RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A STUDY ON BRAND AWARENESS OF PETER’S

RICE.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes one seller’s product from
those of others. Brands are used in business, marketing and advertising.

Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company
from competitors and create a lasting impression in the minds of the consumers. The key components
that from a brand’s toolbox include a brand’s identity, brand, communication (such as by logos and
trademarks), brand awareness brand loyalty and various branding (brand management) strategies.
Brand equity is the measurable totality of a brand’s worth and is validated by assessing the effectives
of these branding components. In a fleeting market where traditional linear models, brand equity is
one marketing technique that remains firmly rooted in prosperity. To reach such an individual brand
prestige requires a commitment to doing a business. A corporation who exhibits a strong brand culture
is dedicated on producing intangible outputs such as customer satisfaction, reduced price sensitivity
and customer loyalty. A brand is in essence a promise to its customer that they expect long term
security, a competitive frame of reference and consistent delivery of functional as well as emotional
benefits. When a customer is familiar with a brand or favours it incomparably to its competitors, this
is when a corporation has reached a high level of brand equity.

In accounting, a brand defined as an intangible asset is often the most valuable asset on a
corporation’s balance sheet. Brand owners manage their brands carefully to create shareholders value,
and brand valuation is an important management technique that ascribes a money value to a brand and
allows marketing investment to be managed (e.g. Prioritized across a portfolio a brands) to maximize
shareholders value. Although only acquired brands to be focused on long term stewardship of the brand
and managing for value.

Analysts see brands as the major enduring asset of the company. Just names and symbols they are
key elements in the company relationship with the customers. Brand represents consumers’
perceptions feelings about a product and its performance and everything that the product or services
means to customers. In the final analysis, brand exists in the minds of consumers. As one well pros
respected marketer once said products are created in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.

A powerful brand has high brand equity. Brand equity is differential effect that knowing the
brand, has on consumer response to the product and its marketing. It is an ability to capture consumer
preference and loyalty. A brand has positive brand equity when customer reacts more favorably to it
than to generic or unbranded version of the same product.
The benefits of a strong brand are:

➢ A strong brand name is a company’s most valuable asset. No one can take away the brand

from the company.

➢ A strong brand can command a premium price.

➢ It helps the buyers in taking quick purchase decision.

➢ It creates trust and emotional attachment to your product and the company.

➢ A strong brand will help your customers to trust you and your products, without even knowing

the product features.

➢ The customers will automatically think about the company first when they think about the

product category.

➢ A brand builds a good name for a product and the company.

➢ A strong brand signals that the y want to create customer loyalty, not just to sell their product.

Brand awareness is a measure of how well your brand is known within its target markets. Creating
brand awareness is usually the first step in building advertising objectives. The highest level of brand
awareness is top of mind awareness. This is when customers think of you first when they need to make
a purchase within your product category. In this project the brand awareness of PETER’S RICE
Products is been studied. Also this study helps to relate the theoretical knowledge to market
knowledge.
1.2 REVIEW OF LITERTURE

BRAND

With the opening of the market or the post liberalization period has resulted in many companies
entering the markets with offerings of their goods and services.

In the earlier stages of economic revolution consumer had to accept what the manufacturer has
produced. But today’s consumers are much more educated, demanding, expect lot more to suit their
ever changing life styles. There by their quality expectations have been elevated from time to time in
order to rebuild it-self around its customer. The manufacturer should be able to satisfy, with the type
of product and services to match the ever-changing customer requirements.

In developing a marketing strategy for products, the sellers have to confront the branding decision.
Brand is a major issue in product. Customers have strong preference for particular versions and brands
of basic goods and services. The manufactures eventually learn that market power lies with the brand
name companies. Consumers buying decisions are influenced by the brand.

In this competitive world, the “Brand plays an important role and a brand is very prominent asset
owned by an organization. Brand is endowed with awareness, perceived quality, associations and
brand loyalty. Brand is presented as creative idea. A brand is a promise of the seller to deliver a specific
set of benefits or attributes or services to the buyer. Brand represents a level of quality.

MEANING

A Brand is symbol, a mark, a name that acts as a means of communications which brings about an
identity of a given product.A Brand in short is an identifier of the seller or the maker. A brand name
consists of words, letter or numbers that can be vocalized. Brand mark is the visual representation of
the brand like a symbol, design, distinctive coloring or lettering. Brand creates a bond between the
customer and a product.

