Impact of Brand Awareness on the Customers-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Brand Awareness on the Customers of MTN. Answer: Introduction: Background to the study: The need for marketing management is required in every business organization. It is very important to determine the relationship between advertising and brand loyalty by reaching consumers via advertising while runninganysuccessful business. The brand awareness can positively hi-light the brand loyalty. A positive service or emotional experience affects the brand image positively(Armstrong et al 2015). Customer loyalty depends on how the information about the product and service reaches the customer and how it is retained in the society. Thus, there has been a lot of research that show how important marketing information is. The most important role of brand awareness is to create a name of the brand in the market. Present studies state that branding has become a vital topic in business management and it must be enhanced in every field to increase the scope of the business in the market(Aronczyk 2013). The companies that are competing to lead the market are using various new branding strategies to reach their customer and attract them. Statement of the problem: The importance of brand awareness has increased in present days. The companies are competing for creating their own market and becoming the leading brand. The study details the brand awareness and its effect on the customer of MTN(Knott and Jones 2015). MTN is a mobile telecommunication company that is operating in over 20 countries. The company has seen a tough time due to lack of branding and thus, serious focus on branding was required. Presently the company is ranked among the top brands in South Africa, however, if the brand name must be retained in the company then they have to make sure that the branding and advertising is continued in the market(Beck 2013). Thus, branding is important to keep up the good name of the company and maintain a good reputation among their customers. Rationale of the research: The importance of branding and advertising has become an important step in business organizations. The aim of branding is to create a name in the market and make the customers aware of the available products in the market. The customers are well aware and used to the reputed brands only because they have done regular advertising of their brands(Chinomona2013). MTNs market share and profitability hadtaken a serious blow due to the lack of branding and advertising(Death 2014). Focusing on branding and advertising over a few yearsenabled MTN to reach their target market and presently they are ranked among the top brands in South Africa. However, if the company does not follow the same strategy of advertising and marketing, they might face problems in the future. The reason for branding is to re-establish and enhance the company name among the clients and to prevent loss of leadership in the market. Brand awareness affects the customer behaviour directly. The more branding and advertisement is done the more customersare attracted to the product or brand(Dinnie2015). However, apart from branding there are few other aspects that affect the customer behaviour like quality and service. Branding plays a vital role as it reaches the customer of the company and determines how and what idea the customers get about the product. Once a product has become famous after branding then the fame and popularity that it gains automatically uplifts the brand name in the market(Keller 2017). The MTN Company offers various product and services that are yet to be expanded. They provide good offers to their customer and users;however, this has to be aligned with the branding and enhance the customer experience. This is only possible if the company is doing proper branding and advertisement that will reach the target market(Cornelissen2017). Unless the information reaches the customers, they will not be able to reach the top position and desired brand recognition. MTN has already done very good branding for their products, however, they should also maintain this. MTN has reached the top echelons of South African brands, but they must ensure to keep the rank in the future also. Research aims and objective: The aim of this study is to understand the need and impact of branding among the customer of the MTN. The need for branding and brand awareness has an impact in the market and it highly influences the popularity of the brand. The research objectives are: To evaluate the impact of brand value on customer loyalty of MTN To identify the factors affecting the brand image of the company. To recommend ways in which the brand image of the company can be improved Research questions: What is the impact of the brand value on customer loyalty of MTN? What are the factors affecting the brand image of the company? How can the brand image of the company be improved? Literature review Brand can be considered as the name associated with one or more of the items in the product line that is most probably used to recognize the characteristics of the brand. Brand is a term, name or a sign that is used to identify the goods and services of one seller or organization to differentiate them from theirpeers. The literature review on this topic is significantly researched as it contributes to the concept of brand relationships as it predicts the consumer behaviour. Higher awareness in the brand can create high demand for the product among the consumers. Existing research has also found that the absence of brand awareness can lead to low quality of the brand andchallenging differential awareness conditions (Sasmita and MohdSuki 2015). The role of brand awareness is significant as it affects the choices of the consumer and directly impacts theirdecision-making process. Hence, it can be stated