Undergraduate Dissertation
Consumer Decision Making, in Relation to Brand Image in Today’s Airline Industry
Presented for (Business management)
This dissertation is entirely the original work of student registration number 1210025. Where material is obtained from published or unpublished works, this has been fully acknowledged by citation
Abstract
Marketing research studies reveal that companies have gone beyond offering functional attributes of a product when considering their competitive advantages in the market. Rather, companies are developing corporate brands that are associated with their products and services in the marketplace. The rationale is that companies can create special image that consumers can associate certain services or even products. The aim of the current research project is to identify the extent to which brand image influences the purchasing behavior of airline customers. The current research project also attempts to analyze the mediating relationship between brand trust and the relationship between corporate brand image and consumer purchasing behavior. The current research study was conducted on 400 airline customers at 13 international airports across Europe and North America. The current study utilized the Generalized Structured Component Analysis (GSCA) as the research method and the findings revealed that brand image significantly influences customer purchase behavior in the airline industry. Additionally, the findings of the current research indicate that brand has a mediating role in the relationship between corporate brand image and purchasing behavior.
Chapter 1 5
Introduction: 5
Literature Review: 6
Chapter 2 11
Methodology: 11
The Ethics Concerning the Research: 13
Chapter 3 14
Findings & Analysis: 14
Interviews: Finding & Analysis 15
Survey: Findings & Analysis 19
Question 1 19
Question 2 20
Question 3 21
Question 4 23
Question 5 23
Question 6 24
Question 7 25
Question 8 25
Question 9 26
Question 10 27
Chapter 4 28
Conclusion: 28
References: 30
Chapter 5 31
Appendix: 31
Recommendations & Acknowledgements 31
Interviews 32
Interview with Participant H 32
Interview with Participant B 37
Interview with Participant M 41
Interview with Participant L 45
Survey Questions & Results 48
Question 1 48
Question 2 49
Question 3 50
Question 4 51
Question 5 52
Question 6 53
Question 7 54
Question 8 55
Question 9 56
Question 10 57
Ethics Form 58
Chapter 1
Introduction:
The airline industry consists of various different brands, and each brand has a unique personality embodied within the culture of the organization (Masterson and Pickton, 2010). For example British Airways (Britishairways.com, 2014) is an airline company that provides all the luxurious advantages that an airline can possibly provide its customers, unfortunately it all comes at a higher cost. Whereas Ryan Air (Ryanair, 2014) is a company that provides cheap flights with only transportation included in the ticket prices (food and beverages cost extra). The three main research objectives are; to ascertain what informs and sustains an airline brand image, to examine the drivers of loyalty within the airline industry and, to determine how brand image impacts on consumer decision making process when purchasing airline tickets. The research will include mix methods, both quantitative and qualitative research will be used to acquire data. The researcher will use a deductive method to distinguish participants that will be used for the survey to acquire quantitative data, and phenomenological approach will be made to collect qualitative data from interviews.
Brands are valuable assets for many companies, developing and sustaining their key attributes is an important marketing task that consists of all the marketing mix (Masterson and Pickton, 2010). However this paper will mainly concentrate on one aspect of the marketing mix, which as stated before is “brand image”.
Research dating back to the early 1950s; indicate that brand image has been an important concept in consumer behaviour. Studies indicate that the definition of “brand image” has not remained stable since 1950s (Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990). Although academic such as, Durgee and Stuart (1987) propose that each brand has a “meaning profile”, in which they define the concept in a complex of key meanings associated with the brand, or what the service provided by the company symbolically means to the consumer. The colours on the tails of British Airways aircrafts are the same colour as the Union Jack, which represents Great Britain; therefore this creates an identity cue of being British, which may represent the “posh” culture embodied within Britain’s identity in a global level. Masterson and Pickton (2010) suggest that those identity cues represent values that the brand owner wants the brand to be related or associated with, for example “Unleaded petrol comes out of a green-handle pump because it is more environmentally friendly” (Materson and Pickton, 2010, p418). To understand brand image in more detail one needs to have knowledge, of the factors that lead to the image of a brand imprinted in the minds of the consumers. It begins with brand personality which is expressed as brand identity which then translates into brand values which eventually creates the brand image (Clifton, Simmons & Ahmad, 2003). Unfortunately, the brand image is what the customer decides to perceive it as, therefore consumer decision making is a key element in this research paper.
A brand refers to a name or symbol that distinguishes one product from another. It is also a feature of a product that creates awareness or even prominence within the market. Research studies reveal that brand has been one of the most influential factors that influence consumer purchase. The airline industry has been experiencing rapid expansion in recent years and brand extension is gradually becoming an important marketing activity that is influencing business success. An increasing number of countries are experiencing rapid and sustained economic growth thus brand extension is an important factor for business success. One of the conspicuous signs of rapid global economic growth has been the rapid growth of the airline industry. Research studies reveal that the volume of airline passengers has been increasing in the past one decade. For instance, China recorded more than 290 million passengers in 2011. At the same time, the country recorded a 9.2 percent in growth from the previous year. China is among the fastest growing economies in the world and its airline statistics reflect some of the factors that have spearheaded its economic growth over the years. Consumer research studies reveal that brand is among the factors that influence consumer choice of an airline brand. Some of the factors that influence customer choice of airline brand include safety, price, punctuality, service and plane type ().
Marketing research reveals that most of the business organizations aim at establishing strong brands in the marketplace. The rationale has been that strong brands enable business organizations achieve numerous benefits. Some of these benefits include low risks, high profit margins, opportunity for brand extension and cooperation with other business organizations. Therefore, a common challenge that numerous business organizations face is the issue of identifying the aspects of a powerful brand. It is a powerful question that has dominated research studies related to branding. For a very long time, researchers have noted that brand enables business organizations maintain their competitiveness in the marketplace. In fact, a lot of the business organizations have achieved competitiveness in the market courtesy of their brands. The reason is that brand enables businesses to connect with consumers. Unique brands have been responsible for most of the marketing characteristics of business organizations in the global marketplace.
