Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

Branding in the Asian context: a Malaysian perspective

Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi, T.C. Melewar,
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Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi, T.C. Melewar, (2013) "Branding in the Asian context: a Malaysian
perspective", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 25 Issue: 2, pp.287-297, doi:
10.1108/13555851311314068
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THEME ARTICLES: BRANDING IN ASIA Branding in the

Asian context
Branding in the Asian context:
a Malaysian perspective
287
Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi and T.C. Melewar
Brunel Business School, Brunel University, London, UK

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a compendium of small research studies that have
been conducted in Malaysia. Issues of branding and its related constructs have gained widespread
recognition amongst practitioners and academics in this country.
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Design/methodology/approach – Inter alia, this paper examines six facets of branding across
different industries and contexts. The first study examines issues of branding in the Islamic financial
services. The second paper investigates airline brand reputation. The third paper explores employer
branding in the context of hotels. The fourth study explicates online brand personality in the banking
sector. The fifth project evaluates the aspect of brand loyalty in the telecommunication industry and
the final paper unfolds the industrial brand loyalty and ethical brand.
Findings – The paper highlights six findings across six different industries in Malaysia.
Originality/value – The paper gives a Malaysian perspective on branding in Asia.
Keywords Asia, Brand loyalty, Brand management, Brand extensions, Brand personality and extension,
Branding models, Branding strategies
Paper type General review

This paper is a compendium of small research studies that have been conducted in
Malaysia. Issues of branding and its related constructs have gained widespread
recognition amongst practitioners and academics in this country. Inter alia, this paper
examines six facets of branding across different industries and contexts. The first
study examines issues of branding in the Islamic financial services (IFS). The second
paper investigates airline brand reputation. The third paper explores employer
branding in the context of hotels. The fourth study explicates online brand personality
in the banking sector. The fifth project evaluates the aspect of brand loyalty in the
telecommunication industry and the final paper unfolds the industrial brand loyalty
and ethical brand.

Topic and issues

Islam, marketing and branding
The Islamic financial services industry (IFSI) has developed into a global phenomenon,
which is both highly dynamic and growing rapidly. Islamic banking is the earliest and
most established segment of the industry. The total assets of the Islamic banking
industry constitute more than 70 per cent of the global Islamic financial assets
(International Financial Services London, 2008, 2009) with a globally diverse clientele Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and
Logistics
Vol. 25 No. 2, 2013
The authors would like to thank the following individuals for their involvement and contribution pp. 287-297
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
to their Spotlight papers: Rusnah Muhammad, Shahril Azwan Ismail, Cheng Siew Yee, 1355-5855
Ong Khian Sin, Nicole Yap Chen Yan and Sulaiman M. Ali. DOI 10.1108/13555851311314068
 APJML that is attracting growing interest from global participants, who are playing increasingly
25,2 major roles (Aslam, 2006). Therefore, the providers of Islamic banking services (IBS) may
want to consider using “market segmentation” to effectively design their branding and
communication strategies in positioning their products/services in the global market.
It is vital to understand the issue of consumer segmentation in the IFSI so that
a fresh and critical insight of IFSI consumers can be harnessed for their better
288 segmentation in order to achieve a competitive edge within the existing conditions of
the market. Conventionally, segmentation has been commonly divided according to
either a priori (such as demographic variables) and/or a post hoc approach (e.g. lifestyle,
personality) (Harrison, 1994).
Although some past studies are available to explain the Islamic banking institution
scenario (Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997; Almossawi, 2001; Zainuddin et al., 2004;
Dusuki and Abdullah, 2007), these studies do not employ the concept of religiosity, that
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is, a commitment to religious ideals and practice, as a potential approach to segmenting

