A Study on the Influence of Brand Name on Purchase of Automobile in Malaysia

Abstract Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of brand name on purchase of automobile in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: theoretical framework is used to analyse the hypothesis: A brand name has a significant influence on consumers' decision making in purchasing a survey questionnaire was designed to explore the relations between branding and consumers' decision making process. Findings: The study revealed that branding has a strong influence on consumers' buying decision. The respondents indicated their preference for known/branded car. It can be concluded thatbranding possesses much influence in affecting consumers' purchasing decision. Originality/value: Much have been written about the value of brands. This paper collects resp onses to ascertain the importance of brand names with particular reference to the automobile industry in Malaysia. Keywords: Branding, cars, Malaysia Introduction The culture of capitalism that is revolving in today's society is centred on the notion of 'you are known by what you have and not by what you are'. This human value automatically leads the desire of individuals to possess things that distinguish them apart from the rest. In this regard, brand names play a crucial role that not only represent a particular company's symbol or product, but defines the general lifestyle of a person. particular brand can reflect consumer status in society, lifestyle and economic background, and influence consumer behaviour. To what extent this is true in the automobile industry in a developing country is the focus of this study. In the past, the automotive production industry was dominated by a few European companies (Nag, Banerjee & Chatterjee, 2007). Over time, the car production industry enjoys massive growth car ownership becomes a need thereby raising the demand for car (Lee and Govindan, 2014). As huge amount of capital and ideas were invested by the companies to create the awareness of the consumers in their brands, questions such 'Does brand name influences the purchasing decision of the consumers?' are relevant. Notably, branding has emerged a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have (Keller & Lehmann, 2006). The American Marketing Association (cf. Kotler, 2005, p. 404) defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a mixture of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition. Brand is a combination of attributes that considered an implied device by businesses to attract the consumers and achieve competitive advantage (Malik et al., 2013, Ghodeswar, 2008; Walley et al., 2007). The word brand originated from the Old Norse word 'brandr' which means 'to burn'. Successful brands have the effect of creating wealth by attracting and retaining customers. Usually a brand differs from another brand with the degree of power and credibility they have in the marketplace with some brands possessing a higher degree of awareness compared to others. The outcome of this higher degree of awareness is consumer loyalty. Brand loyalty leads to positive and deep connection between the consumer and a brand. To Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000), loyalty and trust are key success factors to a company to remain competitive in the marketplace. product can be quickly outdated, but a successful brand is timeless (Nedeljkovic-Pravdic, 2010, p. 79). The uniqueness and popularity of a brand will strengthen the consumers' trust and loyalty towards the brand. Traditionally, brand was used to distinguish two different products and a mark of identification. According to Blijlevens, Creusen and Schoormans (2009), product differentiation through branding is desirable for both the consumers and producers. …