Brand image implies the opinions of consumers about the quality of products offered by companies. It also implies the level of trust and honesty consumers have towards a business organization. For instance, a consumer who thinks that a particular company is consumer oriented will eventually develop trust in the company. It implies that consumers have a better confidence in the brand than the image of the brand portrayed by the company. In recent times, the study of brand relationships has received great interest from academicians and business organizations. Some of the brand concepts that have been explored in consumer research include brand love and attachment. Airline companies have engaged in consumer research and most of these studies have explored the concept of brands from the perceptive of affection.
There has been extensive research on brand but most of these studies have heavily focused on a few industries including automobile manufacturing, hospitality, clothes and electronic appliance (). It is rare to find research studies that focus on the airline industry. In fact, most of the research studies related to the airline industry relate to airline services. There is little focus on the influence of airline brand on consumer’s air ticket purchasing behavior. Considering the rapid growth of airline passenger numbers and the importance of brand extension, it is important that marketers explore the influence of brand on customer behavior. Such a research study will provide marketers with answers and practical solutions to some of the problems that airline marketers face in the airline industry.
It is a common phenomenon that the primary sources of brand equity include brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and loyalty (). Therefore, the current research study applies these four factors to explore the influence of brand on consumer behavior in the airline industry. One of the most influential factors that determine consumer purchase decisions is transition cost, which is affiliated to brand equity. .
Research Objectives
1. To ascertain what informs and sustains an airline brand image
2. To examine the drivers of loyalty within the airline industry
3. To determine how brand image impacts on consumer decision making process when purchasing airline tickets
Literature Review:
There is a vast literature available that explains how brand image should be developed. Moreover, how image of a brand should be created? In order to understand the importance of brand image and methods and strategies to create an image of any brand, the literature review will provide strategies and examples. The literature review contains information that will be collected from various studies that are based on research done by scholars and authors for the development of image for any brand. The airline companies are also using concepts related to brand image creation. Therefore, airline brand image strategies are also defined in this section with the help of the vast literature and its review.
However, the literature review is based on qualitative as well as quantitative research. For quantitative research, interviews and surveys have been taken to find out that how the airline companies are building their brand image. For that, which strategies and techniques are using by airline companies to build a brand image in the market.
Brand Image
Brand image is considered to be one of the most important elements of a brand and its recognition in the market. The brand image plays an essential role to attract any consumer. For this reason, there are many authors who have represented normative framework to manage the brand image of any product or service. To convey an image of any brand, it is necessary to target a market that is a fundamental marketing activity (Franzen & Moriarty, 2008). Thus, the framework helps to communicate a brand image to a target segment. In order to build up a perception about any product or service the brand image management work to develop trust of the consumers. To attract the consumer towards the product or service the need analysis research about targeted consumer market is a crucial step. The brand image is defined by Glynn & Woodside (2009) as, “it is the impression in the consumer’s mind about any brand that can be developed by creating a perception about the product quality and its characteristics.”
The brand image can also be developed by the physical attribute and word of mouth by people for any product and service (Wheeler, 2012). In order to maintain the brand image and to attract the consumers towards the product, the companies maintain the quality of the product or service. However, to keep them attracted the pricing strategy also designed to maintain the brand image by maximizing the profit. It is a fact that the pricing element matters a lot for the creation of brand image. For the promotion of the brand and to build up a perfect image the advertising themes also plays an essential role. The advertising themes are designed to create a perception in the consumer’s mind (Franzen & Moriarty, 2008). Therefore, it can be said that the strong marketing strategies are required for a positive consumer’s perception about brand.
Lantos (2010) in his book discussed brand image in detail, where, he said that marketers should design a brand image, which can appeal to the consumer’s self-image. According to him, brand image is the perception in the consumer's mind about a brand. In which, the consumers relate each characteristic of the brand with its quality that is possible on the basis of brand positioning. Moreover, (Lantos, 2010) highlighted this point that whatever image a marketer desires can be given to the brand. The reason behind this can be defined as, after analysing the consumer market and their decision-making process the marketer can design a brand image.
It can be said that the brand image should be designed as according to the consumer’s needs. It will bring satisfaction for the consumers, when consumers are satisfied then they will show their loyalty with the brand (Glynn & Woodside, 2009).
Schneider and Bowen (1999) conducted consumer research that built on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and concluded that there were three basic psychological needs of the customer which were security, self-esteem, and justice. Schneider and Bowen theorised that any violation or perceived denial of these needs of the consumer will have far greater impact than failing to meet a consumer expectation. Needs, according to Chiu and Lin (2004), are understood to produce expectations. According to Schneider and Bowen, these consumer expectations are more conscious, specific, and accessible while needs reside deeper in the psyche and are more unconscious. Needs can be thought of being more in-line with long-term existence: while expectations are more concerned with daily life (Chung-Herrera, 2007).
Airlines Brand Image:
While talking about the brand image of any service, it should be noted that the entire image can be made up by the quality of the service. Moreover, it can be said that the servicing companies develop their brand image by providing best services and by following the strong pricing strategies. If the servicing company is providing their services and fulfilling the needs and demands of the consumers then, the brand image will be developed accordingly. However, the brand positioning with the help of well communication processes can leave its strong impact on the consumer’s mind. The pricing strategy, extra facilities and promise for the best service quality appeals customers towards a service providing companies (Gross & Schröder, 2007).