Islamic banking consumers. While consumers’ profiles include information on their
religion, the intensity of their religious commitment has not been earmarked for
analysing how consumers vary in their choice of a particular Islamic bank. Yet,
religiousness is an important value in the individual’s cognitive structure and can
influence an individual’s behaviour (Delener, 1994).
In the Malaysian context, taking cues from the classification of people in classical
doctrinal and historical literature, three distinct segments of consumers were proposed
for the IFSI namely: religious conviction; ethical observant; and economic rationality
(Muhamad et al., 2012). This classification provides initial guidelines for marketers
when they consider how they could help brand positioning and design marketing
communication for promoting Islamic financial products and services in IFSI in
Malaysia.
Specifically, this paper proposes that it is appropriate that the branding of IFS is
based upon the following values: religious conviction; religious conviction with
economic rationality; ethical observance and economic rationality; together with
product attributes such as pricing-interest rates, service quality, reputation and image.
These groups bear a resemblance to either one or more of the suggested groups as
proposed by Muhamad et al. (2009). It may be concluded that for IFS, the services
brand is positioned as shariah compliant, ethical and socially responsible and giving
value for money (economics benefits) depending on the targeted segment.
Furthermore, the overlapping dimensions of religious conviction and economic
rationality is interesting, as conceptually, these correspondences are common and
expected in segmentation (Wind, 1978), particularly in the IFSI (Haron et al., 1994).
The findings give marketers some insight into a potentially profitable segment within
the IFSI.
The practical contribution of the study and its managerial implications can be seen
in the context of defining strategy and positioning of IFS. Depending on the targeted
segment consumers may associate IFS with religious qualities and images (i.e. shariah
compliant), ethical and value for money. These “universal” IFS qualities should
therefore be positioned for all consumers, notwithstanding the fact that what may
differ is the motivation to buy the services. Thus, it is vital that different marketing
communication messages of the IFS brand are designed to target these various market
segment groups. By recognizing that consumer segmentation can be divided into
 these groups, marketers could identify which qualities to address in their advertising Branding in the
strategy, and thereby simultaneously differentiating the IFS brand values from the Asian context
conventional financial service brand values.
The current study examines the perception of general consumers concerning
the market segmentation and positioning of IFS (i.e. the brand identity of IFS) from the
perspective of key market players. In future, studies may be conducted to examine the
issues from the consumers’ perspective so that there will be an alignment between 289
what is perceived by IFS providers and the consumer. Qualitative enquiries may be
conducted for the purpose of establishing measurements for the different segments
identified in this study for validation purposes.

Service quality, brand reputation and customer loyalty

The service quality of a web site is becoming an increasingly important area as it is one
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of the drivers explaining online success (Parasuraman et al., 2005). Consequently, to

gain customer e-loyalty which will garner future revisits and repurchases, companies
are now competing to improve their online service brands or brand reputations
(Argyriou et al., 2006) by providing the best online retail web site (Reibstein, 2002).
Favourable online brand reputation is positively linked to the consumer’s trust of a
web site as consumers who perceive that the brand fulfils its promises, will revisit
the site for more purchases (Argyriou et al., 2006). The credibility or reputation of the
company behind the web site could be jeopardised if consumers are unable to complete
transactions, products are not delivered in the time promised, and e-mails do not
receive a response (Parasuraman et al., 2005).
Specifically a company’s high-quality image or brand reputation is reflected by the
efficiency and reliability of its web site (Parasuraman et al., 2005) and these assets are
even more crucial in the context of service organizations (Berry, 2000; De Chernatony
and McDonald, 2003).
However, this understanding has been hampered by a lack of empirical research in
past studies pertaining to brand reputation in the services area (Turley and Moore,
1995; De Chernatony and McDonald, 2003) particularly relating to airline companies
(Sultan and Simpson, 2000). In this sector, a lack of e-loyalty (e.g. low online sales due
to no repeat purchase) remains a problem (Zins, 2001).
One possible reason why e-loyalty remains low to a specific service brand or
web site is because consumers may not be getting the service quality that has been
promised. Service quality elements such as efficiency, system availability, fulfilment
and privacy are described as being important to an airline brand’s reputation in an
online context which, in turn, may influence e-loyalty. Besides that, airline tickets are
among the most bought products/services online, with (43.8 per cent), followed by
books (15.6 per cent) and music (6.8 per cent) (Communication and Multimedia Pocket
Book of Statistics, 2012). Recognizing this, online service quality (e.g. efficiency, system
availability, fulfilment and privacy) was examined in relation to the formation of an
airline’s brand reputation and subsequently, the e-loyalty of consumers.
Two online service qualities, fulfilment and efficiency of the web site, are found to be
the key elements of an airline’s brand reputation and help to determine a customer’s
loyalty. In the study by Parasuraman et al. (2005, p. 230) efficiency and fulfilment were
found to be the strongest qualities influencing a customer’s overall web site quality
perception (or brand reputation) and loyalty intention. E-loyalty is also mediated
 APJML (via brand reputation) by the two online service qualities of fulfilment and efficiency,
25,2 in this context. In another related study by Bailey (2004), fulfilment was found to
significantly impact corporate credibility and brand attitude and switching intention.
Lock (1998) explains that promises made by a company must be fulfilled in every aspect
or it may cause devaluation of the brand.
So, pertinent to a web site’s reputation, and specifically relevant to airline companies,
290 are the attributes of fulfilment (delivering the service as promised, such as having items in
stock/tickets, billing, etc.) and efficiency (site is simple to use, structured properly and
requires minimum information to be input by the customer).
Arguably, a customer visiting an airline web site does not wish to spend an excessive
amount of time searching for ticket information; they will require a comprehensive site
that is easy to navigate; and ticket availability for the time and date they wish to travel.
The customer might then judge that the web site has fulfilled its promise, and that may
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enhance their overall perception of its credibility (or brand reputation).

