A STUDY ON BRAND IDENTITY OF STANLEY MATERIAL AND

METTULARIGICAL PIPE AND TUBE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AT

COIMBATORE

CHAPTER I
ABSTRACT
Results of a controlled experiment on the role of brand identity in the consumer choice
process showed that brand identity was a dominant choice heuristic among identity-group
subjects. Subjects with no brand identity tended to sample more brands and selected the high-
quality brand on the final choice significantly more often than those with brand identity.
Thus, when quality differences exist among competing brands, consumers may "pay a
price" for employing simple choice heuristics such as brand identity in the interest of
economizing time and effort. However, building brand identity is a viable strategy for
advertising aimed at increasing brand-choice probabilities.
INTRODUCTION
The term brand means different things to the different roles of buyer and seller, with
buyers generally associating brand with a product or service, and merchants associating brand
with identity. Brand can also identify the company behind the specific product -- that's not just a
biscuit, that's Britannia biscuit. This use of brand puts a "face" behind the name, so to speak,
even if the "face" is the result of advertising copy and television commercials. This use of brand
also says nothing of quality, just the buyer's exposure to the brand's PR and media hype. For the
typical merchant, branding is a way of taking everything that is good about the company --
positive shopping experience, professionalism, superior service, product knowledge, whatever
the company decides is important for a customer to believe about the company -- and wrapping
these characteristics into a package that can be evoked by the brand as signifier.
INTRODUCTION TO BRANDING

The American Marketing Association 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 and to differentiate them to those for competitors”. A brand is thus a product or service
that’s adds a Dimension that differentiates it in some way from other products or services
designed to satisfy the same need. These differences may be functional, rational, or tangible-
relate to product performance of the brand.
Branding has been around for centuries as a means to distinguish the goods of one
producer to those of another. The earliest signs of branding can be traced to Europe where the
medieval guilds required that craftsmen put trademarks on their product to protect themselves
and producer against inferior quality substitutes. Also in fine arts branding began with artists
signing their works. Brands today play a number of important roles that improve the consumer’s
lives and enhance the financial value of firms.
Brands identify the source or maker of the product and allow consumers-either individual
or organizations- to assign responsibility to a particular manufacturer or distributor. Consumers
may evaluate the identical product differently depending how it is branded. Consumers lean
about the brand with its past experience and the marketing program. As consumers lives
becomes more complicated, time starved the ability of brand to simplify decision making is
invaluable. Brands also perform valuable functions for the firm. First they simplify the product
handling and tracing. Brands help to organize inventory and accounting records. The brand name
can be protected registered trademarks. The intellectual property rights ensure that the firm can
safely invest in the brand and can reap the benefits over a long period of time.
Brands can signal a certain level of quality so that satisfied buyers can easily choose the
product again. Brand loyalty provides predictability and security of demand for the firm and
creates barriers to entry that makes it difficult for other firms to enter the market. This brand
loyalty can translate into willingness to pay higher price. In this sense branding can be seen as
powerful means to secure a competitive advantage. Brands represent enormously valuable pieces
of legal property that can influence consumer’s behavior. Strong brand results in better earnings
and profit performance for firms, which in turn, creates greater value for shareholders.

How do you “BRAND” a product? Although firms provide the impetus to brand creation through
marketing programs and other activities, ultimately a brand is something that resides in the mind
of the consumers. A brand is a perpetual identity that is rooted in reality but reflects the
perceptions and perhaps even the ultimate choice of the consumers. Branding is endowing
products and services with the power of brands. To brand a product, it is necessary to teach the
consumers “who” the product-by giving a name. Branding involves creating mental structures
and helping consumers organize their knowledge about products and services in a way that
clarifies their decision making and in process provides value to the firm
Branding can be applied virtually anywhere a consumer has a choice. It is possible to brand:
A physical good (Nestle soup, Pantene shampoo or Maruti Swift),
 A service (Kingfisher Airlines, TATA AIG medical insurance),
 A store (Big Bazaar, BATA stores),
 A place (The state of Kerala, Pushkar Mela),
 A person (Shahrukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar),
 An organization (UNICEF or BCCI),

Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that you associate with
the company or a product. When you think of Volvo, you think of safety. When you think of
Nike, you think of Michael Jordon or ‘Just Do It’. When you think of IBM, you think of ‘Big
Blue’. The fact that you remember the brand name and have positive associations with that brand
makes your product selection easier and enhances the value and satisfaction you get from
product.

While Brand X cola or even Pepsi-Cola may win blind taste tests over Coca-Cola, the fact is that
more people buy Coke than any other Cola. The fond memories of childhood and refreshment
that people have when they drink Coke is often more important than a little bit better cola taste.
It I this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful
Purpose of Branding
The purpose of branding is to create a powerful and lasting emotional connection with customers
and other audiences. A brand is a set of elements or “brand assets” that in combination create a
unique, memorable, unmistakable, and valuable relationship between an organization and its
customers. The brand is carried by a set of compelling visual, written and vocal tools to represent
the business plan and intentions of an organization.

Branding is the voice and image that represents your business plan to the outside world. What
your company, products and services stand for should all be captured in your branding strategy,
and represented consistently throughout all your brand assets and in your daily marketing
activities