While discussing servicing company, the best example can be taken from the airlines company. The airlines company use brand positioning strategy to appeal the target market. The reason behind this fact is that the brand positioning helps to develop a brand image of airlines (Holloway, 2012). Therefore, the airlines brand image and their strategies are different because they need to offer a low fare with best service providence. In response to low-fare rivals, the cheaper the fares with the best service can create a positive word of mouth that helps to develop brand image. There are the fighter brands as well in the market of airlines; those are applying different strategies to attract the consumers. For the airlines brand image the only thing that work is the pricing strategy because the fares for traveling form one destination to other matters a lot for most of the people. However, people want the quality services as well they only prefer those airlines which are providing the best services (Neises, 2013).
As Gross & Schröder (2007) defined in their book, the best service includes more than thirty add-ons when someone flies. It starts from best quality of eatable items, baggage safety assurance, and flight-delay insurance. It can be said that the airlines branding strategy depends on their offer which suggest that get more when you pay more. For the airlines fares, people’s perception was it is only the price of admission to get on a plane. However, the airline companies are trying to change this perception by showing a class of travelers and items which they use which show luxurious traveling environment (Holloway, 2012).
As according to Shimp & Andrews (2013), the advertising agencies try to make people crave for comfort, convenience and quality food. The marketers target those consumers who can afford the good services of airlines by paying more. Moreover, by airline brand differentiation strategy the airline companies itself is trying to offer different and unique services to attract the consumers. Those airline brand differentiation strategies are based on the usage of luxurious products from seats to the baggage security and other entertaining activities such as onboard satellite TV (Neises, 2013). These differentiation activities are known best for creating an airlines brand image. Moreover, it will not be incorrect to state that the airlines brand image is different from any product brand and its image (Gross & Schröder, 2007).
Loyalty:
There is a vast literature available on the brand loyalty. Various authors and scholars have discussed brand loyalty in detail. Lantos (2010) also discussed brand loyalty in his book, where, he presented a clear definition of brand loyalty. According to him, brand loyalty can only occur when a customer chooses any brand to repeatedly use and purchase it instead choosing any other brand that is providing the same product or service. It is said that the brand loyalty is often based on the perception of consumers (Franzen & Moriarty, 2008). The brand loyalty can only be judged if a consumer prefers a single brand and ignores other brands. Moreover, it will not be incorrect to state that the brand loyalty is imperative for numerous reasons. The reason is that it increases the sales volume, and the incurring cost reduces. In addition, the servicing or product companies can use the premium pricing that helps to increase profit margins and permit companies to earn more, invest more and get back more (Glynn & Woodside, 2009).
For airlines brand loyalty, it can be said that the airlines brand loyal consumers always prefer a single airline to travel whether it provides high fare rate or cheap fare rates. Therefore, the airline brand image creation always depends on the fare rates and the add-on services they offer. However, it also depends on the consumer’s emotional and cognitive decision to choose a specific brand. It usually happens when a brand is continuously meeting their expectations (Neises, 2013).
Inertia:
Although many studies are there which demonstrate the importance of loyalty and inertia, however, Wu (2011) proposed four types of customer loyalty. From those four types of customer loyalty one is the spurious loyalty, and others are latent loyalty and no loyalty. It has been analysed from spurious loyalty that its primary component is inertia (Lantos, 2010). In other simple words, inertia can be defined as it is an important element that is used to maintain brand loyalty and brand image. It could be described as, "a consistent pattern of repurchasing the same brand almost every time a customer shops, where a brand is bought out of habit merely because less effort is required” (Wu, 2011, p.33).
Moreover, it can be said that it is a condition of the repurchasing behaviour of customers. The inert customers avoid purchasing any other brand even after noticing the price differences. Wu (2011) introduced a conceptual framework or inertia for hypothesis testing. The conceptual framework of the inertia explains that the inertia has a positive impact on the customer brand loyalty (Lantos, 2010).
Consumer Decision Making Process
Consumer decision-making process related to the purchase of a product or service could be viewed by considering the process-taking place before, during, and after the customer has purchased a product or service (Dongyan & Xuan, 2008). Based on Kotler’s Model of Buying Behaviour it could be stated that consumer-buying behaviour is related to the purchase decisions of consumers. The behaviour is influenced by the marketing and environmental stimuli that exert influence on consumers thinking, views, and perceptions. The second set of factors in the buying process consists consumers’ characteristics and the factors that affect the decision such as income, need, etc. Once the customer has considered these factors, it leads to his or her response to make a choice between products, brands, and suppliers. Furthermore, the buyer response relates to the timing of the purchase and the amount of purchase (Kotler et al., 2001).
Brand Image and Consumer Decision Making Process
Malik et al., (2013) in their study investigated the role of brand image in improving the performance of the business. Advertisements of a brand by the company influence consumers’ perception and views regarding brands. Brand image and advertisement are, therefore, a crucial part of the business strategy. It has been suggested that brand image positively effects consumer decision-making process and stimulates buying of a particular brand.
Brand image is the outcome of certain factors that contribute to the value of a brand as perceived by consumers. The communication strategy of the business needs to focus on building a brand image that is positively perceived by individuals and other market participants (Guzman, 2005). These factors include characteristics of the brand, quality of products or services, awareness regarding a brand, (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). If consumers negatively perceive a brand that it will negatively affect their buying decision.
Petrauskaite (2014) has discussed five different approaches to explaining consumer behaviour including economic, psychodynamic, behaviourist, cognitive, and humanistic. These approaches suggest various factors that affect individuals’ preferences and their buying decisions. In all these approaches brand image plays an important role as it assist individuals in forming views about the product that the brand relates to.
On the basis of Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, & Wong (2001), it could be suggested that companies use their marketing messages to promote the attributes of their brands which form an opinion of the consumers. Furthermore, factors such as competition and experience of consumers regarding a brand affect their views and eventually influence their buying decisions.
Conceptual Framework
The current research study examines the extent to which brand influences ticket buying behavior among airline customers. In other words, the current research study explores the reason behind customer preference for certain airline brands. The research framework focuses on identifying factors that determine purchase behavior among airline customers.
