Influence of Retailer's on Brand Image
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1 Influence of Retailer’s on Brand Image: A quantitative study investigating influence of high and low image retailers on laptop brands Master Thesis 15 hp Author: Nayyar Iqbal, He Min, Jiang Nan Supervisor: Ulf Olsson Semester: Autumn 2012 2 ABSTRACT: This is a scientific article that aims to investigate how Swedish consumers (university students) perceive laptop brand image in association with retailers image. Furthermore this study takes a step further from mainstream research to investigate how gender and age influence consumer perception. The aim is answered using a research model that is based on 4 hypothesis. A quantitative survey is conducted on 334 respondents. Findings show that three of the hypothesis are significant, while two are accepted while two are rejected. If high image laptop Acer is sold in low image retailers, the brand image significantly decreases. If low image laptop Acer is placed in high image retailers, brand image significantly increases. Contrary to expectations results also show that if a high image laptop Apple is placed in a high image retailer, the brand image significantly decreases instead of increasing. Thus it is the factors age and gender that help reveal in particular among respondents, it is the female respondents and respondents above 23 year of age that perceive high image laptop Apple if placed under high image retailer the brand image significantly decreases instead of increasing. Keywords: brand image, retailers image, age, gender, Swedish consumers, perception, branding and 3 TABLE OF CONTENT: 1. Introduction 1.1 Background………………………………………………………………………………….4 1.2 Problem Discussion and Purpose…………………………………………………...............5 1.3 Aim and Research Question………………………………………………………...............6 1.4 Limitation………………………………………………………………………...…………7 1.5 Disposition……………………………………………………………………….………….8 2. Previous Research and theoretical framework 2.1 Retailer’s Image…………………………………………………………………..……….9 2.2 Brand Image………………………………………………………………………….…..10 2.3 Previous research: relationship of brand image with retailers image..................................11 2.4 Important of Gender and Age to retailers……………………………………………......12 2.5 Research Model...........................................……………………………………….............14 3. Method 3.1 Research Design ………………………………………………………….…....................16 3.2 Sample ……………………………………………………………….................................22 3.3 Design and Measures……………………………………………………………...............23 4. Empirical Findings and Statistical Analyses 4.1 Sample Description.............................................................................................................26 4.2 Findings...............................................................................................................................28 5. Discussion 5.1 Retailers influence on Brand Image.....................................................................................36 5.2 Retailers influence on individual variables .........................................................................37 5.3 Gender and age influence on consumer perception.............................................................38 6. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................40 References …...................................................................................................................................43 Appendix I- Step 1 Questionnaire, Appendix II Step 2 Questionnaire, Appendix III Step 3 Questionnaire. 4 1Introduction 1.1 Background Nowadays Laptop computers have become a necessity for university students. Doing projects, writing assignments and all academic related work is greatly dependent on using a computer. Because it is a necessity, every university student goes through an experience of purchasing a laptop once or several times during their academic period. When this decision is made several factors affect how these consumers perceive laptop brands. One factor that influences the image of brands is the retailer's image (Cohen and Jones, 1978). The point of departure of this paper is Sweden. Consumers in this specific market may perceive retailer image influence on brand image differently from other developed countries because Sweden unlike many developed countries has a strong welfare system that provides financial assistance to its citizens. For example through study loans if people wish to study, receive unemployment benefits, free medical care etc (Ginsburg and Rosenthal : 2006). More specifically university students in Sweden receive sufficient funds for living expenses and these students even have the facility to purchase a laptop on monthly installment if they can't pay in one (Mecenat 2012). 1.2 Problem Discussion and Purpose There is a lot of research conducted to see if retailers image and brand image of merchandise sold affect one another. Most of this research was conducted between the 1970's-90's (Jacoby and Mazursky, 1984; Pathak, Crissy and Sweitzer, 1974-75;Cohen and Jones, 1978; McCLURE and Ryans, 1968). Later on in the 1990's research in this area shifted towards retailer brands, how retailer brands are perceived in relation to manufactured brands (Bellizzi et al. 1981; Liljander et al. 2009). What is important to note here is that the results of these studies are dependent upon the context in which they are carried out and these results are not necessarily universal. This means that consumers who perceive retailer image and its influence on brand image of merchandise sold are subject to the industry the merchandise belongs to which can be electronic, clothing or cosmetics. Then there are social, political and economic factors of a society. For example in Pettijohn et al. (1992) studied how shoes and clothing brands were affected by retailers, results show that for low image shoes were affected positively by high 5 image retailers while low image clothing bought from high image retailers did not have a positive influence on brand image. One important point to note here is that there is plenty of research conducted on how a brand image shares relationship with retailers image, but there is not much research that takes into account individual factors that could possibly influence consumer perception towards retailing. Such as ethnic background, family structure, social class, gender, age, sexuality, health, local citizen or immigrant and the list can goes on. Moving on to Swedish consumers, in the Swedish electronics market the various retailers available for purchasing a laptop are Siba, Elgiganten, Mediamarkt, Netonet, PC world and many more. Also there are single stores as well which are run by a sole trader. From all these retailers several laptop brands are available such as HP, Samsung, Packard Bell, Apple, Sony, Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu and the list goes on. Each brand has its own unique image and appeals to consumers differently. And each retailer that sells these laptops has an impact on these laptops brands. But one thing that troubles the authors of this study is that, in this unique market that has unique set of cultural values and generous government subsidy, how would consumers perceive brand image in relation to retailers image? Also how does gender and age affect Swedish consumer perception? These curiosities followed by a lack of knowledge on how Swedish consumers perceive brand image in relation to retailers image, is what forms the foundation of this study. 1.3 Aim and Research Question The aim of this paper is to explore how retailer’s image high or low, affect the end products brand image for computer-laptops. Furthermore this study takes one step further, mainstream research in their area do not take individual factors into consideration when studying consumer perception. Therefore this study explore how individual factors such as gender and age influence consumer perception. This aim will be answered with the help of a research model which is based on four hypothesis. This research model is explained in detail in section 2.5. The following is the presentation of the research question which is then split into many smaller research questions. 6 Research Question Q. How does low/high image retailers affect high/low brand image of merchandise, computer- laptops? a- in general how does high/low image of retailers influence high/low brand image of laptops? b- the individual factors that make up the brand image, how are they affected by high/low image of retailers? c- how does gender and age influence consumer perception of laptop brands? In order to answer this aim and research question it is important to address the level of analysis. This study can be conducted from B2B-(Business to Business) or B2C-(Business to consumer) perspectives. From a B2C level of analysis consumer perception can be studied. For example how consumers perceive the brand images under the influence or retailers. And it is at this B2C level of analysis this study is conducted. From a B2B level of analysis a study can be conducted to explore how manufacturers perceive their image is affected under retailers image. For example HP laptop manufacturers perceive that their brand images is increased by selling in exclusive high image retailers, then HP would sell their laptops in exclusive high image retailers. Similarly the other way around retailers image can also be influenced by the brands they sell. And by selling some brands if retailers image is damaged, such brands would