A

DISSERTATION REPORT
ON

CUSTOMER- BASED BRAND EQUITY IN INDIAN SMARTPHONE MARKET

[Dimensions of corporate brand equity from a consumer perspective]

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF MBA (Executive)

SUBMITTED BY:
YOGESH P NANDANWAR (PRN: 15020448014)
MBA (Executive) 2015-17

SUBMITTED TO:
SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES (SIMS)
(Constituent of Symbiosis International University)
RANGE HILL ROAD. KHADKI, PUNE-411020
 Contents

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 4
2 Project summary and scope.................................................................................................................. 5
3 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 6
4 Theory ................................................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 The Definition of Brand Equity ...................................................................................................... 8
4.2 The Importance of Brand Equity Studies ...................................................................................... 8
4.3 Brand Equity Dimensions .............................................................................................................. 9
4.4 Previous Empirical Studies on Brand Equity ............................................................................... 11
4.5 Proprietary Assets and Market Specific Factors ......................................................................... 12
4.6 Rapid change in technology ........................................................................................................ 13
4.7 Shared/Common Platforms ........................................................................................................ 13
4.8 Brand Negativity ......................................................................................................................... 14
5 Method ............................................................................................................................................... 15
5.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 15
5.2 Literature overview ..................................................................................................................... 15
5.2.1 GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, India. .......................................................................... 15
5.2.2 Indian Journal of Marketing [IJM] ....................................................................................... 17
5.2.3 Don Bosco Institute of Management, Guwahati . Volume 1 2016. Survey on consumer
buying behavior of smartphones by Deepika Ganlari......................................................................... 17
5.2.4 SmartPhones Review (2012) : A Global View...................................................................... 17
5.2.5 Smartphone Brand Awareness article by Famous logos 2012............................................ 19
6 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 20
6.1 Apple – Two Dimensions; Loyalty, Quality/Awareness .............................................................. 20
6.2 Samsung– Two Dimensions; Loyalty, Quality/Awareness .......................................................... 20
7 Results ................................................................................................................................................. 21
8 Conclusion and future research opportunities ................................................................................... 24
9 Recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 25
10 Reference list ...................................................................................................................................... 26

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 SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, PUNE

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. YOGESH P NANDANWAR (PRN: 15020448014), student

of MBA (Executive) 4th semester, has successfully completed the dissertation
report titled “CUSTOMER-BASED BRAND EQUITY IN INDIAN SMARTPHONE
MARKET” under my guidance.

Dr. Komal Chopra

Project Guide

2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is a genuine pleasure to express my deep sense of thanks and gratitude to my mentor,
philosopher and guide Dr. KOMAL CHOPRA, Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Management
Studies, Pune (SIMS). His dedication and keen interest above all his overwhelming attitude to
help his students had been solely and mainly responsible for completing my research project
work. I have taken efforts in this project .However; it would not have been possible without
kind support and help of him. I have got very less opportunity and time to meet him personally,
however his offline support simplifies my journey towards completion of research work.

I am highly grateful to Dr. PRAVIN KUMAR for his guidance and constant supervision as well as
for providing necessary inputs as when required and pushing the work towards completion. He
has been always co-operative and always open for discussion.

I would like to express my special thanks to Symbiosis institute who has given me this
opportunity of dissertation report work. I would always be able to connect this project work
relevant to my job profile- Product/Project Manager During the research work, it helps me to
have more clear understanding of domain and I would be able to apply this to my industry work
experience more precisely .Thank you SIMS,Pune.

And finally I would like to thank you all those who has directly or indirectly helped me in this
research work.

I thank you.

Yogesh P. Nandanwar

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ABSTRACT
Brand equity is a concept born in 1980s. It has aroused intense interest among business strategists from

a wide variety of industries as brand equity is closely related with brand loyalty and brand extensions.

Besides, successful brands provide competitive advantages that are critical to the success of companies.

However, there is no common viewpoint emerged on the content and measurement of brand equity.

Brand equity has been examined from financial and customer-based perspectives. This paper will only

study the customer-based brand equity which refers to the consumer response to a brand name. The

aims of the study are to review the dimensions of customer-based brand equity by drawing together

stands from various literature and empirical studies made within the area of customer-based brand

equity. A conceptual framework for measuring customer based brand equity is developed to provide a

more integrative conceptualization of brand equity.

I think success in brand management arises from understanding and managing brand equity correctly to

produce strong attributes that will ultimately influence when consumer making their choices. There are

various dimensions of brand equity such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand image and

perceived quality .

As a Product Manager /Brand Manager, the question always comes to my mind that which dimensions

to focus upon more that influences consumer whether to go for particular brand or not?