The brand image that carries this emotional connection consists of the many manageable
elements of branding system, including both visual image assets and language assets. The
process of managing the brand to the business plan is important not only in “big change
situation” where the brand redefinition is required, but also in the management of routine
marketing variables and tactics. This does not have to be a “ground-up” situation where there are
wholesale changes to the business. Rather it is more common that specific changes to the
changes to the business plan are incremental and the work of the brand strategist and designer is
to interpret these changes and revise the branding strategy and resulting brand assets and define
their use in the full range of marketing variables.
Brand Identity
Brand Identity includes brand names, logos, positioning, brand associations, and brand
personality, brand toons etc. A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes
positive associations with the brand. A positioning statement tells what business the company is
in, what benefits it provides and why it is better than the completion? Brand personality adds
emotion, culture and myth to brand identity by the use of a famous spokesperson (Bill Cosby-
Jello), a character (Pink Panther), an animal (the Merrill lynch bull) etc.
Brand associations are the attributes that costumer thinks of when they hear or see the brand
name. McDonalds television are a series of one brand association after another, starting in yellow
arches in the low right corner of the screen and following with associations of Big Mac, Ronald
MacDonald, kids, happy meal, food quality etc. The first step in creating a brand for your
company is branding workshop.
HOW DO WE DETERMINE OUR BRAND IDENTITY?
Brand has been called the most powerful idea in commercial world, yet few companies create a
brand identity. Do you want your company’s brand identity created for you by competitors and
unhappy customers? Of course not. Our advice to executives is to research their customers and
find the top ranked reasons that the customers buy their product rather than their competitors.
Then, pound that message in every ad, in every news release, in communications with employees
and in every sales call or media interview. By continuous repetition of messages customer will
think of your product and then buy it.
Tools for Building Brand Identity
Brand builders use a set of tools to strengthen and project the brand image; Strong brands
typically exhibit an owned word, a slogan, a color, a symbol, and set of stories.
Owned Word
A strong brand name should trigger another word, a favorable one. Here is the list of brands that
own a word:
Slogan
Many companies successfully added a slogan or tagline to their brand name which is repeated in
every ad they use. Here are some well-known brands slogans, which people on the street may
easily recall or recognize:
Colors
It helps for a company or a brand to use a consistent set of color to and in the brand recognition.
Caterpillar paints all its construction equipments yellow. Yellow is the color of Kodak film. IBM
uses blue in its publications, and IBM is called “Big Blues”.
Symbols and Logos
Companies would be wise to adapt a symbol or logo to use in their communications. Many
companies hire a well-known spokesperson, hoping that his or her quality transfer to the brand.
Nike uses Michael Jordon who has worldwide recognition and likableness, to advertise its shoes.
Sporting goods manufacturers sign contracts with top athletes to serve as their symbols, even
naming the product after them.
Cartoons and Animations
A less expensive approach is to develop a character, animated, to etch the brand’s image into
customer’s mind. The advertising agency Leo Burnett has successfully created a number of
memorable animated characters. Here are some well known brand cartoons which people may
recognize:
Objects
Still another approach is to choose an object to represent a company or brand. The travelers’
insurance company uses an umbrella, suggesting that buying insurance is equivalent to having an
umbrella available when it rains. The prudential insurance company features the rock of
Gibraltar, suggesting that buying an insurance is equivalent to “owing a peace of rock “which is
of course, solid ad dependable. Companies have developed many logos or abstracts, which are
easily remembered by people. Even the way the brand name is written makes a brand
recognizable and memorable.
Brand Effectiveness
With an increase in global competition, branding has become a source of competitive advantage.
In rapidly evolving market for consumer, and industrial products and services, the source of next
generation competency will be branding. In this briefing we demonstrate how to calculate the
brand strength, the price premium associated with the products categories, and type of customers
attracted to the “Premium Products”. Marketers who match their brand with customers needs will
have a sustainable competitive advantage.

Measuring Brand Effectiveness

There are many metrics to measure the potential of and actual effectiveness of brands. The
simplest way is to apply the concept of what we call the 4 D’s of Branding; differentiation,
distinctiveness, defendable, digit-able.
Distinctiveness: your brand should be distinct when compared to your competitors and to all
spoken and visual communications to which your target audiences will be exposed. The more
unique and distinct your communications, the wider the filed of effective competitive strength it
will have. There are simple means to apply to test the distinctiveness of your brand.

Differentiation: the brand strategy and brand assets must set you’re offering apart and clearly
articulate the specific positioning intent of your offering.

Defendable: you will be investing in creating your brand assets and in all cases your brand must
have proprietary strength to keep others from using close approximations. This applies to your
trade names and other proprietary words as well as to your logos, symbols and other visual
assets.
Digit-able: in most businesses there is strong and growing element of electronic communications
and commerce that dictate all brand assets be leveraged effectively in tactile and electronics
form. This goes for all brand assets.

Much of the brand manager’s work is to build a brand image. But its job doesn’t stop there. The
brand manager needs to make sure that brand experience matches the brand image. Much can go
wrong. A fine brand of canned soup described in a full page color ad may be found in dented and
dusty condition in the bottom shelf of a supermarket. The ad describing a gracious hotel chain is
belied by the behavior of a surly concierge.

Building brand therefore calls for more than brand image building. It calls for managing every
brand contact that customer might have with brand. Since all the employees, distributors and
dealers can affect brand experience.
Brand and Reputation
A brand exists in the mind, or not at all. The mind it exists in may be that of a customer, a
potential customer, an interested observer, a disinterested observer... or almost anybody.
Identity of a brand may be irrelevant to any purchasing decision that an individual may make.
People are aware of the Mercedes car brand, but cannot envisage any circumstance under which
they would (could!) buy a Mercedes. They are aware of Marlboro (and scores of other cigarette
brands) but as a non-smoker they will never convert their identity into purchase. Male with no
children are not targeted by Pampers or Huggies but still are aware of the brands.

People wear many hats. But are or not a potential customer. People may be an employee, an
investor, a citizen, a husband and so on. They hate McDonald’s hamburgers but might love their
stock market record and therefore be a potential customer for their stock. They will never buy a
Boeing 777 but might be impressed by the aircraft and favor an airline that flies them. They have
no idea what an Intel chip is, but might be persuaded that it is a good thing to have in my PC and
therefore buy a computer from a company that uses them.

Brand Aware argues that there is no difference between "Brand" and "Reputation". Some
conventional wisdoms state that customers buy brands, but that investors buy reputations. Those
potential employees join companies because of their reputation, that the media and other
"stakeholders" judge a company on its reputation in some way as a distinct concept from its
brand. This part argues that such distinctions are fallacious for all companies, but especially for
single brand companies such as a McDonalds, a Coca-Cola, a Compaq or a Shell. These
companies’ reputations are part and parcel of their brand. Their brands are their reputation.

The Brand
To any individual a brand (in his mind) is a complex combination of experiences, beliefs,
perceptions and associations that have grown up over time. For example Coca-Cola is a company
brand, a product brand, a service brand and a brand with a long history. It is a brand which may
represent (to any one individual) diversity, internationality, technical excellence, financial
strength etc. etc. It may also mean insensitivity, environmental pollution, abuse of power and
other negative perceptions.