ELEMENTS OF BRAND

➢ Corporate Culture: According to the holistic approach to brand management, the brand is the
central building block of everything that an organization does. It is the guideline for all
corporate behavior, whether it is external or internal. As part of the internal aspect of an
organizations personality, they have a specific corporate culture. This corporate culture
represents accepted norms, rules and behavioral models associated with being in that company.
➢ Employees: Employees of a company or organization are
usually one of the first contact surfaces to the customer or user. A customer looking to purchase a car
will march into a licensed dealership and talk to a salesperson about buying a car. The behavior of
this employee will act as an extension of the car company’s service and reputation.
In a way, the
➢ salesperson will become an ambassador of the brand, at least in this situation.
➢ Communications: Modem brand management and branding are often defined as integrating
all functions of the company to develop a way to effectively communicate the rand to the target
audience
➢ Leadership: Company leadership and management form a large part of brand management
through their actions. Modem brand management is no longer just a marketing-oriented action
or phenomenon; it is a strategy and mindset adopted by the whole organization, from top
management to the lowest level intern.
➢ Reputation: A company’s reputation may be negative or positive, all depending on whether
or not branding has achieved the established objectives. Reputation resembles a brand but
should not be confused with it. The reputation is not a synonym for a brand but it is an outcome
of fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the brand promise and resulting in a certain brand
experience.
➢ Image and Visual identity: A very important element of a brand is of course one of the most
traditional elements of marketing and creating a certain image for the company. The design
and visual elements used by companies can be used to portray certain values and traits through
the psychology of color.

BRAND AWARENESS

Brand awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is correctly
associated with the particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of the target market, brand
awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a product‟s introduction

Brand awareness is related to the functions of brand identities in customers‟ memory and can be
reflected by how well the consumers can identify the brand under various conditions. Brand awareness
includes brand recognition and brand recall performance. Brand recognition refers to the ability of the
consumers to correctly differentiate the brand they previously have been exposed to. This does not
necessarily require that the consumers identify the brand name. Instead, it often means that consumers
can response to a certain brand after viewing its visual packaging images. Brand recall refers to the
ability of the consumers to correctly generate and retrieve the brand in their memory.
 A brand name that is well known to the great majority of households is also called a household
name.

“Awareness, attitudes, and usage (AAU) metrics relate closely to what has been called the Hierarchy
of effects, an assumption that customer‟s progress throug sequential stages from lack of awareness,
through initial purchase of a product, to brand loyalty. “ In total, these AAU metrics allow companies
to track trends in customer knowledge and attitudes.

Although the hierarchy of effects is considered as a one-way linear relationship, these three stages
are not “clear – cut”. The casual link might be reversed. The usage could cause the awareness while
the attitudes can also influence the awareness.

Brand awareness plays a major role in customer‟s buying decision-making process. During this
process, the category need is stimulated first. For example, you need to do food shopping. You will
only write down the food categories, like chocolate, instead of brand names on your list. You will scan
the packages of chocolate on the shelf and recognize different brands. Such recognition might be based
on the knowledge of an acquaintance or friend having used the product in the past or constant
advertisement. In this situation, brand awareness does not require brand recall because brand
awareness may occur along with brand recognition. However, in other situations, brand recall is
required. For instance, you are in a hurry and want to grab a bite at a fast-food restaurant. It is not
possible for you to drive around and make a decision. You need to retrieve different fast-food brands
in your memory, choose one and go there directly. In this situation constant advertisement is important
in consumers memory retrieval because the consumers are willing to go to the first brand that can be
recalled.

The eventual goal of most business is to make profits and increase sales. Businesses intend to
increase their consumer pool and encourage repeat purchases. Finally, high brand awareness about a
product suggests that the brand is easily recognizable and accepted by the market in a way that the
brand is differentiated from similar products and other competitors. Brand building also helps in
improving brand loyalty.