This is the motivation behind doing this thesis.

The study deals with the concept of brand equity composition in Indian smartphone market. The three

dimensions used to describe brand equity based on Aaker’s definition of consumer based brand equity

namely;

 Brand awareness
 Brand loyalty
 Perceived quality

The corporate brands; APPLE and SAMSUNG represented on market are analyzed with regards to

consumer rating and brand equity composition using a proven theoretical model and a standardized

secondary data available. The findings in this study indicate the composition of brand equity on the

Indian smartphone market.

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2 PROJECT SUMMARY AND SCOPE
The objective of this thesis in the light of research problem is to:

 Understand and define brand equity in B2B

 Survey three dimensions (shown below) of brand equity such as –
o Brand awareness
o Perceived Quality
o Brand Loyalty
 Consumers buying behavior
 Evaluate consumer’s response to two brands in context with above three dimensions:

Two similar Global and National brands : Apple and Samsung

The focus of thesis is –

 To evaluate surveyed consumer based brand equity in SMART PHONE INDUSTRY by

above mentioned three dimensions.
 To evaluate influence of brand equity on consumer perception of brand and brand
preference.

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3 INTRODUCTION
Key Definitions
Mobile devices have become an essential part of people’s lives. The International
Telecommunication Union estimates that at the end of 2021, there were 6 billion mobile
subscriptions around the world. That is equivalent to 87 percent of the world population. And
India is the big market for smart phones. The mobile industry has evolved for the last 15 years
or so, and today, the smartphone segment is growing rapidly. Smartphones, cell
phones/feature phones are products that are classified as mobile phones. A smartphone differs
in many ways from the regular cellphone or feature phone.
‘Before the advent of the smartphone, people were often carrying two devices, a cellphone and
a Personal Digital Assistant or PDA.’(Ben, 2012). ‘Mobile phones (cellphone) gave consumers
the convenience of having a phone wherever they went, while PDA’s gave consumers the ability
to easily carry around all of their personal information (address book, calendar, note pad, etc.)
and have access to their email or other data.’ (Cromar, 2010, p.5). Smartphones can be said to
be a combination of a mobile phone (cellphone) and a PDA. Smartphones are becoming
increasingly popular.
This also means that there is a pressure on the smart phone manufacturers to retain existing
customers.
Due to an increase in demand in the smartphone industry, mobile phone manufacturers have
increased the varieties of smartphone products in the market. This massive growth in
smartphone sales has resulted in aggressive industry competition, both in terms of handsets
sold and in terms of which smartphone operating systems (such as Nokia’s Symbian and
Google’s Android) are installed’ (Panacea, 2011).
The market is fast moving and technology in this industry changes rapidly, product life cycles
are short; and the combined aspects of manufacturers/platform providers (like Android,
Windows Phone, etc.)/ network operators makes the connections between different brands
and products evident.
In such a competitive industry, having a strong brand and being the preferred choice amongst
consumers over your competitors is significant. Brands which are the preferred choice by
consumers are said to have high brand equity and there is a consensus in the scholarly
community that strong brands have high brand equity.
Over the years many studies have been carried out on brand equity, one reason is that 'brand
equity has the potential to add value for the firm by generating marginal cash flows in at least a
dozen ways' (Aaker, 1991, p.16).

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Aaker who presented the concept of brand equity already in the 1990s says that brand equity is
comprised of a number of assets or liabilities which can be grouped into five dimensions; brand
awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, brand loyalty and other proprietary assets
In 2001 researches Yoo and Donthu took Aakers' idea of the brand equity composition further
and developed a multidimensionality brand equity scale in order to measure the different
dimensions of brand equity from a consumer perspective.
They combined brand awareness and brand associations into one group and focused on three
of assets; brand awareness/associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty.
By mapping the assets of brand equity it is possible to determine if some aspects of brand
equity are seen to be more important than others for the consumer, or if a brand is lagging
behind in one or many dimensions. In order for a brand to maintain high brand equity and be
the preferred choice of consumers, it is important that it stays in tune with how the brand is
perceived by its customer base. However, so far little research has been carried out on how
brand equity is comprised in the smartphone industry. Thus, this paper will look at the brand
equity composition of Apple and Samsung corporate brands in the Indian as well as global
smartphone market.

