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Impact of Branding on Customers Attitude Towards Indian Banking

System

Sangeeta Trott

id-sangeetat@itm.eduITM-Sia Business School, Mumbai

Branding and brand equity have become important BUZZWORD in todays world. It has become an important

weapon in the hands of the marketers for brand differentiation and creating a competitive edge in the market.

Aaker (1991), defined brand equity, as a set of assets and liabilities linked to the memory of the brand its

name and symbol. According to Keller (1996), brand equity is the differential effect that brand knowledge has

on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. Past researches have suggested that brand equity plays an

important role in shaping customers attitude. In Indian scenario, building strong brand equity is the objective of

every organization which seeks to develop positive customer attitude.

Brand equity comprises of various four components which are as follows:

Brand awareness-Aaker (1991) defined brand awareness an s, as the ability of the buyer to recognize or recall a

brand as a member of certain product category.

Brand Association-Keller (1993) defined brand association as, the totality of impression which the consumer

has about the brand.Brand loyalty Aaker (1991) defined brand loyalty, as the attachment that a customer has to a brand.

Brand Image Aaker (1991) defined brand image as a set of association linked to the memory of the brand in

a meaningful way.

Similarly, customers attitude according to theory of planned behavior is made of two elements viz, subjective

norm and behavioral intention.

Customers attitude is defined as the mental, emotional or rational predisposition with regard to the fact, state,

person or an object. It is divided into two parts: subjective norm and behavioral intention.

Subjective norm according to Ajzen (1991) is defined as, the perceived social pressure to perform or not to

perform the behavior by individual .Behavioral intention is also defined as the extent of individual intentions to

perform or not to perform a certain behavior.

This paper seeks to find out the effect of brand equity on customers attitude with special reference to ICICI

bank. For study purpose four components of brand equity are taken i.e, brand awareness, brand image, brand

association and loyalty and the variables of customer attitude are taken from the theory of planned behavior

viz a viz, subjective norm and behvaioural intention.The paper is sequenced as follows; it starts with an introduction giving meaning of various technical terms,

followed by l iterature review, research gap, and objective of study, hypothesis formulation, data collection, data

analysis, managerial implication and scope for future research.

Review of literatureLedrec et al (1994) conducted a study to find out the effect of foreign branding on perceptions and brands. The

study was conducted by performing experiments. Experiment one showed that French pronunciation or spelling

a brand in foreign name affects product perception or attitude.

Leboeuf and Simmons (2010) explained how branding affects attitude online. Attitude functions depend on

the type of the product. The study found out that for some products the attitude serves a utilitarian purpose

whereas for some the attitude might express a customer value.

Hartmann et al (2005) took into account green brand strategies for developing brand attitude. The study found

out how green brand positioning affects brand attitude. The study develops a theoretical model of attitudeexplains how it gets effected by green positioning strategy which was tested on line. The results of the study

showed positive effects of green brand positioning in the formation of brand attitude.

Hoon et al (2012) studied consumers attitude towards a luxury brand. The study attempts to find out

consumers attitude towards luxury brand and the relationship it shares with drivers of customers equity and life

time value. Results of the research indicate how attitude towards luxury brand positively influences brand equity

and value equity.

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Research gapThere is lack of research in the Indian scenario in measuring the impact of various elements of brand equity in

shaping customer attitude with special reference to ICICI bank.

Objective of studyTo find out how brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty and perceived quality affects subjective norm.

To find out how brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty and perceived quality affects behavioral

intention.

Data collectionData is collected from 107 respondent s from Mumbai region. All the respondents have accounts with ICICI

bank for more than three years. Almost all the respondents have savings account with the bank. Data was

collected through personal interview as well as written questionnaire method. The questionnaire was divided

into various parts on the basis of various components like brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality,

brand loyalty subjective norm and behavioral intention. All the questions were on likert scale of 1-5, (1-

strongly disagree, 5-stronglyagree). Personal interview was also taken to find out why consumers chose ICICI

bank for their accounts. Pilot study was conducted by taking a small sample of 30 respondents.

Hypothesis development

H2: Brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand image and perceived quality have an impact on subjective norm.

H2:Brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand image and perceived quality have an impact on behavioral intention.

Data analysis

Data is analyzed with the help of SPSS 12.0 software. Reliability score was found out using Cronbach Alpha

score.