Based on the above literature review the following conceptual framework can be derived for the current research examining the impact of brand image in the airline industry on consumer buying behaviour.
The brand image, which is one of the four dimensions of brand equity, if perceived positively by consumers then it has a positive influence on the buying behaviour of consumers. It implies that if the brand has positive attributes that are related to its perceived quality, consistency, identity, uniqueness then consumers is likely to purchase products or services associated with the brand. On the basis of Kotler’s (2001) model, the following framework for the research is drawn.
H0: Brand image of the airline has no relationship with the consumer buying behaviour.
H1: The brand image of an airline company has a significant influence on consumer ticket purchasing behavior
H2: The brand image of an airline company has a significant influence on consumer trust on the respective brand
H3: Consumer brand trust has a significant influence on subsequent consumer purchasing behavior.
Chapter 2
Methodology:
Researchers examine four major factors that affect the brand equity of an airline that is brand loyalty, awareness, association and the customer perception of the brand quality. Brand equity has a myriad of effects on the purchasing intention as well as a possible influence over this factor. The influence of brand equity over purchasing intention arises from its ability to affect a product’s cash flow in the long-term. This phenomenon implies that Customers are willing to spend more cash in premium prices for brands that are not related to the product. The authors use these arguments to form the basis for the first hypothesis. The assumption that brand equity has a positive impact on the consumers’ intention to purchase Consumer air tickets is the first hypothesis (H1). The researchers also use the study of transition cost moderation to formulate the second hypothesis. Transition cost is the cost that the researchers associate with the consumers’ behavior of switching from one provider to another. The magnitude of transition costs bears a lot of influence on the customer satisfaction and loyalty. The researchers, therefore, formulate their second hypothesis stating that transition cost has a positive relationship with the intention to purchase airlines’ air tickets in Global airline industry.
The third hypothesis (H3) states that the awareness of a brand has a positive correlation with brand association in consumer airline ticketing. They define brand awareness as the ability for consumers to learn about a product and also remember it. Brand association is the ability of a consumer to remember an image in relation to a specific product. The positive impact of brand awareness on perceived quality in airline ticketing in Global airline industry is the fourth hypothesis (H4) of this study. The consumer’s perceived quality arises from the brand reputation that is a result of individuals repeated hence making them familiar with it. The fifth hypothesis (H5) links directly to the fourth hypothesis by describing the positive impact of perceived quality on brand association in airline ticketing in Global airline industry. Brand image has a substantial effect on the perceived quality of a brand. On the other hand, brand association comes from the ability of consumers to identify an image with a certain product. Therefore, consumers harbor higher perceived quality for products with higher perceived quality. The sixth hypothesis (H6) makes the assumption that perceived quality has a direct positive relationship with brand loyalty to an airline. Customers demonstrate product loyalty when they recommend to their acquaintances the products of an airline. The researchers state that these recommendations are the result of a customer’s high perceived quality of the brand. The seventh hypothesis (H7) explains the assumed relationship between brand association and brand quality basing on scholarly articles. The authors argue that consumers with high brand association tend to have greater brand loyalty by using the same airline more than once in their travel.
The current research study used a self-structured questionnaire to collect information from the participants. The rationale is that the current research study aims at finding out the potential factors that influence buyer purchasing behavior in the airline industry. Approximately forty seven items were developed for the questionnaire and these questionnaires were systematically distributed among participants. The researchers for the current research study identified a convenient sampling method to distribute the questionnaires among participants in major airports across Europe and North America. The questionnaires utilized the five point-scale and some of the items contained in the scale ranged from strongly agreeing to strongly disagreeing. The hypotheses on the purchasing behavior of airline customers were measured using the Generalized Structured Component Analysis (GSCA). The rationale was that GSCA provides the exchange factors that can be analyzed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). Researchers contend that GSCA was developed with the aim of overcoming the weaknesses of the Partially Least Square (PLS). The GSCA can overcome the weaknesses of PLS because t has been optimized using the global optimalization procedure.
The researchers collected data using questionnaires that contained two to six questions for each factor that they identified in the literature review. They conducted their study at Beijing International Airport and Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport in May 2010. The research involved 220 participants out of whom the authors found 188 questionnaires to be valid. The researchers chose the participants based on age, educational level, income, occupation, travelling purpose, and whether the airline reimbursed the customer or not.
The Ethics Concerning the Research:
This qualitative phenomenological study adhered to the strict guidelines established by the University of Winchester. No data will be collected until the University of Winchester provides the permission. Internal Review Board (IRB) approval will be obtained and individual signed participants consent forms will be received. The risk of harm to each participant will be minimal considering their identities will not be included in the findings. The participant’s name will not be required in order to protect and ensure anonymity. Participation in the study will be voluntary and informed consent will be obtained in order to protect individual rights. A signed informed consent form (Appendix) will be obtained from each participant before the interview or survey will be conducted. Rights to privacy will be assured as data collected in this study are confidential. Coding of interview data will ensure that names would not be associated with information. Participants will be given the opportunity to choose not to answer specific questions and will be reminded that they have the right to withdraw from the survey or interview at any time without penalty or retribution. Honesty with professional colleagues will be assured during the research study. The study will avoid all misrepresentation of research methods and findings. The research study will not use any biased language against any particular group or individual. Participating in interviews and answering open ended questions will not pose any psychological, social, or economic risk. The researcher will maintain direct control over all research data (interview transcripts, completed questionnaires) and these are kept at the safety of the University of Winchester. Completed questionnaires and signed consent forms will be returned to the researcher in-person, mail or, social media sites. Participants will be also offered the opportunity to opt - out of the study.
Chapter 3
Findings & Analysis:
Demographic Profile of the Respondents
The current research study gathered 400 respondents across major international airports in Europe and North America. 196 people were male respondents and the remaining 204 were female respondents. Approximately 12 percent of the respondents were aged below 20 years, 36 percent were aged between 20 and 35 years and the remaining 52 percent were above 35 years. All of the respondents had used a flight more than ten times.
