Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 1 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
BRAND AWARENESS AND BRAND IMAGE CASE STUDY: THE PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS MALINDO AIR
PREPARED BY: Nik Nur Shuhadah binti Nik Hassan 2013759361
BACHELOR OF MASS COMMUNICATION (HONS.) ADVERTISING
FACULTY OF MASS COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES
JUNE 2016
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AUTHOR’S DECLARATION
Here I declare that the work in this academic writing was carried out in accordance with the regulation of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. It is original and the result of my own work, unless otherwise it is indicated or acknowledges as referenced work. This research has not been submitted to any other academic institution or non-academic institution for any degree or qualification.
I hereby, acknowledge that I have been supplied with the academic Rules an Regulations for Post Graduate, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia, regulating the conduct of my study and research.
Name of Student
:Nik Nur Shuhadah binti Nik Hassan
Student ID Number
:2013759361
Programme
: Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons) Advertising
Faculty
: Faculty of Communications and Media Studies
Research Title
:Brand Awareness And Brand Image Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
Signature of Student:
Date
:18 July 2016
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 3 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air ABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to investigate brand image and brand awareness from the perspectives of the airlines, focusing on brand awareness aspect. The result of this study is to find out the brand image and the brand awareness of Malindo Air.
“The problematic situation that gave rise to this study was that consumer perception towards airlines is a very sensitive subject from the point of view of airlines”. (D. Van Oudheusden, 1990)
Referring to the statement above, an airlines that seeks to succeed needs to know the current and potential market for its service and able to identify customers. In this regard, this research was carried out in order to research the phenomenon perceptions that consumers have concerning airlines. This led to the research question formulations which is “How do consumer perceive airline companies?”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The participation of several facets have contributes to the accomplishment of this research which I would like to praise them deeply.
First and foremost, I would like to thank God for giving me ease throughout the research and I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to our Academic Advisor, Sir Rozlaili bin Ahmad for his time, patience and valuable advice.
Those lecturers in the Mass Communications and Media Studies Faculty at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia who have helped to shape our education throughout the year.My friends played a big part of assisting me in my research and I am very thankful with each and everyone of them.
Last but not least, I would like to thank to all of the respondents who spent their valuable time answering my questionnaire. Without them, I would not be able to complete my research
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 5 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
I.
Table of content
II.
Declaration
III.
Abstract
IV.
Acknowledgements
1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………..…………..….6 1.1 Background of Studies……………………………………………………….……6 1.2 Background of Malindo Air…………………………………………..…………..12 1.3 Problem Statement…………………………………………………….…………12 1.4 Purpose of Studies…………………………………………………….………….13 1.5 Research Objectives……………………………………………………………...13 1.6 Research Questions……………………………………………………………....14 1.7 Definitions of Keywords…………………………………………………………..14 1.8 Methodology……………………………………………………………………….15 1.9 Significant Of TheStudy…………………………………………………………..17 1.10
Limitation…………………………………………………………………...….17
2.0 Literature Review………………………………………………………………..…………18 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………...………..…..18 2.2 Airlines Industries in Malaysia……………………………………..………….…18 2.3 Brand Knowledge……………………………………………………………..…..20 2.4 Brand Image………..………………………………………………………..…….22 2.5 Measuring Brand Image…………………………………………………………..23 2.6 Brand Awareness…..………………………………………………………...…...24 2.7 The Awareness Pyramid……………………………………………………..…..25
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2.8 Achieving Brand Awareness…………………………………………………..26 2.9 The Value of Brand Awareness……………………………………………….27 2.10
Brand Awareness in Relation to Brand
Image…………….………………………………………………………..……..28 2.11
Brand Identity……………………………………………………………….29
2.12
Brand equity…………………………………………………………………30
2.13
Conclusion of Literature Review…………………………………………..33
3.0 Methodology………………………………………………………………………………35 3.1 Research Design ……...………………………………………………………..35 3.2 Quantitative Research and Methodology……………………………………..35 3.3 Sampling……………………...…………………………………………………..36 3.4 Research Instrument………………………………………………………….…36 3.5 Entering The Field……………………………………………………………….38 3.6 Data Collection and Analysis…………………………………………………...38 4.0 The Survey Of Questionnaire and Analysis………………………………………..….39 4.1 Section A (Demographic)……………………………………………………….39 4.2 Section B ( Brand Awareness)…………………………………………...…….44 4.3 Section C (Brand Image)………………………………………………………..50 4.4 Section D ( Brand Image)……………………………………………………….55 5.0 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………….….63 5.1 Limitations…………………………………………………………………………65 5.2 Recommendation for Further Research and The Case Company…………..65 6.0 References………………………………………………………………………………….67
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 7 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 1.0 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this research is to study the brand awareness and the brand image from the eyes of the public towards the company. This study will be focusing on the awareness/recognition sides. There are several variables that affect the perception of the consumer towards the brand which are the brand trust, service quality and word of mouth. This research will be conducted by quantitative survey which will aim to investigate to what extend Malaysian knows about Malindo Air (brand awareness) and what kind of perceptions in their mind towards Malindo Air as mirrored by the brand association held in their memory (brand image). This research will be summarized in this chapter through research background, problem statement, research objectives, research questions, hypothesis, and significance of study.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDIES
It is important to stay competitive because staying competitive is an advantage to maintain a strong positive brand image (F. Arslan, Altuna, 2010). In other words, they must keep their services up to date in order to maintain their image due to high competition and the change of consumer needs rapidly nowadays. Brand image means the perception that held in the customers mind when a brand name is mentioned (Keller, 1993), while brand awareness means their recognition’s measurement towards the brand when they see the brand’s logo, name, symbol, color and etc (Aaker, 1991). Building a better image than the competitors will secure them from being overshadowed by their competitors (Cheverton, 2002). Strong positive image brand can make the brand increase in market share and it is also a great advantage for the company (Park,
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Jaworski, & MacInnis, 1986). Brand equity and brand royalty is the outcomes for a promising brand image (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1993).
Back to the 1980’s, brand has become an asset of the business and thus the concept of a brand has extremely changed since the management started to understand the brand concept (Kapferer, 1997). Brands are not seen as a symbol and logo only but nowadays it has become one of the greatest assets of the company (Kotler, 2009, p. 259). Positive brand image can lead to a high awareness of the brand because an established brand will easily associate in the consumers mind when it is mentioned (Esch. et. all., 2006).