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4 THEORY

4.1 THE DEFINITION OF BRAND EQUITY

It has been argued that brands are complex, but ultimately they rest in the minds of customers
as a basis on which to identify with a product, quality and image that is portrayed' (Beamish
and Ashford, 2007, p.99). One way of measuring to what extent consumers identify with the
brand is through brand equity.
One of the most well-known scholars on brand equity is David A. Aaker. In the 1990s Aaker
defined brand equity as; 'as set of assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol,
that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or that
firm's customers' (1991, p.15). These assets can be grouped into five dimensions, which will be
further presented below.

4.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND EQUITY STUDIES

Brand equity has been extensively discussed in marketing literature over the past decade and
there seem to be a consensus amongst the scholars that a brand has high brand equity when it
generates positive connotations in the consumers’ minds and is therefore likely to be the
preferred purchase over other brands or non-branded products (Pappu et al, 2005, p.143; Yoo
etal 2001, p.1; Kuhn et al 2008, p.41; Arvidsson 2006, p.189). Keller (1993, p. 3) notes; that
customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds
some favorable, strong and unique brand associations in memory.
It has also been argued that brands with high brand equity can charge a premium price for their
products (Kuhn et al 2008,p.41; Arvidsson, 2006, p.189). Nevertheless, measuring brand equity
remains an important factor of brand management and can be used in order to 'guide
marketing strategy and tactical decisions, to assess the extendibility of a brand, to evaluate the
effectiveness of marketing decisions, and to track the brand's health compared to its
competitors over time,'
Aaker adds to this idea and argues that as part of its role in adding value for the customer,
brand equity has the potential to add value for the firm by generating marginal
cash flows in at least a dozen ways' (1991, p.16). For example sales promotions used to attract
new customers and maintain current ones have a greater impact if the brand is familiar to the
consumer. Secondly, when competing brands launch an innovative product, then a loyal
customer base will buy some extra time to respond to this new challenge. There seem to be a
consensus in the scholarly community that the study of brand equity is of great importance in
order to build and maintain a strong brand and it therefore seems relevant to the mobile phone
industry, which is a fast moving industry where it is important to be able to keep up with the
competitors.

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4.3 BRAND EQUITY DIMENSIONS

As mentioned above Aaker argues that brand equity is comprised of a number of assets or
liabilities. These can both add or subtract value to a firm and customers. The assets or liabilities
varies from context to context but they can be grouped into five dimensions; brand awareness,
brand associations, perceived quality, brand loyalty and other proprietary assets.

First, brand awareness; this refers to the strength of a brand’s presence in consumers’ mind
(Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993), or as Aaker claims people will often buy a familiar brand because
they are comfortable with the familiar' (1991, p.19). This means that a brand that is recognized
will most likely be selected over a brand that is not known by the consumer.

Secondly, brand associations, which are believed to contain ‘the meaning of the brand for
consumers’ (Keller, 1993, p. 3). While a brand may derive associations from a range of sources,
brand personality and organizational associations are the two most important types of brand
associations, which influence the brand’s equity’ (Aaker, 1991, 1996b)'. An example of this
could be of how McDonalds has tried to create positive associations with the brand by the
introduction of Ronald MCDonald (1991, p.20).
Perceived quality is another important dimension of brand equity. According to Zeithaml,
perceived quality is not the actual quality of the product but the consumers’ subjective
evaluation of the product (1988, p. 3). Moreover, the notion of perception of quality will vary
from industry to industry.
However, according to Aaker perceived quality will have an impact on the consumers' purchase
decision, specifically when a consumer is not able to research the specific product in depth.
Furthermore, Aaker notes that high estimation of perceived quality does not
only justify to the consumers a premium price for the brand, but it can also be used for brand
extension, as the high quality the brand is known for in one market can be extended to a
different marketplace. (Aaker, 1991, p.19).

Most businesses are interested in keeping their current customers over the cost of gaining new
ones. Thus brand loyalty is a major component of brand equity; Aaker even goes as far as to say
that the brand loyalty of the customer base is often the core of a brand's equity.
Oliver defines brand loyalty as: 'a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a
preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational influences and
marketing efforts having potential to cause switching behavior' (1997, p. 392). If consumers pay
little regard to the brand when they re-buy their commodity then the equity of that brand is
low, whereas if a consumer choose 'their' particular brand even in the face of extensive
competition such as in the Indian smart phone market, then it could be argued that the brand
and its identity has value.

Finally, in the group of other proprietary assets trademarks, patents and channel relationships
are found. These assets may prevent a competing brand to hollow out the market leader's
customer base by offering a similar product.
A recent example of this would be the ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung.
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Figure 3.1. below shows the five assets, how they are inter-related and how they affect brand
equity. It lists the five dimensions and how they can provide value both to the consumer and to
the firm.

