its elite status to a commoditised product. space). Thus, the mainstream academic Against this backdrop, business schools literature has largely neglected the growing spend a considerable amount of money importance of online communications as on advertising and promoting their MBA part of corporate identity management. programmes in magazines such as The Therefore, the objectives of this paper are Economist and newspapers such as the to highlight these issues; add to brand Financial Times in order to attract potential personality research and to put forth a students and to strengthen the brand. simple and effective methodology that MBA programmes (especially the full- combines content analysis with corre- time ones) have attracted considerable spondent analysis that can be used by UNCORRECTEDsocietal interest over the last couple PROOF of academics and practitioners. decades and have become, rightly or wrongly, the focus of numerous rating systems.2,4,5 These media houses and Africa and MBA education publication entities use their own meth- African MBAs cost far less than European odologies, measurements and focus on or American offerings, and a few MBA
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programmes in Africa are already on their discussions and criticisms on MBA way to reaching competitive stature in the programmes in this country.22 As a result global business education community. of the competitive nature of South African While a few of them have earned inter- Business schools, one can argue that national accreditation, most have not been schools in such an environment need to captured in the numerous global rating examine their brand personality profi les systems. America16 posits that ‘making in order to stay competitive. Africa’s business schools strong and In this study, we contend that brand competitive, may be one key to unlocking personality differentiates business school the continent’s rich economic and offerings in a competitive market and thus academic potential.’ is benefi cial to business school leaders as Home to the fi rst business school well as brand managers and researchers. outside the continental USA, South Africa Our examination of brand personality in attracts much of the MBA activity in the online environment context aims to Africa. As Africa’s economic powerhouse, extend prior research on brand person- South Africa is often the preferred desti- ality.23 Branding has an infl uence on nation for students from other African consumer behaviour and has emerged as countries due to the enormous potential a critically important research topic.24 E- of establishing networks with business marketing is also growing at a dramatic leaders. Radical change, followed by pace and is signifi cantly impacting tremendous growth, also has served as the customer and business market behav- catalyst for the increasing number of MBA iours.25,26 Of interest to our study there- programmes on offer and South Africa is fore, is the exploration of whether and now recognised as a pioneering force in how brand personality manifests in the the fi eld of business education. MBAs are e-marketing strategies of these schools. ‘hot property ’ in South Africa,17 and have Communication is a major driver in subsequently become sought-after quali- funnelling large numbers of deliberate and fi cations and are equipping a new gener- accidental inquiries from the web to ation of leaders with the tools necessary virtual and physical sites so that these to compete with their international coun- prospects can be converted to enrolments. terparts. The overall demand for MBA In this sense, we aim to investigate whether graduates could be driven by the huge South African business schools communi- need for business leadership in South cate clear and distinct brand personalities Africa. As the country has globalised, the in the cyberspace. We suggest that the pressures on business have increased-and cyberspace environment is an important so has the need for really competent yet neglected part of a business school’s people.18 This country’s MBA programmes corporate identity. While investigating the have also been a subject of quality evalu- applicability of brand personality in the ation from different perspectives19–21 and online environment, we proceed as follows: are going through a lot of challenges. For fi rstly, we examined the Aaker ’s brand UNCORRECTEDinstance, it is on record that the PROOFSouth personality framework and other brand African Council on Higher Education personality theories. Secondly, on the basis (CHE) de-accredited 15 MBA degrees in of a multistage research methodology, we May, 2004 and continues to police the refi ned and developed a relatively simple MBA programmes’ landscape. These but powerful tool to examine the brand developments have further fuelled various personality of organisations. Thirdly, we
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present and discuss the implications of our is the mix of employees’ values, which are fi ndings for both theory and practice and expressed in terms of their affi nities to establish an agenda for future research in corporate, professional, national and other this area. identities. It is multidisciplinary in scope and is a melding of strategy, structure, communication and culture. It is mani- LITERATURE REVIEW fested through multifarious communica- tions channels encapsulating product and Corporate Identity organisational performance, employee Originally, corporate identity was synon- communication and behaviour, controlled ymous with organisational nomenclature, communication and stakeholder and logos and visual identifi cation. Corporate network discourse. Identity is the embod- identity is more than just an organisational iment of the organisation. 27 mark or symbol of recognition. Today, Every fi rm has a philosophy, whether the role of symbolism has grown from its tacit or codifi ed. 29,33,34 This philosophy is original purpose of increasing organisa- personifi ed through the behaviour of the tional visibility to a position where it is fi rm as well as in the visual presentation seen as having a role in communicating of the fi rm. The corporate identity concept 28 corporate strategy. encompasses issues such as business scope Corporate identity has been studied by and culture, among others. management and marketing academics since the 1990s as a strategic management tool. Today there is a generally accepted The concept of brand personality distinction between corporate identity and its measurement (what the fi rm is) and corporate image The notion of brand personality results (what the fi rm is perceived to be), even from the transfer of the personality in the absence of a clear meaning of corpo- concept from individual psychology to 29,30 rate identity itself. Corporate identity the marketing context.23 The basic denotes the characteristic way in which an assumption thereby is that brands, similar organisation goes about its business, how it to individuals, can develop a personality thinks, feels, behaves and interfaces with that is widely assumed to be similar in 31 the external world via its employees. their characteristics.15 According to A strong identity has a number of Hogan35 the term ‘personality’ has had potential benefi ts to an organisation, two completely different meanings including attracting quality personnel and throughout the history of psychology as 27 breeding employee motivation. Balmer a discipline. In the fi rst instance, it concerns 30 and Soenen conducted a major review an individual’s internal processes and of the corporate identity literature. They propensities and helps to explain why they stated there was a lack of effective models act in a particular way. In this sense, of corporate image formation. According personality is internal and must be inferred. 32 UNCORRECTEDto Balmer, an organisation’s identity PROOF is In simple terms, this view of personality a summation of those tangible and intan- corresponds to ‘what I say about myself’. gible elements that make any corporate The second meaning concerns one ’s social entity distinct. It is shaped by the actions reputation or the manner in which a of the corporate founders and leaders, by person is perceived by others, such as tradition and the environment. At the core family, co-workers and the public. In this
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way, personality is publicly verifi able; it is Aaker’s23 original scale was found to concerned with the amount of esteem, have some international applicability. It regard and status accorded a person by has been examined among French,38 Japa- outsiders. In this sense and in simple terms, nese and Spanish,15 consumers and has personality has to do with ‘what others been extended in subsequent say and think about me.’ studies.39,40,41To our knowledge, previous Various researchers have attempted to research has not examined the extension develop brand personality measurements. of brand personality in the African context. Aaker23 has provided insights as to how Most research papers on brand personality the Big Five human personality structures are based upon this scale and they enable might be used to develop a reliable, valid researchers to capture the symbolic mean- and generalisable scale to measure brand ings of brands as if they were people.42 personality across all product categories. Although Aaker’s 23 scale relied on customer She proposed a 42 item Brand personality perceptions as input to the determination Scale (BPS) that assesses any brand across of a brand personality, we use what is fi ve key dimensions: sincerity, excitement, communicated on a business school competence, sophistication and rugged- website as input. Stated somehow differ- ness. She defi ned brand personality as ‘The ently, we do not measure a business set of human characteristics associated school’s brand personality by what others with a brand. ’23 In simple terms, if a brand think it is, but rather, what the school says were a person, how would it be described? about its MBA programme. We also Fournier’s36 framework for understanding concentrate on how a brand personality and extending brand personality makes is communicated by means of its website. use of a brand relationship quality (BRQ)- Most of the studies on the content analysis model comprising six central factors: part- of websites are limited to commercial and ners quality, intimacy, interdependence, top-tier companies, and hence examining self-connection and love). Using her brand educational websites may provide a personality dimensions in two different new perspective on existing theory. experiments, Aaker37 examines the self Again, research in this area is crucial expressive use of brands and how a because of the importance of employing person’s self-concept and situational infl u- the marketing approach in higher educa- ences affect brand preference. The results tion, especially MBA programmes.3 In indicate that consumers’ preference for contextualising this study and taking brands that had personality traits consistent into consideration Aaker’s 23 defi nition, with their own self-schema was moder- brand personality is viewed as ‘the set of ated by their degree of ‘self monitoring’ human characteristic associated with a (p. 47) or propensity to conform to what particular business school and how these was deemed socially acceptable in different are communicated through their MBA situations. In a series of experiments, programme websites in order to aid a Aaker14 also determines that both situa- school in positioning itself among its UNCORRECTEDtional accessibility and cultural differences PROOF competitors.’ infl uence individual perceptions of the personality of a brand. All in all, most of these studies have found a relatively METHODOLOGY consistent set of Aaker’s 23 brand person- The methodology used in our study is ality dimensions. now described in detail.
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Sample selection and data source rigid systematic procedure produces a The sample was drawn from the Financial considerable amount of textual informa- Mail and Markinor’s 2005 MBA Survey (see tion from each business school’s website Appendix II ). The study focuses on 11 out (see also Appendix I). of the 12 Business Schools ranked because the links to one of the schools’ websites (the eighth placed school) was dead at the Data analysis techniques time of collecting the data. As the only Content analysis was the method used to reliable ranking of MBA programmes in analyse the websites. The content analysis South Africa, this survey has relied on the is a technique for gathering and analysing inputs of three stakeholder groups: the content of a text. The content may employers, graduates and the schools that include words, meanings, pictures, symbols, run the MBA programmes. This survey ideas, themes or any message that can be was also chosen due to the fact that, as of communicated.47 It is also a method of the fi rst quarter of 2005, this ranking was codifying the text (or content) of a piece by far the most comprehensive, up-to- of writing into various groups (or catego- date comparison of MBA programmes ries) depending on selected criteria.48 among business schools in South Africa. Chun and Davies 39 employed this method The sources of data were the 11 selected to analyse the mission and vision state- business schools’ MBA programme ments using Aaker’s fi ve-dimensional websites (See Appendix I). McMillan43 framework while Ghose and Dou49 have argues that the major ambiguity in Web used it to examine the degree of interac- content analysis is related to the question: tivity of websites. We rely on words What is really meant by the term ‘website?’ because the drift of computer supported- Okazaki and Rivas44 described a website content analysis has been on the word as as being ‘a hierarchy of information, unit of analysis, 50,51 rather than on connected via hyperlinks to an infi nite sentences52 or semantic structures53 We number of other sites ’. Initially, one may are not suggesting that other units of be tempted to limit such a study to the analysis are less interesting but our perspec- homepage (initial screen) of the site45,46 tive on the word as unit of analysis was but in order to broaden our data collec- also motivated by the huge amount of text tion and hence augment our evaluation to manage. Taking into consideration the of brand personality, we opted to defi ne ability of computers to process large our units of analysis to include not only quantities of data and textual materials the homepage but also the textual infor- quickly and reliably,54 we used a compu- mation derived from the homepage (initial terised content analysis programme called screen) of each business school, and four WordStat.50 levels down the hierarchy of information For our data collection instrument, a on its full-time MBA programme portal. comprehensive and appropriate dictionary We initially copied all textual information of terms was collected by compiling syno- UNCORRECTEDfrom the homepage (the fi rst page) PROOF into nyms of Aaker ’s23 fi ve brand personality a text document. We then clicked all links dimensions. This was achieved with the and roots on the main MBA portal and help of the online version of Encyclo- copied all information available into the paedia Britannica ’s thesaurus function same text document. This procedure was (www.britannica.com). We could have repeated in all the sampled schools. This relied solely upon this thesaurus but some
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synonyms of dimensions/traits it suggested the terms that appeared on both lists were could not be used in our circumstances. selected. From the English department of For instance, some synonyms of ‘rugged’ a European university, a third reviewer such as ‘hairy’ and ‘rude’ would not be independently appraised the draft useful for our purposes, and might distort dictionary and provided further comments results. Besides the thesaurus, the Dictionary and suggestions, which were incorporated Builder of the software package also into the dictionary tool. This process suggested some related words that enriched generated a fi nal list of 1625 words that the data collection tool further. The foun- were relatively and evenly distributed dation for the synonym collection was the across Aaker ’s original fi ve dimensions of set of personality traits presented by Aaker brand personality as demonstrated by the in her original paper. In her paper,23 she following percentages: Sincerity 21 per introduced a table with a set of 42 person- cent of all words listed; Excitement 17 per ality trait norms that she suggested should cent; Competence 20 per cent; Sophisti- serve as an aid for comparing brand cation 21 per cent; and Ruggedness 21 personalities across different categories. In per cent. this study, our aim was primarily to fi nd This list of synonyms was then converted original synonyms for all of these traits, as into electronic format and categorised well as synonyms for the fi ve basic dimen- according to Aaker’s brand personality sions, in order to enrich our data collec- dimensions through the WordStat (the tion instrument. The fi ve dimensions and content analysis) software package. With their respective traits are: the help of the software’s exclusion func- tion, words with little semantic value such — sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, ge- as pronouns and conjunctions were nuine, cheerful); excluded from the dictionary while the — excitement (daring, spirited, imagina- stemming function of the software reduced tive, up-to-date); various word forms to a more limited set — competence (reliable, intelligent, suc- of words based upon their roots. Stem- cessful); ming typically is done by removing or — sophistication (upper-class, charming); substituting common suffi xes, for instance — ruggedness (tough, outdoorsy). by converting plurals to singulars and reducing adjectives, verbs and adverbs to To further enhance the reliability of the a common noun or word stem.50 Having instrument, two parallel lists of synonyms thoroughly pre-tested this newly created were collected in the same manner by two automatic categorisation dictionary, the independent reviewers: one male and one textual information from the 11 business female with multi-lingual backgrounds. schools’ websites were converted into an We believed that their multi-lingual back- analysable format and imported into the grounds would add to the study, since it computer-aided programme. This might aid in our understanding of how dictionary is available on request from the UNCORRECTEDpeople with different linguistic PROOFback- authors. Following this, we performed a grounds give meaning to such words. content analysis on these selected websites These two lists thereafter were merged to fi nd out how the brand personality into one by selecting only those synonyms dimensions were distributed. that had been identifi ed by both inde- To identify the associations between pendent reviewers. In other words, only the websites and the brand personality
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dimensions, we performed correspond- RESULTS ence analysis with the aid of the WordStat Hoffman and Franke 58 indicate that cross- software. Correspondence analysis is a tabulation of categorical data is perhaps mapping technique. It cross-tabulates the most commonly encountered and data and converts them into a joint simple form of analysis in research. In rela- space map by using the 2 value for each tion to the Aaker’s fi ve brand personality cell.55 This technique is not new in the dimensions, Table 1 provides a two-way area of perceptual map construction56–59 contingency table of frequencies. This was or in the clustering of brands.55,59 The obtained by aggregating the number of perceptual map created through corre- words identifi ed by the analysis software. spondence analysis is useful in unco- The distribution of these brand person- vering structural relationships between alities over respective websites is presented different variables60 and its graphic nature in Table 1. facilitates interpretation of data that The cell counts in Table 1 reveal the otherwise would be diffi cult to compre- number of times a particular brand hend.61 Moreover, Hair et al.59 states personality dimension is associated with a that correspondence analysis is best particular business school website. The suited for exploratory data analysis. As row and column subtotals in this table our study is exploratory in nature, our indicate the number of mentions received choice of this analytical tool seemed by a particular dimension and website, fi tting. respectively. In this table, it also can be
Table 1 Distribution of brand personality dimensions over websites
BPS Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication Column Dimension/ Total Business School
Cape Town 486 123 39 94 22 764 Free State 333 60 16 45 4 458 Gordon 668 109 26 136 19 958 Henley 233 28 7 46 2 316 KwaZulu-Natal 184 45 13 51 1 294 Nelson Mandela 208 37 9 72 3 329 Potchefstroom 116 62 8 44 2 232 Pretoria 171 42 9 53 7 282 Stellenbosch 503 78 13 127 16 737 Unisa 149 31 11 45 7 243 Wits 848 229 49 170 33 1329 Total Row 3899 844 200 883 116 5942
UNCORRECTED2 2556.20 PROOF Df 40 p < 0.0001
Note: For presentation purposes we have transposed rows and columns in this table. In the analysis what appear here as rows were columns and vice versa.
