Discuss About The Managing Customer Engagement Communities?
The main purpose of this research is to explore the effect of brand image up on the level of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Brand image is one of the essential components of any company, which intends to maintain high level of reputation among target group of customers. The impression that exist in the mind of the customer is believed to be one of the essential driving factor in marketing decisions of brand choice and buying behaviour. The current research proposal will provide a plan to investigate all types of factors which decides upon the brand image of a company thereby affecting the level of customer satisfaction.
The branding is believed to be one of the powerful tools, which is used by all categories of company to attract the target customer groups. The perceptions that exist within the mind of the customer, is highly dependent upon the strength of brand image and brand awareness. It is also relevant to mention that the brand image also plays a significant part in retaining the customers, thereby increasing the level of customer loyalty. According to Hapsari et al. (2016), brand image is believed to be one of the effective psychological factors, which influences upon the decision taken by the customers while choosing any particular product of a brand. The process of purchasing is believed to be a combination of various types of mental and physical activity that ends up with the product that every customer purchases from a particular brand. It is one of the essential areas of Investigation for all market researchers to depend upon the perception level of the customers to decide upon the marketing strategies. In fact majority of the marketing strategy and planning are aimed to increase the level of brand image and awareness among the customers.
It is relevant to mention in this context that customer satisfaction rate is one of the important parameter which decides upon the level of business success. With high level of customer satisfaction, it is possible for all types of companies to maintain high brand image and reputation. Brand management is an essential part of all types of marketing activities, which decides upon the level of customer retention capability of a company.
In the context of current days, where the customers are highly aware about the quality of product and brand reputation, it is essential for all successful companies to maintain the level of brand image in order to satisfy the needs of the customer. Brand image is also believed to be one of the essential elements of gaining competitive advantage in the Global market. The research problem in this context that are encountered by most of the business organisations is due to the fact that they are and not able to maintain high reputation of the brand due to the increase level of awareness and changes in consumer market, which are occurring at a rapid rate. Moreover the high level of challenging competition is also causing major issue in the matter of brand sustainability.
Following are the objectives of the current research proposal
According to Wirtz et al. (2013), brand equity is one of the important parameters, which decides upon the commercial value of a company that exist within the mind-set and perception of the target customer groups. The brand name or perception is believed to be the major identity that is recognised by the customer, while they are making decisions about purchasing any product. Saeed et al. (2013), have added in this context that brand equity provides a premium value all the product and services of a company, which is compared to all other product of equivalent genre. The customer perception plays the most important part in providing value to a brand and its level of equity. It is essential for the company to provide valuable knowledge to the customers about the features of the service or product that is been offered in the market. This knowledge and information that are being provided to the customer, ultimately creates a negative and positive impression. This perception is believed to be ultimately responsible for the level of brand image and awareness that exist within the target group of customer.
As per the research of Zhang (2015), positive impression not only affect the process of brand choosing, it can also decide upon the level of Expenditure that a customer is willing to pay for a particular brand of product. For example, a customer may be willing to spend huge amount for a product of reputed brand compared to that of a lesser known brand. This is mainly economy they have a perception of relying upon the quality provided by the reputed brands. This perception can help to improve upon the level of trust and reliability that customers show up on any particular brand.
Brand equity is also one of the important parameter as per the research of Bowen, and Chen (2015), when a company wants to expand its product line. Positive level of brand equity, which is usually gained with the help of positive brand image, can encourage the company to introduce new product and service in the market, which can easily gain popularity with the help of high level of brand reputation among target customer. Positive level of brand equity can also encourage the customer to buy the new products. According to Ene and Ozkaya (2014), brand equity can also help to measure the level of strength of the company and its existing performance level in a consumer market. The external business environment can also contribute largely in influencing the level of brand equity.
Hence it can be said that brand equity is one of the essential component of a company’s asset that has a strong interconnection with brand image and brand name along with the symbol, which is an essential element of brand recognition. Brand equity is therefore responsible for providing the value in the mind-set of the customers about any particular product.