Just like other products, airline branding is the key factor for higher long-term and short-term returns for the company. Deyes (2008), said that the importance of airline branding in the industry because of flying experience is similar either short or long haul flights. In addition, the emergence of new budget airlines has rapidly rising in the airlines industry and it is getting tougher to differentiate those companies in different segments and markets. Research has been done towards the passenger preference on airlines services and 35% of them prefer the basis of punctuality of the airline, second place goes to pricing which is around 30%. The other 30% is undeniably the brand image itself that influenced the decision making of the customer (Deyes, 2008). Thus, the rest 30% has shown that branding an image is the important key to differentiate the airlines from others. Having a good brand image will have a higher awareness and it also helps the airlines to show their best service quality in taking person from one destination to another. The differentiation is important after the low-cost airlines entered the airlines industries, and the differentiate that can be made is the experience of the passenger will
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 9 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air have by choosing that particular airlines, because if the decision making was made with price based, low-cost airlines will always be the passenger’s preference (Deyes, 2008).
The emergence of low cost carriers (LCC) has been growth rapidly in the Asia Pacific in the past ten years. Those airlines are Lion Air, Air One, Kingfisher Airlines, Air India Express, Spice Jet from India, Lion Air and Tiger Air which is from Singapore, Adam Air from Indonesia, Oziet and Virgin Blue from Australia, Nok Air from Thailand, Jeju Air from South Korea and Viva Macau from Macau. And as everyone knows that one of the most successful Low Cost Carrier (LCC) in the region is Air Asia, which is from Malaysia. But the past 3 years, Malindo Air has entered the Malaysia market and seems that they’re growing steadily and expanding year by year.
This paper is to
investigate how Malindo Air successfully positioned their brand in the Malaysian market in fact that unarguably Air Asia is the most dominant brand in Malaysia. This research is to know measure their brand image and brand awareness through the eyes of the public.
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1.2 BACKGROUND OF MALINDO AIR
Malindo Air was established in 11 September 2012, which is based in Malaysia, and their headquarters is located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Malindo Air is owned by Lion Air – the top discount carrier in Indonesia, which they mutually owns with a Malaysian company. This first hybrid airline in the region is what has made a deal between Defence Industries (NADI) And the National Aerospace and also Lion Air of Indonesia and conducted under the auspices of their CEO Chandran Ramamurthy. They made their first debut with domestic flights in Malaysia. Lion Air declared that by having Malindo Air in Malaysia would probably overtake the dominant low-cost carrier, AirAsia. Malindo’s first tagline was “Not just low cost” which was aiming to take over the market share by offering quality services with cheap fares. Passengers will experience in-flight entertainment, free checked in baggage and light meals, which that is align with their mission; “to deliver exceptional air services while offering low fares with added value”. After then, they have changed their tagline to “Smarter way to travel” early of 2015 which gives a meaning of paying a cheap fare while getting a quality services, this also to encourage the passengers to travel smart and getting the best flight experience they can get with affordable prices.
Operated centrally from the hub, Malindo Air flies their Boeing 737-900ER and ATR72-600 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, which also know as Subang Airport or Subang Skypark). In this year 2016, Malindo has expanded their route to more than 30 destinations. End and early 2016, Malindo has announced their new routes to China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Australia. These are the list of Malindo routes and were expecting to expand more in coming years:
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 11 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air •
Australia Perth
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Bangladesh Dhaka
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India Kochi Delhi Mumbai Trichy Visakhapatnam Trivandrum Amritsar
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Indonesia Bali Batam Jakarta Bandung Pekanbaru
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Nepal Kathmandu
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•
Thailand Bangkok
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Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City
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Malaysia Alor Setar Johor Bahru Kota Bharu Kota Kinabalu Kuala Lumpur Kuala Terengganu Kuching Langkawi Penang Ipoh Melaka Kertih
•
Singapore Singapore
•
Sri Lanka Colombo
•
China
•
Hong Kong Sanya
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 13 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air Centre of Aviation (CAPA) (2016), stated that Malindo Air has grown their expansions time by time and is doing preparations for rebranding aimed on positioned the Lion Group affiliates as a full service airline. They are planning to add more 10 Boeing 737s in 2016 and with fleet of 37 aircraft by end of the year. Tgis will include 26 737NGs and 11 ATR 72-600s altogether. They have expanded their wing over last four and a half month by adding 7 destinations. This includes Australia and other potential destinations, which is South Korea, Japan, and would be served as part of one-stop fifth freedom routes via Taiwan and Indonesia.
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Nowadays, there are many airlines company rising up in Malaysia and developing a positive image is such a crucial part in order to stay competitive with other company. The problem of the situation is that, consumer perception is very important matter from perception of airlines (D. Van Oudheusden, 1990). Strong positive image are not just from the marketing and advertising sides but how the company deliver their services to the passenger for example service quality, hospitality, safety and others. It would benefit the airlines by knowing the consumer’s perceptions towards them. A successful airline is the one who seek knowledge of current markets and seek the potential from it. (Stephen Shaw, 2011). This study is to research and to investigate to what extend Malaysian knows about Malindo Air (brand awareness) and what kind of perceptions in their mind towards Malindo Air as portrayed by the brand association held in their memory (brand image).
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1.4 PURPOSE OF STUDIES
The purpose of this study is to know the importance of brand image and brand awareness from the viewpoint of airlines companies.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the importance of brand image and brand awareness from the perspective of airline companies. As a result of this study the objective is to find out the brand image and brand awareness of the case company;
The research question, to which this study is aiming to find answer for, is the following: How do consumers perceive airline companies?
1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This research addressed a few objectives, which will examine the public perceptions towards Malindo Air through their brand image, brand awareness and service quality. This research proposes the following research objectives:
i) To investigate to what extend Malaysian knows about Malindo Air (brand awareness)
ii) To identify what kind of perceptions in the public’s mind towards Malindo Air as portrayed by the brand association held in their memory (brand image).
iii) To evaluate the public’s perception towards Malindo Air by analyzing through service quality
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 15 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i) To what extend Malaysian knows about Malindo Air (brand awareness)?
ii) What kind of perceptions in public’s mind towards Malindo Air as portrayed by the brand association held in their memory (brand image)?
iii) How far is the public’s perception towards Malindo by analyzing through service quality?