Figure 3.1: Aaker's Brand Equity Model

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4.4 PREVIOUS EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON BRAND EQUITY
Although much research has been put into the general area of brand equity, it was not until
fairly recent that scholars devised a way to measure the various dimensions of consumer based
brand equity.
The first two articles below have both looked at how Aaker's brand equity dimensions
can be measured. They have looked at different markets, used a different sample composition
and as well as dimension composition. The third article is one of the few studies which focuses
on consumer brand equity in the mobile phone market. It will also be discussed below.

In 2001, researchers Yoo and Donthu applied Aaker’s definition of consumer based brand
equity to a statistical model for assessment of the different dimensions of brand equity (Yoo
and Donthu, 2001, p.2). Using a factorial model, they composed a theoretical model containing
three components of brand equity and examined how these contributed to the overall concept
of Overall Brand Equity.
The three components in Yoo and Donthu’s model are brand loyalty, brand
awareness/associations, and perceived quality. In their pilot study Yoo and Donthu could
not find any discriminant validity between the brand awareness and the brand association
dimension. Thus they were combined into one dimension for the purpose of this study. The
three dimensions are adapted from Aaker's model for brand equity, but the unique
contribution of Yoo and Donthu is the aggregated factor of Overall Brand Equity (OBE).

Figure 3.2: A hierarchic model of brand equity according to Yoo and Donthu (2001)

Yoo and Donthu used the concept 'intention to purchase' as a dependent variable in their study,
arguing that the concept of brand equity needed to be validated towards another measure in
order to make it relevant. In order to gather enough data, Yoo and Donthu used three different
samples in their study; Korean, American Korean, and American test subjects. The brands
included were corporate brands of manufacturers of tv-sets, camera film, and athletic shoes –
all of which can be defined as global corporate brands. By using this data Yoo and Donthu were

11
able to develop and validate a multi-dimensional consumer-based brand equity scale (MBE)
based on Aaker's dimensions. Yoo and Donthu presents many useful areas for the application of
this scale, one of which will be used in this study; namely to measure the composition and
hierarchy of the different dimensions of brand equity.
These dimensions were; brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and brand
loyalty.
The study validates Yoo and Donthu's research by providing empirical evidence that it is
possible to measure consumer based brand equity using a multidimensionality scale.
It is common practice to use at least three items when applying confirmatory factor analysis
(Pappu et al, 2005, p.151). This supports Yoo and Donthu's argument that it is difficult to
provide a discriminatory validity between brand awareness and brand recognition when
measuring brand equity from a consumer perspective.

Wang and Li recently published a study that specifically looks at brand equity in the mobile
services industry. They put forward the compelling argument that in order for mobile phone
providers to understand their strengths and weaknesses, it is crucial to look at the constituents
of brand equity and how and why they are formed (Wang and Li 2012, p.16). In their study they
focus on how brand equity influences the purchase intention of mobile value-added services
and the linkage between key m-commerce attributes and brand equity study that was carried
out through survey collected data from 497 consumers of mobile.

Wang and Li's study is one of the few so far on consumer based brand equity in the mobile
industry. They have chosen to focus on two aspects. First, for the section on m-commerce four
key attributes were identified from previous academic studies namely; usability, personalization,
identifiability and perceived enjoyment and a number of hypotheses were put forward
regarding their impact on brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty and brand
awareness.
Secondly the study put forward the hypothesis that brand loyalty, brand quality, brand
awareness and brand associations all have a positive influence on the purchase intention of
mobile value added services (Wang and Li, 2012, p.23). The study found that brand association
and brand loyalty has a higher total effect on the purchase intention than perceived quality and
brand awareness.

4.5 PROPRIETARY ASSETS AND MARKET SPECIFIC FACTORS

As noted by Aaker above, brand equity cannot be fully reduced to the four dimensions of
awareness, associations, loyalty, and quality. Proprietary assets including patents and channel
relationships must also be considered. These assets are composed differently with different
brands; some brands share software platforms, other brands manufacture hardware for use by
others. The two first studies above (Yoo and Donthu and Papu et al) have focused their studies
on how to, firstly develop and later to improve, a multi-dimensional brand equity scale. This
means that they have not given these assets much attention. Moreover, the proprietary assets
must be regarded in a qualitative way, since they are per definition part of the individual
characteristics that constitute the market.
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4.6 RAPID CHANGE IN TECHNOLOGY

Rapid Changes in Technology within the mobile industry new, better and faster products are
introduced so regularly that changes occur very quickly in the smartphone industry.

