KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Research Proposal
Background, Problem Statement, Objectives & Literature Review On Impact of
Brand Image and Advertisement on Consumer Buying Behavior



Submitted To:
Arjun Shrestha
Course Instructor


Submitted By
Kshitiz Gautam (12110)
Niyati Sharma (12129)
Shrizana Shrestha (12133)


Date: March 26, 2014

IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT 1

Background
Branding in marketing is a practice that gives a name, symbol or some design to a
product which helps to identify and distinguish the particular product from other products.
Branding has, since long, been considered as one of the most important tools for effective
marketing. Just like a person without a name would be nobody to anyone, a product, or company
or a service without a name and a brand would be nothing and simply anonymous to its
prospective consumers.
Most of the researchers agree about the importance of stressing brand image. Aaker
(1991), for example, says image creates value in a variety of ways, helping consumers to process
information, differentiating the brand, generating reasons to buy, give positive feelings, and
providing a basis for extensions. However, the exact association of a brand image with the
purchasing intention of a customer is yet to be further analyzed.
Similarly, in todays global market, organizations do not compete with each other only on
the basis of price but also customer attraction, loyalty and building relationships. At such times,
advertising plays a crucial role for any business to boost up its performance graph as it is
considered a very powerful strategy to attract ones customers towards ones products.
Advertising can hence be defined as a form of communication which is used to persuade
a specific group of people to purchase ones products. It is regarded as a very powerful and
effective marketing tool which can be used to effectively communicate and convey ones
messages to the audience and promote them. According to a study conducted by Smith et al.
(2006), consumer buying behavior is mostly influenced by liking or disliking of consumer
towards the advertisement of the product, advertised. To hence understand buying behavior, we
IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT 2

need to understand why consumers make certain purchases, what factors control consumer
purchases, and the altering factors in our society.
Generally, consumers purchase products based on previous past experiences. Out of
thousands of similar offering, they instinctively select the ones that have satisfied them in their
past. Thus, pleasant past experiences is highly conducive to consumers associating benefits to a
brand. However, frequent purchasing of a brand cannot always be linked to previous experiences
but can also be formed by embedded perceptions. A consumer might strongly favor a brand with
no prior purchasing experiences. This type of behavior is based on stimulus provided by direct
exposure to advertising campaigns. Hence, to affect a consumers buying behavior process, there
might be proximities that are linked to it.
The following study is hence conducted to study in detail the impact that branding and
advertising campaigns have on a consumers buying behavior. The study would try to measure if
the variables have any impact on the purchasing intention of potential buyers or not.
Problem Statement
With companies spending huge amount of money in advertisement and building brand
image of ones products, with the sole aim of attracting consumers to purchase ones products
and to increase sales, the study aims to analyze whether such advertisements and branding
activities do have a positive impact on the consumers buying behavior process or not. The study
would examine how people perceive any brand and how a brand image and advertising can
influence the consumer buying behavior of people.

IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT 3

Objectives
To analyze consumers general perception on brand
To study the impact of branding on consumer buying behavior
To study the impact of advertising on consumer buying behavior
Literature Review
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a name, term, sign,
symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one
seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
From the consumers perspective, brand is a guarantor of reliability and quality in
consumer products. Roman et al.(2005) added to this stating that consumers would like to buy
and use brand-name products with a view to highlight their personality in different situational
contexts.
According to Khasawneh & Hasouneh (2010), customers realize the importance of brand
while in their purchasing decisions and customers demographic characteristics have no
significant relation and effect on brand awareness. People prefer the branded products with
higher price because they consider that branded items have more quality than non-branded
products. Brand preference is also a symbol of status
It is found that consumers emotions are one of the major determinants which affect their
buying behavior (Berry, 2000).According to a research conducted by LLC (1998) on shopping
habits, nearly one-fourth of the respondents impulse buy products they have not budgeted for.
When deciding which products to purchase, consumers would have their preference, which are
IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT 4

developed in accordance with their perceptions towards the brand. Successful branding could
make consumers aware of the presence of the brand and hence could increase the chance of
buying the companys product and services (Doyle, 1999).
According to Zeb, Rashid & Javeed (2011), female consumers who possess strong
positive attitudes towards brands show high level of involvement in fashion clothing, Similarly,
maximum women consumers are influenced by word-of-mouth and attracted towards the
marketing strategy through advertising. According to Sonkusare (2013), it has been found that
social and personal factors have more influence on buying behavior of the women customers.
Female consumers buying behavior is highly and positively affected by branding status, attitude
towards a brand, self concept and with others opinions (Malik, et al., 2013).
In addition, Niazi et al. (2012) said that advertising is an effective tool to attract people
and to divert their attitude positively towards products. There is a moderate relationship between
consumer purchase attention, environmental factors and emotional factors. If a consumer is
emotionally attached with a product, he/she will prefer to purchase that product. Similarly, male
and female are both equally influenced by advertising for brand choices. Among advertisements
too, TV ads are most preferred by people.
Likewise, according to Kumar (2010), consumers find celebrity endorsements more
attractive and influential as compared to non-celebrity endorsements. Moreover, the tested
attributes show positive relationship with purchase intention, i.e. celebrity endorsements
positively impact the purchase intention of the consumers.


IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT 5

References
Aaker, D. A. (1991). Managing Brand Equity. New York: The Free Press.
Berry, L. (2000). Cultivating service brand equity. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,
28(1), 128-137.
Doyle, P. (1999). Building Successful Brands. In L. Butterfield, Excellence in Advertising: The
IPA guide to best practice (pp. 3-21). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Khasawneh, K., & Hasouneh, A. (2010). The effect of familiar brand names on consumer
behavior. A Jordanian Perspective. International Research Journal of Finance and
Economics, 33-57.
Kumar, A. (2010). Celebrity endorsements And Its Impact On Consumer Buying Behavior.
Bournemouth University.
LLC, F. M. (1998, September 22). Recent study finds gap remains between male, female
shoppers. Electronic Advertising and Marketplace Report, p. 17.
Malik, M. E., Ghafoor, M. M., Iqbal, H. K., Ali, Q., Hunbal, H., Noman, M., et al. (2013).
Impact of Brand Image and Advertisement on Consumer Buying Behavior. World
Applied Sciences Journal, 23(1), 117-122.
Moos, K. V. (December 2005). Branding - Its impact on the consumer purchase decision-making
process. London: European Business School.
IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE AND ADVERTISEMENT 6

Niazi, G., Siddiqui, J., Shah, B. A., & Hunjra, A. I. (2012). Effective Advertising and its
influence on consumer buying behavior. Information Management and Business Review,
4(3), 114-119.
Roman, K., Maas, J., & Nisenholtz, M. (2005). How to advertise: What works, what doesn't and
why. London: Kogan Page.
Seher, T., Arshad, M., Ellahi, S., & Shahid , M. (2012, June 11). Impact of colors on
advertisement and packaging on buying behavior. Management Science Letters.
Smith, E. G., Meurs, L. V., & Neijens, P. C. (2006). Effects of Advertising Likeability: A 10-
Year Perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, 1(46), 73-83.
Sonkusare, G. (2013). Impact of television advertising on buying behavior of women consumers.
International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), 31-38.
Zeb, H., Rashid, K., & Javeed, M. B. (2011, June). Influence of Brands on Female Consumer's
Buying Behavior in Pakistan. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance,
2(3), 225-231.