1.7 DEFINITIONS
In this research those definitions are used to determine those terms which is:
Brand, Brand Image, Brand Awareness and Consumer Perception.
These are the definitions of those keywords:
Brand: ”A trade name used to identify a specific product, manufacturer or distributor” (Pallister & Law, 2009, p. 68).
Brand Image: “Brand image is defined as a set of opinions about a brand as mirrored by the brand associations held in consumers' mind.” (Keller, 1993, p. 3)
Brand Awareness: ”Brand awareness measures the capability of a potential consumer to identify or to recall a brand when faced with a purchase decision in a specific product category” (Aaker, 1991, p.61).
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Consumer Perception: "Consumer perception is the process by which an individual selects, arranges and decodes stimuli into a meaningful and coherent image of the world" (Shiffman & Kanuk, 1997, p.144)
1.8 METHODOLOGY
Research method should be undertaken with techniques and procedure that is used to gain and analyze data (Saunders et al, 2009). However, according to Oliver (2008), he described that the term methodology should include practical and theoretical in matters of data collection.
Qualitative and quantitative data play important roles in collecting the data and for the brand development itself. Qualitative research delivers valuable data for use in the design of a product including data about user needs, behavior patterns and use cases while quantitative data research provide the size of markets, demographic and user preferences which are important for business decisions (Madrigal & McClain, 2012). The researcher use the quantitative data to conduct this research as this method is more precise because of the statistics data collection. The quantitative data can be analyzed in numerical terms, which for the group to choose the answer given for example the level of agree to disagree helps the researcher to get the answers directly.
Every theory is being given are needs to investigate but needs to adapt the most suitable research methodology for the theory. Research can also be qualitative, that is, it can describe events, persons and so forth scientifically without the use of numerical data. Qualitative research is more open and responsive to its subject. Both types of
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 17 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air research are valid and useful. They are not mutually exclusive. It is possible for a single investigation to use both methods. (Best and Khan, 1989)
The advantage of quantitative research is I can conclude sample as the representative of the population. Answers on the structured questionnaire are usually closed. In other words, they require respondents to choose from the selection of answers given and the respondents cannot qualify their answer or elaborate. By asking a lot of people the same questions, the percentage to build up a clearer picture of how the majority behaves is higher. It tends to emphasize comparatively large-scale and representative sets of data, and is often, falsely in my view, presented or perceived as being about the gathering of facts (Blaxter et al, 1996)
Qualitative research, on the other hand, it is more to collecting and analyzing information in as many forms, chiefly non-numeric, as possible. It tends to focus on exploring, in as much detail as possible, smaller numbers of instances or examples which are seen as being interesting or illuminating, and aims to achieve depth rather than breadth. (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight, 1996).
From the comparison of both methods, I strongly choose quantitative methods. This is because Hughes which adapted from Punch (1998) has stated that the exactness of the information through the questionnaire and with the good measurement. And also the ability to produce causality statements, through the use of controlled experiments.
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1.9 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY
This research is a practical one that contributes to the area of development of the Faculty of Communication and Media Study and will be a significant attempt in promoting good work environment around the faculty and the students itself. I hope this research can give a beneficial to students, scholars, and other researchers because it could help to build a theory as a case study research and gain more information about these issues.
From this research, I learn how the development of the airlines industry in Malaysia especially Malindo Air and its history and further knowledge about this subject. Besides, this research will provide better understanding on the importance of information about brand image and brand awareness.
Lastly, this research will be helpful to the airlines industries or other companies on how they can brand themselves in the perspectives of their customers, also for students and the faculty for the future reference for researchers on the same topic or subject.
1.10 LIMITATION
For this research, it is limited only to the brand image of airlines industry since I’m doing this research through the aspect of service quality. The service quality of airlines will include the buying ticket procedure, punctuality, hospitality, and other services provided by this particular airline. To interview to the public on their perception towards the airline and they might not experience flying with Malindo Air.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 19 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
We have explained in the previous chapter of how are we going to conduct the research in the research background, problem statement, research objectives, hypothesis of the study, and the significance of study. This chapter, in the literature review, we will discuss in depth about the variables that we want to study about which is brand image and brand awareness. Firstly, airlines industry in Malaysia will be explained then we will define the term brand and the brand characteristics. And then, we will go further on the core of this research, which is the brand image and the brand awareness which both of it is the component of brand knowledge.
Literature review allows us to know the variables of the research and hypothesize the theoretical frameworks. In other words, literature review provides us a better understanding towards the variables discussed in the past research that has been done by other researchers as well as providing the base for this research.
2.2 AIRLINES INDUSTRIES IN MALAYSIA
The airline industry in Malaysia is a large expanding industry year by year. The emergence of the new domestic player, Malindo Air has made it more competitive to each other because the number of planes and airlines are expanded. According to Anna.Euro (2015) the website of airline network and analysis, the Malaysia Airports
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Holding reported that the passengers numbers are the fastest growth to a total of 79.6 million arrivals with 18.4%.
There are three of airlines in Malaysia which, 1) Commercial airlines and 2) Charter airlines. The list of those airlines are mentioned as following:
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 21 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
LIST OF AIRLINES IN MALAYSIA (Sources from Wikipedia.com)
For the commercial airlines in Malaysia, other than Malindo Air we also have Air Asia and The Malaysia Airlines Berhad, which MAB also owned another airlines, FireFly. Layang-layang Aerospace provide service to Layang-Layang Island in Sabah. Berjaya Air, which is owned by Berjaya Group, Sabah Air and last but not least the helicopter service, which is Hornbill Skyways that operates in Sarawak. There are three cargo
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airlines services that operates in Malaysia which are Anthena Air Service, MAS Cargo Airlines and Transmile Air Service,
2.3 BRAND KNOWLEDGE
A brand can be described in a form of "a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors" (Kotler 1991 p. 442). Brand knowledge is the associations that liked in a person mind when the brand is mentioned. According to Keller model of brand knowledge, brand awareness is described based on the consumer’s response towards the brand which how the brand knowledge distinguish in their mind. In other words, the brands awareness that they recall in their mind is in the form of uniqueness, the strength, the quality of the brand, and the favorability.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 23 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
FIGURE 1.0 (KELLER MODEL)
As shown in the figure 1.0 above is the Keller Model of the structure of a brand knowledge the factors of the brand associations are related to each other. In the figure, brand awareness is linked to a brand recall and the brand recognition, which is what the consumer recognized the brand for what it is. According to Company Branding (2006), brand recognition is the ability of the consumer to recall the brand that they have been exposed to, which when they classified the brand mentioned in the product category. It is different with the brand image; brand image is the perceptions that reflect the association appeared in their mind when they think of the brand.