Perceiving the brand:

An individual builds up his perceptions of a brand via a wide range of communications channels.
They are as follows:
Advertising: Over time an individual who lives in a country in which the company/brand is
active, or travels to one on business or vacation, will be exposed to their advertising. This
advertising may be in a wide range of media:
 TV commercials for products and services
 Recruitment ads inviting employment applications
 "Corporate" TV commercials promoting the company's "reputation"
 Web based advertising
 An ad for the company’s branded products or services in a wide variety of print media.
 Billboards on highways
 Radio
 Point of sale etc.

Media reports and stories: Individuals will be exposed to a wide variety of reports about
companies in the media (print and broadcast) where the editorial content is only partly influence
able by the company (in some cases) or not at all (in most cases). These stories will come from a
variety of primary and secondary sources: -
 Press releases
 Press conferences
 Reporting of "events"
 Investigative journalism
 Stories passed to the media by third parties (Non governmental organizations etc.)

Professional/business interest: For some individuals to interface professionally, or from a

specific business need, with famous companies (or to observe them) is part of their job. They
will usually procure their information from a variety of sources and via a variety of channels of
communication. These individuals have a special interest in the companies and they include: -
Financial analysts and journalists with an interest in share performance
Existing or potential suppliers of products and services
Existing or potential industrial/commercial customers
Building the Brand
The art of marketing is largely art of brand building. When something is not a brand, it will
probably be viewed as a commodity. Then price is the thing that counts. When price is the only
thing that counts then the low cost producer wins. But just having a brand is not enough. What
does the brand name mean? What associations, performances and expectations does it evoke?
What degree of preferences does it create?

Choosing a Brand Name

A brand name first must be chosen then its various meanings and promises must be built up
through brand identity work. In choosing a brand name, it must be consistent with the value
positioning of the brand. In naming a product or service the company may face many
possibilities: it could choose name of the person (Honda, Calvin Klein), location (American
airlines), quality (Safety stores, Healthy choice), or an artificial name (Exxon, Kodak).
Among the desirable qualities of a brand name. Some are:
 It should suggest something about the product benefits.
 It should suggest product qualities such action or color
  It should be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember; short names help a lot to
recognize the product to the customers.
 It should be distinctive.
 It should not carry poor meanings in other countries and languages etc.

Building Positive Associations

The best known brand names carry associations. For example, here is a list of words that people
say they associate with McDonalds:
 Kids
 Fun
 Happy Meal
 Ronald Mc. Donald
 Quality
 Toys
In trying to build a rich set of positive associations for a brand, the brand builder should
consider five dimensions that can communicate meaning:

Attributes: A strong brand should trigger in buyers mind certain attributes. Thus a Mercedes
automobile attributes a picture of well-engineered car that is durable, rugged and expensive. If a
car brand does not trigger any attribute, then it would be a weak brand.

Benefits: A strong brand should suggest benefits, not just features. Thus Mercedes triggers the
idea of well performing car that is enjoyable to drive and prestigious to own.

Company Values: A strong brand should connote values that the company holds. Thus
Mercedes is proud of its engineers and engineering innovations and is very organized and
efficient in its operations. The fact that it is a German company adds more pictures in the mind
of the buyers about the character and the culture of the brand.
Personality: A strong brand should exhibit some personality traits. Thus if Mercedes were a
person we would think of someone who is middle age, serious, well-organized and somewhat
authoritarian. If Mercedes were an animal we might think of lion or its implied personality.

Users: A strong brand should suggest the type of people who buy the brand. Thus we would
expect Mercedes to draw buyers who are older, affluent and professional.

In summary, brands when their very name connotes positive attributes, benefits, company values,
personality and users in the buyer’s mind. The brand builder’s job is to create a brand identity
that builds on those dimensions.

Choosing Brand Elements

Brand elements are those trademarks devices that serve to identify and differentiate the brand.
Most strong brands employ multiple brand elements. Nike has distinctive “swoosh” logo, the
empowering “Just Do It” slogan and the mythological “Nike” name based on the winged goddess
of victory.
Brand element can be chosen to build as much as brand equity as possible. The test of the brand
building ability of these elements is what consumers think or feel about the product if they only
knew about the brand element. A brand element provides positive contribution to brand equity.

Brand Element Choice Criteria

There are six criteria in choosing brand element. The first three can be characterized by brand
building in terms of how brand equity can be build through judicious choice of brand element.
The latter three are more defensive and are concerned with how the brand equity contained in the
brand element can be leveraged and preserved in the face of various opportunities and
constraints.

Memorable: How easily is the brand element recalled? How easily recognized? Is this true at
both purchase and consumption? Short brand name like tide, Nike can help.
Meaningful: To what extent is brand element credible and suggestive of the corresponding
category? Does it suggest something about a product ingredient or a type of person who might
use the brand?

Likeability: How aesthetically appealing does consumers find the brand element? Is it inherently
likeable visually, verbally, and in other ways? Concrete brand names such as Wheel, Sunsilk etc
evoke much imagery.
Transferable: Can a brand element be used to introduce new products in the same or different
categories? To what extent does the brand element add to brand equity across geographic
boundaries and market segments?

Adaptable: How adaptable and updatable is the brand element? Betty corker received 8
makeovers through the years-although she is 75 yrs old, she doesn’t look a day over 35.

Protectable: How legally protectable is the brand element? How competitively protectable? Can
it be easily copied? It is important that names that become synonymous with product categories
such as Kleenex, Xerox, Jell-O, etc retain their trademarks rights and not become generic.
Brand elements can play a number of roles. If consumers do not examine much information in
making their product decisions, brand elements should be easily recognized and recalled and
inherently descriptive and persuasive. Memorable or meaningful brand elements can reduce the
burden on marketing communications to build identity and link brand associations. The different
associations that arise from likeability and appeal of the brand elements may also play a critical
role in the equity of brand.
What is Brand Equity?
There is no universally accepted definition of brand equity. The term means different things for
different companies and products. However, there are several common characteristics of the
many definitions that are used today. From the following examples it is clear that brand equity is
multi-dimensional. There are several stakeholders concerned with brand equity, including the
firm, the consumer, the channel, and some would even argue the financial markets. But
ultimately, it is the consumer that is the most critical component in defining brand equity. Some
researchers in the field of marketing have defined brand equity as follows:
Lance Leuthesser, et al (1995) writes that "… brand equity represents the value (to a consumer)
of a product, above that which would result for an otherwise identical product without the
brand's name. In other words, brand equity represents the degree to which a brand's name alone
contributes value to the offering (again, from the perspective of the consumer)."
The Marketing Science Institute (1988) defines brand equity as, "The set of associations and
behaviors on the part of the brand's customers, channel members, and parent corporations that
permit the brand to earn greater volume or greater margins than it could without the brand name
and that gives the brand a strong, sustainable, and differentiated advantage over competitors."