In general, awareness describes peoples‟ perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.
Awareness may be focused on an internal state, such as instinctive feeling, or on external events such
as sensory perception Marton and Booth (1997) give good examples of awareness. People have earlier
experience of a certain situation and are aware of that. They are also aware of who they are, the
background to the circumstances, where being located as well as the emotions to the place, what time
of year it is and what day it is, and what to do the rest of the day. Even though, there is awareness of
everything at the same time, the intensity varies peoples‟ awareness is reshaping the structure
constantly, and what we call awareness is the sum of the individual’s experience. So it is possible to
do one thing while still be aware of many things. Brand awareness is the capacity of consumers to
recognize or remember a brand, and there is a linkage between the brand the product class, but the link
does not have to the strong. Brand awareness is a process from where the brand is just known to a
level when the consumers have put the brand on a higher rank, the brand has become “the top brand‟

Brand awareness is dependent upon both the situation and the level of achieved awareness.

Levels of brand awareness

➢ Brand recognition: This level is the first stage of brand awareness. It is whenthe consumers
can recognize a specific brand among others: “aided recall”.Aided recall can also be explained
as a situation where a set of given brand names from a given product class is shown. The task
is then to identify the recognized names. Brand recognition is major when consumers face the
buying procedure

➢ Brand recall: This is upon the consumers to name the trademark in a product class. Apart from
level one, this is an “unaided call” since there are not given any examples of specific brands.
The role of brand can also be vital for regularly purchased products like coffee, detergent, and
headache remedies, for which brand decisions usually are made prior going to the store. Further
on, in some categories (such as cereal) there are so many recognized alternatives that the
shopper is overwhelmed.

➢ Top of mind: A brand that is top of mind is the first brand that consumers think of within a
given product class (Aaker.1991). Brand awareness is important since a lot of the consumers
feel that if the brand is well known it has good quality. Most important is not that the brand is
well known. It is what it is known for (Melin1999). Further awareness is a very important brand
advantage, built cannot sell the product, especially not if the product is new ( Aaker 1991 )

PERCEIVED QUALITY

Perceived quality is a result of consumers‟ subjective judgment on a product (Zeithaml, 1988; Dodds et
al., 1991; Aaker, 1991). Bhuian (1997) also consider perceived quality is a judgment on the consistency of
product specification or an evaluation on added value of a product. Garvin (1983) proposes that perceived
quality is defined on the basis of users‟ recognition while objective quality is defined on the basis of
product or manufacturing orientation. The differences between objective quality and perceived quality lie
in that objective quality has a pre-design standard to a product, and perceived quality is influenced by
internal and external product attributes which is an evaluation basis for consumers (Olshavsky, 1985;
Zeithaml, 1988). Kan (2002) points out that objective quality is that consumers will use their experience
and knowledge to evaluate overall product benefit, function, durability, technology and reliability when
consumers purchase a product. Perceived quality is a consumer judgment on the accumulative product
benefits and a subjective feeling on product quality (Zeithaml, 1988; Dodds et al., 1991). Aaker (1991)
argues that perceived quality can show the salient differentiation of a product or a service and becomes a
selective brand in consumers‟ mind. The reason why perceived quality is different to real quality is because
(a) a previous bad image of a product will influence consumers‟ judgment on product quality in the future.
Moreover, even the product quality has been changed, consumers will not trust that product because of
their unpleasant experience in previous (Aaker, 1996), (b) manufacturers and consumers have different
views on the judgment of the quality dimensions (Morgan, 1985; Aaker, 1996), (c) consumers seldom hold
enough information to evaluate a product objectively. Though consumers have enough information, they
may be insufficient in time and motivation to do a further judgment, and in the end they can only select
little important information and make an evaluation on quality (Aaker, 1996; Wan, 2006). In addition,
perceived quality is a relative concept which possesses situational, comparative, and individual attributes.
Perceived quality will be affected by factors such as previous experience, education level, and perceived
risk and situational variables such as purchase purpose, purchase situation, time pressure, and social
background from consumers (Holbrook & Corfman, 1985). In sum, perceived quality is a consumer
subjective judgment on product quality, and he or she will evaluate product quality from their previous
experiences and feelings.

