Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
1.1 Introduction
In the thesis, out for all the tools of brand management the
effect of only tool i.e. brand equity has been discussed.
Brand equity has further two classifications; brand image and
brand awareness. Brand image is simply the way consumers view
a brand—the perceptions a brand creates in the mind of the
consumer (Aaker 1996, Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000).
Everything related to the brand helps form the identity people
associate with the brand. Brand awareness is typically
discussed in terms of “aided” and “unaided” awareness. Aided
awareness refers to a consumer’s familiarity with a brand when
it is shown or read from a list. Unaided awareness connotes a
stronger relationship with the brand as it is defined by a
consumer’s ability to name the brand when asked about a
product category. Whether aided or unaided, awareness is
essential to the situation. Moreover there are at least three
viewpoints to observe brand equity. First one is financial
which is a way to measure brand equity is to determine the
price premium that a brand commands over a generic product.
For example, if consumers are willing to pay $100 more for a
branded television over the same unbranded television, this
3
premium provides important information about the value of the
brand. However, expenses such as promotional costs must be
taken into account when using this method to measure brand
equity.
5
Dependent Variable Independent Variable
Brand Brand
Equity Management
6
I. To understand the importance of successful brand
management and its effect on brand equity.
III. To see how managing the brand equity will improve the
overall sales and performance of FnkAsia.
IV. How brand awareness and brand image will help FnkAsia
to work on new opportunities.
7
1.4 Rationale of the Study
8
many other things like long-term customer loyalty and brand
reputation. It would be a source of foreign exchange hence
making the balance of payments of Pakistan better which is
indeed a big problem currently.
9
CHAPTER 2
LITERTURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
10
A comprehensive literature review is conducted to analyze the
importance of brand management and its attributes. To further
narrow down the broad area of brand management, one of its
most important elements i.e. brand equity has studied
thoroughly. The concept of brand equity has been applied on a
fashion company known as FnkAsia.
Definition of Brand:
11
promotion. The major issue is that many managers agree to this
fact that retaining old customers is important as the brand
itself, yet no one is completing implementing it. Whenever
they talk, they will assure you that customers are their
priority but when you watch them act, the real story is
revealed. Brand is the main thing. Brand management is still
not given the attention that it needs in most large companies
and that focus is ever more incompatible with growth of the
company. (Blackett, 2004)
12
The phenomenon of successful brand management has been
studied by many authors and marketers for a long time. Yet a
profound literature review showed that mainly the authors
Kevin Lane Keller, David A. Aaker, Jennifer L. Aaker (1997)
and Jean-Noel Kapferer (2005) has established the basis for
all successive theoretical works and research studies. So,
they can be seen as the major drivers and specialists in
separating a brand into its brand dimensions and illuminating
how these sub-factors add to the creation and maintenance of a
strong brand. Since many studies largely refer to one or more
of these previous mentioned authors, this study will also be
based on their works and especially on Keller (2008) and Aaker
(1996).
13
• Brand knowledge, which contains brand awareness and brand
image, is the key to creating brand equity and it represents
everything a customer knows about a brand (Keller 2008, p. 51;
Keller 1993, pp.2).
14
• Brand personality contains the human characteristics which a
consumer associates with the brand (Keller 2008, p. 369 and
Aaker 1996, p. 141).
BRAND EQUITY
BRAND IMAGE
BRAND AWARENESS
16
Brand awareness consists of both brand recognition, which is
the ability of consumers to verify that they have previously
been exposed to the brand, and brand recall, which reflects
the ability of consumers to name your brand when given the
product category, category need, or some other similar sign.
(Dolak, 2001) In his book “managing brand equity” Sexton
proposed that the customers are becoming more conscious and
knowledgeable about the products, their attributes and
pricing. Everything is transparent to them and this has given
rise to strong competition so managing brand equity over time
through strategic measures is important during the five stages
of product life cycle.
17
2. 4 Measuring Brand Equity
Customers are the ones who tell about the real worth of the
brand. Whether it has a positive brand equity or negative
brand equity, it is completed dependent on the customers view.