Brand equity can be defined as three distinct elements:

The total value of a brand as a separable asset -- when it is sold or included on a balance sheet.
A measure of the strength of consumers' attachment to a brand.
A description of the associations and beliefs the consumer has about the brand.
Of those three concepts, the first can be classified as "brand valuation," the second "brand
loyalty," and the third "brand description." Brand loyalty will be a factor that affects the overall
brand value, and brand description will usually affect or explain some of the brand loyalty.
Because of the importance of each of these elements of brand equity, they will each be briefly
explained.
Brand Equity as Brand Value.
Brand value involves actually placing a dollar or rupee value on a brand name. The reasons for
doing this are usually to set a price when the brand is sold and also to include the brand as an
intangible asset on a balance sheet (a practice which is not used in some countries). While there
are many methods for making this measurement, some of which will be described shortly, it is
important to note that there is a significant difference between an "objective" valuation created
for balance sheet purposes, and the actual price that a brand may get when sold?

A brand is likely to have a much greater value to one purchaser than another depending on the
synergy that exists. For acquisitions, the value of a brand to a certain purchaser is often estimated
through scenario planning. This involves determining what future cash flows the company could
achieve if it owned and took advantage of the brand.

What this means is that there is no such thing as an absolute value for a brand, and brand value
needs to be considered as only one component of the overall equity of a brand.
Brand Equity as Brand Loyalty
Loyalty is a core dimension of brand equity and is a way to gauge the strength of a brand. It
represents a barrier to entry, a basis for a price premium, and time to respond to competitive
innovations. The variety of measures used for brand loyalty usually is a combination of one or
more of the following:

Price/demand measures--focus on a brand's ability to command a higher price or make

consumers less sensitive to price increases than price increases for competing brands.

 Behavioral measures--focus on consumers' behavior.

 Attitudinaleasures--focus on general evaluative measures such as 'liking' or 'disliking.'
 Identity measures--focus on identifying a brand as being associated with a product
category.
 Brand Loyalty and Equity refer to the notion that some brands are "stronger" or better
than others.

An example of this sort of belief is:

“If the businesses were split up, I would take the brands, trademarks and goodwill, and you
could have all the bricks and mortar - and I would fare better than you.”
The optimism for the concept can be stated on the fact that when one would say as a predictor of
future financial performance, brand equity, if reported, would be valuable for capital marketers
and shareholders. Brand equity has the potential to become the set of measures of business
performance that matter most.
The motivation for brand equity comes from the observation that many marketing efforts
"realize" benefits; such as sales or profit and these are accounted for in the firm’s profit and loss
figures. However, there is the possibility that management might choose between taking realized
benefits and "storing" them future. One of the most common times this argument is used is when
discussing the role of advertising versus sales promotion. You could spend lots of money on
advertising, see no immediate effects, but you could save your job by saying that you had "built
the brand". At least one advertising agency offers to partner companies in this sort of activity.

IMPORTANCE & RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY

The two month project Training is very important for a student of MBA. This type of
study gives some practical knowledge to MBA students and practical knowledge is more useful
than theoretical knowledge for any one.
There is no certain formula for any particular problem but the aim of this study is to
develop the ability of decision – making. A right decision at the right time itself helps an
organization to run smoothly.
The training in any organization gives us an idea of different marketing activities and
many emphases is given on “Promotional Activities Aspect” and also it is seen how business is
taken tactfully when any problem comes to an executive. The way of problem solving, right
decision making and knowledge of different types of marketing activities gives much importance
to this study. Though only in 2 months, it was not possible to understand it so deeply but overall
ideas would be developed.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
To study on brand Identity and customer buying behavior of STANLEY MATERIAL AND
METTULARIGICAL PIPE AND TUBE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AT
COIMBATORE
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
 To judge the Identity level of the prospect customer
 To know how they are aware regarding the product
 To judge in which way they have developed Identity
 To judge which promotional tool is effective to increase the Identity level among the
people To see whether brand Identity influences the buying behavior or not
 To know about the product Identity among the customer
  To know about which brand of STANLEY MATERIAL AND METTULARIGICAL
PIPE AND TUBE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AT COIMBATORE is most
preferably used by customer
 To analyze customer view towards quality price of STANLEY MATERIAL AND
METTULARIGICAL PIPE AND TUBE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AT
COIMBATORE Products
 To know customer buying behavior

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

 The study on brand Identity and consumer buying behavior of STANLEY MATERIAL
AND METTULARIGICAL PIPE AND TUBE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
AT COIMBATORE
 Has lot of scope.
 The reason ids these help to find out Identity level of the prospect customer and existing
customer buying behavior of the people at the STANLEY MATERIAL AND
METTULARIGICAL PIPE AND TUBE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AT
COIMBATORE