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ascertained that the Wits Business School’s dimension, and 0.008 and 0.30 for the website contained the most words associ- second dimensions, respectively. Figure 1 ated with brand personality dimensions shows the correspondence analysis map of with 1329 terms while the Potchef- the 11 South African Business School stroom’s website is least associated with websites in relation to the fi ve brand 232 terms. With respect to individual personality dimensions. dimensions, competence was the brand Figure 1 reveals the underlying struc- personality dimension portrayed most in ture and positioning of the websites in all the schools’ websites accounting for 66 relation to the brand personality dimen- per cent (3899/5942) of the total words, sions and how these dimensions are posi- while sophistication representing 2 per tioned in relation to each other. Hair et cent was the least portrayed. Previous al.,59 indicated that a researcher may studies have also found competence to be describe a map in terms of known char- the dominant dimension regarding some acteristics. With this map, four groupings sampled Fortune 500 Companies62 and top could be identifi ed. The fi rst group consists business schools.61 A chi-square test of UNISA, KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria and (2 =2556.20; df =40; p<0.0001) shows Potchefstroom business schools’ websites. that the row (ie the brand personality The fi rst three schools are seen to be clus- dimensions) and the column (ie websites) tered close to each other in the lower-left variables are related. Taking into consid- quadrant of the fi gure while Potchef- eration the distribution of brand person- stroom single-handedly occupies the ality dimensions over websites, the software right-bottom corner of the fi gure. These analytical tool (WordStat) helped us to schools’ websites tend not to be clearly generate a perceptual map by the corre- and closely associated with any specifi c spondence analysis procedure. dimension. A second group consists of In determining the dimensionality of a Cape Town and Wits websites. They tend solution, Greencacre56 and Bendixen 55 to be positioned close to the ruggedness also added that the eigenvalues and the dimension. Between the two, Cape Town cumulative proportion explained by the is closer. The third group is made up of dimensions (in this case brand personality) Free State, Gordon Institute of Business must be examined. Berthon et al.,63 Science and Henley. They can be found caution that fi nding a lower dimensional in the upper-left quadrant with the representation of the table, preferably two competence dimension but while the last or at most three dimensions will help two are positioned closer to this dimen- provide an ‘adequate’ summary of results. sion, the fi rst could be seen as staying Most researchers such as Bendixen,55 Hair apart. Stellenbosch and Nelson Mandela et al.,59 and Greenacre56 also agree that a websites are also on their own in the two-way dimensional solution is prefer- upper-left quadrant of the fi gure. Although able due to its ease of display and inter- they fi nd themselves in the same quadrant pretability and helps to avoid the problem with the sincerity dimension, Nelson UNCORRECTEDof interpreting inter-spatial distances. PROOF We Mandela is clearly positioned closer to this therefore opted for a two-way dimen- dimension than Stellenbosch. On the sional correspondence analysis plot which other hand, Figure 1 also gives a clue accounts for 83 per cent of the total vari- about how the different brand personality ance, with eigenvalues and explained dimensions relate to each other. Found in proportions of 0.014 and 0.53 for the fi rst the same quadrant, the sophistication and
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Figure 1 Correspondence Analysis Map of the 11 South African Business Schools’ Websites in relation to the Five Brand Personality Dimensions
ruggedness dimensions seem more closely certain dimensions may also have meaning. related to each other while the other Thus, in this study we also rely on the dimensions stand alone in separate quad- category positions from the correspond- rants. ence analysis rather than the distances Hoffman and Franke58 noted that, as from particular dimensions. It can there- the distances between the row and column fore be deduced from the map that the variables cannot be specifi cally inter- schools are clustered near to the brand preted, one also should exercise some personality dimension they mostly caution when analysing a perceptual map. communicate on their websites, for This is due to the fact that the columns example, the Gordon Institute of Business and rows are scaled independently. The Science to competence and Nelson implication is that, just because a certain Mandela to sincerity and the reverse holds website is positioned near a certain brand for Potchefstroom vis-á-vis these two personality dimension does not neces- dimensions. If a school ’s website is not sarily mean that the site and dimension close to any of the dimensions, then it is are closely related. Again, as the between- not communicating a strong brand person- set distances cannot be interpreted strictly ality on any of the dimensions, if indeed in our circumstances, a website tends at all (as in the case of Potchefstroom). In towards a position in its space that corre- another vein, if a School falls in between UNCORRECTEDsponds to the dimensions that are thePROOF most or among the dimensions (for instance prominent in its profi le. In other words, Stellenbosch to sincerity and compe- the specifi c distances between the websites tence), it could either be that the school’s and the brand personality dimensions messages are mainly split between these should not only be interpreted, but the two or more dimensions, or that it is not ordinal proximity of particular websites to clear what it is communicating.
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DISCUSSION the University of Pretoria), emphasises its The perceptual map generated by means competence in the area of the ‘Blended of correspondence analysis indicates that Learning Approach’. This involves the usage the offi cial business schools ’ websites of of case studies and work applications the Gordon Institute of Business Science projects to ensure sound business educa- and Nelson Mandela strongly convey the tion and to them, this is the capstone of dimensions of competence and sincerity the MBA learning experience. Named respectively. They stand out distinctly after Nelson Mandela, Africa’s most treas- among their peers as being most closely ured leader and one of the best and sincere and clearly associated with their chosen leaders in the world, Nelson Mandela personality dimensions. This can be iden- Metropolitan University Business School tifi ed by their immediate proximity to the came out as a result of a merger of PE two dimensions on the correspondence Tecknikon, University of Port Elizabeth analysis map. Free State and Henley also and Vista Universities. With the vision to appear to be communicating the brand become the most sought after Business personality dimension of competence but School in the Eastern Cape and a trend- in relative terms as the message of the setter in management and leadership latter is stronger than the former. Cape development in Africa, this school is Town and Wits are the two schools that possibly trying to hold onto the virtues came close to the ruggedness dimension. of this great leader and this could be one But, Cape Town can be noted to be of the answers as to why it has distinctly communicating more clearly on this aligned itself with the sincerity dimen- dimension than Wits Business School. As sion. evident from their positions in relation to University of Cape Town Graduate the dimensions on the correspondence School of Business communicates the analysis map, UNISA, KwaZulu-Natal, brand personality dimension of rugged- Pretoria and Stellenbosch appear to be ness. Cape Town, where this school is situ- weakly promoting their brand personali- ated can pride itself with the stunning ties. While KwaZulu-Natal is seen to be beauty of Table Mountain, the spectacular tilting towards sincerity, UNISA and scenery of Table Bay, False Bay, the Cape Pretoria lean towards excitement but all Peninsula or, indeed, the mountains and these are done weakly. Potchefstroom on winelands of Paarl, Stellenbosch and Fran- the other hand, failed to align itself to any schoek. Possibly this school is taking dimension hence it appears not to be advantage of its unique rugged environ- communicating any brand personality. ment to brand itself. That apart, the A second look at the content of these school’s message has an element of sophis- business schools’ websites supports the tication and excitement. Its sophisticated accuracy of the correspondence analysis nature could result from its association plot by demonstrating how a school like with South Africa’s oldest and leading the Gordon Institute of Business Science research university and as having one of UNCORRECTEDappears to focus upon one innovative PROOF the oldest and most internationally accred- aspect of its curriculum that is consistent ited management programmes in South with the primary dimension identifi ed in Africa, if not Africa. Its exciting nature the analysis. Describing their MBA as a could also come from its environment as world class business degree, Gordon Insti- Cape Town offers a venue and the weather tute of Business Science (which is part of to accommodate any sporting and outdoor
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activity. Relatively, Wits Business School focus on the development of students’ weakly associates itself with the rugged- high-level leadership competencies. It ness dimension but also possesses some appears that this school would have liked elements of sophistication and excitement. to capitalise on competence and sincerity Its sophisticated nature could arise from to build a profi le in leadership training its thoroughly interactive style of instruc- efforts but the message appears not to be tion, rigorous admission procedures and strong and clear. This may have contrib- high tuition fees. This is crowned by its uted to its position between the compe- acknowledgement as the leading business tence and sincerity dimensions. The school in Africa and for the fi fth successive University of KwaZulu-Natal, the parent year, this business school has come out body of KwaZulu-Natal Graduate School tops in the Financial Mail’s Annual Survey. of Business aims to be a truly South Seated in the most dynamic and the African University that refl ects the society number one business capital of the African in which it is situated-not only in terms continent, this perhaps, could also have of race, gender and class but in terms of contributed to its exciting nature. how it structures its values and priorities Although not quite as strong, the and how it responds to social needs. In websites of Henley and Free State seem addition, the Graduate School of Business to align themselves with the brand person- also strives to develop African business ality of competence, but the message of leaders who will embody the spirit of the former is relatively stronger than the Ubuntu in business and public life. latter. Upon opening the doors of its Combining the two aims, this school MBA programme in South Africa in 1992, seems to align itself with the sincerity Henley has emphasised freedom and fl ex- dimension in its bid to portray its true ibility in its MBA offering through African nature. But, looking at its position distance education. It further claims that in relation to this dimension on the map, its educational approach has been both it seems to be struggling to meet this innovative and practical through ‘The objective. As the oldest business school in Refl ective Practitioner ’™ approach. This South Africa and even Africa, in fact the approach applies an action-learning fi rst business school to be found outside approach and offers students the option the continental USA, the University of of basing their Dissertation around any Pretoria’s Graduate School of Manage- management-related subject of their ment appears to be struggling to create a choice and at the same time developing brand personality for itself. This school their research skills. University of the Free perhaps desires to put up a brand person- State School of Management on the other ality dimension such as sincerity or excite- hand tries to demonstrate competence ment but the message seems not to be with the view that its MBA programme clear and strong. UNISA Graduate School is built on resource-based learning-a self of Business Leadership (SBL) is an auton- study with the aid of a course guide. But, omous academic department within the UNCORRECTEDthis personality is weakly touted throughPROOF Faculty of Economic and Management its website. Sciences of the University South Africa While providing students with a solid (South Africa’s largest university and one grounding in both the practice and theory of the 11 mega distance-teaching Univer- of business, the University of Stellenbosch sities in the world). As its name and that Business School claims to specifi cally of its fl agship programme (the MBL) indi-
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cate, its emphasis from the start has been a greater number of words on their on leadership development as opposed to websites should communicate stronger administration. It is thus somewhat a brand personality dimensions than those unique in its identity. It is also signifi cant with fewer words. The opposite appears to note that, in 1969, the SBL was the to hold true in this study. Schools like fi rst business school in the world to offer Wits, Cape Town and Stellenbosch with high quality, master’s level business educa- 1329, 794 and 737 words, respectively, tion by means of a combination of distance failed to communicate their brand person- and part-time tuition (a model which has alities strongly while Nelson Mandela subsequently been imitated by numerous succeeded to do this strongly with only business schools around the world). The 329 words. In line with the fi ndings of school has all these accolades to rely on Opoku,41 the amount of words used on in order to take on a brand personality a website does not predict the potency of for itself but failed to do so, at least in this the message communicated. Rather, study. success of the message likely depends Potchefstroom Business School’s website upon a given school’s awareness about and loosely falls in the extreme lower-right commitment to communicating brand corner of the map and is not aligned to personalities online. More words also do any brand personality. This implies that the not necessarily make a message clearer. website is not really communicating a Business schools must be aware that their strong brand personality on any of the website is a key element of their corporate dimensions, so that while it may have a identity and must be managed. For many lot to share with potential stakeholders, it prospective students, the website is their has no clear focus in terms of brand fi rst ‘visit’ to the campus. The brand personality. personality of the school will be commu- This study has explored some South nicated and therefore it is a critical part African Business schools’ brand person- of the business school’s marketing ality positioning as communicated on strategy. their websites. It has also demonstrated to some extent whether these schools are communicating these personalities clearly IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND or distinctly. In summary, some of the PRACTICE schools in this study appear to have created This study extends the conceptualisation a strong brand personality for themselves and measurement of brand personality to by clear and distinct positioning. Some the online environment. We conducted schools were able to achieve this by relying this study together with other objectives mainly on the uniqueness of their curric- to simply determine whether the concept ulum and instructional delivery, philos- of brand personality applied to the online ophy, environment and location. While context. Our results reveal that this was some of them seem to do this ‘loosely’, the case. Our study found that many of UNCORRECTEDothers seem either not to position PROOFthem- the dimensions used to describe MBA selves clearly on a particular brand person- programmes are similar to those previ- ality, or more disconcerting, not to ously found for consumers brands.23 Thus, communicate any of the brand personality this fi nding presents a starting point for dimensions at all. At another level, one further investigation of brand personality would expect that business schools with in the online environment.