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2.4 BRAND IMAGE
According to American Marketing Association, the image or perceptions that appeared in the people’s mind is considered as brand image. Brand image also is described as a personality towards the brand product or services according to American Marketing Association. The concept of brand association can be categorized into groups according to De Chernatony (1998) which they have different features; how much the information held, the association is related to the product or not and whether the company’s contributions are believed to be essential to the consumers (De Cernatony, 1998).
By way of explanation, the thoughts, feelings, expectations that held in their minds are believed as true towards the brand (Keller, 1993). There are many definitions of brand image and one of it from Keller (1993) is the perception of a brand that held in a consumer’s mind, which they associated with when the brand name is being recall, or whenever they see or hear it. Brand attributes, brand benefits and brand attitudes are the form of brand association according to Keller. Furthermore, brand image defined by Aaker is:
“—a set of associations, usually organized in some meaningful way”
(Aaker,1991, p. 109).
In a nutshell, the related activity done by the company is what makes the customers understand about the brand image of the company. The consumer can differentiate the brand from the competitors when the brand fulfills their need, and that is called a successful brand image according to Hsieh, Pan and Setiono (2004). A brand that has a successful brand image will increase the probability of consumer to return
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 25 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air purchasing their products and services (Hsieh, Pan, Setiono, 2004). According to Park, Jaworski and MacInnis (1986), the advantage of having a strong brand image will make them to have a good position in market, escalate the market share and their performance also and a sustained competitive advantage. Lastly, from the studies that have been done shown that, beside brand loyalty, the brand performance and purchasing behavior, it will lead to a brand equity as well (Stephen L. Sondoh Jr., 2007).
2.5 MEASURING BRAND IMAGE
There are four tools in measuring the brand image according to De Chernatony (1998). The four tools for measuring the brand image are (1) The Project Technique, (2) Qualitative Technique, (3) Ratings of Evaluation and Beliefs and (4) Comparison of Brand Association.
The first tool to measure the brand image is the Project Technique where the consumers are not able to express their feelings towards the brand or they are not willing to do so. This technique involves a completion of sentence, interpreting pictures and a brand personality descriptor. The example for a Projective Technique completion of sentence is the consumer should complete the sentences like “ I buy a hand phone, and I look for …” (De Chernatony, 1998, p.406). The second one of Projective Technique is interpreting pictures, for instance, a man with a designer suit driving his new Mercedes and they will ask the interviewees with the following question: “What the people’s perception towards a man driving a Mercedes?” (De Chernatony, 1998, p.406). And the last Projective Technique is brand personality descriptors when it is used to describe the personality of a user for a certain brand for example “ The normal driver of Volswagen Polo will be…”(De Chernatony, 1998, p.406).
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Qualitative Techniques is the second tool in measuring the brand image where it is to find out a new association with brand together with further research in-group discussions or in depth interview. This is to find out the factor that attributes to the brand image to the brand as well as the strength association with the brand by using Ratings of Evaluation and Beliefs.
Lastly is Comparison of Brand Associations. This Comparison of Brand Association is to determine the identity strengths and weaknesses of the brand. For instance is by asking the interviews to list down Airlines brand in their country and identify which one is the worst and which one is the best in terms of price wise, and ask them to explain why the brand is better than others (De Chernatony, 1998).
2.6 BRAND AWARENESS
There are two types of brand awareness, which are brand recognition and brand recall performance. Brand recognition is the ability of the consumer to recall the brand that they have been exposed to, which when they classified the brand mentioned in the product category. This is to say that, brand recognition needs the consumer to distinguish the brand that they have seen or heard before (Keller 1993). Brand recall performance is the ability of the consumer to recall the cue of the product that fulfills their needs when the product category is given. In other words, brand recall performance means the consumer correctly recall and automatically distinguish the brand product in their memory (Keller 1993).
There are three major factors that lead to the reasons of consumer decisionmaking. Firstly, it is very important for the consumer to think of a brand when they were mentioned a product category because linking the brand with the product category
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 27 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air increases the probability that the brand will be a preference for the consumer (Baker et al. 1986; Nedungadi 1990). Secondly, The brand awareness affects the preferences of the consumer in decision making even if there are no association of other brand. For example, a familiar and popular product will be a consumer’s preference in decisionmaking (Jacoby, Syzabillo, and Busato-Schach 1977; Roselius 1971). Lastly, consumer decision making affected by brand awareness with influence of the strength of brand association in the brand image (Keller 1993).
2.7 THE AWARENESS PYRAMID
Aaker (1991) said in his book “Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name”:
“Brand awareness has a ranging of three levels from being unaware of the brand, to an uncertain feeling that the brand exists; as from brand recall, to a belief that the product is the only one in its product class”.
Brand awareness is the core of this research so it is essential to go in depth explaining what brand awareness is. And as stated by Aaker (1991) above, there are three levels of brand awareness in the brand awareness pyramid which starts from unaware of the brand to a brand recall which the feeling of knowing that the brand is exist and to a view that the brand and the product is the only one. This theory called The Awareness Pyramid as mentioned below:
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The Awareness Pyramid
2.8 ACHIEVING BRAND AWARENESS
To reach the brand awareness, it must have both recall and recognition (Aaker, 1991). It also includes the brand linking to classification of product among the consumers and a positive brand Identity. To cultivate brand awareness, the company must put an effort to make their brand more recognizable. The brand should be different from others and make it more memorable. Other than being different and memorable, to boost the brand awareness some effort may be put on creative slogans or jingles, event sponsorship, symbol exposure, recall requires repetition, considering brand extensions, recall bonus, and using ques (Aaker, 1991).