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
RESEARCH ON BRANDING
Branding is a dynamic concept and extant research has been done on concepts of Branding.
Various authors have defined a Brand as different notions and earlier definitions have treated a
Brand as a form of identity or legal ownership.
 American Marketing Association (2010) has defined brand as “A name, term, sign,
symbol or 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.”
 Broadbent and Cooper (2011) have considered branding as adopting a mark to designate
legal ownership. According to Brown (2014), “A brand is nothing more or less than the
sum of all the mental connections people have around it.”
 Kapferer (2014 has defined a brand as “A brand is not a product. It is the product’s
essence, its meaning and its direction and it defines its identity in time and space.
According to Crainer (2015), branding is a legal statement of ownership. Slowly the
concept of Branding evolved as an important tool in marketing decisions. Brand has been
identified as a strategic tool and as a multidimensional construct. This becomes evident
from the contributions of the authors quoted below.
 Aaker (2012) has defined branding in the terms of Brand Personality as a strategic tool
“can help brand strategists by enriching their understanding of people’s perceptions of
and attitude toward the brand.”
 De Chernatony and Riley (2013) have asserted, “A brand is a multidimensional construct
whereby managers augment products or services with values and facilitates the process
by which consumers confidently recognise and appreciate these values.” Venable, Rose,
Bush and Gilbert (2010) have said that dimensions of Brand Personality for a non- profit
organisation are integrity, nurturance, sophistication and ruggedness. The importance of
service industries was realised by the companies.
 This led to branding of services, which is evident from the words of Schimmoller Brian
(2011) who has said that “Electricity companies are latching on to the branding concepts,
hoping that consumers can develop similar products and company allegiances with
electricity and its providers.” Branding of services is different from branding products.
 O’Cass and Grace (2015) in their article on Service brand associations have asserted that
for branded services word – of – mouth, servicescape and employees were important
dimensions. Vallaster and de Chernatony (2012) have implied that employees of a service
brand are ultimately responsible for delivering the brand promise of the service brand and
they are the critically important constituent of the service brand.
 Schultz (2014) has asserted that service - based branding is radically different from
product - based branding. He further states that customers help in creating the brand and
not just the marketers. Companies recognised the need to focus on the social
responsibility which was expected by the customers from the brands. The consumers
expect something more than the mere benefits as a product. They try to identify how a
brand really gets itself associated with the society.
 Keller (2012) has discussed the branding perspectives on social marketing as “Branding
may provide an important function in social marketing programmes by helping
individuals to communicate and signal to themselves as well as others that they are
engaging in desirable behaviours so that are better able to realise more immediate
benefits and receive positive reinforcement.”
 According to Holt (2011), “Brands will be trusted to serve as cultural source materials
when their sponsors have demonstrated that they shoulder civic responsibilities as would
a community pillar.” The concepts of branding moved towards brand associations.
 Janiszewiski and Van Ossalaer (2013) in their article about Brand - Quality associations
have said that “impact of a brand name on consumer evaluations and choice depends to a
large extent on the strength of predictive associations between brand names and
performance (or any other benefit).”
 According to George and Charles (2011) “brand image is an important dimension of
brand association. Further brand associations differ across brands and product categories.
Brand familiarity influenced the dimensions of brand associations.” Consumers tend to
associate themselves with the brands they use. In the words of Schultz (2012), “it’s the
people who are involved in the brand that own the brand.
 And the way they act in the market place defines what the brand will be… They’re the
ones who will create the brand experience and who will deliver the brand value
proposition.” According to John and Loken (2015), “consumers tend to associate a brand
with a particular attribute or feature, usage situation, product spokesperson, or logo.”
 According to Usunier and Cestre (2013), “Consumers make stereotypical associations
between products and countries based on their perceptions of a countries know – how and
reputation relative to the design, manufacturing, or branding of particular generic goods.”
 The above statement has been supported by Power and Hauge (2014) in their article that
today’s consumers develop deep personal relationships to brands and their histories.
Brand Community is another concept which has been discussed by a few authors. Muniz
and O’ Guinn (2015) have identified an idea of brand community. According to them a
brand community is specialised, no geographically bound, based on a structured set of
social relations among admirers of a brand.
 They further confirm that brand communities exhibit shared consciousness, rituals and
traditions and a sense of moral responsibility. Research in terms of brand equity talks
about Employee branding, trust, etc. Keller (2013) has pointed out that marketers must
link their brands to people (employees, endorsers), places (country of origin, channels),
things (events, causes) or other brands (Extensions, company, ingredients, alliances) to
improve their brand equity.
 According to Srivatsa and Mookerjee (2014), “the key determinants of brand equity of
high- tech industrial products are perceived value and trust.” They have identified
performance indicators and tangibles as the drivers of perceived value. Further they have
identified credibility of the company, market acceptance of the product and reputation of
alliance partners as the drivers of trust. As the concept of Relationship marketing
emerged companies started focusing on CRM initiatives.
 Riley and de Chernatony (2015) have indicated that branding and relationship marketing
are independent and could possibly be seen as two stages of the same process. Hamlin
and Wilson (2014) have empirically supported the claim for the success in CRM
initiatives of a company. It is important to attain a good ‘fit’ in terms of positioning and
objectives of product and charity. As the companies have realised that the customers play
a vital role in the success of a brand, the Branding strategies have begun to focus on the
views of the customers.
 Keeney (2010) has said that “Consumers have a visceral to the brands they prefer. To
some degree, the brands people prefer transcend their product attributes and benefits.”
Consumers in this millennium have realised the importance of branded products.
 John (2011) in his article has said that children have a growing identity of their brands as
they grow older. This identity results in greater preference for branded items. Consumer
identity on importance of ingredients of a product has led to ingredient branding. Desai
and Keller (2011) have asserted the importance of labelling or branding the ingredient
attributes that constitute a new product.
 This ingredient branding has an impact on novel brand extension of a brand and future
category expansion of the brand. Children play a major influencing role in brand
selection. Shi and Shanjay (2012) in their article about brand evaluations have said that
adults and children evaluate brand extensions differently. According to them adults look
 for deep features like category similarity while children use surface features such as
brand names like rhyming names. Consumers prefer brands which provide a better image,
which can be trusted and worthy to buy.
 Parson (2012) in his article on brand choice has said that “consumers tend to look for
brands with greater symbolic benefits when purchasing gifts.” Even perishable items are
being branded now.