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Business education and especially the messages about brand personality MBA degree has become big business, and dimensions/traits so as to reap the best where there is fi erce competition to attract outcomes out of online communication. the best students. This study clearly A well-established brand personality is demonstrates why it is becoming increas- thought to heighten emotional ties with ingly important for Business school the brand, increase preference and managers, brand managers, branding patronage, and augment a sense of trust consultants, advertising executives, e- and loyalty13 but the combination of branding executives, marketing practi- strategy, creativity and leadership is going tioners and academic researchers to better to be the key to the success of global understand the concepts of brand person- brands in the coming decade. 64 To busi- ality, brand personality communication ness school brand managers and adminis- online and e-branding in order to stay trators, this study therefore sheds light on ahead of competition. Business school the signifi cance of regular website updates administrators must realise that their to continuously monitor and upgrade the websites are an important part of the brand personality they intend to convey. school’s corporate identity and this By this process, these managers can retain medium is likely to become even more those who share or associate themselves important in future. While business schools with the school ’s brand (for example tend to concentrate on other forms of alumni) and attract new students. marketing communication, the internet Lastly, but not the least, one of the has become an important element of Inte- seemingly pioneering roles of this study grated Marketing Communication. Busi- has been to introduce and demonstrate ness School administrators and marketing the dual combination of content and people must realise that the school’s correspondence analyses in assessing the website conveys the schools brand person- brand personalities of websites. The corre- ality and therefore positions the school. spondence analysis technique as exempli- Website management therefore must fi ed here empowers all website managers become part of any business school’s to visualise the brand personality of their marketing strategy. organisations’ websites relative to their This study has also shown that as the competitors, as well as relative to bench- web increasingly is becoming an impor- marks at a very low cost. In today’s fi ercely tant medium to reach target audiences, competitive business environment, this brand managers and administrators must combination of techniques affords schools begin to monitor the competition and to the ability to assess how their brand is devise new strategies in order to create positioned online, and how they are unique brand personalities. This study also mirroring themselves in the minds of their has illustrated that the words we use to stakeholders. This proposed method communicate brand personality are a vital permits data collection at a much lower part of fulfi lling the tremendous potential cost and requiring a fraction of the time UNCORRECTEDthat brands play in the marketing strategyPROOF that otherwise is required by other of Business Schools. methods. Moreover, for the layman, inter- Additionally, this study hopefully also pretation of correspondence analysis maps has demonstrated that business schools is easy and more accurate. Compared to need to target their online audience by other outputs generated by many other exhibiting identifi able and memorable statistical tools and procedures, these easy
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to interpret maps may aid brand managers We only formally analysed text. But, to make faster, better informed deci- visual or graphical images also represent sions. cues and may convey strong multiple meanings to the website visitors. Since, in this study, only text information was LIMITATIONS analysed, it is possible that the entire brand We are duly aware of the somewhat personality may not have been truly controversial nature of using content anal- examined. This could impact on the ysis software as an analytical tool in the portrayed brand personalities of these current context. As with all computer- investigated web sites. aided tools, this software is not ‘fool- Aaker’s23 conceptualisation of brand proof’; and it comes with its own personality is based on the assessing of the challenges. This is mostly noteworthy consumer’s perceptions of a brand. In this when it comes to the construction of the study, our focus was based on communi- dictionary. We believe that we were very cation of the brand personality as expressed fastidious in our approach to develop this on the websites of these business schools, dictionary, drawing from the expertise of an issue we addressed by content analysing several independent reviewers using what these schools are communicating. several independent sources. We also No consideration was given to the percep- painstakingly tested our instrument and tions of some of the stakeholders, espe- presented pilot studies in peer-reviewed cially the potential or existing students, forums. Although we believe that all the media or recruiters. In other words, we necessary measures were taken to avoid do not claim in any way to provide insight possible bias in creating this dictionary of into how the stakeholders perceive these brand personality terms, our under- business schools, but just into how these standing of the meaning of words and schools use their websites to communicate how they were selected to assemble the brand personalities. dictionary could be infl uenced by personal values, interpretations, experiences and knowledge. This is true of any instrument CONCLUSIONS developed for any purpose. But, our pilot Brand personality can infl uence brand studies give us reason to believe that our processing, brand attitudes and brand instrument had both content and construct loyalty. Although it has been recognised validity. that brands do have a personality many The investigators tried to interpret all years ago, most research in the 1960s until data from the quantitative point of view, the 1990s was conducted by focus group but most of the analyses of the maps were interviews using metaphorical questions. at least somewhat infl uenced by value Most of the recent research papers judgments. Hair et al.59, recognised that, published have been based on Aaker ’s when utilising correspondence analysis, scale. Using a variety of brands, she discov- UNCORRECTEDinterpretation always must include PROOF some ered that the large number of personality element of the analyst ’s judgment. But, the traits loaded on the fi ve dimensions: results of this study could have been sincerity, excitement, competence, sophis- further enriched if some stakeholders also tication and ruggedness. We demonstrated were asked to validate the results. This was that these traits apply to business school not the case in this study. brands as well.
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Business school marketing managers taking into consideration only those and administrators should consider what websites that did not communicate strong they are communicating through their brand personalities. An in-depth study of website. They must consider the brand these business schools potentially could personality antecedents when designing identify the critical factors that resulted in the website. Factors that should be taken these websites not communicating clear into account include the overall reputa- and strong messages. These results could tion of the business school, the academic serve as a benchmark for other organisa- standing and overall profi le of the school ’s tions that are trying to communicate their director or dean, and the previous history brand personality more effectively. of the school. In addition, the business Further research is also needed to school’s ‘products’ must be considered. demonstrate in a more defi nitive manner What product will be featured, the MBA, the impact of online brand personality executive education, research output, or communication on the enrolment of all products? The past students as well as MBA students in business schools. This current students could be featured. The study provides a preliminary outlook on brand personality portrayed by the website what is communicated online, but it does will infl uence the various stakeholder atti- not directly examine the impact of brand tudes about the school. The same approach personality on enrolment in a business can be used for most brands in many school’s MBA programme. Future research industries and geographical areas. could longitudinally track this over time. The dictionary used in this study is available from the authors on request. FURTHER RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Future studies can follow the approach we The concept of brand personality in the have described in the methodology section online environment can be explored fur- of this paper. ther in several directions. Firstly, our measure of Aaker’s brand personality online could be replicated in other contexts References for further validation. Further tests of the (1) Berthon,P.,Hulbert,J. M . and Pitt,L. ( 1999)‘Brand management prognostications’, Sloan Manage- effi cacy and robustness of our instrument ment Review, Vol.40, No.2, pp.53–65. among different samples and in different (2) Bickerstaffe, G. (2005)‘Which MBA? A critical contexts can be undertaken. Thus, further guide to the world’s best MBA’s ’,17th edn, Pearson research can also examine the brand Education, London. (3) Nicholls, J., John, Harris, J., Morgan, E., Clarke, personality in the online environment K. and Sims, D. ( 1995)‘Marketing higher educa- from different cultural perspectives. tion: the MBA experience’, International Journal This preliminary study and techniques of Educational Management, Vol.9, No.2, pp.31– 38. described in this study also provide a (4) Friga,P. N ., Bettis, R. A. and Sullivan, R. S . number of future opportunities for (2003)‘Changes in graduate management educa- researchers, brand managers, marketers tion and new business school strategies for the 21st century’, Academy of Management Learning UNCORRECTEDand advertisers and e-marketing PROOF/e- and Education, Vol.2, No.3, pp.233–249. branding executives. Obviously and at the (5) Byrne, J.A. (1997)‘Business week guide to the simplest level, it would be possible to best business schools’,5th edn,McGraw-Hill, include more samples in order to improve New York. (6) Neelankavil , J.P. (1994)‘Corporate America’s the generalisation of the results contained quest for an ideal MBA’, Journal of Management herein. One also could conduct a study Development, Vol.15, No.5, pp.38–52.
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18 © 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. xx, NO. x, 000–000 Month 2006 COMMUNICATING BRAND PERSONALITY
Appendix I The Investigated Business Schools’ Websites
Rank School Website URL No. of Words
1 Wits Business School http://www.wbs.ac.za/ 43 770 2 Uni. of Stellenbosch Business http://www.usb.sun.ac.za/usb/mba/mba_main_2.asp 25 808 School 3 University of Cape Town GS B http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/gsbwebb/default. 20 184 asp?intpagenr=14 4 Gordon Institute of Business http://www.gibs.co.za/ 28 149 Science 5 Uni. of Pretoria GSM http://www.gsm.up.ac.za/ 8514 6 UNISA Grad. SB L http://www. sblunisa.ac.za 9044 7 Henley Management College http://www.henleymc.ac.za/ 10 431 8 Milpark Business School* http://www.milpark.co.za 9 Uni. of the Free State Sch. of Mgmt http://www.uovs.ac.za/faculties/index. 9487 php?FCode=06&DCode=009 10 Potchefstroom Business School http://www.puk.ac.za/fakulteite/ekon/pbs/index.html 8645 11 Nelson Mandela Metro. Uni. BS http://mba.nmmu.ac.za/content.asp?pageID=1 10 267 12 Uni. of KwaZulu-Natal GSB http://gsb.ukzn.ac.za/theschool.php 7869
*The website of the 8th placed business school was down at the time of data collection.
UNCORRECTED PROOF
© 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. xx, NO. x, 000–000 Month 2006 19 OPOKU ABRATT AND PITT average Faculty Students Programe Research Weighted Business schools Employ- ers RANKING THE MBAs 2005 Other graduates Programme weighting GraduatesInformation Stakeholders School Achieve- ment of aims Financial Mail and Markinor’s 2005 MBA Survey 812 11 12 11 12 12 7 9 10 9 11 6 10 9 3 9 6 11 7 93.0 91.4 10 10 10 7 7 7 9 11 10 7 94.5 11 9 7 7 10 7 12 2 11 5 95.8 14 4 2 9 8 7 7 8 10 10 11 2 11 12 4 5 8 11 10 99.6 97.0 7 7 4 4 4 6 1 5 12 7 100.0 6 8 5 4 6 5 5 8 7 4 100.5 59 6 5 5 2 2 4 2 5 1 4 3 8 7 1 2 4 3 6 107.6 101.8 3 3 1 3 3 2 4 10 3 1 108.0 Inprove- ment 2 1 3 1 1 3 7 8 1 2 110.8
UNCORRECTED PROOF : Markinor. 12 KwaZulu-Natal 11. Nelson Mandela (UPE) 10. Potchefstroom 9. Free State 7. Henley 8. Milpark 6. Unisa 5. Pretoria 4 Gordon Institute of Business Science 3. Cape Town 2. Stellenbosch Ranking Salary 1. Wits Business School Source Appendix II
20 © 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. xx, NO. x, 000–000 Month 2006 Appendix III: Paper III: Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for Food SMEs?
Under Second Review at Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal (1SSN: 1352-2752)
Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for Food SMEs? By Robert Ankomah Opoku Industrial Marketing & e-Commerce Research Group Luleå University of Technology Luleå, Sweden Tel. +46 920 49 31 22 Fax: +46 920 49 23 55 E-mail: [email protected]
Russell Abratt Professor of Marketing Nova Southeastern University 3301 College Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33314 USA Tel. +1 954 262-5123 Fax. +1 954 262-3965 E-mail: [email protected]
Mike Bendixen Professor of Research Methodology Nova Southeastern University 3301 College Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33314 USA Tel. +1 954 262-5117 e-mail: [email protected]
Leyland Pitt Professor of Marketing Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC Canada, V5A 1S6 Tel. +1 604 268 7712 E-mail: [email protected]
1 Communicating Brand Personality: Are the Websites Doing the Talking for Food SMEs?
Structured Abstract
Purpose This study analyses website brand communication by SMEs in the restaurant franchise industry using Aaker’s brand personality dimensions.
Methodology A multistage methodology using a combination of content analysis and correspondence analysis was used. The intention was to illustrate a technique that can be used by SMEs at low cost and with ease.
Findings Food SMEs are able to communicate brand personality by way of their websites. The brands and the personality types are presented in a figure which clearly reveals the positioning of the competitors.
Practical Implications This article illustrates a powerful, but simple and relatively inexpensive way for SMEs to study communicated brand personality. The major contribution of this study is to alert SME scholars and retailers to the potential of computerized content analysis as a means of studying website content, and the subsequent use of correspondence analysis to understand the positioning against competitors.
Keywords: Food SMEs, Brands, Brand Personality, Content Analysis, Correspondence Analysis
Introduction
Brands are symbols around which social actors, including firms, suppliers, supplementary organizations, the public, and customers construct identities. Branding is a critical issue in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector because brands allow actors, such as organizations, to say things about themselves in ways that every-day language can not convey. Marketers and entrepreneurs are rightly concerned with brands because they facilitate the repeat purchases on which sellers rely to enhance corporate financial performance and the survival of the firm.