Validity and Reliability Test
The validity and reliability of the research instrument was performed on 400 pieces of questionnaires that were returned by respondents. The returned questionnaires served as a crosscheck on the validity and reliability of the instrument utilized. On the other hand, a reliability test was conducted on the research instrument to determine the consistency of the measuring instruments. The rationale was to determine the stability as well as the consistency of the questionnaire instrument. The results of the measurements could only be trusted if the relative results of the current measurements were similar to the results obtained for the same group when the same instruments were used once more. A questionnaire was considered reliable if it had a Cronbach Alpha value higher than 0.6. The reliability test was conducted using the SPSS program.
Linearity Test
The researchers tested the effect of exogenous variables on endogenous variables with the GSCA by first using the assumption of linearity test. The rationale was for the researcher to examine the relationship between the exogenous variables and endogenous variables. The linear relationship enabled the researchers see the direct relationship between these two variables. According to research method theory, two variables develop a linear relationship if the significance is less than 0.05. Analysis by modeling for the current research variables was 0.49 thus the variables had a liner relationship.
Goodness of Fit
FIT establishes the total variance of the variables used in a research study and the research model for the current study had an existing variable equal to 0.533. The uniqueness of brand image and purchasing behavior can be explained by the current research model as equal to 53 percent and the remaining 47 percent can be explained by the remaining variables. It implies that there was a structural model that the researchers could use to explain the results of the current research study.
Validity and reliability results
Linearity
Best of Fit
RESULTS
The researchers used both Cronbach’s Alpha Test and Amos to for internal consistency and the relationships within the model respectively. They confirmed the internal consistency since all the seven question categories had coefficients of over 0.7. In the first step of determining the effects for determinants of brand equity, the researchers established that all the indices for the determinants that indicated model fitness fell within the criteria. They further determined the direct and indirect effects of the determinants of brand equity on the model. Brand awareness had significant positive effects of 0.527 and 0.562 on brand association and perceived quality respectively hence supporting hypotheses H3 and H4. Perceived quality had significant effects of 0.250 and 0.349 on brand association and brand loyalty respectively hence supporting H5 and H6. Brand association further had a significant effect of 0.492 on brand loyalty thereby supporting H7.
In the second step, the researchers established the effects for factors that are in the external model. They used Maximum-likelihood estimation to establish the relationship for brand equity, purchase intention, and transition cost. The result showed that brand equity had a significant positive effect of 0.919 on the purchase intention hence it supports the hypothesis H1. Transition cost also had a significant positive influence on of about 0.253 on brand equity, and a further 0.233 positively indirect influence on purchase intention. The indirect effect of transition cost on purchase intention supports H2 and it was mediated by brand equity.
In the third step, the researchers analyzed the collected data for any significant variations that may have resulted from the classification of the participants by demographics. They argue that this analysis is important because airlines need to translate the information in the planning and execution of marketing strategies for specific target segments of the population. The researchers discovered that the participants who fall within the age bracket of 30 to 40 were more sensitive and conscious about the brand that they were using. The researchers attribute this behavior to these participants’ high perceived quality of a brand. Participants who earned larger salaries of over 6000 RMB have the money to afford all the luxuries of air travel hence they often pay more attention to brand equity. There were no significant variations between the opinions of the male and female population in terms of the ratings for perceived quality, brand loyalty, transition costs, and purchase intention. However, the female participants reported high ratings for brand awareness and brand association. The researchers concluded although the females exhibited more attention to the brand, their interest did not automatically translate into either brand loyalty or purchase intention.
Married couples who participated in the survey were more willing to pay extra transition cost so that they can secure their preferred brands. The researchers explain that this situation arises from the couples’ keen interest in brand than travel costs. The researchers also focus their analysis on the demography that includes government civil servants and businessmen who gave higher scores on brand equity and the four of the five factors under consideration. The four determinants are brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty, and purchase intention. The researchers recommend that airlines should focus their marketing strategies on this segment of customers due to the ease with which they can convert their brand preferences to actual purchase intention. Membership travelers and reimbursed travelers further showed higher preference for brand equity and purchase intention. They also further note that education, cabin class, travel purpose, and flying experience do not make a significant difference on the collected data.
The Influence of Brand Image on Purchase Behavior
The image of Chinese Air travel is not very good especially basing on the view of the average customers. These customers consider the Airlines as incapable of emerging as the air travel merchants. The customers’ poor perception translates into poor purchase behavior towards the Airlines’ ticketing services. The study takes into account the characteristics that consumers suggest would influence their buying behavior if the Airlines would adopt and display them. The study found that the Chinese Airlines did not display a good image as desired by the consumers. The customers also felt that the airlines did not provide satisfactory services since they were short on excellence. The services further lacked an emotional touch that would have possibly served as an incentive to influence consumer purchase behavior. Consumers further have a low perception of these airlines’ reputation of saliency that is their conspicuous prominence. Most consumers are only familiar with the mention of the brand name, and they know nothing about the service delivery of the airlines. The respondents argue that familiarity does not suffice to be an indicator of excellent service delivery.
It is, therefore, evident that the brand image of an airline significantly affects the buying behavior of the consumer when one considers all the loading factors between the brand image and the purchase behavior. Most consumers suggest that an airline’s reputation, excellence, trustworthiness, and impeccable service delivery are the factors that influence their decision when buying a flight ticket. The respondents argue that these factors coupled with familiarity often set apart an airline as the superior courier over the other brands. A brand image is a perception or view that an individual has in his mind about airline based on association. Familiarity arises when customers can easily identify a certain airline with a particular image, and this ease may eventually translate into brand loyalty as well as purchase intention. Brand image is, therefore, an important asset for every organization and in this case study it is the Chinese Airlines because an analysis of customer perceptions enables the firms to develop effective marketing strategies. A brand image that a company has managed well has the potential of producing positive results by increasing the understanding of customer behavior. The organization can then use this data to make decisions that ensure customer orientation on the factors that consumers consider being the indicators or symbols of a functioning service system.