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 29 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 2.10 THE VALUE OF BRAND AWARENESS
From the figure below, Aaker (1991) shows that the brand awareness helps the brand not less than four different ways:
Brand Awareness Value
There are at least for value of the brand that the brand awareness can create and firstly as an anchor to which other association can be attached. The purchase decision cannot simply happen without the brand recognition because people tend to buy things that familiar to them. The anchor of association to the brand can be strong or weak but it can be strengthen by the links of association. That is why brand recognition is important in giving the sense of familiarity to the consumers because it affects their buying decision. The second value that attributes to brand awareness is the familiarity and liking. It usually happen on a low involvement product when the consumers have no motivation in purchasing the product, the familiarity and liking will help the purchase decision. Aaker (1991) stated that the brand recognition that affects the familiarity and liking is through pictures, names, symbol, or music for instance. Thirdly is Signal of
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Substance/Commitment, which means that there must be a reason why the brand is recognized. It is because the company may be advertised their product widely and exposed them broadly to the consumers. In additional, other than the commitment of giving an exposure signal widely, it is because the company is established or the product is broadly distributed and the brand is popular as well. The familiarity of the brand can make a big difference when it comes to a high involvement product because of the way of consumer seen the product than others. The last one is Brand to be Considered. For example, when a low cost airlines company to go for a holiday or long haul flights, there must be at least three or four companies that are shortlisted before the consumer purchase the ticket.
2.10 BRAND AWARENESS IN RELATION TO BRAND IMAGE
Brand awareness plays an essential role in order to be easier to create and association in the mind of consumer for brand image (Esch. et all,2006). Keller (1991) and Esch. et all. (2006) greed with the same thing when Keller explained that if the brand awareness is greater then it is a lot easier for people to acquire the brand. When they learnt the brand, the chances of the brand to associate in the consumer’s mind are higher. Investopedia stated that, one of the best ways to promote a product is by creating brand awareness. In the study of Esch et al. (2006), he said that there is a relation between the image associations with the brand awareness. Bowie & Buttle (2004) agreed with him because in their study, Bowie & Bottle supported the theory by creating the matrix as presented below to show the relationship between brand image and brand awareness. On the image below shows that high brand awareness indicates that the brand is popular and high profile while in the opposite ways for the low brand awareness. For the brand which have high image, it means that the brand have a good
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 31 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air and positive reputation and low brand image shows the opposite ways which the brand image is weak and the reputation is low.
Brand Awareness and Brand Image Matrix (Bowie & Buttle, 2004)
2.11 BRAND IDENTITY
According to Investopedia, brand identity means the identity of the brand that express such logo, name, and symbol. Brand identity is different with brand image because brand identity is more on to visual appearance while brind image is more on how the consumers perceive the brand. The brand identity distinguishes the brand from
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other competitors and other fundamental for a consumer’s recognition. According to Upshaw (1995), he stated that the company must build a brand identity in order to succeed. By way of explanation, the company has to strengthen their brand identity to make their brand more recognizable. Kapferer (1997) said that brand identity somehow would happen after launching a new brand because the product will eventually develop its own meaning. However, Upshaw (1995) explained in his study that the brand identity is not something that the company created but it is something what the consumer understands as being created. He also said that the brand identity is more on how consumer believed their performance and how the consumers view their product and services. In addition, Upshaw (1995) emphasized that the brand identity is actually a strategy how they want their product to be sold and how the personality cultivate the brand identity. These two elements are important for the marketer to know, because they combine together the real and abstract element to help them acculturate together for example the elements that band together may include the logo, symbol, name, color and the system as well.
2.12 BRAND EQUITY
Kotler and Armstrong (2009) explained about brand equity in their study
“Brand equity is the differential effect that knowing the brand name has on consumer response to the product or its marketing.”
They also said that a great brand equity is a powerful asset to the brand, and great brand has a powerful brand equity (Kotler and Armstrong,2009). In addition, the American Marketing Association stated that the brand equity is depending on a consumer perspective. It depends on how consumers perceive the brand, which is the
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 33 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air benefit that the brand contributes to them. Good brand equity has a positive perspective from the consumer. However, American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) has another explanation for brand equity on how it works. But they also have the same perspective about the brand equity, which they believe that brand equity added some value to the product or service. ASID explained that brand equity works with connections that link to the brand equity together. Brand equity is chunked into four different segments: brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty. Firstly, brand awareness is known as the association that appeared in the consumer’s mind when the brand name is mentioned. Secondly is the perceived quality, which explained their perceptions towards the brand of what the brand has contributed to them that might satisfy their expectation. Lastly is the brand loyalty, which is the consumer’s attachment to the brand. In this case, Aaker (1991) approves this by stating that the brand equity is connection to a brand, brand’s name, and symbol via assets and liabilities.
Faircloth, Capella and Alford (2001) said, brand equity would help to find out a variation of consumer behavior effect of firms marketing activity. Different from ASID, Aaker (1991) has a different segmentation of brand equity and those must be connected to the brand symbol or the name itself. Assets and liabilities according for brand equity according to Faircloth, Capella and Alford (2001) are listed as the following: Brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, brand associations in addition to perceived quality. Brand assets also come with other trademark which, patents, trademarks, channel relationships etc. (Aaker, 1991). Aaker (1991) discussed that brand equity gives a value to the consumers and the company itself.
Brand assets trademark are as the following:
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BRAND EQUITY, AAKER (1991)
There are many views about brand equity, brand equity according to Qualtrics, brand equity are formed in four elements which, brand awareness, brand attributes and associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. They also stated that, the secret of having brand equity is by creating brand awareness. The performance and the attitude of the brand is the key to determine their quality. Qualtrics also explain the techniques to find quality which:
“Key areas of quality are the focal point of in-depth elaboration techniques to find out what makes quality and what quality improvements can be made to enhance brand loyalty and brand equity.”
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 35 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air Lastly, the factor that determine the brand’s success or failure is a brand loyalty which many researches and practitioners has done research about the brand royalty comprehensively.
2.13 CONCLUSIONS OF LITERATURE REVIEW
From the researches that have been done, we can conclude that, to stay strong and competitive the brand must create a strong image and high awareness to the consumer. This is to make sure that the consumer can easily differentiate the brand from the other because they have strong brand equity. Strong brand equity here means the brand have higher brand awareness and it also determined with their contributions and performance to create a positive brand image. When the brand is already in the consumer memory it is easier to create brand image because of the associations attached (Esch. et all,2006). For brand awareness, as stated from Aaker (1991) there are many ways to create a brand awareness to give more attention of their brand to the consumers. The awareness must be different from other or something memorable that catches the people’s attention. Some of their ways are symbol exposure, publicity, catchy slogan or jingle, event sponsorship and many more.