Furthermore, the significant relationship found in the current study (online service
quality attributes and brand reputation, and e-loyalty) appears to confirm the critical
assumption made by Christodoulides and de Chernatony (2004) that a “brand is a cluster
of rational and emotional values that enable stakeholders to recognise a promise about
a unique and welcome experience”. In other words, the consumer may rationally
(or functionally) evaluate the brand first (i.e. the online service quality) before
progressing to the emotional evaluation and promised experience delivered by the
company/web site (the company’s brand reputation). In the past, the effect of brand
image or brand reputation has been frequently uncontrolled, and empirical results
between perceived product or quality or brand attributes on customer satisfaction and
loyalty could be biased (Selnes, 1993, p. 30) as satisfaction and customer loyalty may
also be due to brand reputation. This result suggests that service quality attributes
foster the formation of brand reputation and subsequently enhance the company’s
web site brand reputation further. This, in turn engenders customer loyalty (and revisits)
to the site.

Employer brand and employees’ brand commitment

The employer brand is an image of one organization as seen through the eyes of its
associates and potential hires. In particular, it is “a package of all functional, economic
and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identifies with the employing
organization” (Ambler and Barrow, 1996). Thomson et al. (1999) suggest that
employees play a specific role in building the service brand in order to make the brand
“come alive”. Furthermore, employees can have a positive influence on consumers’
perception regarding the service brand (Martin et al., 2004). Employees are thought to
play a crucial role in building their company brands through their brand loyalty and
commitment towards their organization and thus, should remain a top priority among
senior management when designing the company brand identity (Kimpakorn and
Tocquer, 2009).
Mitchell (2002) suggests that in order to gain a strong brand position of one product
or service, it is vital to build internal branding as a process to align staff’s behaviour
with a corporate brand’s identity. This is consistent with a view that brand-consistent
behaviour often supports the development of a coherent brand image and is considered
as one of the crucial success factors in corporate brand management (De Chernatony
 and Vallaster, 2005). Hence, while branding strategies focus on the enhancement of the Branding in the
corporate image, employer branding, on the other hand, is seen as part of the overall Asian context
corporate brand.
However, empirically, this concept has received limited study from past researchers,
particularly in the context of luxury hotel chains in the Far East and Middle Eastern
countries. Therefore, in order to enrich the literature, this study examines employer
branding as a concept for enhancing employees’ brand commitment in luxury hotel 291
chains in Malaysia. It extends the previous model on the employer brand, proposed by
Kimpakorn and Tocquer (2009) by adding employer characteristics such as the CEO or
leader personality as another important dimension of the employer brand concept
(Slaughter et al., 2004).
To better understand the employees’ brand commitment in the service industry,
research related to the indicators of their brand commitment is reviewed in order
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to construct a conceptual framework of the employer brand. Employees’ brand knowledge,

employer brand and its competitors, customer brand as perceived by employees,
employer brand characteristics (Kimpakorn and Tocquer, 2009) were examined, together
with a newly added dimension of the employer characteristics such as the leader
personality (developed from Slaughter et al., 2004) as dimensions of the employer brand.
The results showed that two out of five proposed dimensions, employer brand and its
competitors, and the newly added dimension-the employers’ characteristics or leader
personalities (i.e. the integrity and trust of the leader) were significantly related to
employee brand commitment. In particular, the employees who work with a leader who
has high standards of integrity and ethics, are more likely to adopt and enforce a high
standard of performance at work. Fairness and integrity in the workplace, and,
specifically in the hospitality industry, often affiliate closely with the employees’
retainment and commitment. This study found that a CEO’s effectiveness depends on
their personality and charisma and not solely on their control over bureaucratic
structures (House et al., 1991). On a practical level, the findings from this study will
enable HR managers to understand the importance of effective communication with
employees, and thereby design effective policies for internal marketing which can make
employees feel a part of the company during the process of brand building.
The study concluded with suggestions on how managers could effectively develop
and communicate an internal marketing programme which enhanced employees’
brand commitment.