The SME sector has been described as the engine of growth of an economy (Arinaitwe, 2006), and in most economies SMEs account for the vast majority of firms. For example, in the USA, at least 95 percent of all businesses belong to the SME group (Storey, 1994). Furthermore, in the USA, SME’s accounted for approximately 60-80 percent of the net new jobs created annually over the last decade (SBA Department of Commerce, 2005). There are also significant problems in, and experienced by, this sector. For example, U.S. Small Business Administration data indicates that approximately 34 percent of new establishments do not survive their first two years, and only 44 percent survive more than 4 years (SBA Department of Commerce, 2005). Marketing problems have been cited by small business owners as one of their biggest concerns (Cohen and Stretch, 1998; Kraft and Goodell, 1998 and Huang and Brown, 1999).
2 Brand management is a critical element of marketing strategy, yet according to Krake (2005), brand management receives little or no attention in the daily run of affairs in SMEs. SMEs lack the financial resources and ‘share of voice’ to have much of an impact, suggesting a limited role of branding for them (Wong & Merreilees, 2005). Brand management is not given the priority it needs for a strong brand image. Krake (2005) also states that the internet has penetrated the SMEs and every company in his study had made use of it. The advent of the internet technology, with its implications for increased efficiencies, intensified competition and low barriers to entry, and enhanced customer power, has raised new questions regarding the importance of branding and what might represent effective brand building and communication strategies in the online environment (Ibeh, Luo & Dinnie, 2005).We suggest that a retailers website is an important part of its communication strategy and therefore managers should be concerned with what brand personality the website is portraying. The firm’s internet site is a significant competitive weapon and in the hospitality industry for example, the website is very important in acquiring new customers (Mullin, 2000). The SME’s website is potentially a strong competitive weapon because it positions the restaurant against competition and is part of the image it portrays to its stakeholders. Therefore it is important for the SME to have the right brand personality communicated via their internet site.
Our objectives in this paper are first, to explore whether SMEs in the restaurant industry communicate clear and distinctive brand personalities on their websites, that is, their intended competitive position and second, to demonstrate a relatively simple but powerful qualitative tool for identifying and then portraying this brand personality relative to other players. The is a relatively affordable and easy way for SMEs to test their competitive position in the marketplace. We proceed as follows: First we briefly describe the concept of brands and brand personality, and review the extant literature on the topic. Then we describe a study aimed at identifying and describing the brand personalities of a number of smaller, but international and growing, restaurant chains as communicated by them on line. The methodology used enables a comparison of the brand personalities of different SMEs in the same arena of business. We conclude by identifying the limitations of the study and our approach, and highlight avenues for future research. We argue that the approach used has wide application, and show that it can be used by SMEs in a number of ways.
Branding and the Concept of Brand Personality and its Measurement
Branding is the process of creating a brand image that engages the hearts and minds of customers and is what separates similar products from each other (Duncan, 2005). Brands have been the focus of attention in the marketing literature. Studies have focused on brands as a source of sustained competitive advantage (Fombrun, 1996), brand identity (Kapferer, 1997; Harris and de Chernatony, 2001; de Chernatony, 1999); brands as an image in the minds of consumers’ (Keller, 1993), brands as value systems (Sheth, Newman & Gross, 1991), brands as added value (de Chernatony & McDonald, 1992; and brand equity (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 2003; Wood, 2000). Positioning a brand through a image-building campaign has been a cornerstone of brand marketing practice (Bhat and Reddy, 1998).
Since the concept of brand personality emerged over three decades ago, there has been a burgeoning interest in the subject among marketing academics and practitioners (Freling & Forbes, 2005). Consumers have no difficulty consistently assigning human personality traits to brands, and therefore the idea that brand personality contributes in a meaningful way to the consumer brand relationship is central to developing a sound brand strategy (Hayes, Alford, Silver & York, 2006). The perception inside the consumer’s mind feeds back to brand
3 management so that it is important for a firm to deploy their brand strategically (Wong & Merrilees, 2005).
According to Hogan (1991), the term “personality” has had two completely different meanings throughout psychology’s history as a discipline. The first connotation concerns an individual’s internal processes and propensities and helps to explain why they act in a particular way; in this sense, personality is internal and must be inferred. In simple terms, this view of personality corresponds to a simple, “what I say about myself”. The second meaning concerns one’s social reputation or the manner in which a person is perceived by others, such as family, friends, co- workers and the public. In this sense, personality is public and verifiable; it is concerned with the amount of esteem, regard, and status accorded a person by outsiders. Here, in simple terms, personality has to do with “What others say and think about me.”
The notion of brand personality results from the transfer of the personality concept from individual psychology to the marketing context. The assumption thereby is that brands, like individuals, can develop personalities that are indeed similar in their characteristics to human personalities (Aaker, 1997). In this paper, we concentrate on how a brand personality is communicated by means of a website. In the literature, brand personality is often discussed with clear reference to products, corporate brands, or even countries but not how this is communicated online. Research in this area is important because for many SMEs, the internet has become one of the most important tools in their marketing communication toolbox. In contextualizing this study and taking into consideration Aaker’s (1997, p.347) definition, brand personality is viewed as the “the set of human characteristics associated with a particular brand and how these are communicated”.
There have been various attempts to develop measures of brand personality. Aaker (1997) proposes a 42 item Brand Personality Scale (BPS) that assesses any brand across five key dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. Fournier’s (1998) framework for understanding and extending brand personality utilizes a brand relationship quality model comprising six central factors, namely partners’ quality, intimacy, interdependence, self-connection and love. Aaker’s (1997) original scale, developed in the USA, was found to have some international applicability in subsequent work (Aaker, Benet- Martinez, and Garolera, 2001) in extensions conducted with Spanish and Japanese brands
The dimensions of Aaker’s Brand Personality Scale (BPS) are used in our study because they enable researchers to capture the symbolic meanings of brands as if they were people. Aaker’s (1997) scale uses a list of adjectives that describe the most important personality differences between people from previous measures employed in psychological and marketing research. The questionnaire can be presented to a group of respondents, and their perceptions of a brand measured by considering the extent to which they believe it possesses the characteristics that comprise the BPS dimensions. However, in our study, as will be seen, we do not use customer perceptions as input to our determination of SME personality. Rather, we use what is communicated on a SME’s website as input. Stated somewhat differently, we do not measure a SME’s brand personality by what others think it to be, but rather, what the SME says about itself.
4 The study
In this section of the paper, we discuss our data sources, the data analysis techniques used, and also present the results.
Data sources Our intention of this study was to explore and develop an approach to the identification of brand personality of SMEs as communicated only, and to be able to portray these. Because we wanted to conduct this study in an international context, and to select an industry with which most researchers and practitioners would be familiar, we chose food/restaurant franchises that:
x had websites x had expanded internationally (by moving to at least one other nation than the host) x could still be regarded as a small-to-medium enterprise with regard to size (i.e. they were not large multinationals in the same sense as McDonalds, Starbucks or KFC).
We also restricted the number of firms to be studied to five. Our intention was not to do a quantitative survey that would be generalizable or representative – rather, it was to illustrate a technique. As will be seen, in the results, the data becomes more difficult to display and interpret when the number of rows and columns in our analysis grows too large.
The five SMEs we chose come from four countries, and are all either in the fast food (2), budget restaurant (2), or retail coffee chain markets. They are described briefly below:
x Blenz (http://www.blenz.com/) is a Canadian coffee shop, with 35 locations in Canada and over 25 international stores in Japan, China and the U.A.E. Its product range and pricing strategies are similar to those of Starbucks, the global player in the field.
x Café Rouge (http://www.caferouge.co.uk/) is a UK chain of 80 French themed restaurants throughout the UK and Ireland. It offers French and European fare, affordable wines, and a range of coffees and light snacks.
x Jollibee (http://www.jollibee.com.ph/) is a fast food franchise based in the Philippines (where it outperforms McDonalds). The firm runs 400 stores in the Philippines and several international stores in countries like the United States and Hong Kong.
x Nandos (http://www.nandos.co.za/) is a South African fast food franchise with operations s in 34 countries. It purveys a Portuguese/Mozambican style range of flame grilled chicken meals.
x The Old Spaghetti Factory (http://www.oldspaghettifactory.ca/) is a Canadian chain of around 12 Italian themed restaurants in Canada and the USA1. The chain offers affordable pasta dishes, desserts and a wide range of beverages.
There was no objective “method” behind the selection of these SMEs, and arguably we could just as easily have chosen from many others.
1 At the time of writing the firm was divorcing itself from its US operations.
5 Data Analysis Techniques
The method used to analyze the websites was content analysis. Content analysis is a technique for analyzing the content of a text. The content may include words, meanings, pictures, symbols, ideas, themes, or any message that can be communicated (Neuman, 2003). It is also a method of codifying the text (or content) of a piece of writing into various groups (or categories) depending on selected criteria (Weber, 1988). Content analysis is commonly regarded as a useful method for social science studies especially in advertising (Kassarjian, 1977; Kolbe and Burnett, 1991). We used a computerized content analysis program called WordStat (Peladeau, 2003). For a good overview and discussion of qualitative techniques and analysis, see the work of Sinkovics, Penz and Ghauri (2005).
The first step in the research involved collecting and compiling synonyms to Aaker’s (1997) five brand personality dimensions. This was achieved using the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica’s thesaurus function (www.britannica.com). The foundation for the synonym collection was the set of personality traits presented by Aaker (1997) in her original article. In her article (1997, p. 354), Aaker provides a table with a set of 42 personality trait norms that she suggests should serve as an aid towards comparing brand personalities across different categories. Our aim was to find original synonyms to all these traits, as well as synonyms to the five basic dimensions, in order to enrich our data collection instrument. The five dimensions of brand personality, in more detail are:
x Sincerity (domestic, honest, genuine, cheerful) x Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date) x Competence (reliable, responsible, dependable, efficient) x Sophistication (glamorous, presentation, charming, romantic) x Ruggedness (tough, strong, outdoorsy, rugged)
To increase reliability, two parallel lists of synonyms were collected in the same manner by two different persons, one male and one female. These two lists were thereafter merged into one by only selecting the synonyms that had been identified by both persons. This procedure generated a final list totaling 922 words that were fairly evenly spread across Aaker’s (1997) original dimensions of brand personality (Sincerity 20%, Excitement 19%, Competence 21%, Sophistication 21%, and Ruggedness 19%).
This list of synonyms was thereafter converted to electronic format and categorized according to Aaker’s (1997) brand personality dimensions through the WordStat software package. Using the software’s exclusion function, words with low semantic value such as pronouns and conjunctions were excluded from the dictionary whilst the stemming function of the software reduced various word forms to a more limited set based on their roots. Stemming is typically done by removing or substituting common suffixes, for instance by converting plurals to singulars and reducing adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to a common noun or word stem. (Péladeau, 2003). After a thorough pre-testing of this newly created automatic categorization dictionary, the textual information from the five selected SME websites was converted into an analyzable format and imported into the program. Following this, we performed a content analysis of the websites in order to find out how the brand personality dimensions were distributed. The WordStat dictionary thus created is available on request from the authors. While our direct intention was to use it to study impact of websites on creating a brand personality, it is general enough to the BPS dimensions to allow it to be used to investigate content related to any kind of brand or brand situation.
6 To identify the associations between the websites and the brand personality dimensions, we used correspondence analysis. This is a perceptual mapping technique based on cross-tabulation data that is converted into a joint space map by decomposing the chi-squared statistic of the frequency matrix (Greenacre, 1993; Bendixen, 1995, 1996). The perceptual map created through correspondence analysis is useful in uncovering structural relationships between different variables (Inman, Venkatesh and Ferraro, 2004) and its graphic nature facilitates interpretation of data that would otherwise be difficult to comprehend (O’Brien, 1993). Moreover, Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson and Tatham, (2006) state that correspondence analysis is best suited for exploratory data analysis, and since our study is exploratory in nature, its use in this type of study is appropriate.
Results
The frequency of associations between the brands and the personalities is presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Frequency Response Matrix
Competence Excitement Ruggedness Sincerity Sophistication Blenz 50 118 4 46 27 Café Rouge 19 48 3 50 32 Jollibee 197 75 12 54 6 Nandos 42 50 12 88 20 Oldspagettifactory 11 19 0 22 2
The results of the correspondence analysis are presented in Tables 2 and 3.
Table 2 Correspondence Analysis: Eigenvalues Report
F1 F2 F3 F4 Eigenvalue 0.179 0.052 0.015 0.004 Rows depend on columns (%) 71.668 20.786 6.026 1.519 Cumulative % 71.668 92.455 98.481 100.000 Trace 0.250 Root Trace 0.500
7 Table 3 Correspondence Analysis: Output for First Two Dimensions
Principal Squared Coordinates Contributions Correlations Weight F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 Blenz 0.243 -0.227 -0.337 0.070 0.532 0.303 0.664 Café Rouge 0.151 -0.514 0.023 0.223 0.001 0.832 0.002 Jollibee 0.342 0.572 0.007 0.624 0.000 0.996 0.000 Nandos 0.211 -0.243 0.335 0.070 0.455 0.330 0.627 Oldspagettifactory 0.054 -0.207 0.104 0.013 0.011 0.224 0.056 Competence 0.317 0.585 0.003 0.607 0.000 0.992 0.000 Excitement 0.308 -0.189 -0.275 0.061 0.448 0.299 0.633 Ruggedness 0.031 0.114 0.400 0.002 0.095 0.046 0.570 Sincerity 0.258 -0.284 0.300 0.117 0.448 0.455 0.507 Sophistication 0.086 -0.664 -0.072 0.213 0.009 0.779 0.009
The square root of the trace (sum of the eigenvalues) of the decomposition is 0.500, well above cut-off value of 0.2 indicating a dependence between the rows and the columns of the contingency table (Bendixen, 1996).