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3.0 METHODOLOGY
For this research, an online survey was conducted to investigate the public’s perception towards Malindo Air brand image and brand awareness. Quantitative approach will be used in collecting data for the study. According to Babbie (2001), quantitative approach produces more explicit data collection and facilitates data aggregation, comparison, and summarizing. It can help to quantify the perception of the public towards Malindo Air brand image and brand awareness as portrayed by the brand association held in their memory and through service quality.
In this study, the method that the researcher used is the quantitative data. This way of research methodology refers to the method in which the researcher conduct her research and how she collects the data needed. Besides, quantitative research consists of those studies in which the data concerned can be analyzed in terms facilitated numerical data for groups and extents of agree or disagree from respondents and this research also can be more directly on the research study. Every theory is being given are needs to investigate but needs to adapt the most suitable research methodology for the theory.
This study is about to know the perceptions that the public have towards the particular airlines. Thus, the structure of the questionnaire will be questioning their opinion in every aspects that the researcher possible to investigate which is through personal opinion towards the brand awareness that associated in their mind, and through the service quality that the airlines has provided.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 37 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
This research was conducted by online survey, which the questionnaire will be distributed to 100 respondents with the ration of 1:1 male and female. The online survey was generated by Google software, which is Google Form. The software later will perform the data answered by the respondents. This survey required the respondents to answer all of the required questions, which will lead to the researcher’s objective; to investigate the public’s perception towards Malindo Air’s brand image and brand awareness.
3.2 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
“Quantitative methods have traditionally been considered more rigorous than qualitative methods, with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews being the ‘gold standard’ for determining evidence” (Sacket et al, 2012).
Punch (1998) has stated that the exactness of the information through the questionnaire and with the good measurement. And also the ability to produce causality statements, through the use of controlled experiments.
The advantage of quantitative research that the researcher can conclude is sample as the representative of the population. Answers on the structured questionnaire are usually closed. In other words, they require respondents to choose from the selection of answers given and the respondents cannot qualify their answer or elaborate.
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By asking a lot of people the same questions, the percentage to build up a clearer picture of how the majority behaves is higher. It tends to emphasize comparatively largescale and representative sets of data, and is often, falsely in my view, presented or perceived as being about the gathering of facts (Blaxter et al, 1996)
The quantitative research was chose as the method of research methodology because of the nature of the method itself. Quantitative research emphasizes in systematic reviews. This is important for this study as this study aims to study of perceptions towards the brand awareness and brand image of Malindo Air. Besides that, quantitative research method is more reliable and objective especially to investigate the public’s satisfaction towards the airline through their personal opinion and what the airline has provided through their service quality.
By using quantitative research, the researcher will get the result statistically and this kind of method made easier for the researcher to compare the result from lowest to highest scale.
3.3 SAMPLING
Random sampling was used in this research the researcher did not put any category of sampling for the respondents background. This way is much better because the sampling is not specific so the researcher can easily distribute the survey randomly. Questionnaire will be distributed to 100 respondents, which then the respondents need to fill up their demographic information such as age, gender, race, occupation and education. .
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 39 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air The characteristics of participants should follow the following details:
1) Regardless of any group of age 2) Regardless of any gender and race 3) Regardless of any occupation 4) Regardless of any level of education 5) Must familiar with Malindo Air brand
3.4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
The research instrument for this research is the survey itself. This research had used predesign instruments; questionnaire from another researcher’s study. Likert’s scales were given for respondents to rate their answers from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree), 1 (Bad) to 5 (Excellent), 1 (Most Unlikely) to 5 (Most likely) and 1 (Very Dissatisfied) and 5 (Very Satisfied). The range of data is illustrated as below which will describe the respondent’s attitude towards the questions.
Meaning
Agreement perspective
Agreement perspective
Agreement perspective
1.00 - 1.80
"worst”
“ Definitely No “
“Very dissatisfied”
1.81 - 2.60
"Bad”
“No”
“Dissatisfied”
2.61 - 3.40
“Moderate”
Maybe
“Fairly satisfied”
3.41 - 4.20
“Good”
Yes
“Satisfied”
4.21 - 5.00
"Excellent"
Definitely Yes
“Very satisfied”
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3.5 ENTERING THE FIELD
As mentioned earlier, the respondents for this survey regardless can be any group of age. Researcher had personally direct messages 100 respondent via social network platform such as Whatsapp and Facebook which all of the respondents must be Malaysians and familiar with the name of Malindo Air in order to keep the validity of the data. Each of the respondents is provided with a link to the questionnaire in Google Forms. Each of the respondents needs to click the link in order to answer the survey. Every follower that responded to the link is the respondent for this research.
3.6 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The collected data will be analyzed and processed using Google Form. After the data is collected, the researcher processed and analyzed them using Google Data that have been tabulated for further discussion in the next chapter.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 41 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 4.0 THE SURVEY OF QUESTIONNAIRE AND ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the researcher summarized each of questions accompanied by the chart explanation that has been tabulated by Google Form. The analysis that has been done was based on the Keller Model.
Statistics
SECTION A (DEMOGRAPHIC)
Age:
60 53 50 40 27
30 20 10
5
2
4
3
2
3
36-‐40 years
41-‐45 years
46-‐50 years
51-‐55 years
1
0 Below 21 21-‐25 years years
26-‐30 years
31-‐35 years
56-‐60 years
Picture 1
In this questionnaire, the respondents were asked to determine their age. From the chart above, we can see that the highest group of age who participate this survey is
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between 21-25 years old with 53 respondents. The second highest is between 26-30 years old with 27 respondents.
Picture 2
In the whole questionnaire, the ration of both gender of respondents are equal (1:1) which 50 male respondents and 50 female respondents.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 43 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
Picture 3
In this survey, the race dominated the data which shown above with 92% of respondents who answered the questionnaire are Malays. Chinese respondents with total 3% and 4% Indian respondents and only 1% others.