BRAND LOYALTY

Aaker (1996) assumes that a loyal consumer base represents a barrier to entry, a basis for a price
premium, time to respond to competitors, and a bulwark against deleterious price completion, and
brand loyalty is a core dimension of brand equity. In addition, brand loyalty is the final destination of
brand management, and if a company wants to test the weakness or strength of its customers‟ loyalty,
it can easily check whether consumers still favor its product in contrast to The Journal of International
Management Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, February, 2009 137 competitors. Brand loyalty is
consumer attitudes on a brand preference from previous use and shopping experience of a product
(Deighton, Henderson, & Neslin, 1994; Aaker, 1991), and it can be measured from repurchase rate on
a same brand. Assael (1998) defines that brand loyalty is that consumers satisfy their past experience
in use of the same brand and incur repurchase behavior. Brand loyalty means brand preferences that
consumers will not consider other brands when they buy a product (Baldinger
& Rubinson, 1996; Cavero & Cebollada, 1997). Brand loyalty represents a repurchase commitment in
the future purchase that promise consumers will not change their brand loyalty in different situations
and still buy their favorable brands (Oliver, 1999). Brand loyalty includes behavior factors and attitude
factors. Behavior loyalty represents repurchase behavior, and loyalty attitude means psychological
commitment to a brand (Aaker, 1991; Assael, 1998; Oliver,1999; Prus & Brandt, 1995; Farr & Hollis,
1997). Thus, purchase frequency is not equal to loyalty. For instance, consumers to repurchase a
product do not mean they like it but due to a convenient factor or a variety seeking behavior to purchase
a certain specific product occasionally (Tseng, Liao, & Jan, 2004). A true brand loyalty can be called
when consumers are both inclined to these two factors, otherwise, it can only be called a spurious
brand loyalty if only attitude or behavior factors are found (Baldinger & Rubinson, 1996). Loyalty can
also be separated from short term loyalty and long term loyalty. Short term loyalty is not a real brand
loyalty because a long term customer will not buy other brands even if there is a better choice (Jones
& Sasser, 1995). In addition, Bloemer and Kasper (1995) argue that a real brand loyalty should include
brand preferences and repurchase behaviors that present in a long term commitment, brand
commitment and psychological processing (decision making and evaluation) function while Fornell
(1992) proposes that brand loyalty can be measured from customer repurchase intention and price
tolerance. Consumers with a strong commitment to a particular brand will constantly search for any
marketing activity related to the brand (Brown, 1952; Barwise & Ehrenberg, 1987; Chaudhuri, 1995;
Baldinger & Rubinson, 1996; Bandyopadhyay, Gupta, & Dube, 2005). Furthermore, brand loyalty can
be measured in two dimensions: affective loyalty and action loyalty. Affective loyalty is a specific
brand preference from accumulative satisfaction to previous using experiences. However, affective
loyalty just represents that a repurchase intention. It does not mean that consumers will take purchase
action. It is very hard to say that consumers hold brand loyalty (Jacoby & Chestnut, 1978; Oliver,
1999; Kan, 2002). Action loyalty indicates that consumers not only have preferences to a specific
brand.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

➢ This study is aims at understanding the impact of Brand Awareness of Peter’s Rice Products
among the customers. The study was conducted Peter’s Modern Ricemill Angamaly.
➢ Brand awareness is a measure of how well your brand is known within its target markets.
Creating brand awareness is usually the first step in building advertising objectives. The
highest level of brand awareness is top of mind awareness. This is when customers think of
you first when they need to make a purchase within your product category. In this project the
brand awareness of Peter’s Rice Products is been studied. Also this study helps to relate the
theoretical knowledge to market knowledge.

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY & SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Objectives:

Primary Objective

➢ To analyze the impact of Brand awareness of Peter’s Rice products

Secondary Objective

➢ To find out the satisfaction level of customers

➢ To find out the various factors that affect the choice of the brand

➢ To provide suggestions to improve the brand awareness

➢ To study about the effectiveness of advertisements in building brand awareness

➢ To analyze the impact of celebrity endorsement towards brand awareness

Scope of the study:

The scope of the study is limited to finding the brand awareness of the product. It was restricted to
Ernakulam district due to the constraint of time. The study will help the company in taking decisions
regarding promotional campaigns, advertisement strategies and positioning strategies to build better
brand awareness among the consumers to compete with big giants in rice industry. The task of this
study is to deliver a central idea about the company and the offering to the target market. The company
discovers different and groups in the market place and introduces the product which satisfy these needs.
This study helps to find the targets of those needs that it can satisfy in a superior way or not.

