Brand Image Literature Review

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers (Business dictionary.com). Branding precede and underlie any marketing effort, it is not push but pull. Branding is the essential true value of an organization, product, or service. It communicates the characteristics, values, and attributes that clear view of what this particular brand. Kapfere (2001), describe branding can be a subjective term where no one is talking about precisely the same thing.

Consumers’ self-image can be inferred from the brands they use, their attitudes toward different brands and the meanings brands have for them. The perceptions consumers have of themselves influences their brand decisions. Consumers form favourable attitudes toward those products which possess images most similar to the images they either prefer or wish of themselves. Accordingly, they buy those products which match their desired self-image because those products help consumers express themselves (Zinkham& Hong,

Urde et al. (2007) claim that it is essential to intertwine brand stewardship with usage of brand heritage by placing emphasis on leveraging heritage, and guarding the brand’s heritage. Brand stewardship attempts to use brands leverage to create a positive value proposition and guarding brand equity along with its symbols from being misused. (Urde et al. 2007) Urde et al.

They are trying to convince the audience to buy the product by saying that it is just as good as department store brands, and it is cheaper than the department store brand. It is good quality makeup for less. Why would anyone go spend more money on a product if they can get the same product for less? This appeals to logic. But, this is not the only strategy used by CoverGirl.

Company Positioning 1. Introduction Positioning is a means in which a company differentiates its products and/or services from that of its competitors and then determine the market nince to fill within the broad market (Matzler & Bailom, 2013). In doing so, the company establishes the identity of the product or service in the eyes of the buyer or the customer. This is achieved through a positioning strategy where a company deliberately plans a brand or process so as to make customers buy it all the time. In this cases, everything about the product or services holds weight, even the wordings, as it associates with the consumer in one way or another.

Satisfaction is recognized as an important element for loyalty in both the consumers and business marketing. Satisfaction with previous purchase experiences plays an important role in determining the future purchase behaviors particularly call as an effort-minimization strategy (Jones and Suh, 2000: Pritchard et al, 1999). Oliver (1999) has developed the definition of brand loyalty as “a deeply held commitment to re-purchase or re-patronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future and

Higher quality products allow for a higher sense of value provided to the customer. Then, companies can charge a higher price because of that. Whereas, from the quality as reliability perspective, customers want a product that performs as it was intended and can last. The product or service has to appeal to the customer and make them want your product over another. Companies will be more profitable because their products are more reliable, then they will have less defected products.

Quester and Lim (2003) also explained the two major types of brand loyalty. Behavioural loyalty explains the repeat buying behaviours of the consumers, whereas attitudinal loyalty is the favourable behaviour of the consumers towards a specific product (Dikempe et al., 1997). According to previous researches consumer promotion of any product leaves an impact on the acquiring behaviours of the consumers for a particular product or brand that the consumer will not buy otherwise (Alvarez and Casielles, 2005). However another study conducted by Dawes (2004) have revealed the fact that purchasing a particular product or service which is on promotion can reduce the chances of succeeding buying of that particular

However , Puma normally uses premium pricing strategy because Puma views its brand as premium. Premium pricing strategy means maximizing profit in areas where customers are happy to pay more. For Puma , premium pricing strategy may not be the best pricing strategy as nowadays , there are more and more price buyers , which means people who buys products at the cheapest place and only see the price as the only consideration . Even when price buyers were once a loyal customer of the company, if this strategy continues , they may not still be loyal and may go to other cheaper companies to be their loyal customer. 5 P : People Puma has always provided high quality customer service to customers and sales would provide trailor-made services to clients.