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Picture 4
From this question, we came to know that most respondents who answered this questionnaire are working in private sector as shown in the visual pie chart above, the highest percentage is 47% and the second highest is students which is 30%. 10% of respondents is self-employed and the respondents who are working n the public sector is only 7%. Lastly, the lowest percentage is unemployed respondents which only 6% overall.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 45 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
Picture 5
From the visual pie chart above, we can see the that the highest education of the respondents who answered the questionnaire is “Degree” with 55% and second highest goes to “Others” category which is 25% and followed by “Diploma” with 19%. Only 1% of respondents have “STPM” in this survey.
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SECTION B
A SURVEY OF BRAND AWARENESS
To investigate to what extend Malaysian knows about Malindo Air (brand awareness)
Picture 6
As resulted from the respective chart, we came to know that 43% of people know about Malindo Air is through advertisement for example Internet, or printed media while 31% percent of people know about Malindo Air through word of mouth which is falls to the second highest of percentage. And the third highest of percentage is 13%, which people know about Malindo Air through Online and the fourth highest is 9& which people came to know about Malindo Air is through searching airlines services. So from the data, we know that most people know about Malindo Air is through its advertisement.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 47 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air
Picture 7
From the pie chart, the highest percentage is 45% which means, people have seen the advertisement of Malindo Air either on newspaper, magazine or billboard which refer to the previous question that the highest percentage of people know about Malindo Air is through its advertisement. The second highest of percentage (26%) is through online which means on the websites or search engine. 20% of people have seen the advertisement of Malindo Air from social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter which makes it as the third highest from the percentages.
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Picture 8
In this question, the researcher aimed to know how effective the Malindo Air advertisement towards its audience and in the gross of 100 respondents, almost half of them, which are 48 people, responded moderately on how they feel towards Malindo Air advertisement. 30 respondents feel that the Malindo Air advertisement is good. 13 of respondents feel that the advertisement of Malindo Air is excellent. 6 of them feel that the advertisement is bad while only 1 respondent feels that the Malindo Air advertisement is worst.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 49 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air Which of the following attributes do you associate with brand name Malindo Air? 70
66
60 50
50
40 30
30
30 21
20
14
13 6
10
6
6
6
0
Picture 9
Associations
Number of votes
Affordable
66
Comfortable
50
Safe
30
Reliable
30
Friendly
21
Efficient
14
Modern
13
Popular
6
Expensive
6
49
Organized
6
Sustainable
6
Innovative
5
Punctual
5
Competent
5
None of the Above
3
Table 1
The question above is used to find out the association that underlying the people’s mind that could link to Malindo Air as much as possible. The respondents were given an option to choose maximum 3 associations that held in their mind when it comes to Malindo Air. From the results calculated from the questionnaire, 66 out of 100 respondents chose “affordable” which means more than half of the respondent thought the first and main association of Malindo Air is “affordable”.
The second highest of association that was chose by the respondent is “comfortable” which is half of the 100 respondents thought that Malindo Air is “comfortable”.
The same number of votes goes to “safe” and “reliable” which is 30 people associate Malindo Air with “safe” and “reliable”. When it comes to the words “safe” and “reliable” it means that the people may have a positive perception towards Malindo Air’s safety and the reliability of the airline.
However, the options like “friendly”, “efficient” and “modern” were chosen by relatively less respondent. Among of the three options, “friendly” is slightly higher than
50
Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 51 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air the other two with 21 votes and the degree for the rest is not that strong with 14 votes for “efficient” and 13 for “modern”.
The last 7 options to be mentioned particularly is the lowest percentage with not much differences compared to each other: “Popular”, “Expensive”, ”Organized”, ”Sustainable”, ”Innovative”, ”Punctual”, and ”Competent”.
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SECTION C
To identify what kind of perceptions in the public’s mind towards Malindo Air as portrayed by the brand association held in their memory (brand image).
Based on your current knowledge of these airlines, how would you rank these service providers against one another? Please respond to this question as if you were considering purchasing one of these airlines’ services.
60 50 40
Worst Bad
30
Fair Good
20
Excellent 10 0 Air Asia
Air Asia X Berjaya Air
Fire Fly
Malindo Air Malaysia Airlines
PICTURE 10
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 53 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air Worst
Bad
Fair
Good
Excellent
Air Asia
2
8
36
43
11
Air Asia X
2
3
49
23
14
Berjaya Air
13
15
57
12
3
Fire Fly
4
3
48
38
6
Malindo Air
2
0
29
48
21
Malaysia Airlines
3
1
15
53
28
MAS Wing
9
1
45
34
11
TABLE 2
The analysis of brand image comparing airlines in Malaysia is shown on the Picture 10. From the data above, we get to know on how people’s perceptions towards airlines in Malaysia.
From the tabulated data, we get a rough conclusion that most of the respondents voted “excellent” for Malaysia Airlines as the company is the national carrier. As well as Malindo Air after Malaysia Airlines, 21 respondents feel that Malindo Air is “excellent” and followed by Air Asia and Air Asia X.
The degree of the respondents voted “Good” for the airlines is the highest for all airlines that we can clearly get to a conclusion for the highest to the lowest preference. Malaysia Airlines still at the top rank with 53 votes from the respondents. The degree of votes between Malindo Air and Air Asia is quite similar with 48 votes for Malindo Air and 43 votes for Air Asia. The third rank for “good” votes goes to FireFly with 38 respondents out of 100 thought that FireFly services is good and followed by MAS Wing with 34 votes.
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Lastly that ought to be mentioned is Berjaya Air that we can see from Table 2 below that it extremely has the lowest votes for “good” and “excellent” and the airlines has the highest percentage of people choosing “fair” with 57 votes, “bad” with 15 votes and “worst” with 13 votes. We get to a conclusion that the brand image and the brand awareness for Berjaya Air is awfully low.
To conclude those choices from the respondents towards Malindo Air, there are fewer votes for “worst” and none for “bad” but the respondents who aware of this airline are mostly think that the airline is either good or excellent. There are quite a number of “fair” votes with 23 votes for the category which they have a neutral perceptions towards the airline. Neither side of the category is dominant over the other.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 55 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air How do you feel towards Malindo Air?