In order to determine the dimensionality of a solution, the eigenvalues and the cumulative proportion explained by the dimensions must be examined (Greenacre, 1993; Bendixen, 1995, 1996). Most researchers agree that a two dimensional solution is also preferable due to its ease of display and interpretability (Bendixen, 1995, 1996; Hair et al., 2006). We therefore chose a two dimensional correspondence plot, which yields a retention of 92.46% across the first two dimensions.
An asymmetric plot of the brands and the personality types is presented in Figure 1. (An asymmetric plot is used in order that the distance between the row and column points can be interpreted).
8 Figure I : An Asymmetric Column
Asymmetric column plot (axes F1 and F2: 92.45 %)
2 Ruggedness
Sincerity
1
Nandos Competence Oldspagettifactory 0 Café Rouge Jollibee Sophistication F2 (20.79 %) F2 (20.79 Blenz
-1 Excitement
-2 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 F1 (71.67 %)
Rows Columns
The plot reveals the underlying structure and positioning of the investigated websites in relation to the brand personality dimensions. The graphical output also provides information about how the websites and dimensions are positioned vis-à-vis each other. While the personality attribute “Ruggedness” appears to be on the positive end of the second dimension, it has an insignificant contribution to that axis and only adopts significance in the fourth dimension. Thus, a compositional perceptual map in the style suggested by Bendixen (1995) is presented in Figure 2 for the purposes of analysis.
9 Compositional Perceptual Map
0.400 Sincerity Nandos 0.300
0.200
Oldspagettifactory 0.100
Competence Café Rouge 0.000 Jollibee -0.600 -0.400 -0.200 0.000 0.200 0.400 0.600 0.800 Sophistication Axis 2 (20.8%) -0.100
-0.200
-0.300 Blenz Excitement
-0.400 Axis 1 (71.7%)
The first dimension separates “Sophistication” and “Competence” as polar opposite personalities with the Café Rouge and Jollibee strongly associated with those personalities respectively. The second dimension separates “Sincerity” and “Excitement” as polar opposites. Nandos is strongly associated with “Sincerity” but is also associated to some extent with “Sophistication”. Blenz, on the other hand, is strongly associated with “Excitement” and is also has some association with “Sophistication”. Oldspaghettifactory is not well represented in two dimensions and is only weakly associated with “Sophistication”.
Discussion
It is clear from the results of this research that SMEs are able to communicate brand personality by way of their websites. Considering the limited resources available to SMEs relative to their “big brand” competitors, this form of communication could be used cost-effectively to enhance their overall brand image.
We believe that the combined use of content analysis and correspondence analysis represents an important and powerful approach to analyzing such qualitative data. Using the technique, we were able to identify brands that have singular as well as mixed personalities as well as brands that have weak personalities based on the communication from their websites.
While this represents a more functional rather than purely interpretive (Burrell and Morgan, 1979) approach to the analysis qualitative research data, it illustrates the power of the application of mixed methodologies (Szmigin and Foxall, 2000). In summary, the retail food franchisers appear to create strong online brand personalities for themselves by clear and distinct positioning. This is done by consciously communicating strong brand personality dimensions, such as excitement, competence, sophistication or sincerity.
10 Limitations of the Study
We are also aware of the critical issues in using content analysis software as an analytical tool, the most significant of which is how the dictionary is constructed. Although specific measures were taken to avoid possible bias, our construal of the meaning of words and how they were selected to assemble the dictionary could be influenced by personal values, interpretations, experiences and knowledge.
Aaker’s (1997) conceptualization of brand personality is based on an assessment of the consumer’s perceptions of a brand. Our focus in this study was based on communication by the brand personality online, and used a content analysis of what brand an SME is communicating, not the perceptions of potential or existing or retail food franchise customers. In simple terms, we do not claim in any way to give insight into how customers perceive retail food franchise brands, but rather into how SMEs use websites to communicate brand personalities.
Conclusion
Marketing managers and SME owners should consider what they are communicating through their website. They must consider the brand personality antecedents when designing the website. It is important for SMEs in the food industry to convey to the customer and potential customer visiting their website the personality of the brand that they want to portray. Consumers associate a particular food outlet with certain characteristics which are much more than the menu items. When a restaurant develops their retailing mix, they choose their location carefully, the interior design and decor gives it ’atmosphere’, their prices reflect a certain level of quality and service, and their communication strategy all contribute to the positioning of the brand. Consumers and other stakeholder make comparisons between restaurants, and may make a choice based on how they perceive its relative positioning against the competition.
The website is a positioning opportunity by which the restaurant can communicate its intended position in the market. Therefore we have provided the SME’s with a technique that can be used to establish what their positioning is relative to the competition. If the positioning is not what they intended, they could make the necessary changes to their retailing mix and website. The same approach can be used for most brands in many industries and geographical areas.
Further Research Directions
The concept of brand personality in the online environment can be explored further in several directions. Firstly, our measure of Aaker’s brand personality online could be replicated in other contexts for further validation. Further tests of the efficacy and robustness of our instrument among different samples and in different contexts can be undertaken. Thus, further research can also examine the brand personality in the online environment from different cultural perspectives.
This preliminary study and techniques described in this study also provide a number of future opportunities for researchers, brand managers, marketers and advertisers and e-marketing/e- branding executives. Obviously and at the simplest level, it would be possible to include more
11 samples in order to improve the generalization of the results contained herein. Our approach is strong in making comparisons , so future studies can be designed to make comparisons either among companies’ positioning, among customers and other stakeholders, as well in terms of different points in time.
Further research is also needed to demonstrate in a more definitive manner the impact of online brand personality communication on the number of customers eating at a particular restaurant. This study provides a preliminary outlook on what is communicated online, but it does not directly examine the impact of brand personality on the popularity of the restaurant. Future research could longitudinally track this over time.
The dictionary used in this study is available from the authors on request. Future studies can follow the approach we have described in the methodology section of this paper.
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13 Hayes, J.B., Alford, B.L., Silver, L, and York, R.P. (2006), “Looks Matter in Developing Consumer-Brand Relationships”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 306-315. Hogan, R. (1991), Personality and Personality measurement”, in Dunnette, M.D. and Hough, L. M. (Ed), Handbook of Industrial Psychology,(2nd ed), Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA. Huang, X and Brown, A. (1999), “An Analysis and Classification of Problems in Small Business”, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 18, No.1, pp. 73-85. Ibeh, K.I.N., Luo, Y. and Dinnie, K. (2005), “E-Branding Strategies of Internet Companies: Some Preliminary insights from the UK”, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 355-373. Inman, J. J., Venkatesh, S., and Ferraro, R. (2004), “The Roles of Channel-Category Associations and Geodemographics in Channel Patronage”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 68, No. 2, pp. 51-71. Kapferer, J.N. (1997), Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term, 2nd ed., Kogan Page, London, UK. Kassarjian, H. J. (1977), “Content Analysis in Consumer Research”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 4, pp. 8-18. Keller, K.L. (1993), “Conceptualising, Measuring, and Managing Customer-based Brand Equity”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57 No.1, pp. 1-22. Keller, K.L. (2003), Strategic Brand Management: Building Measuring and Managing Brand Equity, 2nd edition, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Kolbe, R. H. and Burnett, M.S. (1991), “Content Analysis Research: An Examination of Applications with Directives for Improving Research Reliability and Objectivity”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 18, pp. 243-25. Kraft, F.B. and Goodell, P.W. (1989), Identifying the Health Conscience Consumer, Sage, Newbury Park, CA. Krake, F.G.J.M. (2005), “Successful Brand Management in SMEs: a New Theory and Practical Hints”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 14, No.4, pp. 228-238. McMillan, S. J. (2000), “The Microscope and the Moving Target: The Challenge of Applying Content Analysis to the World Wide Web”, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 77, No.1, pp. 80-98. Mullin, T. (2000), “Travel’s Long Journey to the Web”, Internet Week, 835, pp. 103-106. Neuman, W. L. (2003), Social Research Methods-Qualitative and Quantitative approaches (5th ed.), Pearson Education, Boston, MA: O’Brien, T. W. (1993), Correspondence Analysis. Marketing Research, Vol. 5, No.4 , pp. 54- 56. Peladeau, N. (2003), WordStat Content Analysis Module for SIMSTAT, Provalis Research, Montreal, Canada. Sheth, J., Newman, B. and Gross, B. (1991), “Why We Buy, What we Buy: A Theory of Consumption Values”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 22, pp. 159-170.
14 Sinkovics, R.R., Penz E. and Ghauri, P.N. ( 2005), “Analysing Textual Data in International Marketing Research”, Qualitative Marketing Research: An International Journal, . Vol. 8 No.1, pp. 9-38. Storey, D.J. (1994), Understanding the Small Business Sector, New York, N.Y. Routledge. Szmigin, I. and Foxall, G. (2000), “Interpretive market research; how far have we come?,” Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 3 No.4, pp. 187-197. U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Advocacy, www.sba.gov/advo. Weber, R. P. (1988), Basic Content Analysis, Beverley Hills, CA: Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, Series 07-049, Sage. Wong, H.Y. and Merrilees, B. (2005), “A Brand Orientation Typology for SME’s: a case research approach”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 155-162. Wood, L. (2000), “Brand and Brand Equity: Definition and Management”, Management Decision, Vol. 38 No.4, pp. 662-669.
15
Appendix IV
Paper IV: Brand Management and Strategic performance: Some Evidence from South Africa
Accepted2 to appear in Journal of African Business (ISSN: 1522-8916)
2 See Appendix VII for the Acceptance Letter
Brand Management and Strategic Performance: Some Evidence from South Africa
By
Jean-Paul Berthon Robert Opoku* Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce Research Group Luleå University of Technology Luleå Sweden
Leyland Pitt Segal Graduate School of Business Simon Fraser University Vancouver Canada
And
Deon Nel Department of Marketing University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg South Africa
*Correspondence Author
The authors gratefully acknowledge comments on an earlier draft of the paper by Professor Pierre Berthon, Bentley College, US, and the helpful comments and advice of two anonymous reviewers. All errors and omissions remain our own.
1 Brand Management and Strategic Performance: Some Evidence from South Africa
Abstract This article reports on a study using a previously published questionnaire to assess the brand management practices of South African firms. Indications are that the perceptions of a sample of senior managers regarding how well their institutions manage their brands are reasonably positive, and that the management of brands has effects on a firm’s profitability, market share and growth compared to competitors. While the questionnaire used seems to possess the characteristic of reliability, further development needs to be done on aspects of its underlying structure. Implications for managers and further avenues for research are identified and discussed.
Keywords: Brand management, Strategic performance, South Africa
Introduction
It is common cause that brand management is a fundamental tenet of marketing thought throughout all the business schools of the world. Along with overall corporate reputation, brands represent the most important intangible asset for most organizations. Consequently, there has been much speculation on the management of brands now and in the future (e.g. Berthon, Hulbert and Pitt, 1999; Shocker, Srivastava, and Ruekert, 1994; Aaker, 1991). Marketing scholars have researched many aspects of brands, including how they reduce search costs by helping buyers identify specific products (Smith, 2002; Moorthy, Ratchford, and Talukdar, 1997); reduce perceived risks by assuring a buyer of a level of quality that subsequently may extend to new products (Havlena and DeSarbo, 1991; Erdem and Swait, 2004); reduce psychological risk by eliminating the unpleasant social consequences of owning and using the "wrong" product brand (Stone and Gronhaug, 1993; Ram, 1989); facilitate repeat purchases (Aaker and Jacobson, 2001; Lane and Jacobson, 1995); the introduction of new products (Bottomley and Holden, 2001; Broniarczyk and Alba, 1994); promotional efforts (Ahluwalia, Unnava, and Burnkrant, 2001), premium pricing (Sullivan, 1998); market segmentation (Ambler et al, 2002; O’Connor and Sullivan, 1995) and brand loyalty (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001).
In terms of cross cultural difference, Morris and Pitt (1993) note significant cross cultural difference in strategic planning between South African and managers from other countries. More specifically Abratt and Higgs (1994) elucidate the specificities of marketing planning practices of South African companies, while Abratt and Mofokeng (2001) expand on how corporate image in South Africa is developed and managed. In terms of the literature on branding, De Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley (1999) explore experts' views about the principles ad definitions of services brands; Dall’ Olmo Riley and de Chernatony (2000), note the importance of the service brand as relationships builder, whilst O'Cass and Grace (2004), explore consumer experiences of service brands.
However, while there have been several important articles published on how firms might optimally manage their brands (e.g. Keller, 2000; Berthon, Capon, Hulbert and Pitt, 2001;
2 Berthon, Holbrook and Hulbert, 2003), little attention has been given to empirically testing the impact a firm’s brand management practices have on its financial and strategic performance. This lacuna needs to be addressed, for while it might make good common sense to manage brands well, the impact of brand management practices on performance needs to be assessed, and specific issues identified. In addition, while much of the work on brand management has been conducted in North America and Europe, additional evidence is needed from other parts of the world. This work attempts to address brand management practice from an African perspective.
The primary objective of this paper is to address the research question “is there a positive relationship between effective brand management practices and business performance among South African businesses?” A secondary objective is to report on some of the psychometric properties of a previously published instrument, designed to audit perceptions of brand management effectiveness. The paper is set out as follows. First we review the literature on the measurement of brand management practices, and the link between brand management and firm performance. We then present the findings of a study conducted on a sample of senior South African managers looking at this link. The paper concludes by identifying the limitations in the research approach followed, the implications for management practice, and avenues for future research.
