An Investigation of the College Students’ Attitude Toward Brand-Named Products.

Module Code: PM504 2T

Class/Group: Group K

Module Title: Research Design and Critique

Assessment: Literature Review

Assignment Title: An investigation of the college students’ attitude toward brand-named products.

Tutor Name:Olga Campbell-Thomson

Student ID Number: 2172402

Date of Submission: Feb 16, 2015

Introduction

According to Klncade and Bahng (2013), different consumer groups have different perceptions of brand and these perceptions can be a valuable reference which help companies filtrate consumers and make more cost-effective marketing strategies. In addition, customers could be attracted to a good brand and remain loyal to it. Therefore, it is important to a company to understand how to build a good brand and which factors of brand can influence consumers’ purchase intentions (Adrian, 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this literature review is to evaluate a number of studies on college students’ attitudes towards brand-named products in order to understand the basis theories for the following research. This literature review will firstly analyze consumers’ attitudes towards different brands can be influenced by internal factors ( gender ). Secondly, the external factors (advertisement and brand personality) will be explained. The final section will demonstrate that consumers purchase intention can be driven by brand loyalty.

Theme 1: Internal Factors (gender differences)

Consumers’ attitudes towards different brands can be influenced by internal factors of consumers. The numerous studies revealed that gender differences can affect consumers’ attitudes towards brand-named products. Firstly, different genders have different life experience which also have a significant impact on the choice of products (de Leeuw et al, 2014). For example, women tend to purchase household goods, beauty products and clothing when men pay more money to 3C products, books and sports equipments (Hasan, 2010). In this aspect, the sample was selected mainly from the university students which correspond with this research.

In addition, several studies (Tifferet & Herstein, 2012; Friedmann & Lowengart, 2014) found that emotional utility of brand-named product is more important for female consumers and its practical utility is more important for males pay more attention to its practical utility due to their different character traits. Specifically, the data provided by Coley & Burgessas (2003) indicated that females prefer to buy luxury brand products than males (females 63% and males 37%) due to these products can show purchaser’s identity and status which could meet their emotional needs. The findings and conceptions presented in this aspect will be further included in this research, especially in questionnaire design.

Theme 2: External Factors (advertising and brand personality)

Consumers’ choices of brand could also be affected by external factors. A number of studies demonstrated that different factors, such as advertising and brand personality, can influence consumers’ attitudes towards brand-named products. Firstly, according to Wahid & Ahmed (2011), consumers' attitudes towards advertisement has positive and significant effects on their attitude toward brand as well as on their purchase intention. Similarly, several researchers (Barrow, 1990; Rosenberg, 1995; Ching et al, 2013) revealed that advertisement can establish a positive image and creating demand for a product or service that leads to eventual purchase. By contrast, the intrusive tactics advertisers employ when competing for consumers’ attention can be annoying to the audiences. Consequently, it could bring negative consumers’ attitudes towards brand (Zhang, 2000; Wang et al, 2002). In this aspect, the findings which include both positive and negative effects of advertisements on consumers’ attitudes can help writer to design questionnaire more systematically and comprehensively.

Secondly, brand personality is considered as another factor which have important influence on consumers’ attitudes. The study by Pradhan et al (2014) indicated that consumers will engage in relationships with brand that have similar personalities to their own. Furthermore, brand personality has a positive effect on consumer’s trust to a brand which could simplify consumer’s process of choice and reduce the time for the decision-making, in other words,  there is a positive relation between consumer’s brand trust level and their purchase intention