It is also helpful to find out the position of offering, whether the target recognizes the distinctive
offering and image. The product should be positioned well and the end result f it is the successful
creation of a customer focused value position.

1.5 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

Information required for the project study was obtained by gathering primary data and relevant
secondary data from the resources available.

The primary data collection was through observation and interviews conducted during the period of
the study. The information obtained relates to what is currently happening in the organization. Various
departments, their roles and their functioning were observed and noted effectively. Managers,
supervisors and workers of various departments were included in the discussions to collect information
and to gather their opinions.

The secondary data needed to prepare this report on the organization study was obtained from various
secondary data sources, both published and unpublished. Published sources include annual report of
the company, journals of the firm etc. Unpublished sources of data are files and records maintained by
the company.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research is a procedure of logical and systematic application of the fundamentals of science to the
general and overall questions of a study and scientific technique which provide precise tools, specific
procedure and technical rather than philosophical means for getting and ordering the data prior to their
logical analysis and manipulation. Different type of research designs is available depending upon the
nature of research project, availability of able manpower and circumstances.

In this research, relationship between brand and advertisement is studied. Exploring the effects of
advertisements on the brand preference of curry powder is aimed. Research process consists of four
stages. The first stage is preparation, the second stage is preliminary test phase, the third stage is data
collection and the last stage is data analysis. In the research, questionnaire method is used for data
collection. The questionnaire includes seven sections (totally 32 questions). The survey questions have
been prepared according to the variables and observations. A preliminary test is applied to measure
applicability for the questionnaire. After preliminary tests, more than one question was added to the
survey. The survey application process lasted a month. The survey was conducted through face-to-
face interview and e-mail application.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The research design is the blueprint for the fulfillment of objectives and answering questions. It is a
master plan specifying the method and procedures for collecting and analyzing needed information.

Descriptive Research is used in this study as the main aim is to describe characteristics of the
phenomenon or a situation.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS:

The source of data includes primary and secondary data sources.

➢ Primary Sources:
Primary data has been collected directly from sample respondents through questionnaire
and with the help of interview.
➢ Secondary Sources:
Secondary data has been collected from standard textbooks, Newspapers, Magazines &
Internet.

TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION

The study was done based on the collection of primary data & secondary data.

➢ Primary Data
Primary data is the data collected for the first time himself by the researcher. Primary data has
not been published yet and is more reliable, authentic and objective. Primary data has not been changed
or altered by human beings: therefore its validity is greater than secondary data.

Sources of primary data

Sources for primary data are limited and at times it becomes difficult to obtain data from primary
source because of either scarcity of population or lack of cooperation.

➢ Experiments

➢ Survey
 ➢ Questionnaire

➢ Observation

➢ Interview

Other Sources
Apart from documents and discussions, the investigator has also collected the relevant information
from the websites and books pertaining to the problem stated in the study.

➢ Secondary Data
Secondary Data is the data which are collected already by some other person already. It is the
second hand information. Data collected from a source that has already been published in any form is
called as secondary data. The review of literature in any research is based on secondary data mostly
from the books, journals and periodicals

Sources of Secondary Data

Major source of secondary data are of :

➢ Published electronic sources

➢ Published printed sources

➢ Dairies

➢ Letters

➢ Unpublished personal records

1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

➢ Due to the lack of time the area of study was limited to the Ernakulam district

➢ The validity of result is dependent on information given by respondents

➢ Customer perception varies from time to time

➢ Personal interviews with the respondents consumed more time, so it was limited to a sample

of 150 respondents
1.7 Statistical tools used

Percentage Analysis Method

In percentage analysis method, classification and tabulation of the result from the questionnaire is
done first. Then the percentage of respondents is calculated and these results are shown by using
diagrams. After the analysis the results are interpreted. In statistical analysis percentage method plays
a very important role. Ratios show the relation of one figure to another, for example if the

total number of student in a school is 2000 and the total number of teacher is 250, then the ratios
between teachers and students are 250:2000 or 1:8 or1/8. To make it percentage, it is multiplied by
100. The purpose of using ratio or percentage is to simplify the problem of comparison

Percentage analysis method= (No. of Respondents/Sample Size) *100