Virtual brand personality, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty

Using measures developed by Aaker (1997) on brand personality, the present research
extended this concept by exploring it in the context of online banking in Malaysia.
Specifically, in the current study, this is known as virtual brand personality (VBL),
and its relationship with customer satisfaction and brand loyalty was also investigated.
The characteristics that comprise VBL are excitement, sophistication and
competence. In the Malaysian online banking context the same characteristics were
also identified for the VBL.
The study has also thoroughly reinforced Aaker’s (1997) proposition about
brand personality in the virtual environment, which clearly reveals that excitement,
sophistication, and competence, are always present in brand personality studies,
be they either offline or virtual (Aaker, 1997; Davies et al., 2001; Rojas-Mendez et al., 2004).
 APJML In addition, our study shows that, first, excitement (Aaker, 1997) as exciting, trendy,
25,2 spirited, imaginative, cool, unique, daring and young) was rated as the most important
characteristic, followed by sophistication (defined as good looking, charming, feminine,
glamorous, upper class, smooth). Third, it was vital that competence (traits include secure,
reliable, confident, successful and up-to-date) was also evident in online banking’s VBL.
In a study on online bookstores by Da Silva and Syed Alwi (2008), the competence
292 characteristic is also one of the related dimensions for the VBL. The study highlighted
that security and reliability were factors that were directly related to the accuracy of
the product delivery (such as deliver the goods on time, correct items received by
customers) as well as the web site’s privacy issues.
In conclusion, the dimensions that comprise VBL are excitement, sophistication and
competence. These dimensions help online bankers to strategize, communicate and
position their online banking sites better, and thus compete with other online banking
competitors. The major contribution of this study is to alert virtual brand marketers to the
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potential of measuring these personality traits as a means to developing their brand

strategy in the virtual environment, and understanding how to position their brand
against competitors.
Service attributes, brand trust, price, customer value and brand loyalty in the service
mobile provider/telecommunication industry
Despite the high churn rates, Malaysia’s telecommunications industry is growing. Over
the last decade, the centralized telecommunication monopoly in Malaysia has been
changed and a relatively open and free competitive market is gradually coming into place.
As a result of these changes, many functional and fundamental reforms have taken
place in the telecommunication industry. With increasingly intensified domestic
competition, greater attention has been paid to improving customer service quality,
customer value and customer satisfaction, in order to create superior competitive
advantages for effective customer acquisition and retention.
The recent implementation of mobile number portability has further complicated
the issue of brand loyalty, as research has shown that because of better deals and low
switching costs, consumer satisfaction does not prohibit them from changing their
mobile service provider; demonstrating that satisfaction no longer ensures loyalty
(Grabowich and Guy, 2007).
Customer loyalty is now the major concern for service providers and many questions
are raised about how to retain that loyalty. When a service provider loses a customer, it
does not lose one sale but a lifetime opportunity of profitability with that individual. A
critical issue for the continued success of a firm is its capability to retain its current
customers and make them loyal to its brands (Dekimpe et al., 1997, p. 405).
Consequently, the purpose of this research is to identify the major antecedents that
contribute to customer loyalty among the established mobile service providers in the
context of Malaysia telecommunication. This study proposes to describe a conceptual
model for a mobile services provider which integrates service quality and customer
value, as well as considering the branding elements and best pricing/cost that lead to
customer loyalty.
The study reveals that there are three main determinants for customer value which
contribute to customer loyalty. These determinants are service quality such as the quality
of network coverage and quality value-added services, accurate data information,
consistently courteous service staff, and good operating hours, brand trust and price.
 This study therefore highlights the need to examine the influence of the service brand Branding in the
within the customer value-loyalty framework, and then to test it (the customer value) for Asian context
mediating factors in the context of service brand. Previous research reports a direct link
between trust and loyalty in both business-to-business settings (Ganesan, 1994; Morgan
and Hunt, 1994) and business-to-consumer settings (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001;
Erdem and Swait, 1998). However, these studies do not control the value construct as a
mediator, and this limits our understanding of the theoretical effect (Sirdeshmukh et al., 293
2002). For example, in a study by Sirdeshmukh et al. (2002), customer value is seen as a
key influencer of loyalty within an airline context. Holbrook (1994, p. 22) also supports
the notion of customer value, as it is thought to be the fundamental basis for all
marketing activity. Woodruff (1997), Srivastava et al. (1999) and Rust et al. (2000) all
emphasize that a customer’s value experience is the key source of competitive advantage.
In summary, customer loyalty is the consequence of perceived service quality
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(such as the quality of network coverage, quality value-added services, accurate data
information, consistently courteous service staff, and good operating hours), brand
image, brand trust and acceptable price. These results demonstrate that all of the factors
proposed have positive effects toward customer loyalty in the context of the
telecommunication industry through the mediating factor of customer perceived value.