One of the very basic elements of marketing research is about the fact that it is essential to have a positive relationship between brand image and brand usage, which is one of the oldest concept of marketing. Positive relationship has often been used by the Brands in their promotional activities, which can improve upon the existing popularity of a company among target group of customers. This positive relationship between the brand and its target audience is believed to be the essential component of brand loyalty, which is developed over the years in order to improve the level of brand awareness (Huang et al. 2014).
It is often believed as per the research work of Nyadzayo and Khajehzadeh (2016), brand with greater market share is most likely to have greater level of brand image, then all the Rival business firms. Similarly it can be said that companies with lower level of market share generally is seen to have significantly low level of brand loyalty and thereby do not have the ability to retain customers. This term is referred to have double jeopardy pattern, which was also mentioned in the research paper of Zameer et al. (2015) and have focused upon its importance upon deciding upon the factors related to customers buying behaviour. This is also one of the important benchmark in understanding the irregular changes in the buying behaviour of the customer and their tendency to switch over brands of same genre. It can also help to decide upon the buying psychology of the customers, who are dependent upon less reputed brands.
It is important to mention in this context that the sustainability of the brand image is also one of the essential components, which can help to decide upon the level of customer loyalty and the capability of a business organisation to retain upon its old customers. From the data which is obtained from the research work of Chao et al. (2015), it has been seen that introduction of new brands and new market entrants has significantly affected the level of brand loyalty of the customers. This is mainly due to the fact that in the current days the customers are easily attracted towards the brands, which are introducing new offers and discounts within the market. On the other hand, Saleem and Raja (2014) have argued upon this fact by mentioning that the level of customer loyalty is irrelevant the factors related to new entrants in the market mostly due to the fact that a group of customers, do not have high level of trust about the quality of the materials that are used in the product manufacture. Nevertheless, it is one of the important areas of marketing research, which determines upon the level of brand loyalty and its relationship with brand image. It is often one of the major challenges for marketing researchers to establish a fixed theory to interrelate the matters related to brand image and brand loyalty. This is mostly due to the fact of irregular change in behaviour of the customer’s buying behaviour.
The tendency of the customers to switch over various brands is one of the major factors that can help to determine the level of customer satisfaction. It is relevant to mention that one of the important causes of changing of brands for a customer is due to the fact that they are either not satisfied with the existing brand product or they are expecting better quality of product from the new brand. In both the cases, switching over of the brands by customers can great compromise upon the reputation of an organisation. This can in turn have serious effect on the brand image. It is essential for every companies to ensure that their existing customers is having high level of satisfaction, otherwise there is a chance that they might switch over to some other brands thereby compromising upon the profit margin and business reputation.
In spite of the fact that wide range of research have been conducted about the factors related to relationship between customer satisfaction and brand image, existing gap is due to the fact that the current literature have not focused on the ways, which can help the companies to determine ways to retain customers and thereby maintain upon their existing reputation.
It is important for the current research investigation to follow certain methodological steps in order to execute the purpose of the study in systemic manner. The current section will highlight upon the research methods which will be used in the current investigation work. Proper justification will also be provided for each type of Research Design that will be implemented in the following case. With the help of appropriate research method it is possible to collect proper and relevant data about the research subject, which will help the researchers to draw proper conclusion.
With the help of accurate Research Design it is possible to integrate different components of the investigation, thereby making an effective strategy. With the help of effective Research Design it is possible to address the research problem by properly collecting relevant information, which can be the blueprint of the overall investigation. Gast and Ledford (2014), have mentioned above Three Types of Research Design, which can be implemented by the researchers depending upon the type of Investigation work and also the type of data that are needed for respective cases. The exploratory type of Research Design is dependent upon the collected information from previous research works. On the other hand the descriptive Research Design deals with the detail type of investigation, which is based upon the current situation of the research subject area. There is also the process of hypothetical Research Design, where the researchers have to deal with the effective hypothesis to make the research design.
Current research work will focus upon descriptive Research Design, which will ensure relevant data about the matters related to the customer perception towards the matter of brand name and brand recognition. It can also ensure that the research is done with the help of all types of proper data that are being collected before the conclusion is drawn.