There is extensive competition between extensive competition can be seen between the
mobile phone manufacturers and the mobile platform vendors to introduce smartphone
devices with faster processing time, bigger memory space and newer and improved
functionalities. These days, technology has brought us to a place where a smartphone is used as
a universal remote control for the television and stereo set, as a mouse to computers, a device
to activate your home security alarm system, etc. Almost every electronic device can be
controlled and monitored through a smartphone device in today’s environment with the right
application installed in the mobile device. The smartphone manufacturers in this study have
dealt with the challenge of rapid changes in technology in different ways. Some focus on
continuously presenting new products with the latest technology associated with the brand,
whereas for example Apple has a lower rate of hardware updates, but on the other hand
updates the operating system quite frequently.

4.7 SHARED/COMMON PLATFORMS

Besides the intense competition between the smartphone manufacturers, there is an

aggressive battle between the different mobile operating systems. The mobile operating
systems that are used as platforms to build the smartphones by the mobile phone
manufacturers are continuously improved to support faster processors and wider variety of
functionality to fulfill the demand from consumers. The smartphone manufacturers join in the
battle together with the mobile operating system providers by working together to increase
their market share. ‘A mobile OS reflects your lifestyle because it determines the choice of apps
and phone functionality.’ (Geek.com, 2012). There are several mobile operating systems in the
market today that are used as platforms by the smartphones manufacturers. Some of the
manufacturers develop their own mobile operating systems in-house but some choose to use
an operating system that is developed and maintained by third party firms. To name a few in
reference to current market shares are Android developed and maintained by Google, IOS
developed by Apple, Symbian provided by Nokia, Blackberry developed by RIM (Research in
Motion), Bada created by Samsung, and last but not least Windows Phone developed by
Microsoft.
Manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG, delivers products
bundled with the Google Android platform.
Both Nokia and HTC provide products bundled with Windows Mobile. This opens up the
opportunity for consumers to try out different brands within the same platform providers they
are most comfortable with.

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4.8 BRAND NEGATIVITY

In addition to the external factors presented above, Alexander Rusetski argues in a recent
article that high brand equity actually can have a negative effect for a brand (2012, p.357).
According to Rusetski market leadership and high brand equity may contribute to an increased
consumer perception of the brand. This may subsequently lead to the fact that one category of
consumers may have specific demands that are not compliant with the offer of the market
leader. This category may show a strong aversion to the market leader, even though the failure
of meeting expectations may be largely attributed to a mismatch between consumer
expectations and brand offer, rather than less-than-successful brand and product management
(Rusetski, 2012, p.360).

This notion is summarized by Rusetski as ‘building brand awareness and brand association will
carry the risk of uncontrolled growth in performance expectations that may, if those are not
met, result in consumer dissatisfaction and the blame being placed on the brand’ (ibid, p.361).

To sum up, it is evident from the literature study above that consumer based brand equity has
received much scholarly focus over the past years. Aaker and Keller’s concepts have been
added to and built on by other scholars. However, it is also evident from the study above that
Aaker’s key liabilities; brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, brand loyalty still
remain the basis for brand equity measurement and studies. As mentioned in the introductory
section, this thesis will also use Aaker’s four key dimensions and incorporate them into a
multi-dimensional study on the consumer based brand equity in the Indian smartphone market
in order to see which of the components are the most significant to consumers .

Brand Equity Metrics

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5 METHOD

5.1 OVERVIEW
To have clarity on which dimension of brand equity is critical and most decisive while choosing in
between Apple and Samsung, I have gone thru lots of secondary data. Section 4.2 represents literatures
and articles on perception of consumer in India about two brands –Apple and Samsung.

The secondary data collection is restricted to the three dimensions of brand equity; brand awareness,
perceived quality and brand association. The purpose is to analyze the rating of these three dimensions
by consumers while choosing APPLE or SAMSUNG brand. I used following databases for searching for
relevant reports and articles:

 Google Scholar
 EBSCOhost database
 Frost and Sullivan database
 Business Today magazine
 Emerald Insight

5.2 LITERATURE OVERVIEW

5.2.1 GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, India.

The university had conducted an research survey in May 2016 to understand different components of
brand equity and identify influence students in their preference between Apple and Samsung
smartphones.

Smartphone Brand awareness

According to Keller, one of the greatest advantages of brand awareness is the customer can
recall the product easily when the category comes to mind. In their survey, when respondents
were asked if brand logo is attractive and looks familiar, 13% agreed and 59% strongly
agreed .This is a very high percentage which shows how familiar and popular Apple brand logo is.
Also 28% and 21% agreed and strongly agreed about Samsung’s logo being attractive and
popular.