that brand awareness differentials have a powerful influence over the brand choice ma king of the customers, and moreover, affects long term loyalty to the brand. According to brand management literature, the study conceptualizes that consumer brand relationship can be characterized by personality and charisma (Huang and Sarigll 2014). It can also be integrated with the positive and negative aspects of interpersonal characteristics. High brand awareness can mitigate negative consumer perceptions of price related changes. Brand awareness can be considered as one of the variables that positively contributes to the perceptions of the charged price by comparing the product price with the price of the competitors. Thus, a brand with an image of high product quality is likely to be inflated more intentionally and chosen by the consumers (Jamil, Ali and Iqbal 2017). Similarly, consumers are less likely to buy the products that are not familiar in the market or with other brands (Lambert-Pandraud, Laurent, Mullet and Yoon 2017). This is likely because the consumers incur psychological benefits from using the popular brand. The Aaker model is one of the important models that is used by businesses to evaluate the brand awareness of the organization in the market. It was developed by Professor David Aaker. As stated by David Aaker, brand equity is a combination of brand awareness, brand loyalty and brand associations that combine with each other to offer the value provided by the product or service. The model of Aaker consists of four elements namely, brand as product, brand as organization, brand as person and brand as symbol. Thus, the overall motive of the Aaker model is to build the strategy of brand by mixing the right proportion of its components to make it a brand that stands apart from its rivals. Brand awareness always brings a competitive advantage to the organization. Another theory that helps in building brand of an organization is 3 stages of branding. The three stages of branding is mainly comprised of design, value proposition and positioning statement. The creation of heuristic criteria is summed up of logos, colors, slogans, catch-phrases and many such factors that help in distinguishing the brand, but it is not branding (Wheeler 2017). The second stage is value proposition, which states that the product or service that is being offered by the company is the value that is being added as brand to develop brand awareness among the consumers. The last stage of branding is considered as the positioning statement where it considers how the product or service is being presented to the consumers and being perceived by the consumers (Payne, Frow and Eggert 2017). The brand image of the company can be improved by using latest technology and social media to reach the customers . The technology has made sure that the company that are using it are easily reaching their clients in time and spreading the brand awareness with full information. The brand awareness can also be improved by using banners and posters, this is specially for the customers who are not readily active in social media and thus they will not be able to get the information that the company will be trying to reach the customers. There are several arguments stating that market share of an organization can also lead to interpret the brand awareness as an aggregate level of consumer brand perceptions. The customer loyalty works accordingly with the needs of the customers. The customers interest in maintaining a loyal relationship is related to the ability to execute on the promise ofproviding a high standard in their product offering. Customer potential is one of the powerful weapons that is used by the organization to gain strategic advantage in the competitive environment (Arora and Kumar 2018). Customer retention and brand awareness are closely related to each other. There are various factors that contribute towards influencing brand awareness of a company. In accordance, it also affects the intention of the customers to purchase a product. Consumers play a vital role in the economic system by the payments of the goods and services produced. Brand awareness affects the decision making of a consumer about a product or service. The present market is over-supplied with variety of product brands. The other factors that drive brand awareness are primarily the commitment and affection showed by the customers for the brand. It is also recognized that the stronger the brand awareness the higher the resistance to try competitor products or services. There are two dimensions toa brand, in the form of physiological and psychological dimensions. These two dimensions affect the consumers mind such that it links the brand image, brand performance, brand usage, brand loyalty and brand judgment of the product. It helps the companies to sustain the existing customers and with new strategies or products theyhelp to attract new customer and turn them into loyal customers. Methodology: Research philosophy: The research philosophy is considered to scrutinize and create a detailing of the study. There are three basic types of research philosophy: interpretivism, realism and positivism. Among these positivism helps to develop a depth analysis of the study and conclude it with justifiable results. Interpretivism is related to managing activities and functions. Realism is a combined approach of the research philosophy of realism and positivism. However, in this case interpretivism is required which will include managing the activities and functions. The activities that include advertisement and branding is related to this situation and a thorough managing of the situation is required in this case. The philosophy will not be well suited in this case. Research design: Generally, research design is of three types. Descriptive, explanatory and