There are two types of research philosophy, which can help in the process of examining the issue related to the research work. According to Panneerselvam (2014), the positivism research philosophy is believed to give effective test result in order to properly identify the research problem that is best according to the relevant collected information. It can help to draw a logical conclusion and evaluation from the collected data related to the research issue. On the other hand the interpretivist research philosophy, which will be used in the current research work, helps to deal with the matter related to the social issues of the research work. It can help to deal with the human factors, which are associated with the concept of brand imaging. Hence, it is possible to draw a relationship between the level of customer satisfaction and image of the brand.
The positivism research philosophy cannot be applied in this context due to the fact that it is not possible to evaluate the social factor related to research, which is the main subject area of the current research work.
The data collection procedure is the most important part of the research methodology, which can ensure that proper data relevant to the research subject area are being collected that is needed to draw proper conclusion. It is also important to ensure that proper method of Data Collection are being applied, which will ensure only relevant and genuine data are being collected from the fixed sample size. Vaioleti (2016), has mentioned that there are two types of Data Collection method which are generally implemented in all types of research work. In primary data collection method, the researchers are dependent upon direct information collecting from the sample size. This can be done with the help of interview and survey of the selected sample size. Proper survey questionnaire and interview questions are designed in order to collect relevant information related to the research topic. On the other hand, secondary data relies upon information that is being collected from the previously conducted research work of the same subject area.
For the given research work, the investigators will depend upon both primary and secondary types of data, which will ensure all types of relevant information related to the relationship between customer satisfaction and brand image are being properly analysed before drawing the conclusion. From the secondary sources it is possible to compare the current data with that of the previous research work, which focused upon various factors related to level of customer satisfaction and brand recognition. With the help of both forms of primary and secondary data it is possible for the researcher to compare the changes, which are occurring in the consumer market.
There are two types of sampling method, which can be used by the researcher to decide upon the sample size to collect relevant information. The random sampling method is used to select the sample size, which are not predetermined at the initial stage. In this case the sample size is determined by probable method. There is also the method of non-probability Sampling size, where the researcher collects relevant data from the given group of sample, which have been determined initially before the start of the research (Silverman 2016).
In the given case the researchers will collect data from random probable sample size. The approx. sample size that are predetermined are 10-20 business organisations of Australia, where the researchers will collect data related to their brand image and also conduct interview of the company management of the strategies they are implementing in the context of improving their brand image. The researchers will also conduct survey from random sample size of nearly 100 customers from each of the chosen business organisations. The customers will be selected on random basis, which will ensure wide range of data are being collected and thereby help to determine the factors related to customer satisfaction.
The researcher will analyse the collected data from the given sample size with the help of both quantitative and qualitative tools. The quantitative data analysis process will use the statistical data and thereby use proper statistical tools in order to draw conclusions from collected information (Flick 2015). There are also the qualitative analysis tools, which will help to provide proper explanation by implementing and initiating proper themes related to the research subject.
The ethical considerations are an important area of the research work, which helps to ensure that there are no unfair means adapted to collect data for the research work. For example while conducting the interview and survey it is the duty of the research workers to take proper permission from the authority in order to collect information. It is also their duty to not enforce any customers to participate in the survey work (Taylor et al. 2015).
While collecting data from the secondary sources, which are from the previously conducted research work and Research articles, it is the duty of the investigators to take proper permission from the copyright holders. With the help of the ethical considerations, it is possible to ensure that the conclusion drawn from the research work is reliable and can be used as a source of future reference.
The major limitations which will be faced by the researcher are due to the shortage of time and budget that is needed to collect all data relevant to the research work. It may also not be possible for the researchers to collect primary and secondary information from all the predetermined sources due to the fact that there might be legal issues that may not allow them to access information from all sources.
Reference
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Chao, R.F., Wu, T.C. and Yen, W.T., 2015. The Influence of Service Quality, Brand Image, and Customer Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty for Private Karaoke Roomsin Taiwan. The Journal of Global Business Management, 11(1), pp.59-67.
Ene, S. and Ozkaya, B., 2014. A study on corporate image, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in the context of retail stores. Asian Social Science, 10(14), p.52.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.
Gast, D.L. and Ledford, J.R. eds., 2014. Single case research methodology: Applications in special education and behavioral sciences. business.
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