Literature Review: Assessment of Brand Management Practices & Their Effect On Performance
Pitt, Napoli and van der Merwe (2003) have recently reported on the use of a questionnaire for the assessment of brand management practices by an organization’s executives. While the questionnaire was developed and tested in the context of brands in a franchise environment, the authors suggested that it was sufficiently generic to be used across a wider range of brand management situations. This questionnaire was in turn constructed using the work of Keller (2000) as a framework. Based on the characteristics or dimensions that the world’s strongest brands share, Keller (2000) created a brand report card (BRC) that provides a systematic way for managers to assess their brand’s performance along each of these dimensions. The ten attributes that comprise the BRC include: (1) the brand excels at delivering the benefits customers truly desire; (2) the brand stays relevant; (3) the pricing strategy is based on consumers’ perceptions of value; (4) the brand is properly positioned; (5) the brand is consistent; (6) the brand portfolio and hierarchy make sense; (7) the brand makes use of and coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities to build brand equity; (8) the brand’s managers understand what the brand means to consumers; (9) the brand is given proper support that is sustained over the long run; (10) the company monitors sources of brand equity. Within each of these ten dimensions, Keller raises further questions that managers should address in the management of their brands. However, Pitt et al (2003) suggest that focusing just on the ten general brand management statements, rather than the sub-statements, allows for a quick, yet effective way of assessing an organization’s overall brand management approach. The questionnaire possesses the characteristics of reliability and convergent validity, in that scores on the questionnaire correlate well with independent overall assessments of the quality of brand management. According to the authors, brand management in a franchised brand situation comprises two dimensions that they labelled the external and internal dimensions of brand management.
Much of the literature on brand management suggests that the effective management of brands as intangible corporate assets will impact favourably on all measures of corporate financial and
3 strategic performance (e.g. Aaker, 1991; Keller, 2000; Berthon, Hulbert and Pitt, 1999; Berthon, Capon, Hulbert and Pitt, 2000). Firms that manage brands more effectively than their competitors, it has been argued, will enjoy greater returns on investment, a greater market share, and will also grow more rapidly than competitors. Accordingly, we hypothesize the following regarding South African firms:
H1: The effective management of brands by South African firms will have a positive impact on profitability
H2: The effective management of brands by South African firms will have a positive impact on market share
H3: The effective management of brands by South African firms will have a positive impact on rate of growth
Methodology
This study was conducted on a random sample of 1000 senior marketing executives in South African firms whose names, addresses and fax numbers were purchased from a large commercial database. A covering letter and a copy of the questionnaire were mailed to each manager in the sample frame. After three weeks a fax was sent to those managers who had not responded with a reminder letter and a further copy of the questionnaire. We allowed a further three weeks before the final cut-off date.
We employed an amended version of the Pitt et al (2003) questionnaire to measure the effectiveness of brand management, and we developed three further items to measuring managers’ subjective evaluations of their firm’s performance relative to competitors – namely, profitability, market share, and rate of growth. While the performance measures utilized were subjective – respondents were asked to indicate their views on their firm’s performance relative to competitors on a 5-point scale (ranging from far inferior to competitors to far superior to competitors) – there is good evidence in the literature that managerial perceptions of performance are generally as good as, and often superior to harder measures (Dess and Robinson, 1984). Another minor change made was that whereas the original Pitt et al (2003) questionnaire used a 9-point Likert type scale, this study used a 7-point scale (1 = I strongly disagree through 7 = I strongly agree). A 7-point Likert scale is considered optimal among many measurement scholars (cf. Mattell and Jacoby, 1972).
By the final cut-off date 260 completed, usable questionnaires had been received, for a response rate of 26%. In order to control for response bias two simple measures were employed. First, the database used classified firms by product/service and type of customer served – so that the breakdown of the mail out was 400 service firms, and 400 consumer- and 200 business-to-business product firms respectively. The responses received were from 95 service firms, 106 customer products firms, and 59 business-to-business products firms respectively, which effectively match the mail out. Second, simple t-tests were used to determine differences in response between “early” respondents (those responses received before the reminder fax) and “late” respondents (those responses received after the reminder fax). No significant differences in response were found.
4 Results
The mean responses to the 10 items of the Brand Management Questionnaire scale, relative to competitors, are shown in Table 1. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient for the ten items (1 - 10) comprising the scale was 0.94. This is above the generally accepted cut-off level of .7 (Nunnally, 1978), which indicates that the scale possesses good internal consistency, and is a reliable measure. It is also exceeds the Alpha of 0.87 reported by Pitt et al (2003). Total brand management effectiveness scores were also calculated by summing the scores on the individual items, so that the mean overall score for the respondents is 47.76, with a standard deviation of 12.20.
Table 1: Mean Scores of Brand Management Effectiveness Items Mean Standard Item Responses Deviation (7-point scale) 1. Our firm’s brand excels at delivering the benefits customers 5.00 1.19 truly desire 2. Our firm’s brand stays relevant to what customers want under 5.30 1.09 current market conditions 3. The way we price our products/services at our firm is based 4.82 1.10 on customer perceptions of value 4. Our firm’s brand is properly positioned against competitors in 5.08 1.48 our marketplace 5. Our firm’s brand is consistent in the marketplace – we don’t 5.07 1.61 send out conflicting messages to customers 6. The brand portfolio and hierarchy of our firm make sense – 4.75 1.53 every product / service we market is there for a reason and makes sense in our mix 7. Our firm’s brand utilizes and coordinates a full repertoire of 4.62 1.74 marketing tools and activities to build brand equity 8. Those responsible for managing our firm’s brand understand 4.69 1.71 what the brand means to customers. 9. Our firm’s brand is given proper support and that support is 4.62 1.57 sustained over the long run. 10. At our firm all the sources of brand equity are monitored. 3.81 1.80 Total Score on Brand Management Effectiveness 47.76 12.20 (Maximum possible = 70) Cronbach Alpha for Scale: 0.94
It is apparent from the above table that South African managers perceive their brands to be reasonably well managed. A number of individual brand management activities, namely items 2 (Our firm’s brand stays relevant to what customers want under current market conditions = 5.30), 4 (Our firm’s brand is properly positioned against competitors in our marketplace = 5.08) and 5 (Our firm’s brand is consistent in the marketplace – we don’t send out conflicting messages to customers = 5.07) are scored over 5.0 on average. On the other hand, the respondents do not perceive themselves, on average, to be good at managing all sources of a brand’s equity (item 10), scoring only 3.81 on this item.
5 Pitt et al (2003) reported that brand management activities could be said to consist of two dimensions, namely the external dimension of brand management (items 1 – 5), which relates to customers and competitors, and the internal dimension of brand management, (items 6 – 10), which relates to factors within the organization. In order to investigate the underlying dimensionality of the questionnaire, in a South African environment, we conducted a principal components factor analysis, using varimax rotation with a priori delimitation of 2 factors (as had been found in the Pitt et al. (2003) study). The results of this procedure are reported in Table 2.
Table 2: Factor Analysis of the 10-Item Brand Effectiveness Questionnaire (Varimax Rotation) Factor 1 Factor 2 Items 0.372554 0.809526 Q1 Q2 0.077403 0.917896 Q3 0.632150 0.440363 Q4 0.812146 -0.005166 Q5 0.802566 0.405718 Q6 0.859704 0.219891 Q7 0.594977 0.613676 Q8 0.758581 0.516672 Q9 0.788194 0.456308 Q10 0.844753 0.377809 Variance accounted for by the two extracted factors: 74%
As will be seen from Table 2, a two-factor solution produced different loadings from the Pitt et al (2003) study. This analysis raises a cautionary note regarding the factor stability of the scale, at least in regard to its use in a South African branding-branding environment. One possible explanation is that in the case of the respondents in the franchised brand situation on which the Pitt et al (2003) research was based is that all respondents represented the same institution, and were thinking about the same brand. In the research reported here, every respondent was from a different institution, and was therefore thinking of a different brand(s) – in straightforward terms, it would be understandable if there were greater variance in perceptions. However, this meant that in subsequent analysis to test the hypotheses, we did not use the dimensions of brand management effectiveness as independent variables, but chose instead to perform simple regressions using the overall brand effectiveness scores.
The summary statistics of the three performance variables considered, namely, profitability, market share and growth are reported in Table 3.
Table 3: Summary Statistics, Performance Metrics Performance Metric Mean (5 point scale) Standard Deviation Profitability relative to competitors 3.67 0.90 Market Share relative to competitors 3.36 1.06 Growth rate relative to competitors 3.48 0.93
6 In order to test the hypotheses a series of simple regressions with the overall brand effectiveness score as independent variable and the three performance metrics as dependent variables were run. The results of these are reported in tables 4, 5 and 6.
Brand Effectiveness and Profitability As can be seen in table 4 below, the effect of brand management effectiveness on a firm’s profitability is positive with an R2 of .117, and this is statistically significant at p<0.05. In simple terms, the more effectively brands are managed, the more profitable the firm will be. H1 is therefore accepted.
Table 4: Regression - Effect of Brand Management Effectiveness on Profitability Bivariate Fit of PROFIT By BRAND MANAGEMENT
5
4
3 PROFIT
2
1
20 30 40 50 60 70 BRANDMGT
Summary of Fit RSquare 0.117241 RSquare Adj 0.11382
Analysis of Variance Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square F Ratio Model 1 24.56832 24.5683 34.2655 Error 258 184.98553 0.7170 Prob > F C. Total 259 209.55385 <.0001
Parameter Estimates Term Estimate Std Error t Ratio Prob>|t| Intercept 2.4613769 0.212919 11.56 <.0001 BRAND 0.0252893 0.00432 5.85 <.0001 MANAGEMENT
7 Brand Effectiveness and Market Share As can be seen from the regression analysis in table 5 below, there is a significant relationship between brand effectiveness and market share, with an R2 of 0.097, significant at p<0.05. Put simply, firms that manage brands effectively will enjoy a higher market share than their competitors. H2 is therefore accepted.
Table 5: Regression - Effect of Brand Management Effectiveness of Market Share
Bivariate Fit of MARKET SHARE By BRAND MANAGEMENT
5
4
3 MSHARE
2
1
20 30 40 50 60 70 BRANDMGT
Summary of Fit RSquare 0.097238 RSquare Adj 0.093739
Analysis of Variance Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square F Ratio Model 1 28.39509 28.3951 27.7897 Error 258 263.62029 1.0218 Prob > F C. Total 259 292.01538 <.0001
Parameter Estimates Term Estimate Std Error t Ratio Prob>|t| Intercept 2.06301950.254176 8.12 <.0001 BRAND 0.0271875 0.005157 5.27 <.0001 MANAGEMENT
8 Brand Effectiveness and Growth The regression of brand effectiveness on a firm’s growth is presented in Table 6. As can be seen from the table, there is a significant relationship between the effectiveness of a firm’s brand management and the rate of growth it experiences relative to competitors. The R2 is 0.116, significant at p<0.05. H3 is therefore accepted.
Table 6: Regression - Effect of Brand Management Effectiveness on Growth
Bivariate Fit of GROWTH By BRAND MANAGEMENT
5
4
3 GROWTH 2
1
20 30 40 50 60 70 BRANDMGT
Summary of Fit RSquare 0.115737 RSquare Adj 0.11231
Analysis of Variance Source DF Sum of Squares Mean Square F Ratio Model 1 26.03376 26.0338 33.7685 Error 258 198.90471 0.7709 Prob > F C. Total 259 224.93846 <.0001
Parameter Estimates Term Estimate Std Error t Ratio Prob>|t| Intercept 2.24126060.220784 10.15 <.0001 BRAND 0.0260326 0.00448 5.81 <.0001 MANAGEMENT
9 Limitations and Future Research The research described in this article has obvious limitations, among which are the following: First, the sample, while of adequate size for statistical analysis, is still relatively small, and ideally should include a greater variety of South African firms, as well as NGOs and non-profit organizations, for these too, face branding issues. Second, the views represented in the study are from one individual in an organization only, and may not necessarily represent the views of others in the same firm. Third, the research has focused on the perceptions of brand management practices only, and no additional analysis of issues such as demographics of respondent, location of the firm and nature of its business, and so forth was done. Fourth, the main instrument used in this study, the Pitt et al (2003) brand effectiveness questionnaire, did not demonstrate the desired levels of nomological validity, as shown in the factor analysis. It seems as though the instrument may require further refinement if it is to be used effectively in South African situations, or indeed, that another measure of brand management effectiveness be developed. Finally, while as observed previously the use of subjective evaluations of performance has been demonstrated in research to be acceptable, it would-be useful in future to attempt to include harder and independent objective measures of performance.
From a methodological perspective, this article has left a number of questions unanswered, and these should be addressed by future research. For a start, while the instrument used demonstrates reliability, there still appear to be problems regarding its validity, and its factor structure. It would be worth testing the questionnaire across a range of offerings and institutional situations, to see whether industry or market specific issues impact on the psychometric properties of the instrument. In addition, it would be both interesting and useful to tie brand management perceptions to other institutional variables such as structure, ratings by customers, and of course, other aspects of organizational performance, such as relative quality, reputation, and the environment in which the firm operates. Tracking studies would also be useful and insightful, as researchers would then be able to evaluate the relationship between brand management and other variables over time.
Further opportunities for research include studies to compare senior and middle managers’ views about their brand management practices with the views of their consumers. Finally, there is a dire need for more business research in Africa – a marginalized part of the global business environment – future research should look at brand management practices in other developing countries in Africa.
Conclusions The results of the study reported here indicate that senior marketing executives in South African firms perceive their organizations to be doing a reasonable job of managing brands. This should be a matter of some satisfaction, for branding is a critical issue. Furthermore, as shown in this study, the effectiveness of brand management has a positive effect on financial measures of a firm’s performance such as profitability, and also on indicators of strategic success, such as market share and rate of growth. The obvious implications of these results are that all South African firms should give attention to the management of brands in terms of marketing strategy, recruitment and selection, training and development, and also in terms of overall corporate strategy.
However some of the firms in the sample probably need to understand more of the fundamentals of brand management. This means that they need to commit to the training and development of those responsible for the management of the brand, and possibly engage the
10 services of brand management professionals. An institution may find it useful to conduct a brand audit, possibly using a questionnaire such as the one discussed in this article, to gauge the views of those responsible for managing he brand. This will enable the organization to assess the extent to which views are common, for a start, and then to focus specifically on those issues where brand management is perceived to be especially weak. Finally, it may be wise to track changes in brand management perceptions over time, so that if changes are made in brand management practice, these can be monitored.