Table 1.0 Showing the Reliability Score of Different Variables

Parameters Cronbach Alpha

Brand awareness .672

Brand image .790

Brand loyalty .776

Perceived quality .452

Subjective norm .650

Behaviourial intention .331

From the above table it can be made sure that Cronbach Alpha score is more than .5 for brand awareness, brand

image, brand loyalty and subjective norm but for perceived quality and behavioral intention it was lessHowever,

these two variables were taken because of its importance in the study.To study the impact of brand awareness

brand image perceived quality and brand loyalty on consumers attitude regression analysis was done.

Independent variable-brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality and brand loyalty are taken as

independent variable.

Dependent variable-consumers attitude has been taken as dependent variable i.e subjective norm and

behaviorial intention.

H1-brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty and perceived quality has an impact on subjective

norm.

Table1.1Impact of Brand Awareness, Brand Image, Brand Loyalty and Perceived Quality on Subjective Norm

Parameter R R SQUARE F t sig

Brand awareness .045 .002 .038 .848 .194

Brand image .369 .136 2.990 1.729 .100

Perceived quality .193 .037 .694 .833 .416

Brand loyalty .423 .179 3.928 1.982 .063

Note level of sig-5%

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From the above table it can be made clear that the level of significance is greater than .05 in all the four cases .

Hence, brand awareness; brand image perceived quality and brand loyalty does not have an impact on subjective

norm. In case of brand awareness R=.045, brand image (R=.369), perceived quality (R=.193), Brand loyalty

=(R=.423) which shows that the strength of association is quite low in case of all the four variables.

Table 1.2 Showing the Impact of Brand Awareness, Brand Image, Perceived Quality and Brand Loyalty on Behaviourial

Intention.

Parameters R R SQUARE F t-value sig

Brand awareness .057 .003 .066 .256 .800

Brand image .530 .281 7.831 2.798 .011

Perceived quality .247 .061 1.234 1.111 .281

Brand loyalty .643 .413 13.391 3.659 .002

Note The level of significance is -5%

From the above table it can be seen that the level of significance is less than .05 in case of brand image and

brand loyalty. Hence, brand image and brand loyalty affects behaviourial intention . In case of brand image

R=.530 and for brand loyalty it is .643 which shows the strength of association is quite adequate.Hence it can be

concluded in case of subjective norm , none of the variables have a significant impact on it. However, in case of

behavioral intention it is affected by brand image and brand loyalty.

Managerial implicationsThe study is of great use to ICICI bank in finding out ways and means to strengthen brand awareness , brand

image, perceived quality and brand loyalty in order to influence subjective norms and behvaiourial intention.

Building these elements of brand equity can also to develop positive attitude towards the banks. There is lot of

scope of future research by introducing more dependent variable like,customers trust, customer satisfaction.

Comparative study between two or more banks is another interesting area of research.

LimitationOne of the major limitation of the study is its limited sample size and only one variable taken for study.

Another limitation of the research is that it is concentrated only in the area of Mumbai.

ConclusionTherefore, we seethat in case of banks, brand loyalty and image have emerged as an important element is

influencing behavioural intention. The other elements of brand equity needs to be strengthened in order to havean impact on the two elements of consumers attitude i.e subjective norm and behavorial intention.

References1. Aaker D.A (1991), Managing brand equity the New York press.2. Ajzen .I. (1991), The theory of planned behavior, organizational behavior and Human decision

process, vol 50(2), pp179-211.

3. Lederc France, Schmitt .H.Bernd and Dube Laurette (1994), foreign branding and its effect on productperceptions and attitudes, journal of marketing research, vol31 pp263-270

4. Chaudhari (1995), Brand equity or double jeopardy? Journal of product and brand management, vol4(1), pp26-32.

5. Hartmann Patrick, Ibanez Apoalaza Vanessa &Sainz Forcada Javier .F. (2005), Green branding effectson attitude: functional vs emotional positioning strategies, market intelligence and planning vol23, no 1

pp9-29.

6. Hoon Kyung Kim, Xu Eunju Ko and Yoosun Han Bing (2012), Increasing customer equity of luxuryfashion brands through nurturing consumers attitude, journal of business research, voll65 issue 10

pp1495-1499.

7. Leboeuf .A. Robyn and Simmons .P.Joseph (1994), Branding alters attitude functions and reduces theadvantage of function-matching pervasive appeals, journal of marketing research, XLVII (April 2010)

pp 348-360.