 Stanton and Herbst (2015) in their article on branding commodities like vegetables and
fruits have said that, “consumers want to place their trust in branded companies to give
their official endorsement that the product is indeed good and worthy of purchase.” With
many companies entering into international markets, consumers’ perception of a global
brand determines its success.
 Klein (2012) in his article has told that that while entering into international markets,
firms have to first understand how the current and prospective customers in the 34
international markets react to goods imported from a particular producer nation.
Marketers should understand the customers’ psychology before operating in a new
product category.
 Eckhardt (2015) in his interpretive research on local pizza brand in India has revealed
that consumers experience these brands as foreign which imply that a local brand
operating in a product category that is perceived as foreign will only be considered as a
foreign brand. Companies entering into China have to understand the customers of that
country. Hoffe Jason, Lane and Nam (2013) in their article about branding cars in China,
have pointed out that consumers were often developing preferences based on emotional
factors such as manufacturer’s image or what their friends thought.
 The culture and perception of Chinese customers have to be taken into consideration by
the companies in those markets. According to Henderson, Cote, Leong and Schmitt
(2013), “in China and Singapore companies focus on design of visual brand stimuli.
Further there is a significant relationship between the design and consumer responses
which include positive effect, perception of quality, recognition, consensus in meaning
and feng shui.
 ” Brand building in China has been highlighted in the two articles which follow. Crocker
and Yi – Chung (2014), have identified that consumer insight, customer experience and
 coordination of all firm activities that engage the customer would be the three critical
domains for success of brands in China.
 Tucker (2015) in his article on Brand Building in China has written that, “If Chinese
companies manage to brand strategically with consumers in countries with completely
different political systems this will prove we have entered a new frontier for branding and
advertising.”
 Branding process emphasised the role of consumers in their success. According to
Brown, Sherry and Kozhinets (2013), “Complexity, heterogeneity, dynamism and
paradox are integral aspects of the consumer brand relationship.” As the branding process
is quite a challenging task, the involvement of statistical analysis in the concepts of
branding has been realised. Guild (2013) has said that marketers can develop and deliver
better brand messages more quickly and precisely by using statistical techniques from the
social sciences. Positioning strategies are important for the success of brands. Positioning
a brand in the minds of the customers determine the sustainability of the brand in the
competitive market.
 Blankson (2014) has identified service, value for money, brand name and top of the range
as the popular positioning strategies of UK store card brands. 36 Similarly, Runyan and
Huddleston (2015) in their research on branding in central districts of USA have
identified that brand identity, business mix and community characteristics were essential
for competitive advantage. Brand identity had a significant and positive effect for the
success in those districts. Authenticity is another positioning strategy. B
 Ever land (2013) has identified the six attributes of authenticity in luxury wine trade as
heritage and pedigree, stylistic consistency, quality commitments, relationship to place,
method of production and downplaying commercial motives.
 The pivotal role played by authenticity in branding process is given by Thompson,
Rindfleisch and Arsel (2015) in their research analysis as “consumers avoid brands when
their emotional – branding promises are viewed as inauthentic and conversely emotional -
branding strategies succeed when they can function as an authenticating narrative for
consumers’ identity projects.” Brand image can help in better positioning.
 Smith (2014) has identified brand knowledge, power, fit and quality as the factors which
influence sponsorship’s effect on brand image transfer among customers. In the same
 lines of brand image, Hayden (2014) has said that “A brand, like a bell, should motivate
people to take action with the expectation of a great result.”
 The importance of brand positioning has been asserted from the words of Hollis (2015)
that “A brand can work in opaque and mysterious ways. Instead of being directly
controlled by its owner, it exists in the consumer minds. Every facet is subject to the
consumer’s emotional response, interpretation and recall.” Effective brand
communication can build strong brands in the minds of the customers.
 According to Lindstrom (2015), “those brands that are communicating from a multi-
sensory brand platform have the greatest likelihood of forming emotional connections
between consumers and their product.” Similarly good brand names have the ability to
provide easy recall. Kohli, Harich and Leuthesser (2015) have pointed out that
meaningful brand names that are associated with positive attributes or benefit of the
product are easier to recall than non-meaningful brand names
 . On-line trading is being widely done worldwide. Brand name in this trade is equally
important. Tsao, Pitt and Berthon (2014), in their article have implied that effectiveness
of brand name in on-line trading depends upon the prevailing market conditions for the
brand, price, the extent of product differentiation and the magnitude of brand- building
cost. Joint branding and mergers and acquisitions are two major branding decisions
followed by multinational companies.
 According to Lebar et al (2015), “Joint branding campaigns helped to increase a brand’s
perceived 38 differentiation but also sometimes harmed perceived knowledge and esteem
in the process.” Jaju, Joiner and Reddy (2014) have discussed the importance of
corporate branding decision in merger and acquisitions by saying that brand equity of
corporate brands is often decreased as a result of M&A
 . The authors emphasise the need for companies to consider consumers’ reactions after
post M&A. Importance of brands and branding process is clearly spelt through the
following narrations. Keller and Lehman (2014) have told that “Brands manifest their
impact at three primary levels – customer market, product market, and financial market.
The value accrued by these various benefits is often called brand equity.”
 According to Schultz (2013), “the brand is not a linear brand promise developed and
delivered through impersonal, outbound mass media. All of that is supported by the
 current thinking on how the human mind works. There are neural networks inside the
head – networks that evolve, change and adapt as one experience the various factors
making up the brand.”
 Aaker (2013) implies that Branding has the potential to own an innovation over time. It
can add credibility and legitimacy to the innovation. It can enhance its visibility and
make communication more feasible and effective. 39 All the marketing techniques and
communication need not be successful.
 According to Gobe (2012), “some brands are not marketable, and no amount of
advertising money will change that…. There is a negative reaction to obsessive and
counterintuitive marketing techniques of some brands…..The trend to ‘do whatever it
takes’ to reach out to customers is so out of control that…” India is considered as a
potential market by global companies. At the same time Indian companies have been
successful within the country and internationally.
 Schultz (2011) in the article on Branding in India has said that, “Indian Branding might
be a force to be reckoned with….Real branding story is being developed slowly but
surely in India.”
 They have stated that India and Indian organizations are rewriting the ways brands are
considered, planned, developed and managed. Further they feel that Indian business
approaches are unique and Indian companies have different views of how and where
brands are built over time. The same article has asserted that, “At the rate Indian
companies are growing both domestically and globally, they are obviously doing some
things right – ma.