Previous research on the relationship between brand image and purchasing behavior solely focused on the small and large-scale manufacturing sector. The researchers identified seven indicators that they used to measure brand image (Cretu and Brodie, 2007). The seven factors are reputation, fashionable and trendy, familiarity, useful, superior quality, elegant, natural and sophisticated. However, this study seeks to examine the two factors but relating to the aviation industry. Consequently, the study can only take into account five out of the seven indicators that apply to the airline ticketing and travel services. The results of this study are equivalent to those of an earlier research on the B2B sector (Mudambi, 2002) hence the only difference is the focus of the two researchers on different sectors. However, there are still many other researchers who have done research the same research but in other sectors.
There has been researching on how corporate brand image potentially affects the customer behavior in the banking sector (Bravo et al, 2012). The feedback from the 450 respondents gave an evidence of the positive and significant direct or indirect effect that corporate brand image has on a customer’s intention to use a bank. The researcher conducted his study in three cities in the country of Spain using respondents that were workers from certain chosen banking institutions. There has been also another study on the behavior of individuals who buy voltage electrical equipment overseas (Bendixon et al, 2004). The results show that the brand image had the greatest role in influencing the consumer’s purchase intention more than the price and cost of shipping orders. The study of airlines further expands the research concept that explains brand image as a crucial component of brand equity (Bendixen et al, 2004) for an effective marketing campaign strategy. These two research items are perfectly identical to this study only that one takes into account the behavior of customers in the banking sector and the one considers the same behavior in the shipping industry. However, the study on banking services took into account different indicators that are CSR, services offered, global impression, and banking personnel as a measure of brand image.
The analysis and the comparisons above allude to the fact that the brand image of an air travel provider has a positive and significant influence on the purchase behavior of potential customers who were our respondents. Trustworthiness of a brand is a mediating factor that creates the bridge between brand image and purchase behavior. Consumers are more interested in creating a trusting attitude toward the services of an airline rather than mere familiarity with the traditional values of the courier.
Managerial Implications
The brand image of airlines and their ticketing services is ever evolving in the minds of the consumers who travel by air. The companies, therefore, have an obligation to use this view as cornerstones in building the desired image in the minds of consumers who are all potential customers. The evolving views can further serve as strategic assets in the airline’s marketing activities since the firm will have an idea of the strategies that work for different segments of the population. Implementation of these targeted marketing strategies will influence the customer’s choice when thinking of traveling by air transport. There is a need for these companies to put in extra effort in convincing the potential consumers about the great services that exist within their establishments despite being well-known in the local communities. The familiarity aspect is not enough because most of the respondents argued that the Airlines had not satisfactorily demonstrated the expected benefits that consumers stand to gain.
Limitations of The Study
The study has a few limitations although they do not have a significant effect on the credibility of the results. The results remain sound and reinforce past studies that relate brand image and purchasing behavior. The greatest limitation of this study is the difficulty of observing the influence of brand image on the purchase behavior while at the same time trying to establish the mediating role of brand trust in bridging this relationship. It is difficult to measure quantitatively the levels of brand trust that the study can attribute to the translation of customer’s perception to the intent to buy a ticket on a specific airline.
Interviews: Finding & Analysis
The first interviewee participant H was a final year international student from the University of Winchester, moreover the interviewee stated that he was half Brazilian and half British, participant H stated that he flies by plane approximately 10 times a year or more. He tries to purchase tickets in a month’s advance to try to buy them while they are still at an affordable price, due to the fact that he travels from England to Switzerland, the rates go higher as the travel date gets closer. Moreover participant H stated that he choose to book flights before concerning available spaces on the flight dates he needs, however this factor is still not as important at pricing to him. The interviewee was then asked to explain to the author the process in which he would go through when deciding to purchase a plane ticket. Participant H stated that “Sometimes my family and I go through a travel agency, if it’s a very “complexe trip”. It is important to understand the crucial factors that make this participants decision mechanisms work, and to what extent do the decisions relate to the Airlines Brand Image. Participant H stated that; “For example sometime we go from Switzerland, which is where my parents are currently located, to Brazil or to the US to visit family, and then flying back to Switzerland which is what I would consider a complex flight is. Therefore going to travel agencies allows us to easily buy packet deals for the whole trip. Plus the Airlines we normally use don’t all go to the destinations we need around America.” In “complex” flights such as these, participant H stated that he preferred to use more luxurious flight mainly due to the fact that he will be spending more time within the aircraft than if he were to fly short haul flights. Which allows the author to gain the knowledge of two important factors: the first one of which is the fact that during longer flights participant H prefers luxurious flights and secondly during short flights the participant prefers to use budget airlines such as EasyJet (Birn et al.., 1990)? Participant H stated some of the factors that he believed informs and sustains an airlines brand image for an all included airline carrier such as Lufthansa as: “It’s the luxury, it’s a nice atmosphere when you board the plane, all the extras they provide such as in-flight entertainment, the food, the manner in which you are pampered by the airlines employees. Moreover the image the airline portrays towards its customers that are looking for perks such as these.” Therefore it is clear to see that participant H agrees with the author that elements such as in flight food and entertainment are some of the factors that defines airlines brand image.
