Master Thesis 2014
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Master’s degree thesis AM521413 Master Thesis – discipline oriented Building strong brands – does it matter? A quantitative study of Dybvik’s brand equity Kristin Gaaseide Aure & Kristine Dybvik Nervik Number of pages including this page: 187 Aalesund, 12.06.2014 This thesis is completed and approved as part of a Master's program at Aalesund University College. The thesis is the student's own independent work according to § 6 of the Regulation on requirements for the Master of 08.12.2005. Mandatory statement Each student is responsible for complying with rules and regulations that relate to examinations and to academic work in general. The purpose of the mandatory statement is to make students aware of their responsibility and the consequences of cheating. Failure to complete the statement does not excuse students from their responsibility. Please complete the mandatory statement by placing a mark in each box for statements 1-6 below. 1. I/we herby declare that my/our paper/assignment is my/our own work, and that I/we have not used other sources or received other help than is mentioned in the paper/assignment. 2. I/we herby declare that this paper Mark each 1. Has not been used in any other exam at another box: department/university/university college 1. 2. Is not referring to the work of others without acknowledgement 2. 3. Is not referring to my/our previous work without acknowledgement 3. 4. Has acknowledged all sources of literature in the text and in the list of references 4. 5. Is not a copy, duplicate or transcript of other work 5. I am/we are aware that any breach of the above will be considered as cheating, and may result in annulment of the 3. examination and exclusion from all universities and university colleges in Norway for up to one year, according to the Act relating to Norwegian Universities and University Colleges, section 4-7 and 4-8 and Examination regulations paragraph 31. 4. I am/we are aware that all papers/assignments may be checked for plagiarism by a software assisted plagiarism check 5. I am/we are aware that Aalesund University college will handle all cases of suspected cheating according to prevailing guidelines. 6. I/we are aware of the University College’s rules and regulation for using sources paragraph 30. II Publication agreement ECTS credits: 30 Supervisor: Øyvind Helgesen Agreement on electronic publication of master thesis Author(s) have copyright to the thesis, including the exclusive right to publish the document (The Copyright Act §2). All theses fulfilling the requirements will be registered and published in Brage HiÅ, with the approval of the author(s). Theses with a confidentiality agreement will not be published. I/we hereby give Aalesund University College the right to, free of charge, make the thesis available for electronic publication: yes no Is there an agreement of confidentiality? yes no (A supplementary confidentiality agreement must be filled in) - If yes: Can the thesis be online published when the period of confidentiality is expired? yes no Date: 12.06.2014 III Acknowledgement This master thesis constitutes 30 credits and is part of the master program of International Business and Marketing at Aalesund University College. The thought of completing our master degree, with a master thesis, was quite exciting for us, as this represent a milestone of our higher education with several years of hard work and devotion. The theme for our thesis, namely brand equity, was an easy choice for both of us, as a mutual interest exist within the disciplines of marketing, strategic work, and the financial returns a company can achieve by managing their marketing activities and strategies in a proper way. Studying brand equity for the clip fish brand Dybvik has been an interesting and educational process. The results provided in this thesis are based on surveys from residents in the Sunnmøre region, and we therefore want to give our gratitude to all the respondents that devoted their time to answer the questionnaire. Without their participation, this thesis would not have been possible to carry out. We also want to thank Jakob Dybvik, Sindre Dybvik and Jan Petter Dybvik for their help, openness and for the opportunity to study their brand, Dybvik. Finally, we will extend a big thank to our supervisor, professor Øyvind Helgesen. His present through our bachelor program has inspired us to undertake this master program. The interest and knowledge in the field of brand equity, and the guidance he has given through the master thesis process have been of great help. His inspiration and constructive criticism have inspired us to perform to the best of our current potential. Kristin Gaaseide Aure Kristine Dybvik Nervik IV Abstract Brand equity has proven, through several decades of research, to be a primary source of competitive advantage and future earnings (Yoo & Donthu, 2001). Building strong brands has therefore become a priority for many organizations, with the presumption that building strong brands yields these advantages (Yasin et al., 2007). A quantitative survey was conducted at Sunnmøre in Norway in order to answer the two developed research questions. - Does the brand equity dimensions; brand associations, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty, have a significant positive effect on the brand equity for the brand Dybvik, and does brand equity have a significant positive effect on price premium? - Does country-of-origin image have a significant positive effect on the brand equity dimensions for the brand Dybvik? The first research question (research model 1) builds on Aaker’s (1991) brand equity model, where he argues that brand associations, brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty have a significant positive effect on based brand equity. In addition to investigate Aaker’s (1991) conceptual framework of brand equity, the relationship between brand equity and price premium were investigated, as brand associations, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty all have the potential to provide a brand with a price premium (Aaker, 1991). The sample was split based on whether the respondents had tasted Dybvik clip fish previously (group 0), or if they had not, or did not know if they have tasted Dybvik clip fish previously (group 1). The results indicated, that for group 0, brand loyalty and brand associations had a significant positive effect on brand equity, and for group 1, only brand loyalty had a significant positive effect on brand equity. In addition, results showed a significant positive relationship between brand equity and price premium, indicating that when brand equity increases, so does the willingness to pay a price premium. The second research question (research model 2) aims to explore the relationship between country-of-origin image and brand equity dimensions to extend existing brand equity research (e.g. Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993; Yoo & Donthu, 2001). Results showed significant positive relationships between country-of-origin image and the brand equity dimensions included in this thesis (brand associations, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty) for group 0, whereas for group 1, country-of-origin image was found to have a significant positive effect on brand associations, brand awareness and perceived quality. VII Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Background and research purpose ................................................................................... 1 1.2. Structure of the thesis ...................................................................................................... 2 2. Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................... 4 2.1. Brand ............................................................................................................................... 4 2.1.1. What is a brand? ....................................................................................................... 4 2.1.2. Benefits of having a strong brand ............................................................................. 5 2.2. Brand equity .................................................................................................................... 7 2.2.1. Brand equity and brand value, different side of the same coin? .............................. 7 2.2.2. Defining brand equity ............................................................................................... 8 2.2.3. Brand equity models (theoretical basis) ................................................................. 10 2.2.4. Brand equity dimensions ........................................................................................ 14 2.3. Country-of-origin image and brand equity dimensions ................................................ 21 2.3.1. Country-of-origin image ......................................................................................... 21 2.4. Models for the study and hypotheses development ....................................................... 23 3. The industry and the company ............................................................................................. 27 3.1. The Norwegian seafood industry .................................................................................. 27 3.1.1. Porter´s Diamond Model .......................................................................................