EMOTIONAL BRANDING:
Brand positioning is the heart of marketing. In reality it is the consumers who do the positioning.
 According to Smith (2010) “Marketers bring brands from the factory, but it is the
customers who position the brands in their minds, not the marketers”. Customers want
the brands to be associated closely with their passions and life-style. Focus on brand
strategies based on consumer life-style, goals and dreams are essential in today’s
scenario. This is possible through the application of “Emotional Branding” which
emerged in the late 2011. It is a new paradigm in brand management.
  Travis (2010) has said, “A brand is like a bridge between you and the customers. How
your customers feel about your brand isn’t a casual question. It is a crucial question. A
brand is not a brand to you until it develops an emotional connection with you”. Some
brands create emotional connections with the customers, while others leave them cold.
 Gobe (2011) has asserted that branding strategies should be about mindshare and
“Emotions Share” rather than market share. He also says that Branding is not about
identity only. Identity is only part of the equation. According to him, Emotional Branding
is a dynamic cocktail of anthropology, imagination, sensory experiences and visionary
approach to change. It is a means of creating personal dialogue with consumers. It brings
a new layer of credibility by connecting powerfully with people on a personal and holistic
level. A unique trust is established with the audience.
 He further adds, “Commitment to product or institution, the pride we feel upon receiving
a wonderful gift of a brand we love, having a positive shopping experience in an inspiring
environment where someone knows our name or brings an unexpected cup of coffee-
These feelings are at the core of emotional branding.” These feelings have the ability to
create a bond with the brand which is similar to that in a human relationship or a
friendship.
 Marken (2013) in his book review has said that, “Emotional Branding will help you do a
better job of ensuring customers feel well about your company….and its products. That’s
where the branding begins. That’s where it ends.” Roberts (2014) has asserted that
“Emotional Branding is a consumer centric, relational, story-driven approach to forging
deep and enduring effective bonds between customers and brands.” Harry Porter is a
marketing marvel and is an excellent example for the emotional attachment it has created
with its readers.
 According to Kentwertime (2015), “Strong brands have been proven to create an
emotional attachment with the customers.” The above literature serves as the basics of the
emerging concept and application of Emotional Branding.
RESEARCH ON SERVICE INDUSTRY:
 Myriad research has been done on service industries. Most of the research tries to analyse
the customer evaluations on the quality of service delivered in the service industries.
 Service quality and service encounter are the important concepts of service marketing.
These two concepts have been defined according to the following literature.
 Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a consistent
basis (Lewis and Booms 2012). In service industries customers spend more time and
interact with the service provider directly.
 According to Shostack (2010) “a period of time during which a consumer directly
interacts with a service” is defined as Service Encounter. This definition includes all the
aspects of the service firm, personnel, physical facilities and other tangible elements with
which the consumer may interact.
 According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (2014), “Service Quality is more difficult
for the consumer to evaluate than goods quality; quality evaluations are not made solely
on the outcome of the service; they also involve evaluations of the process of the service
delivery.” Perceived Service Quality is defined by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry
(2013) as “the consumer’s judgment about a firm’s overall excellence or superiority.” 43
Lot of research is being done in the field of service industries. Service industries have
focused on the quality of service rendered in order to survive competition.
 Thus Service Quality has become a great differentiator and the most powerful
competitive weapon which many leading service organizations possess (Berry et al.
2010). Evaluation of services is quite difficult. From the words of Parasuraman et al.,
(2010), delivering superior quality of service has been recognized as the most effective
means of ensuring that a company’s offerings stand out from a crowd of look-alike
competitive offerings.
 According to Ofir and Simonson (2011), “unless buyers begin the evaluation with low
expectations, they tend to focus during consumption primarily on negative aspects of
product / service quality.” Employees’ response to the customers can influence the
evaluation of service quality.
 Douglas (2011) has asserted that, “the display of positive emotion by employees is
positively related to customers’ positive affect following service encounters and to their
evaluations of service quality.” Similarly, Farrell, Soucon and Durden (2011) have said
that customers’ service quality evaluations are based almost entirely upon the behaviour
of the front- line employees be branding
FOCUS OF THIS RESEARCH:
 Research on service industries have talked about the role and the significance of emotions
in the service processes. The service personnel (human element) in an organization have
been identified as crucial to the emotional connection and development of a long-term
relationship with the customer (Kandampully 2010).
 Great service brands like Visa, Meridien, Marriott’s, Taj Hotels etc. have established an
emotional connection with customers. These brands have reached beyond a purely
rational and economic message. They have created a personally rich experience. They
have induced a spark in customer feelings, affection and trust.
 When there is authenticity and innovativeness in the service provided, the customers are
touched emotionally by the caring service experiences. Then, the brand is elevated
beyond price, features and benefits to a higher level of meaning – customer commitment.
As retired advertising executive Charlotte Beers has been quoted: ‘The truth is, what
makes a brand powerful is the emotional involvement of customers’ (Berry & Lampo
2004). Emotions are integral part of any service industry.
 According to Thurau Hennig, Groth, Paul & Gremier (2012), “Emotions that customers
experience during service encounters play crucial roles and directly affect the success of
service relationships.” Customer emotions appear to be the key drivers of rapport with
employees. This ultimately leads to customer satisfaction and also loyalty intentions.
Hence service organizations may benefit from focusing their attention on increasing
positive customer emotions.
 This recommendation is consistent with emerging literature on customer delight (Rust
and Oliver 2010), which stresses the emotional component of customer service
evaluations. Service encounters include all the physical facilities and tangible elements
also which the customer interacts directly.
 Online transactions also play an important role in the present business world. Case in
point is the observation made by Nelson and Kevin (2013), “as the number of purely
online start – up businesses increases and organizations complement their existing
business by ‘going online’, it is important to understand how the transactions between
customers and service providers is affected on the web.”
  They have further stated that by identifying the antecedents of customer satisfaction with
electronic service encounters, online service providers will be able to consistently satisfy
their customers in order to establish and maintain enduring relationships.