exploratory. Descriptive helps to understand the situation and evaluate the study, exploratory is used to understand the concept in the beginning phase and explanatory is used to develop a relationship between the variables. This study will require an explanatory research design that will help the organization and the related factors in it to understand the need for branding and how it affects the customer section in general. The thorough need for marketing and branding is becoming a mandatory exercise in the present time. The detailed understanding and explanation for the impact is required in this study. Thus, an explanatory research design is needed in this case. Data collection method: The data collection method includes two methods: primary and secondary data collection. In this study the data collection method will include both the methods. The direct interview or review from the customers and company managers and official heads are required to understanding what impressions they have about branding. The customers and the company workers statements and reviews will b e taken. It will give a clear idea about the result. The data that will be collected here requires the direct information from these sources, at the same time, secondary data in the form of journals and books can also be used. The use of journal and books will include the experience of the reputed entrepreneurs who have faced the high and low situations in business and has faced the result of proper advertisement and branding in the market(Okonkwo 2016). The existing written documents will give pre-existing data and how they had an impact, but a direct interview will help to understand the impact in a better way. Thus the data collected will include primary and secondary data collection form the mentioned people which will give a clear idea about the result. Sampling method and sampling size: The sampling techniques includes probability and non-probability sampling technique. It will also include sampling by selecting random customers and business organizations who have explored brandingand the consequences they experienced in branding. It will include 10 business people who have faced the consequences of branding in their work life. It will also include the result of a survey that includes a collection of 500 people. The survey will be conducted in the general market which will make it easier to reach the customers. Data analysis techniques: The data analysis includes two different forms and they are qualitative and quantitative. The quantitative data analysis will include the large sum information that is required to analysis the data and make a conclusion. The qualitative data includes the standardised data which might not be huge in number but will cover the entire decision. This case will require quantitative data,as the result from various sources is important in this case(Ottman 2017). A single recommendation or preference cannot determine the outcome here. In this case both the data analysis method will be used for confirming the data analysis. Research ethical consideration: The research will strictly maintain its privacy and provide complete security to the entire group that will be included in the research. The research will make sure that no one is disturbed or bothered by this process. It will take care that the person who is taking part in the interview is content with their answer and no interpretation is done to their answers. The decision will entirely depend on the answers received from the consumers and business people or organization. Permission and authorisation will be obtained where required. There will not be violation of rules of any companies. The authorisation letter detailing the scope and purpose of the research will be presented to all participants. Limitation of the study: The study will give an accurate idea about the impact of branding for the company MTN. However, there will be a few gaps that will be kept for future scope. The need to protect against negative brand awareness will not be discussed in the study. The study will deal only with the impact of the branding among the consumer. In general, if the impact is positive the result will be positive as well. However, if a negative branding or fame is spread in the society then there will be high chances that the fame of the company will go down, harming the brand. Thus, it is important to maintain the brand image among the consumer with a positive attitude. The research will cover the impact, but it will not cover the strategies to meet the impact of the advertisement in the market. The impact can be positive or negative, it is the business organization responsibility to maintain a positive image in the market. MTN has kept a good image in the market and have reached the top brands in South Africa . However, if they do not maintain this level of branding in the market then there is a good chance that the brand will lose its image in the market and once again become a general brand. Proposed timeline of the study: Activities 1st to 3rd Week 4th to 10th week 11th to 13th Week 14th to 17th Week 18th to 21st Week 22nd to 23rd Week 24th Week Selection of the topic Data collection from secondary sources Creating layout Literature review Analysis and interpretation of collected data Findings of the data Conclusion of the study Formation of draft Submission of final work References: Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015.Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Aronczyk, M., 2013.Branding the nation: The global business of national identity. Oxford University Press. Arora, M. and Kumar, A., 2018. Consumer Awareness Towards Brand Equity. Asian Journal of Management, 9(1), pp.41-53. Beck, R.B., 2013.The History of South Africa. ABC-CLIO. Chinomona, R., 2013. 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