Smartphone Perceived Quality

As mentioned by Aaker perceived quality deals with the customer’s perception of the overall
quality or superiority of the product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to
its alternative. Apple has strong positioning strategies in the market. It differentiates itself by its
innovativeness and uniqueness.

About 28% and 47% agreed and strongly agreed about being satisfied with Apple’s quality of
smartphone. 25% and 30% agreed and strongly agreed about being satisfied with Samsung’s
quality of smartphones.

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Smartphone brand association

Respondents were asked if they believe they get attention and importance in public with the
kind of smartphone they use. 32% of Apple users strongly agreed. This study showed that both
Apple and Samsung users feel they are identified with the kind of smartphone they use. As
smartphone and brands are closely associated many people associate brand with certain kind of
Smartphone they use.

An interesting observation made from this research study is that students are more influenced
by the brand image of the Smartphone. In order to build a strong customer brand, it has to
create a higher customer perceived quality.

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5.2.2 Indian Journal of Marketing [IJM]

March 2013 Volume 43

This paper attempts to examine the applicability of customer based brand equity model developed by
David Aaker in the Indian context.

Dayanand Sagar college of Management, Banglore has conducted a survey to collect the perceptions of
consumers on smartphone brands. Statistical analysis was performed to test the reliability of the scale,
and the results showed Cronbach's coefficient value to be quite satisfactory, ranging from 0.66 to 0.80.
Further, correlation analysis showed significant relationship of brand equity with all the four dimensions.
Stepwise regression analysis found brand loyalty to be the most important predictor of brand equity
followed by brand awareness, whereas perceived quality and brand association were found to be not
significant. Thus, the study provides empirical evidence as to creating higher levels of awareness and
high degree of loyalty is what is required in building superior brand equity in India. Overall, the findings
indicate that Aaker's model may not be applicable in the Indian market, and further research is
necessary to understand the dimensionality of brand equity in India.

5.2.3 Don Bosco Institute of Management, Guwahati. Volume 1 2016. Survey on consumer buying
behavior of smartphones by Deepika Ganlari.

The behavior of consumers towards smartphones is increasingly a focus of marketing research. In

particular, consumer behavior in the smartphone industry, from adoption motivation to post-usage
behavior has become a major focus of research in the field of marketing.

The results of the research confirm that the regulatory focus has an influence on consumer behavior
towards smartphone purchase decision by affecting their perception, motivation, and lifestyle. India is
one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the smartphone industry in India is also growing
very fast. For consumers’ smartphones have become essential parts of personal and business life.

There is a continuous increase in disposable income; there has been a major shift in the attitude and
aspirations of the consumers. This research is to analyze the external and internal factors which
influence a consumer’s decision in purchasing a smartphone. The research also focuses on consumer
attitude for smartphones and the influence brand name has on consumer buying decisions. The recent
growth of smartphone usage is an observable fact that crosses all age and gender boundaries.

5.2.4 SmartPhones Review (2012) : A Global View

It conducted voting hype for people to share their idea and what would they rather purchase an iPhone
5 or Samsung Galaxy S3, and by going throw the comments that many people posted, we can note that
Samsung has succeeded in building a strong brand loyalty and brand awareness, as many people were
loyal to that brand and are willing to purchase it upgraded devices.

17
According to Cush (2010) Samsung had many happy customers in the U.S., Samsung closed 2009
as the No. 1 handset market share holder, further to the Strategic Analytics’ also no . 1 in cell
phone marker in 2010.

Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, which measures clients favorite mobile devices design
and performance according to identify brands that meet up or exceed consumers outlook. The Brand
Key national survey for Smartphone and standard cell phone, showed that Apple ranked no.1 in the
Smartphone categories, in second comes Samsung and then followed by Blackberry.

As shown in Figure 3, Retention Rate, Rosati (2011) demonstrate that in the survey conducted by UBS in
the August 2011 to 515 consumers to find out how many of them will continue in buying smart phones
made by the same company which they bought their current device from and to determine how many
of them would want to change to a different manufacture. As shown in Figure 3, 89% retention rate for
Apple consumer, they said that they will buy their upgraded device from the same company (Apple)
which puts Apple in No 1 position for customer loyalty and satisfaction.

In the second position ranked HTC but still far away from the percentage the Apple had, 39% retention
rate, RIM comes next with a percentage of 33%; Samsung had ranked in the fourth position with 28%
retention rate. Behind comes Motorola with 25% and Nokia 24%. In addition to the above the study
showed that 31% of the Android users were more likely to switch to buy an I Phone for their next device.