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design is conceptual structure within which research is conducted. it is a plan of
action, a plan of collecting and analyzing data in economic, efficient and relevant manner. it
contains the blue print for the collection, measurement &analysis of data. The proposed study is
an exploratory cum descriptive. A descriptive research is conducted with a random sample
survey method towards the customers.
Descriptive Research
A researcher should think about the way in which he should proceed in attaining his
objective in his research work. He has to make a plan of action before starting the research. This
plan of study of a researcher is called the research design. Descriptive research design is used for
this study. Descriptive research design is used to those studies which are concerned with
characteristics of a particular individual or a group
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS
PRIMARY DATA
Questionnaires are the basis of collection of primary data. The questionnaire was distributed to
students and information was obtained. In addition to the questionnaire personal interaction with
students during market survey were made in order to understand their problems, knowledge
towards the program, their preferences and other useful information.

SECONDARY DATA
Some of the data were collected from the existing sources of information which were assessed
due to availability of various other forms of data and information. These data served as the
secondary data for the researcher. The sources of data were company websites. Theoretical
information from significant text book was also used.
SURVEYS:
In marketing research, field surveys are commonly used to collect primary data from the
respondents. Surveys can be personal, telephone, by mail, or by diary. It is common practice to use
structured questionnaire prepare in advance, to elicit the necessary information from the respondents.
QUESTIONNAIRE
The communication method, in effect, is the method of designing questionnaire with a view to
collect the requisite information. The questionnaire can be classified into four types- non-structured-
non-disguised, structured-non-disguised, structured-disguised, and non-structured-disguised.

POPULATION:
Population is any finite or infinite collection of individuals. It has displaced the term universe. It
is practically synonymous with aggregate and does not necessarily refer to a collection of living
organism
SAMPLING SIZE:
A sample is a part of a population, or a subset from a set of units, which is provided by some
process or other, usually by deliberate selection with the object of investigating the properties of the
parent population or set. The sample size in this study consists of 100 respondents
SAMPLING TYPE:
The sampling type used was convenience-sampling method.
SAMPLING METHOD:
The sampling method used was non-probability sampling method
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
Structured undisguised questionnaire was used in designing the questionnaire to collect the data
from the respondents.
STATISTICAL DESIGN
The data collected has been tabulated and each respondent is categorized according to the data
given and percentage is worked out of each group of data. The statistical tools used were tables,
bar graphs and percent
TOOLS OF THE STUDY
Tool used for data collection:

The tool used for collecting the data is through the questionnaire. The
main reason for selecting the qu estionnaire method for the study is:
 Respondents have adequate time to give well thought out answers.
 The time of the study was also a limiting factor.
 Five pointer scales were use through the Questionnaire.

Statistical tools used

Statistical tools like Tabulation, Graphic Representations, percentage

anal ysis and, Chi-Square, are used in the compilation and computation of data.

Chi-Square Test

The Chi-Square test is one of the simplest and most widely used non-parametric test in
statistical work. It is practically useful in tests involving nominal data. It can be used for higher
scales. It makes no assumptions about the population being sampled. If Chi-Square is zero it
means that the observed and the expected frequencies completely coincide, while the greater the
value of Chi-Square is , the greater would be the discrepancy between observed and the expected
frequencies.
The formula for computing Chi-Square is

CHI-SQUARE = (O-E)2 / E

Where O = Observed Frequency, E = Expected Frequency

The calculated value of chi-square is compared with the table value of chi-square for
given degrees of freedom of specified level of significance. If the calculated value of chi-square
is greater than the table value the difference between the theory and the observed is considered to
be significant, i.e., it could not have risen due to fluctuations of simple sampling. On the other
hand if the calculated value is less than the table value, the difference between the theory and
observation is not considered significant, i.e., it could have risen due to fluctuations of sampling.

The number of degrees of freedom is described as the number of observations that are
free to vary after certain restrictions have been imposed on the data. For a uniform distribution,
we place one restriction on the expected distribution - the total of sample observations.

PERCENTAGE ANALYSIS:

Percentage refers to a special kind of ratio. Percentage is used in making

comparison about two or more series of data. Percentage as also used to describe
relationship. It is also used to compare the relative terms of two or more series of data.
Formula:
Number of respondents
 100
Total no. of respondent

CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS

Such questions are also called fixed alternative questions. This method is also facilitators the
respondent to answer in some other way on other alternative is provided as a choice.

HYPOTHESIS TESTING:
It is the same for the Chi-Square test of Independence as it is for other tests like ANOVA, t-test,
etc. If the calculated value of the Chi-Square test is greater than the table value, we will reject
the null hypothesis. If the calculated value is less, then we will accept the null hypothesis
Degree of freedom is calculated by using the following formula:

DF = (r-1) (c-1)

Where
DF = Degree of freedom
r = number of rows
c = number of columns

CHI-SQUARE ANALYSIS:
Chi-square test = (O-E)2/E
Degrees of freedom = V = (r-1) (C-1)
Where O = Observed Frequency
E = Expected Frequency
R = Number of rows
C = Number of columns
Level of significance = 5%.

ANOVA TEST
ONE WAY ANOVA TEST
Anova is a statistical test which analyzes variance. It is helpful in making comparison of two or
more means which enables a researcher to draw various results and predictions about two or
more sets of data. Anova test includes one-way anova, two-way anova or multiple anova
depending upon the type and arrangement of the data. One-way anova has the following test
statistics:

Formula

SS total = ( x1)2+ x2)2+ x3)2-( x1)2+ x2)2+ x3)2-

N

SS total = ( x1)2/n1+( x2)2/n2+…..( xr)2/nr--( x1)2+ x2)2+ x3)2-

MS AMONG= SSAMONG /DF AMONG

MS WITHIN= SSWITHIN/DF WITHIN
 F= MS AMONG/ MS WITHIN

SSwithin = SStotal - SSamong

x = individual observation
dfamong = r-1 dfwithin = N-r
r = number of groups
N = total number of observations (all groups)
n = number of observations in group

Steps (assuming three groups)

Create six columns: "x1", "x12", "x2", "x22", "x3", and "x32"

1. Put the raw data, according to group, in "x1", "x2", and "x3"
2. Calculate the sum for group 1.
3. Calculate ( x)2 for group 1.
4. Calculate the mean for group 1
5. Calculate x2 for group 1.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for groups 2 and 3
7. Set up SStotal and SSamong formulas and calculate
8. Calculate SSwithin
9. Enter sums of squares into the ANOVA table, and complete the table by calculating:
dfamong, dfwithin, MSamong, and MSwithin, and F
10. Check to see if F is statistically significant on probability table with appropriate degrees
of freedom and p < .05.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

 The analysis is based on customer’s opinion at the time of survey, suggestions and
conclusions are based on limited data.
 Some customers are not willing to give proper response
 Due to different in language sometime I have to fill up the questionnaire according to the
answer Some of the respondents were not cooperate they didn’t provide some of the
details