Customers decide whether the purchase they made has been
significant in satisfying their criteria or not. Although the
details of different approaches to conceptualize brand equity
differ, they tend to share a common core: All definitions
typically either directly or indirectly rely on brand
knowledge the consumers have in their minds. Individuals and
organization are the basic determinants of brand equity. In
other words, the true impact of the brand is in the minds,
hearts, thoughts, experiences and insight of the consumers and
it is forever there. This clear picture of the brand in the
mind of the consumer determines his/her reaction to its
products, pricing, marketing activities and other attributes
increasing or decreasing brand value in the process. In
addition to that customer based brand equity has been defined
as the discrepancy effect that consumer brand knowledge has on
their reaction to brand marketing actions. (Keller, 2003)
18
Brands are evaluated using the following criteria factors
(Haigh, 1996).
FnkAsia
20
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF FNKASIA:
21
Competitive Advantage of FnkAsia over International
Competitors:
i. Resources
22
AHAN (Aik Hunar Aik Nagar) is a committee formed as a rural
enterprise moderation project. Its mission is to bring back
handiworks and skills of people of Pakistani villages; find
out the potential and polish the hidden talent of the women in
rural areas. AHAN has connection with micro financing
organization, government and private businesses, NGO’s,
educational institutions and few top designers of Pakistan.
Resources available for FnkAsia are available from both
financial capital and human capital and are sufficient enough.
ii. Competencies:
23
Being a readymade garments and accessories brand, FnkAsia
focuses a lot on innovation which is very important because
the trends in Fashion industry are changing with quick pace.
Innovation Management, originality and novelty are the core
competencies of FnkAsia. Quality and innovation is required in
Handicrafts and artefacts as well as the stitching style and
outlook needs to be different and comfortable every time. The
finishing of the product also needs quality and innovation.
For the maintenance of innovation in every step FnkAsia has
created teams of freshly graduated designers who are in charge
of individual sub-division like tunics, kurtis, skinnies, bags
and accessories. The innovation teams have given all the
rights to exercise decision making power that they have as the
empowered teams are more creative. Funds for creativity and
innovations are also being provided to ensure that work gets
done without any financial constraints.
24
equity component, though the boundary between them is apt to
be fuzzy. According to Venkatesh & Chaudhuri (2010) with the
ever-increasing lookalikes in the marketplace, Asian companies
have realised the need to differentiate themselves, not just
on quality but on their identities. From being anonymous
suppliers to established brands, Asian businesses have started
asserting their identities through strategic branding. Even
though some of the Asian brands find the phenomenon of brand
management expensive yet there are businesses with success
stories which have left no stone unturned to make their brands
successful on world level.
FnkAsia is not very old in the market yet it has done well
in a short period of time. Still many improvements are still
to be made and many opportunities are to be worked upon to
make it top notch fashion brand in Asia. The concept of Brand
equity has been applied to it in this research. For this it is
important to determine whether people are aware of this brand
or not. Awareness further narrows down into recognition and
recall. There is a need to find out that how many people have
actually tried the product and how many would like to buy that
again based on their previous buying experience. Was the
buying worth it or not? What did they observe? How big was the
gap between expected and actual experience of purchase? This
will determine whether they will buy the brand again or not.
25
and the ease with which it does so (Keller, 1993). Brand
awareness can be depicted into brand recognition (consumers’
ability to confirm prior exposure to the brand when given the
brand as cue) and brand recall (consumers’ ability to retrieve
the brand when given the product category, the needs fulfilled
by the category, or some other cues). Brand awareness is
essential in buying decision-making as it is important that
consumers recall the brand in the context of a given specific
product category, awareness increasing the probability that
the brand will be a member of the consideration set. Awareness
also affects decisions about brands in the consideration set,
even in the absence of any brand associations in consumers’
minds. In low involvement decision settings, a minimum level
of brand awareness may be sufficient for the choice to be
final. Awareness can also influence consumer decision making
by affecting brand associations that form the brand image
(Keller, 1998).
26
less than a certain level because as the price decreases the
demand can decrease as well (Berkowitz et al., 2000; Boone and
Kurtz, 1999; Perreault and McCarthy, 2000). Giving a brand
name to certain product is not at all expensive yet it gives
the advantage to the brand’s capability to command higher
prices and reap other significant opportunities. It is not
because of something else but just the “brand name”, like just
by stitching the brand name “Bonanza” on a sweater would never
add any extra value to the product attributes but can have a
psychological or emotional impact on specific consumer. The
basic terms of brand elements are explained in a lot of brand
management books but were wonderfully described in a special
Fashion Survey issue of The Economist (March 6-12, 2004, p.7),
in which the term "brand integrity" was used instead of
"brand image".