Overall this article addresses a number of gaps in the field. First it clearly demonstrates the impact of brand management practices on firms’ performance. Second it explored the issue of branding in Africa – a much under-researched phenomenon. Finally, it adds insight into the psychometric properties of the brand management instrument developed by Pitt et al., (2003).
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12 Lane, Vicki, and Robert Jacobson (1995) Stock market reactions to brand extension announcements: The effects of brand attitude and familiarity, Journal of Marketing, 59, 1, 63 – 78 Mattell, M. and Jacoby, J. (1972) Is there an optimal number of alternatives for Likert-scale items?: Effects of testing time and scale properties, Journal of Applied Psychology, 56:506–9. Moorthy, Sridhar, Ratchford, Brian T and Debabrata Talukdar (1997) Consumer information search revisited: Theory and empirical analysis, Journal of Consumer Research, 23, 4, 263 – 278 Morris, Michael H., and Leyland Pitt, F. (1993) The Contemporary Use of Strategy, Strategic Planning, and Planning Tools by Marketers: A Cross-Culture Comparison, European Journal of Marketing, 27, 9, 34–55 Nunnally, Jum C. (1978) Psychometric Theory, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. O'Cass, Aron and Grace Debra (2004) Exploring consumer experiences with a service brand, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 13 (4), 257-268 O’Connor, P J, and Gary L. Sullivan (1995) Market segmentation: A comparison of benefits/attributes desired and brand preference, Psychology & Marketing, 12, 7, 613 – 636 Pitt, Leyland F., Julie Napoli, and Rian van der Merwe, R. (2003) Managing the Franchised Brand: The Franchisee’s Perspective, Journal of Brand Management, 10, 6 (August) 411-420 Ram, Sudha (1989) Successful Innovation Using Strategies to Reduce Consumer Resistance: An Empirical Test, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 6, 1, 20 – 35 Russell Abratt, and Thabiso Nsenki Mofokeng. (2001) Development and management of corporate image in South Africa. European Journal of Marketing, 35, 3/4, 368 – 375. Shocker, Allan D, Rajendra K Srivastava, and Robert W. Ruekert, (1994) Challenges and opportunities facing brand management: An introduction to the special issue, Journal of Marketing Research, 31, 2 (May),149 – 159 Smith, Michael D. (2002) The impact of shopbots on electronic markets, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30, 4, 446 – 455 Stone, Robert N, and Kjell Gronhaug (1993) .Perceived risk: Further considerations for the marketing discipline, European Journal of Marketing, 27, 3, 39-51 Sullivan, Mary W (1998) How brand names affect the demand for twin automobiles, Journal of Marketing Research, 35, 2, 154 – 166.
13
Appendix V: Dictionary of Brand Personality Dimensions and their Synonyms
COMPETENCE EXCITEMENT RUGGEDNESS SINCERITY SOPHISTICATION ABLE (1) ACTIVE (1) AL_FRESCO (1) ABOVE-BOARD (1) A_LA_MODE (1) ABLE-BODIED (1) AGGRESSIVE (1) ALFRESCO (1) ACCOMMODATING(1 ALLURING (1) ADEPT (1) ARTISTIC (1) ANIMAL (1) ACCURATE (1) AMIABLE (1) ADROIT (1) ARTY (1) ANIMALS (1) ACTUAL (1) ANGELIC (1) ASSIDUOUS (1) AUDACIOUS (1) ARDUOUS (1) AFFABLE (1) APPEALING (1) ASSURED (1) AUDACITY (1) BEEFY (1) APPROACHABLE (1) ARISTOCRACY (1) ASTUTE (1) AUTONOMOUS (1) BOISTEROUS (1) APPROACHING (1) ARISTOCRAT (1) AWARD-WINNING (1) AVANT-GARDE (1) BRUTAL (1) AUTHENTIC (1) ARISTOCRATIC (1) BLOOMING (1) AWE-INSPIRING(1 BUMPY (1) BENEFICIAL (1) ARISTOCRATICAL(1 BOOMING (1) AWESOME (1) CALLOUS (1) BENEVOLENT (1) ATTRACTIVE (1) BRAINY(1) BOLD (1) CHALLENGE (1) BENIGN (1) BARONIAL (1) CELEBRATORY (1) BOLDNESS (1) CHALLENGING (1) BLUNT (1) BEAUTIFUL (1) CERTIFIED (1) BOOST (1) COARSE (1) BONAFIDE (1) BLUE_BLOOD (1) COMPETENCE (1) BRACING (1) CONFRONTATION(1) BRIGHT (1) BLUE-BLOODED (1) COMPETENT (1) BRANDNEW (1) COWBOY (1) BUOYANT (1) BRUSH_UP (1) COMPLETE (1) BRAND-NEW (1) CRAGGED (1) CANDID (1) CAPTIVATE (1) COMPREHENSIVE (1) BRAVE (1) CRAGGY (1) CHARITABLE (1) CAPTIVATING (1) CONCERN (1) BRAVERY (1) CRIMSON (1) CHEERFUL (1) CELEBRATED (1) CONCLUSIVE (1) BREATHTAKING (1) CRUDENESS (1) CIVIL (1) CHARISMATIC (1) CONFINED (1) BRISK (1) CRUDITY (1) CIVILISED (1) CHARM (1) CONGLOMERATE (1) COLORFUL (1) CRUEL (1) CIVILITY (1) CHARMING (1) CONQUERING (1) COLOURFUL (1) DANGEROUS (1) CIVILIZED (1) CHERUBIC (1) CONSCIENTIOUS (1) COOL (1) DAUNTING (1) CLEAN-CUT (1) CLASSY (1) CONSISTENT (1) COURAGE (1) DAYBREAK (1) CLEAR-CUT (1) COSMOPOLITAN (1) CONSTANT (1) COURAGEOUS (1) DAYSPRING (1) COMMON (1) COTOURE (1) CRAFTINESS (1) COURAGEOUSNESS(1) DEMANDING (1) COMMONPLACE (1) COURTIER (1) CRAFTY (1) COURANT (1) DESERT (1) COMPANIONABLE(1 CULTIVATED (1) CUNNING (1) CRAZY (1) DIFFICULT (1) COMPASSIONATE(1 CULTURED (1) DEPENDABLE (1) CREATIVE (1) DURABLE (1) CONGENIAL (1) CUTE (1) DEXTEROUS (1) CREATIVITY (1) EFFORTFUL (1) CONTENT (1) DANDYISH (1) DILIGENCE (1) CRISP (1) ENDEAVOR (1) CONVENTIONAL (1) DE_LUXE (1) DILIGENT (1) CURRENT (1) ENDEAVOUR (1) CONVIVIAL (1) DELICATE (1) DOINGWELL (1) DARING (1) ENDURE (1) COOPERATIVE (1) DIGNIFIED (1) DOMINANT (1) DAZZLING (1) EXTERNAL (1) CORDIAL (1) DISTINCTION (1) ENTERPRISE (1) DESIGNER (1) EXTINCT (1) CORRECT (1) DISTINGUISHED(1 ENTERPRISINGNESS(1) DETERMINED (1) EXTREME (1) COURTEOUS (1) DOWNY (1) EQUIPOTENT (1) EARLY (1) EXTREMUM (1) CUSTOMARY (1) DULCET (1) ESTABLISHMENT (1) ELECTRIFYING (1) FEROCIOUS (1) DECENT (1) EDIFICATION (1) EVERLASTING (1) ELEVATE (1) FORCIBLE (1) DEFENSIBLE (1) ELEGANT (1) EXHAUSTIVE (1) EMANCIPATE (1) FRESCO (1) DIRECT (1) ELOQUENT (1) EXPERIENCED (1) EMANCIPATED (1) FRESHAIR (1) DISTINCTIVE (1) ENCHANT (1) EXULTANT (1) ENERGISE (1) FRONTIER (1) DOWN-TO-EARTH(1 ENCHANTING (1) FAIL-SAFE (1) ENERGISING (1) FURROW (1) EARNEST (1) ENDEARING (1) FIRM (1) ENERGIZE (1) GODFORSAKEN (1) EBULLIENT (1) ENGAGING (1) FIRST-PLACE(1) ENERGIZING (1) GRANITELIKE (1) EMOTIONAL (1) ENNOBLING (1) FLOURISHING (1) ENLIVEN (1) GRANITIC (1) EVERYDAY (1) ENRAPTURE (1) FOOLPROOF (1) ENLIVENING (1) GRATING (1) EXISTENT (1) ENTHRAL (1) FOR_CERTAIN (1) ENTERPRISING (1) GRAVEL (1) EXISTING (1) ENTHRALL (1) FOREFRONT (1) EXALT (1) GRUELING (1) FACT-BASED (1) ENTHRALLING (1) GAINFUL (1) EXALTING (1) GRUELLING (1) FACTUAL (1) ENTICING (1) GENIUS (1) EXCITATION (1) HARD (1) FAITHFUL (1) ENTRANCING (1) GET-AHEAD (1) EXCITE (1) HARD-BOILED (1) FORTHCOMING (1) EPICUREAN (1) GIFTED (1) EXCITED (1) HARDENED (1) FORTHRIGHT (1) ESTEEMED (1) GLORIOUS (1) EXCITEMENT (1) HARD-HITTING (1) FRANK (1) ESTHETIC (1) GOVERNANCE (1) EXCITING (1) HARSH (1) FRIENDLY (1) EXCELLENT (1) GUARANTEE (1) EXHILARATE (1) HAZARDOUS (1) GENEROUS (1) EXCLUSIVE (1) GUARANTEED (1) EXHILARATING (1) HEAVY-DUTY (1) GENIAL (1) EXCLUSIVITY (1) HARDWORKING (1) EXUBERANT (1) HUNT (1) GENUINE (1) EXPENSIVE (1) HARD-WORKING (1) FEISTY (1) HUNTING (1) GLAD (1) EXQUISITE (1) HI-TECH (1) FORCEFUL (1) HUSKINESS (1) GOOD (1) EXQUISITELY (1) ILLUSTRIOUS (1) FRESH (1) INHUMANE (1) GOOD-HEARTED (1) EXTRAVAGANT (1) IMPERISHABLE (1) FRESHNESS (1) INSENSITIVE (1) GOOD-HUMOURED (1) EYE-CATCHING (1) IN-FRONT (1) GUTSY (1) IRREGULAR (1) GRACIOUS (1) FABULOUS (1) IN-CHARGE (1) HAPPENING (1) JAGGED (1) GREGARIOUS (1) FANTABULOUS (1) INDUSTRIAL (1) HEROIC (1) JEANS (1) GUILELESS (1) FASCINATING (1) INDUSTRIALISE (1) HEROISM (1) JERKING (1) HALE AND HEARTY(1 FASHIONABLE (1) INDUSTRIALISED (1) HIGH-SPIRITED(1) JERKY (1) HEALTHFUL (1) FEMALE (1) INDUSTRIALIZED (1) HIP (1) JOLTING (1) HEARTFELT (1) FEMININE (1) INDUSTRIOUS (1) IMAGINATIVE (1) JOLTY (1) HEARTY (1) FIRST-CLASS (1) INDUSTRIOUSNESS (1) INDEPENDENT (1) JUNGLE (1) HELPFUL (1) FIRST-RATE (1) COMPETENCE EXCITEMENT RUGGEDNESS SINCERITY SOPHISTICATION INDUSTRY (1) INDIVIDUAL (1) LABOURIOUS (1) HONEST (1) FLOSSY (1) IN-NO-DOUBT (1) INNOVATIVE (1) LEATHERY (1) HONESTNESS (1) FLUENT (1) INTELLECTUAL (1) INSPIRING (1) MACHO (1) HONESTY (1) FRAGILE (1) INTELLIGENT (1) INTREPID (1) MANFULLY (1) HONORABLE (1) FRAGRANT (1) JUBILANT (1) INVENTIVE (1) MANLY (1) HONORABLENESS (1) FULGID (1) KNOWING (1) INVIGORATING (1) MANNISH (1) HONOURABLE (1) GENTEEL (1) KNOWLEDGEABLE (1) IN-VOGUE (1) MASCULINE (1) HONOURABLENESS(1) GENTLE (1) KNOWLEDGEABLE_ABOUT JUVENILE (1) MAVERICK (1) HUMANE (1) GENTLEMANLIKE(1) LASTING (1) LATEST (1) MOUNTAINOUS (1) HUMBLE (1) GENTLEMANLY (1) LEADER (1) LIBERATED (1) MOUNTAINS (1) INDISPUTABLE (1) GENTLEWOMAN (1) LICENSE (1) LIFTING (1) NERVE-RACKING(1 INIMITABLE (1) GILDED (1) LOGICAL (1) LIVEN_UP (1) NERVE-WRACKING(1 INSPIRED (1) GLAMOROUS (1) LONG-LASTING (1) LONE (1) OPEN-AIR (1) IRREPLACEABLE (1) GLAMOUR (1) LONG-LIVED (1) MODERN (1) OUTDOOR (1) JOVIAL (1) GLAMOUROUS (1) LONG-SUFFERING (1) MODERN-DAY (1) OUTDOORS (1) KIN (1) GLIB (1) LOYAL (1) MODERNISTIC (1) OUTDOORSY (1) KIND (1) GLIB-TONGUED (1) LUCRATIVE (1) MODERNNESS (1) OUTER (1) KINDLY (1) GLITTERING (1) MANUFACTURE (1) MODISH (1) OUT-OF-DOOR (1) KINSHIP (1) GLOSSY (1) MARKETABLE (1) MOVING (1) OUT-OF-DOORS (1) LEGITIMATE (1) GOOD-LOOKING (1) MECHANICAL (1) NERVE (1) OUTSIDE (1) LEGITIMATISE (1) GOOD-NATURED (1) MERCANTILE (1) NEW (1) PACHYDERMATOUS(1 LEGITIMATIZE (1) GORGEOUS (1) METHODOLOGICAL (1) NEWLY_ARISEN (1) PERDURABLE (1) LEGITIMISE (1) GRACEFUL (1) METICULOUS (1) NIFTY (1) PERILOUS (1) LEGITIMIZE (1) HANDSOME (1) MONEYMAKING (1) PLUCKY (1) PHYSICAL (1) LUCKY (1) HAUTE_COTOURE(1) MONEY-MAKING (1) PRESENT (1) POINTY (1) MATCHLESS (1) HIGH-BORN (1) OUTSTANDING (1) PRESENT-DAY (1) POTHOLED (1) MAUDLIN (1) HIGH-BROW (1) PAINSTAKING (1) PREVAILING (1) PRAIRIE (1) MERCIFUL (1) HIGHBROWED (1) PARTNERSHIP (1) PRISTINE (1) PRECARIOUS (1) MERRY (1) HIGH-CLASS (1) PERPETUAL (1) RECENT (1) PROHIBITED (1) MODEST (1) HIGH-PROFILE (1) PERSEVERING (1) REFRESHED (1) PUNISHING (1) NATURAL (1) HIGH-STATUS (1) PERSISTENT (1) REFRESHEN (1) RAMPAGEOUS (1) NOURISHING (1) IN_STYLE (1) POISED (1) REFRESHFUL (1) RESILIENT (1) NOVEL (1) IN_VOGUE (1) POTENT (1) REFRESHING (1) RIGOROUS (1) OBLIGING (1) INDULGENT (1) PRIZE-WINNING (1) REPRESENT (1) ROBUST (1) OLD-FASHIONED (1) LADY (1) PROCEDURAL (1) RESOLUTE (1) ROCKLIKE (1) OPEN (1) LORD (1) PRODUCTION (1) RESOURCEFUL (1) ROCKY (1) OPENHEARTED (1) LUSTROUS (1) PROFIT (1) RISKY (1) ROUGH (1) ORDINARY (1) LUXURIOUS (1) PROFITABLE (1) ROUSING (1) ROUGHENED (1) ORIGINAL (1) MAGNANIMOUSNESS PROMISING (1) SHAKE_UP (1) ROUGHISH (1) ORIGINALITY (1) MAGNIFICENT (1) PROSPER (1) SHARP (1) ROUGH-TEXTURED(1 PERKY (1) MELLIFLUOUS (1) PROSPERING (1) SMASHING (1) RUGGED (1) PLAINSPOKEN (1) MELLISONANT (1) PROSPEROUS (1) SOLE (1) RUGGEDNESS (1) PLEASANT (1) NICE-LOOKING (1) PROTECTED (1) SOLITARY (1) RUTHLESS (1) PLENTIFUL (1) NOBILITY (1) PROUD (1) SOLO (1) RUTTED (1) POLITE (1) NOBLE (1) PUNCTILOUS (1) SOVEREIGN (1) SAFARI (1) POLITENESS (1) NOBLEMAN (1) RESPONSIBLE (1) SPECIFIC (1) SALOON (1) POSITIVE (1) NOBLE-MINDED (1) PROFIT-MAKING (1) SPINE-TINGLING(1 SAVANNA (1) PRACTICAL (1) NOBLENESS (1) SAFE (1) SPIRITED (1) SAVANNAH (1) PRAGMATIC (1) NOBLESSE (1) SALABLE (1) STATE-OF-THE-ART SCRAGGY (1) PROPER (1) NOBLEWOMAN (1) SALEABLE (1) STIMULATING (1) SCRATCHY (1) PROPERNESS (1) PATRICIAN (1) SCIENTIFIC (1) STIRRING (1) SERRATED (1) REAL (1) PHOTOGENIC (1) SECURE (1) STOUT (1) SEVERE (1) REALISTIC (1) PICTURESQUE (1) SELF-ASSURED (1) STRONG-WILLED(1 SPARTAN (1) RELATION (1) PLEASING (1) SELF-CONFIDENT (1) THRILLING (1) STONY (1) RELATIONS (1) POLISHED (1) SELF-POSSESSED (1) TONIC (1) STRAINING (1) RELATIONSHIP (1) POSH (1) SELLABLE (1) TRENDY (1) STRAPPING (1) RELIABLE (1) PRECIOUS (1) SHELTERED (1) TURN_ON (1) STRENUOUS (1) REMARKABLE (1) PREEMINENCE (1) SMART (1) UNCONSTRAINED(1 STRONG-ARM (1) RESPECTABLE (1) PRESTIGIOUS (1) SOLID (1) UNDEVELOPED (1) STRUGGLE (1) RESPONSIVE (1) PRETTY (1) STAUNCH (1) UNFETTERED (1) STURDY (1) SCRUPULOUS (1) PRINCELY (1) STEADFAST (1) UNIQUE (1) SUNRISE (1) SELF-EFFACING(1) PROFLIGATE (1) STEADY (1) UNMARKED (1) SUNSET (1) SENTIMENTAL (1) PROMINENT (1) STRONG (1) UNMATCHED (1) SURVIVOR (1) SIMPLE (1) QUEENLIKE (1) SUCCESSFUL (1) UP-TO-DATE (1) TESTING (1) SIMPLE-MINDED(1 QUEENLY (1) SUPERIOR (1) UP-TO-THE-MINUTE THICK-SKINNED(1) SINCERE (1) REFINED (1) SYSTEMATIC (1) VALIANT (1) TIMBERLAND (1) SINGLE (1) RENOWNED (1) TALENTED (1) VENTURESOME (1) TOOTHED (1) SMALL-TOWN (1) RIGHTEOUS (1) TECHNICAL (1) VIBRANT (1) TOUCH-AND-GO (1) SMILING (1) ROYAL (1) THOROUGH (1) VIBRATE (1) TOUGH (1) SOCIABLE (1) SATIN (1) THOROUGHGOING (1) VITAL (1) TOUGHENED (1) SPRIGHTLINESS (1) SATINY (1) THRIVING (1) VOUGE (1) TOUGHNESS (1) STANDARD (1) SCINTILLANT (1) TIRELESS (1) YOUNG (1) TREACHEROUS (1) STRAIGHT (1) SCINTILLATING(1 TOPPLACE (1) YOUTHFUL (1) TREK (1) STRAIGHTFORWARD(1 SEDUCTIVE (1) TRADE (1) TREKKING (1) STRAIGHTNESS (1) SENSATIONAL (1) TRANSNATIONAL (1) TRICKY (1) SYMPATHETIC (1) SERAPHIC (1) COMPETENCE EXCITEMENT RUGGEDNESS SINCERITY SOPHISTICATION TRIUMPHAL (1) UNCHARITABLE (1) THE_RIGHT_WAY(1 SHINING (1) TRIUMPHANT (1) UNCIVILISED (1) TRUE (1) SHINY (1) TRUSTY (1) UNCIVILIZED (1) TRUE-LIFE (1) SILK (1) UNATTACKABLE (1) UNCOMFORTABLE(1) TRUSTWORTHY (1) SILKY (1) UNBEATABLE (1) UNCOVERED (1) TRUTHFUL (1) SILVER-TONGUED(1 UNBEATEN (1) UNDOMESTICATED(1 TYPICAL (1) SNOBBISH (1) UNBENDABLE (1) UNEVEN (1) UNADULTERATED(1 SOPHISTICATE (1) UNDEVIATING (1) UNFORGIVING (1) UNASSUMING (1) SOPHISTICATED(1) UNFAILING (1) UNKIND (1) UNCHANGING (1) SOPHISTICATION(1 UNFALTERING (1) UNMERCIFUL (1) UNDERSTANDING(1 SPECTACULAR (1) UNFLAGGING (1) UNPADDED (1) UNGLAMOROUS (1) SPLENDID (1) UNFLUCTUATING (1) UNPLEASANT (1) UNGLAMOUROUS (1) STRIKING (1) UNSHAKABLE (1) UNPOLISHED (1) UNINTERESTED (1) STUNNING (1) UNSWERVING (1) UNREFINED (1) UNOSTENTATIOUS(1 STYLISH (1) UNWAVERING (1) UNRELENTING (1) UNPRETENTIOUS(1 SUAVE (1) UP-AND-COMING (1) UNRESTRAINED (1) UNQUESTIONABLE(1 SUGARINESS (1) VENDABLE (1) UNSMOOTH (1) UNSPOILT (1) SUPERFINE (1) VENDIBLE (1) UNSTEADY (1) UP-FRONT (1) TOP-NOTCH (1) VENTURE (1) UNTAMED (1) VALID (1) UPMARKET (1) VICTORIOUS (1) WEATHER-BEATEN(1 WARM (1) UPPER-CLASS (1) WILY (1) WEATHERED (1) WELCOMING (1) UPPERCLASSES (1) WINNING (1) WEATHERWORN (1) WELL-FOUNDED (1) WELL-BRED (1) WITTY (1) VENTUROUS (1) WELL-MANNERED(1) VELVET (1) WESTERLY (1) VERITABLE (1) VELVETY (1) WESTERN (1) VERITY (1) VOGUISH (1) WILD (1) WHOLESOME (1) VOLUPTUARY (1) WILDLIFE (1) VIGOROUS (1) VOLUPTUOUS (1) VIOLENT (1) VIRTUOUS (1) WOMANLIKE (1) WOODLAND (1) VIVACIOUS (1) WOMANLY (1)
Appendix VI: Business School Samples, their URLs and total amount of words copied from their respective Websites
Cluster 1 Reconsidered Initial Number Ranking for ranking Name of School Website URL of this study Words 1 1 Harvard Business School www.hbs.edu/mba 29816 2 1 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton //mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba 33858 3 3 Columbia Business School www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mba 39787 4 4 Stanford University GSB www.gsb.stanford.edu/mba 28078 5 5 London Business School www.london.edu/mba.html 40122 6 6 University of Chicago GSB //gsb.uchicago.edu/fulltime/index.aspx 18702 7 7 Dartmouth College: Tuck www.dartmouth.edu/tuck/mba/choose 18713 8 8 Insead www.insead.edu/mba/home 25497 9 9 New York University: Stern //ww4.stern.nyu.edu/admissions/fulltime 28410 10 9 Yale School of Management //mba.yale.edu 40202 Total no. of 303185 words
Cluster 2 Reconsidered Initial Number Ranking for ranking Name of School Website URL of this study Words 46 44 Manchester Business School www.mbs.ac.uk/programmes/mba/fulltime-mba 13809 47 47 Rice University: Jones //jonesgsm.rice.edu/jonesgsm/program_Profile.asp 32900 48 48 Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign www.mba.uiuc.edu/m/ 15024 49 49 Brigham Young University: Marriot //marriotschool.byu.edu/mba 20691 50 49 Case Western Reserve: Weatherhead //Weatherhead.cwuru.edu/mba/ft_curriculum.html 21530 51 49 Michigan State University: Broad //mba.msu.edu 48481 52 52 University of Minnesota: Carson www.csom.umu.edu/page3201.aspx 40658 53 53 Imperial College London: Tanaka www3.imperial.ac.uk/portal/page?_pageid=58,8042 22128 9&_dad=portallive&_scheme=PORTALLIVE 54 53 Warwick Business School www.wbs.ac.uk/students/mba 30177 55 55 Pennsylvania State: Smeal www.smeal.psu.edu/mba 13914 Total no. of 259312 words
Cluster 3 Reconsidered Initial Number Ranking for ranking Name of School Website URL of this study Words 91 91 University of Durham Business School www.dur.ac.uk/dbs/teaching/postgraduate/mba 15898 92 92 Pepperdine University: Graziado //bschool.pepperdine.edu/programs/mba 24733 93 93 Birmingham Business School //business.bham.ac.uk/bbs/static/page22.htm 14737 94 93 Edinburgh Univ. Management School www.ems.ed.ac.uk/programmes/ftmba/ftovervie 7397 w.html 95 93 Uni. of Washington Business School //bschool.washington.edu/mba 28062 96 96 University of Bath School of Management www.bath.ac.uk/management/courses/mba 21319 97 97 George Washington University //mba.gwu.edu 15398 98 98 Trinity College Dublin www.tcd.ie/Business_Studies/mba 9969 99 99 Fisher //fisher.osu.edu/prospective/graduate/mba 7848 100 100 ESCP-EAP www.escp.eap.net/programmes/mba/ft_Paris 6259 Total no. of 151620 words
Appendix VII: Paper IV’s Acceptance Letter
JOURNAL OF AFRICAN BUSINESS
Editor: Kofi Q. Dadzie, PhD Department of Marketing
September 27, 2006
Robert A. Opoku PhD student Industrial Marketing and e-Commerce Research Group, Division of Business Administration & Management, Lulea University of Technology, 971 87 Lulea, Sweden E-mail: Robert.Opoku @ltu.se
Dear Mr. Opoku:
Congratulations, your manuscript titled “Brand Management and Strategic Performance: Some Evidence from South Africa” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of African Business. You have adequately addressed the reviewers’ concerns and I have decided to accept the paper for publication in the Journal of African Business. The paper will be included in the future issue of JAB no earlier than June 2007.
After you have made the changes, please submit one hard copy and a disk copy of the revised manuscript. NOTE: the hard copy should be an exact version of the disk copy. If there are any differences, the hard copy will be considered the current version.
Please refer to the “consult the authors’ instructions manual” on our website: www.gsu.edu/jab or to the attachment for further instructions on your manuscript submission. Be sure that you follow the guidelines in the corresponding section of the manuscript submission form.
If you have any question regarding this please contact us via e-mail [email protected] or by fax 404-651-4198.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kofi Q. Dadzie P.O. Box 3991, Atlanta, GA 30302-3991 USA Express Mail: 35 Broad Street, Suite 1300, Atlanta, GA 30303 USA Tel: (404) 651-4193 Fax: (404) 651-4198 Email: [email protected]