Participant B, whom also is a final year international student at the University of Winchester. Had a completely different point of view from participant H, perhaps even than what was expected in the hypothesis. Fortunately this issue could also be regarded as a positive factor; because it allows the reader to understand what factors are crucial for people who travel much more frequently (it is also important to consider factors such as annual income differences). Moreover other differences that were clearly seen between participants H and B, was the fact that participant B had more of a cultural connection with the airline carrier he prefers to use. Participant B is of Turkish nationality and the airline carrier he often uses is Turkish Airlines which is the flag carrier of Turkey. Which mean participant B has the advantage of communicating in his own language to be able to explain himself clearly if he is facing any issues or problems with the flight? From the information gathered about participant B we can notice that aspects such as luxury and comfort come before price, therefore participant B had a much more aggressive approach towards the interview and clearly identifying the factors in which informs and sustains an all included carrier’s brand image as: flights that arrive and depart on time, excellent customer service, and finally but most importantly the satisfaction of having a perfect flight experience without anything going wrong. Therefore it is clear to say passengers such as participant B are much harder to please than participant H. As Wright and Crimp (2000) stated using the personal experience to define a subject can be subject to being bias to the situation, for example participant B had issues concerning the confirmation of his bookings, which resulted in his ticket not being reserved, and he did not find out only a day before the flight, therefore he had to purchase a completely different ticket and change all his travel plans accordingly. Unfortunately, Turkish Airlines did not do anything to compensate this mistake which led to participant B being extremely unsatisfied with the service that Turkish Airlines offers. However due to fact that Turkish Airlines is dominated from travel from the UK to Turkey, participant B does not have much option in choice of an all included flight going to Turkey, due to the fact that other Turkish carriers do not have as many flights available as Turkish Airlines. When comparing Participant H to Participant B, one needs to understand a crucial difference of the fact that both participants have different home cities, for example participant H needs to travel a shorter distance to get to his or her destination, whereby meaning that participant B has to travel all the way to Turkey from England, therefore it is expected for participant B to be willing to pay more money for a journey with a higher level of comfort.
Participants M and L, are much more similar to each other concerning destinations, due to the fact that they are from the same country and city, causing the researcher to be able to clearly identify the differences between the two participants. More importantly the difference in they believe what sustains and informs an airlines brand image.
Even though participant M and L, are from the same country and cultural backgrounds, there is a clear difference in their purchasing behaviours. Both participants are from the same city, and as a matter of fact around the same area, however participant L is extremely cost cautious. He clearly stated that he would always put the price of a ticket before any convince. Whereas participant M is much more willing to pay more money for comfort, an important detail would be the fact that participant M is considerably tall, therefore because of personal reasons he sometimes has to choose comfort over the price of ticket. Participant M, is an international student from Spain, he stated that he often traveled by plane, either with family or to get back and forth from university. Participant M stated that he purchased his tickets a month before the flight. This is so that he could make sure that there would be enough space in the plane by the time he needs to travel. Another (more common) reason for purchasing the ticket in advance is so that he would be able to buy the tickets at an affordable price. On the other had Participant L, prefers to purchase his tickets three months before so that the prices can be at the lowest. So far it is clear to see that participant M is more comfort oriented and aims to find quality over price, however participant L, is much more cost oriented. This simple difference allows the researcher to easily compare and contrast the two participants. Now that there is a clear differentiation between the two participants, it’s now logical to assess what informs and sustains an airlines brand image depending on the orientation of the individual. Participant M is less cost oriented; therefore this enables the consumer to start looking into other factors of an airline. These factors can include inflight internet, wider spaces between the seats and, customer service. Whereas Participant L is extremely cost oriented, meaning that participant M is more likely to be swayed by price rather than the band image of an airline. There are many different factors that cause these two participants to have opposing ideas, some of which can be related to financial differences or even cultural differences within the family. It is noticeable that both participants have had different positive and negative experiences concerning an airline trip. “This one time as a family, we travelled to Orlando in Florida USA, I remember the flight was 9 hours, the in-flight entertainment system kept me entertained, the seats were perhaps even more comfortable than what I have at home, and the whole experience caused me great satisfaction. Therefore if anyone ever asks me about this company I will always talk good things about them.” As one can see participant M motivation comes with leisure, for example he stated that using the inflight entertainment system (that can only be found in all included airlines) and comfort of the seats are the two main factors that defines Emirates’s brand image. Moreover participant M stated that customer service is also a factor that is crucial for the company’s brand image. Participant L also explained a positive experience that he had travelling on an airline, and straight away there is a clear distinction between the factors in which participant L satisfies himself as a consumer. “The positive experience was last year, going back to Spain from Winchester, on the flight I saw a friend of mine that I had not seen in a very long time, the gate workers noticed this without us saying anything, and when we got into the flight they offered us to option to sit next to each other on the plane which was very good. The plane was very crowded they must have tried hard to make room.” The expectations of participant L to participant M are very different, this is mainly due to the fact that advantages that one would receive free of charge in an all included airline such as offering a passenger a different seat (because in all included flight there are usually 6 free seats), however it is much harder for budget airlines to provide its customers with this option. This is mainly due to the fact that budget airlines aim to fit as much people as possible on one flight (within safety reasons). As a consumer who has only flown with budget airlines the expectations of participant L is much lower than participant M, therefore this means that both participants have completely different ideologies regarding what sustains and informs an airlines brand image. Nonetheless, this means that to be able to persuade participant M to choose you as an airline to travel with, you need to have acceptable price rates, an efficient customer service scheme and high-end entertainment systems found in every single seat of a plane. If for example the food that is served in flight is not at a certain standard this would have a negative effect on how participant M perceives that company’s brand image. On the other hand, because participant L has lower expectations regarding the service in a flight, if the prices are affordable, it is much more likely that participant L will gain satisfaction from elements such as a comfortable seat, an in-flight entertainment system, and finally the inflight food. Moreover even though it is not certain that Participant L will like the food that is being given during the flight, but because of the fact that on budget airlines to be able to eat one needs to either pay or bring their own food (due to airport regulations, it’s likely that you may need to throw away the drinks that you have brought with you). Therefore it is less likely that participant L will take the inflight food for granted, furthermore this would have a positive effect on participant L’s opinion on that airlines brand image.