Ethical brand and industrial brand loyalty

This paper examines the effect of antecedents on the “ethical brand”, which in turn
may influence industrial brand loyalty in the context of electronic office equipment.
Previous studies on ethical branding have been predominantly conceptual rather than
empirical, and most of these studies were conducted on the consumers’ responses or
business-to-consumers (Ambler, 1997; Murphy, 1999; Fan, 2005). How industrial
buyers (business-to-business) view an ethical brand is an interesting question, as is
whether the ethical brand is appropriate from a business-to-business perspective, and
as a new construct, and whether the ethical brand (using this type of measure) will be
an important aspect when it is applied in a business-to-business context.
Although, there is no consensus regarding these issues, Fan (2005) argues that
society today gives the impression of being more concerned with ethical issues in
marketing compared to two decades ago. Furthermore, the public expects higher
ethical behaviour for higher reputation brands, particularly with the increase in the
number of ethically conscious customers. More and more customers are increasingly
paying serious attention to ethical issues in branding. Thus, what is needed is a clearer
understanding of what is defined as an “ethical brand” and how the ethical brand affect
the buyer’s response. The current study attempts to fill this gap by providing empirical
evidence of the effect of ethical brands, and which aspects of ethical branding are more
important in order to understand the business buyer’s responses (or industry loyalty).
The paper argues that the ethical brand’s antecedents (quality of product, quality of
service, and price) will have positive effects on the ethical brand (measured through
three dimensions: social responsibility; environmental responsibility; economic
responsibility) and industrial brand loyalty. The findings indicate that the antecedents
(product quality, service quality, and price perception), significantly explain that ethical
brand, with service quality being the most significant indicator. Interestingly, price has
also been seen to positively relate to the ethical brand. In other words, the higher the
 APJML quality, the higher the ethical brand will be perceived by industrial buyers, and their
25,2 willingness to pay a higher price.
As a comparison, a recent study by Cretu and Brodie (2007) reported that these
predictors have a positive and significant relationship with customer value as the ethical
foundation in marketing (Gundlach and Murphy, 1993) in a business-to-business
environment. The more the brand is deemed to be ethical, the higher will be brand
294 loyalty from industrial buyers. Therefore, the ethical brand does mediate in the context
of industrial buyer loyalty. Managerially, the key drivers of industry brand loyalty are
elucidated in this current paper. It also provides a background for further studies which
can extrapolate the current thinking into other sectors in order to validate or refute the
results presented here. The research has been conducted on industrial buyers of
electronic office equipment, and replicating this research in other product categories
would enhance the study’s findings on industrial products.
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 About the authors Branding in the
Dr Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi received her PhD from Manchester Business School, UK and is a
Lecturer of Corporate Brand Marketing at Brunel Business School, London, UK. She has been a Asian context
Lecturer of Marketing at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She teaches corporate brand
management courses such as strategic corporate marketing, MBA courses such as brand
management, marketing, research methodology and statistics. Her previous researches were in
the area of corporate and internet branding and her recent interest includes institutional
branding and marketing in the service sector. She has published in several reputable marketing 297
and branding journals, which include European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Product
& Brand Management, Journal of Brand Management and Corporate Reputation Review.
Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: Sharifah.
Alwi@brunel.ac.uk
Professor T.C. Melewar is Professor of Marketing and Strategy and Director of MSc Applied
Corporate Brand Management. He has past experience at Zurich University of Applied Sciences
(ZHAW), Switzerland, Warwick Business School, DeMontfort University and MARA Institute
Downloaded by Open University Malaysia At 19:30 30 May 2017 (PT)

of Technology, Malaysia. He was formerly the Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Brand
Management. His works have appeared in the Journal of International Business Studies, Industrial
Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management
and International Marketing Review among others.

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