27
CHAPTER 3
Research methodology
28
Research
Methodology
RESEARCH
QUESTION
Data Collection
29
Qualitative
Quantitative
Literature
Questionnaire Review
Analysis
Model 3. 1
3.1 Introduction
The basic purpose of this research is useful to examine,
discovering, construing and the development of methods and
systems for the advancement of creature information on a large
variety of logical matters of our planet and the universe. The
research methodology is a fundamental part to show the truism
in research proceedings. The design and methodology would be
adopted in such a way that it would have minimized biasness in
it and the true picture of the data collected from the unit of
analysis.
30
3.3 Methodology
The appropriate research methodology will help to find the
correct and will minimize the chance of error. Whilst
secondary data is collected via conducting literature review,
survey based primary data has also been collected.
3.4 Action
The data would be collected in the form of surveys and
questionnaires. Data will be collected from people from the
unit of analysis i.e. Rawalpindi and Islamabad. This will
yield to the qualitative data from surveys and questionnaires
31
by using symbolizing technique and assigning numbers and
ratings to the questions to calculate which factors people
mostly go for in a brand. This will help to compare the
preferences and approach of people and companies towards the
brand. Hence it can be figured out that which elements are the
best applied in my unit of analysis and how they can be more
improved to further improve the brand management.
32
3.6 Instrument
The questionnaires have been given to the
respondents directly. Out of the population of twin cities,
the sample size was 100 respondents which belong from both
university students and local citizens. The available
instruments related to variables have been explored for proper
reliability and validity. A five items scale have been used
and divided into 15 statements to get a detailed view from the
respondent perspective. This approach guided me to examine
current scenario of brands and branding and how people respond
to fashion brands. It also helped to determine various
opportunities that can be worked upon for FnkAsia.
CHAPTER 4
33
DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
4.1 Introduction
34
4. 2 Statistical Analysis of the Data
N %
Cases
100 100.0
Valid
Excluded = 0 .0
Total 100 100.0
Table:5.1
35
4. 3 DEMOGRAPHICS
50
45 43
40
35
35
30
25
20 17
15
10
5
5
0
18-25 Yrs 26-32 Yrs 33-38 Yrs 39-45 Yrs
36
1.2 Gender
80
60 71
40
20 29
0
Male Female
37
4.4 INTERPRETATION OF MAIN PART OF RESEARCH
QUESTIONNAIRE
40
35 37
Powerful BrandName 33
30
25
20
15
15
10 13
5
2
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
38
The results clearly show that a powerful brand name adds to
the value of the product. Think about all these big brands
like Gucci, Coke or P&G; the moment they launch a new product
it becomes popular worldwide. A strong brand name adds up to
the whole experience. Not only people trust these brands but
they have certain associations and emotions attached to them.
Most of the correspondents agree to the fact that brand name
is important. Pakistani specialities like gem stones, pashmina
shawls and sports goods are used worldwide but do not have a
brand name. 15% people do not believe that brand name adds up
the value rather they think that a good product does not need
anything else except the quality. Also this means that these
people are not brand oriented.
30
25 27
BrandedClothesandAccessories 23
20 22
15
15
13
10
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
Mixed results are obtained from this study. There are 49%
people who believe that branded clothing is trendy and more
39
attractive because of brand name. These are brand oriented
people who either belong to rich class or people who feel
certain attachment with the brand and do not trust a product
easily without a reliable brand name. 23% have no opinion on
this point. This can mean that they like branded clothes but
would not always go for branded stuff either will buy whatever
suits their style and is according to the size of their
pocket. 28% people do not believe that branding makes any
difference. They are not brand oriented and would like to buy
regular unbranded stuff. Mostly students who not have a job to
afford branded clothes belong to this category.
40
35
Brand Reliability 35
30
25
26
20
15 17
14
10
5 8
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
_____________________________________________________________
41
1.6 A good brand image contributes strongly to the long-
term success of the product.