The important thing to understand is that, even though participants H, B, M and, L are all international students studying at the University of Winchester, there is a vast difference on how each individual perceives an airline company’s brand image. This may be simply because they cannot afford to travel by the all included planes or the fact that the services offered in one company may not be sufficient enough to fill the needs of that consumer.
Survey: Findings & Analysis
The second section of the research included a survey. The medium used to fill out the survey, was a website that allowed users to build their own survey’s and share them via Facebook or the university’s BLS email server. The Survey’s target segment is University of Winchester Students who has at least traveled by plane once in the past 24 months. The reason for this being is the fact that the research was intended to depict students who have recent knowledge and experience concerning the airline industry. The survey was made to be able to answer two of the three research objectives stated in this paper. The first objective is ‘to examine the drivers of loyalty within the airline industry’ and the second objective is ‘to determine how brand image impacts on consumer decision making process when purchasing airline tickets.’ The survey (copy of questions and results at the appendix) is structured in 10 questions, there were 72 participants initially however three of their participants did not answer any of the questions therefore removing them from the survey was processed into bar charts would disable any outliers which may affected the results and findings of the survey.
Question 1
Question one, “how many times have you flown by any airline company in the past 24 months? (Return trips count as two)” was simply made to understand the average percentage of how many times at the University of Winchester has travelled. Looking at the results one can see that 36.23% of the students at the university of Winchester (who filled this questionnaire out) have at least traveled once or twice in the past 24 months, which in fact could be regarded as an acceptable amount considering the fact that University of Winchester has a very low number of international students compared to other university’s in the UK. However 28.98% of the students have in fact travelled at least seven times in the past 24 months, therefore this gives the research a good variety of students within the data.
Question 2
Question two, “What are the most influential factors that affect your choice of airline? this question a tool to depict what characteristics of an airline company do students at the University of Winchester consider to be a crucial factor when traveling by airplane. The results also show the weighted Average of the findings: “an average in which each quantity to be averaged is assigned a weight. There weightings determine the relative importance of each quantity on the average. Weightings are the equivalent of having that many like items with the same vale involved in the average” (Investopedia, 2005). Looking at the first heading of questions two which is ‘Schedule Punctuality’; 14.71% claimed that punctuality is not important at all; exactly half said that it was important and 35.29% of the participants claimed it was very important, with a weighted average of 2.21. The second heading In-flight catering seemed to be less important than punctuality with 48.48% claiming that it’s not important at all, 43.94% of the participants claimed that it was important, and while only 7.58% of the participants claimed it was very important. When comparing the first heading to the next, there is a clear difference in the perceived importance between the two, in-flight catering has an average of 1.59 which is considerably lower than schedule punctuality.
Headings three and four seemed to have similar outcomes to one another, both in-flight internet and in-flight telephoning, were factors that did not seem to attract much value from the participants, 74.63% of users claimed that in-flight internet is not important at all and 89.55% of participants claims that in-flight telephoning was not important at all. Giving the in-flight internet a weighted average of 1.30 and in-flight telephoning a low 1.15. Even though both elements are considered not to be important, it is clear that consumers value the use of internet more than being able to phone someone from an airplane. Moreover the fifth head which as in-flight entertainment received a considerable amount of importance with 51.47% claiming that in-flight entertainment is crucial for an airline company, with a weighted average of 1.84.
Ticket prices, are seen as the most important influential factor that affects people choice when deciding to purchase a ticket is the tickets price. With 89.86% of the participants claims it’s very important and only 2.90% of the participants claims ticket prices are not important at all, the weighted average of ticket prices shows a strong 2.87 surpassing everything else on the list. The last yet most surprising section was “the image portrayed by the brand” 52.94% had claimed that it was important, exactly 25% of the participants claimed that it was very important and 22.06% of the participants claimed that it was not important at all. With a weighted average of 2.03.
Question two enables the research to start to have a firm basis to be able to answer both research objectives. Considering the 77.94% of the participants whom answered important or very important for the image portrayed by the brand, consumers do in fact value the brand image of the company and this is one of the factors that influence the decision making of a consumer. Looking back at factors such as in-flight internet and telephoning, the consumer does not value these aspects as much as the value the amount they are pay (which more or less applies for most business industries). However factors such as in-flight entertainment, schedule punctuality and in-flight catering can be considered as factors that apply to the second stage of decision making for example if two airlines had the same price, then a consumer would look at other factors to help decide on which airline to travel with. However it is clear to see even though this question was aimed for both research objectives, this question is more lenient towards the research objective of “to determine how brand image impacts on consumer decision making process when purchasing an airline ticket”.
Question 3
Question three, which was “Please indicate which airline company you prefer to use? (It does not have to be your favorite airline). The participants were supposed to type one airline into the options box, however some people added more than two option (which were all counted), therefore the next this survey is taken, perhaps its best to indicate to the participants that they should only type in one airline not however many they like. Moreover, each answer was counted and ordered in regards to the amount of votes each airline received:
British Airways: 15
EasyJet: 14
Virgin Atlantic: 9
Ryanair: 5
Fly Emirates: 4
Qatar: 4
Singapore: 3
KLM: 3
Monarch: 2
Flybe: 2
Turkish Airlines: 2
Kenyan Airways: 1
United Airlines: 1
Norwegian: 1
Thai Airways: 1
Air Transat: 1
Southwest: 1
Thomson & First Choice: 1
Etihad: 1
Lufthansa: 1
Air New Zealand: 1
Thomas Cook: 1
SAS: 1
As can be seen from the list above, British Airways is one of the most preferred airline companies, between the students at the University of Winchester. This may be mainly due to nationalistic circumstances due to the fact that, British Airways does not offer the most affordable prices in the market and looking at British Airways in a luxurious point of view, even then it would not be the best option to take to be able to get the most out of your money. However this is just one possibility, others may be (as stated by some