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5.2.5 Smartphone Brand Awareness article by Famous logos 2012

Further to Pomoni (2010) article, Apple is one of the brands that have strong brand awareness;
nearly 90% of consumers are aware of it. This gives the opportunity for Apple to present
consumers with different products with an effective position, which increase’s Apple market
shares because many consumers will choose Apple products over a similar product of different
company because of the company high awareness.

According to Fee logo Services (2006) one of Apple awareness tools is the logo the smart and simple
design of the logo, made this logo the most recognized brand symbol all over the world, it has
demonstrated that is effective and easy to remember.

Famous logos (2012) clarifies the phase that Apple gone through in creating its current logo
the design that Apple logos have now is after a long and deep thinking, a story is behind this logo
evolution. Sir Isaac Newton, who created the law of gravity,
was sitting under a tree and an Apple fell down which inspired him in finding this theory of law
gravity. The logo of Apple is clearly connected to this Apple. At the beginning the logo was
designed in having a rainbow color which represented the new creation of colors in the IT world.

Some people believe that logo is also connected to Alan M. Turing, who is considered to be the
father of computer science, who gave end to his life by eating a poisoned apple.
Now the logo of Apple is colored in polished silver adding a modern touch to the logo. This logo is only
one of its kinds and holds an fascinating background and story. It is easy to understand and signifies the
best quality of products.

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6 DATA ANALYSIS
This research study is based on comparison between two big brands in Smartphones which are
Samsung and Apple from smartphone users preference and perspective.

 As mentioned above, in 2001 Yoo and Donthu took Aaker (1991) and Keller’s (1993) brand
equity dimensions and developed a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale with
the purpose of providing ‘value to the firm by enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of
marketing programs, prices and profits, brand extensions, trade leverage and competitive
advantage.

 In addition, Yoo and Donthu believed that they had developed a ‘universal measurement
structure across cultures’ (ibid). The feasibility of applying Yoo and Donthu’s ‘cross cultural’
brand equity scale to the Swedish smartphone market is further discussed below. The results
clearly indicate differences in how the three dimensions of brand equity are composed between
the eight brands. Moreover, some brands have similar brand equity dimensions making it
possible to group the eight brands into four different categories.

6.1 APPLE – TWO DIMENSIONS; LOYALTY, QUALITY/AWARENESS

 Apple has the high rating in brand equity ratings all through the secondary data, regarding
loyalty, quality, and awareness in Indian Context
 Most of the people of India has full awareness of the brand and what the logo of the brand
represents.
 The data represented by IJM shows that, the most dominant dimension is loyalty/quality.
 Secondary data survey disclosed the preference that consumers have for Apple or Samsung
Smartphone over the others, the relationship between brand equity, and brand identity to
brand preference in Smartphone.

6.2 SAMSUNG– TWO DIMENSIONS; LOYALTY, QUALITY/AWARENESS

 Samsung has the highest rating in brand equity ratings all through the secondary data, regarding
loyalty, quality, and awareness in Indian context compared to Apple.
 Most of the people of India has full awareness of the Samsung brand and what the logo of the
brand represents.

Brand Image
 Large number of users in India preferred Samsung as brand image while making purchases than
Apple.

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7 RESULTS
This research study explores brand equity and brand identity by comparing Apple and Samsung
Smartphone brand, having analyze the empirical data obtained using the theories employed in this
research study, the following conclusions are drawn:

 Each of the brand equity and identity dimensions of Apple Smartphone when compared to
Samsung brand equity and identity dimensions reveals that Apple has relatively high strong
brand equity and brand identity than Samsung.

 According to Aaker (1991, p. 270) a strong brand build on the four component of brand equity
and they provide value to the customer by enhancing satisfaction and confidence in purchase
decision and also provide value to the firm by enhancing competitive advantage, price (margin).

 The brand loyalty is high among Apple users; hence Apple has a strong brand preference over
Samsung. Because Apple has built it various brand component resulting in a strong brand equity.

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 When each of the brand component of Apple brand equity were compared with Samsung brand
component (brand association, brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality) and brand
identity for each of this dimension Apple score consistently higher than Samsung.

Indian peoples showed more brand trust and awareness to Samsung as compared to Apple.

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 Secondly comparison between Samsung and Apple Smartphone in the dimension of perceived
quality scores Apple Smartphone higher than Samsung owing to the fact that Apple is innovative.

 The higher perceive quality among Apple Smartphone users is illustrated through the premium
price that Apple Smartphone command more than Samsung Smartphone, the higher brand
awareness and brand loyalty.
 The brand implication for high perceived quality for Apple Smartphone according to Aaker (1991,
p. 46) is that strongest brands, the ones with extremely high quality, will have a large number of
committed (loyal) customer.
 The scores obtained from the empirical data supports the above statement. The score for Apple
perceive quality is higher than Samsung perceived quality and so is the score for loyalty.