60
55
50
Importanceof Brand Image
40
30
31
20
10
11
0 3
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
42
brand image so that people are convinced to buy your product.
A good brand image means that brand has been fulfilling all
its promises and has stayed up to mark. A brand with good
brand image has a guarantee of staying longer in the market
because even if its one product has died its other new
products will earn profits. Product line extension and
replacement is also easier because people believe in the
brand. 11% people neither agree nor disagree means that they
have no clear opinion on the issue. 3% people disagree because
they might believe that some other factor is more important
for long term success of brand.
35
Awarenessof FnkAsia
30
30
29
25
25
20
15
10 13
5
3
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
45
40 42
Preferencefor buyingReadymadeClothes
35
30
29
25
20
15
15
10
5 7 7
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
1.9 Have you ever tried any of the stuff from FnkAsia?
40
35
36
Utilityof theBrand
30
29
25
20
15 17
16
10
5
2
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
1.10 (For the ones who tried FnkAsia Products) the brand
delivered you what you have expected it to deliver
(quality, comfort, looks, and other attributes)
46
30
25
BrandEquity of FnkAsia 24
20
15
10
1 4 1 3
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
47
50
45 47
40
Customer Loyaltyand Brand Equity
35
30 33
25
20
15
10 12
5
6 2
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
48
1.12 If a brand has negative image and afterwards it
starts to improve itself will you trust its products
again?
49
40
Impact of negativeBrand Image
35 37
34
30
25
20
15
16
10
9
5
4
0
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither Agree Nor Agree Strongly Agree
Disagree
50
given an opportunity to correct them. It is very difficult to
rebuild a brand image but still if they become successful with
it, the brand can be successful. 16% people neither agree nor
disagree as it is a hard decision to make. They cannot tell
whether such a brand can be trusted again or not because
people are reluctant to buy again but maybe if they buy again
they will get a good response.
51
CHAPTER 5
Conclusion
52
position that they should have reached in such a long time.
Managers in Pakistan still do not take it seriously and lack
expertise in brand management practices. As a result of this
no Pakistani brand is a global brand unlike India whose global
brands are there in top 500 global brands list every year.
FnkAsia is a new brand in the market and has done fairly well
in a short period of time yet it needs a lot to get be able to
compete with the best fashion brands in Asia. FnkAsia aims to
become one of the top global brands yet it has not even
covered Pakistan. For this research I have used questionnaire
as data collecting tool which showed that brand image and
brand awareness contribute most to the brand’s success. It is
seen that all the other things about products being good,
brand management has not been effective in managing the brand
equity of FnkAsia. Biggest challenge that FnkAsia is currently
facing is maintaining its brand equity. It has poor brand
awareness and a good brand image. FnkAsia has been known by
its users to provide good quality and trendy clothes and
accessories but the market it caters within the twin cities is
small. And even in that small market not everyone knows about
FnkAsia. I have even personally experienced that FnkAsia has
no strong advertising which is the prime reason for less
awareness. The brand image is good but still has a room for
improvement. It has been noticed that there is very small
quantity of people who have tried FnkAsia even when they know
that this brand exists. FnkAsia is not a highly expensive
brand like Maria B or HSY, and it directly targets the youth
as the same also says it is funky. Yet it has not been able to
attract youth to effective level who go for other brands like
Generation or Cynosure. Overall, it is a new and different
fashion brand which still need a lot to beat the bush and get
of the top.
53
Recommendations
54
It is a fact that clothing and accessory items do go a long
way in settling in the minds and hearts of customers. But once
they gain brand equity they are long lived. I have come up
with the following recommendations for FnkAsia:
56
The above suggestions if applied can help FnkAsia build its
brand awareness which will lead to good brand image as its
core competencies are well determined. Again not to forget
that it is not quite old in the business so it will take time
to establish strong brand equity.
REFERENCES
57
Bates, C. (2007). What is a brand? [Online] Available from:
http://www. www.sideroad.com [Accessed 30/01/2011]
58
Kapferer, N. (2005). The New Strategic Brand Management:
Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term, 3rd edition,
London, Kogan Page.
59
Walker, David W. (2002). Building Brand Equity through
Advertising. 1 (10) p.2.
60