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8 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
 This review has identified dimensions of brand equity from literature and provides the
necessary depth and breadth of understanding of brand equity and its measure.

 The conceptual framework develops is useful for examining the contribution of brand
association, brand awareness, perceived value and brand loyalty to brand equity.

 Brand equity is a good barometer to understand past action and future course of action for
marketers, who are active in formulating strategies for a given brand.

 It is imperative to know how much equity a brand commands in the market as building strong
brand equity is a very successful strategy for differentiating a product / service from its
competitors (Aaker 1991).

 The literature data shows that the perceived quality about brand and brand loyalty contributes
most than other dimensions and is the decision point for selection of the brand .

 Brand loyalty as strongest impact, which indicated the essentiality of development of brand
loyalty to build brand equity for mobile brands. Researchers have highlighted the fact that if
customers are satisfied, the tendency of positive word of mouth and loyalty is increased.

 Although brand equity cannot be built in short term, it can be built in long term through
carefully designed marketing activities.

 More empirical studies need to be done on the dimensions of the brand equity. Different
dimensions of brand equity are likely to have interactive effects. For example, some dimension
might function as backgrounds to consequences with respect to other dimensions.

 A brand equity measure on the basis of the framework developed will be established as to
capitalize the full range of all the different kinds of information involved on these dimensions.

 Although it is yet a challenge to develop holistic perspectives toward brand equity that will
encompass the full range of all the information involved.

 This research could be expanded in the cultural dimension aspect of brand, further research
would deal with the roles that culture play in affecting the consumer buying behavior, in the
light of brand preference.

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9 RECOMMENDATIONS
From the literature analysis and conclusions of this research study, the following
recommendations are drawn:

 Samsung Smartphone producers should concentrate on brand loyalty and perceived quality.

 Peoples have high brand loyalty towards a brand if they are satisfied with the product delivered
by it. This is why Samsung should focus their strategy to create or attract loyal customers which
can be done through delivering a high quality products, this will result in establishing a long term
commitment with loyal customers who will not switch easily to another brand, compared to non
loyal. This will lead in increasing the sales volume of Samsung and would give that brand the
chance to present its Smartphone in the market with a premium price.

 In the aspect of brand awareness, it is recommended that Samsung should embark on intensive
campaign to create stronger brand awareness and brand image. An interesting observation
made from this research study was that students are more influenced by the brand image of the
smartphone. In order to build a strong customer brand loyalty, it has to create a higher
customer perceived quality, given that brand loyalty and perceived quality are intertwined.

 Aaker note that a relatively large satisfied customer has provides an image of the brand as an
accepted, successful product which will be around and will be able to afford service back up and
product improvement.

 One of the advantages that Apple has over Samsung is that the country of origin is the USA,
which is well known for it good high tech and electronic production. Country of origin represents
brand identity. It is recommended that Apple should capitalize on this advantage in order to
reinforce its brand identity, market positioning and increase their sales volume.

 These recommendations are not only for Apple and Samsung producers but also for other
Smartphone producers.

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10 REFERENCE LIST
 Aaker.D.A (1991). Managing Brand Equity; Capitalizing On the Value of a Brand Name, the Free
Press, New York.

 Aaker, D.A. (1996). Building Strong Brands. New York: The Free Press, A Division of Simon &
Schuster Inc.

 Aaker & Jacobson (2001). The Value of Relevance of Brand Attitude in High –Technology
Markets, Journal of Marketing Research Vol XXX VIII 485-493.

 Indian Journal of Marketing http://www.indianjournalofmarketing.com/

 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

 http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:941876/FULLTEXT01.pdf

 Yoo, B., Donthu, N., & Lee, S. (2000). An examination of selected marketing mix elements and
brand equity.

 Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(2), 195-211.

 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0092070300282002

 Yoo, B., & Donthu, N. (2001). Developing and validating a multidimensional consumer-based
brand equity

 scale. Journal of Business Research, 52(1), 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0148-

2963(99)00098-3

 Yoo, B., & Donthu, N. (2002).Testing cross-cultural invariance of the brand equity creation
process.

 Journal of Product & Brand Management, 11(6), 380-398.

 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10610420210445505

 Researchers world ISSN 2229-4686

 http://scholar.google.co.in/

 Consumer based brand equity article by GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, India.

 Don Bosco Institute of Management, Guwahati. Volume 1 2016. Survey on consumer buying
behavior of smartphones by Deepika Ganlari.

 https://www.scopus.com/results/results.uri?

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