I think that Malindo Air will be accountable for any inconveniences
Malindo Air is a dependable brand Strongly Agree Agree
Malindo Air is an honest brand
Neither Agree/Disagree Disagree Malindo Air would be my first choice
Strongly disagree
I am loyal with Malindo Air 0
20
40
60
80
Picture 11 Strongly
Disagree
disagree
Neither
Agree
Agree/Disagree
Strongly Agree
I am loyal with Malindo Air
8
16
40
25
11
Malindo Air would be my first
8
20
32
23
17
3
6
33
47
11
5
3
20
61
12
5
4
21
51
19
choice Malindo Air is an honest brand Malindo Air is a dependable brand I think that Malindo Air will be accountable for any
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inconveniences Table 3
This questioned was designed by the researcher to know what the respondents think of Malindo Air personally and will Malindo Air be their preferred airline? This section consist 5 questions contains questions as mentioned above in the table 3. This questioned is not specifically designed for the passenger of the airlines but for the people whoever have heard of Malindo Air.
The results derived from the questionnaire showed that, most people have a good thought towards the airline but they are not sure whether the airline will be their first preference. This can be seen through Picture 5 mentioned that three highest degree of people agree with the statement of; “Malindo Air is an honest brand” (47 votes), “Malindo Air is a dependable brand” (61 votes), and “I think that Malindo Air will be accountable for any inconveniences” (51 votes).
Those two other questions shows that people still held the skeptical thinking to Malindo Air which they must be lack of brand awareness towards this airline towards Malindo Air. Even though their answer towards Malindo Air’s honesty, dependability, and accountability was mostly positive but they are not sure whether they Malindo Air will be their first preference as airline or not and they are somewhat not agree or disagree with their loyalty towards that airline. The result showed that only 25 respondents out of 100 agreed that they are loyal towards Malindo Air and about 23 respondents agree that Malindo Air will be their first choice.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 57 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air SECTION D To evaluate the public’s perception towards Malindo Air by analyzing through service quality (brand image)
What do you think about Malindo Air qualities?
I find Malindo Air online booking and Web check-in is user friendly I think that Malindo Air will be accountable for any inconveniences I feel comfortable when I fly with Malindo Air The flight schedule is punctual Strongly Agree I feel satisfied with Malindo Air customer service & hospitality
Agree Neither Agree/ Disagree Disagree
I think Malindo Air is convenient
Strongly Disagree
I trust Malindo Air as an airline I feel safe when I fly with Malindo Air The flight ticket is value for money 0
20
40
60
80
Picture 12
57
Strongly
Disagree
disagree The flight ticket is value for
Neither
Agree
Agree/Disagree
Strongly Agree
5
3
20
61
11
4
5
24
58
9
I trust Malindo Air as an airline
4
1
17
66
12
I
is
2
4
11
70
13
I feel satisfied with Malindo Air
5
4
24
55
12
The flight schedule is punctual
5
5
31
51
8
I feel comfortable when I fly
4
1
23
62
10
5
1
29
54
11
6
3
23
55
13
money I feel safe when I fly with Malindo Air
think
Malindo
Air
convenient
customer service & hospitality
with Malindo Air I think that Malindo Air will be accountable
for
any
inconveniences I
find
Malindo
Air
online
booking and Web check-in is user friendly
Table 4
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 59 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air This section is to evaluate the public’s perception towards Malindo Air by analyzing through service quality. From the tabulated data above, we found out that Malindo Air have a positive brand image with most questions converged with the votes of “agree” and “strongly agree”. The degree of the answer for those questions are almost the same with the average of 59 respondents voted “agree” with those statements given and average of 11 respondents votes “strongly agree” for those given statements.
Comparing relatively with the low votes for “disagree” and “strongly disagree”, we came out with the conclusions that the brand stands strong with their good brand image through their service quality that they have provided. The average of people who “strongly disagree” with those statements given was only 6 respondents while the average of “disagree” was only 5 respondents.
Referring to the previous question, we can see that people have a good thought towards the airlines either their personal thoughts or from their knowledge or experience towards the service provided by the airlines. However, they are still skeptical of choosing Malindo Air as their preferred airline.
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How likely do you feel attached to Malindo Air?
Picture 13
As we mentioned previously, the skepticism attitude of respondents in choosing Malindo Air have come to a conclusion where the respondents are mostly not feel attached towards the airlines.
The result above shows the general attitude held by these respondents are mostly “moderate” with the range of 2.8 – 3.85. The average of the results falls to the “moderate” range, which are 3.59.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 61 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air If you have experience flying with Malindo Air, how was the experience been?
Picture 14
This questionnaire was design to the focal respondents who have experienced flying with Malindo Air. From 100 respondents, 94 of them have experienced flying with this airline. Thus, total data tabulated from the picture is only 94 votes.
The purpose of asking this question to the respondents is to know the real evaluation from experienced respondents. We have got the final score tabulated from the bar chart above was in between “moderate” and “good” level with the average of 3.9.
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Will you consider using Malindo Air the next time you need to travel?
Picture 15
The respondents were asked whether they would consider of choosing Malindo Air the next time they need to travel. The result is shown in the visual bar chart above on Picture 15.
The highest range of answer is between 4.00-5.00, which the indicator means “definitely yes” with 49 votes from respondents. The second highest goes to “yes” votes with 23 respondents with the range of 3.00-4.00.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 63 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air In your opinion, what do you think Malindo Air should improve in the future? (CHOOSE NOT MORE THAN 3)
60 53 48
50
42 40
35
30 22
20
20
10 2 0 Price
Service
Comfortabilty
Safety
Hospitality
Punctuality
Others
Picture 17 On the last question, the respondents were given a choice to choose what they think that Malindo Air should improve for the future. This question was divided into 7 categories which respondents will have an option to choose from; price, service, comfortability, safety, hospitality, punctuality and others.
We have got the results, which from the visual bar chart above; there are 3 dominant answers that the respondents have chose. There are price, service and hospitality.
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The highest rank from the answer is “price” which has 53 votes from the respondents. From that, we know that the people want the airlines to improve in terms of pricewise and the second highest is 48 votes where the respondents wants the airlines to improve its services. And the third dominant votes in the ranking are “hospitality”.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 65 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air 5.0 CONCLUSIONS
In this research, the researcher will conclude all the results including the answer to the research questions and recommendation for further studies.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the importance of the brand image and brand awareness from the view of airlines companies. The researcher’s aim was to determine what kind of image that held in the consumers mind and how aware they are towards Malindo Air. Particularly the objective was to find out the brand image and the brand awareness of the case of Malindo Air; how is the Malaysian perception towards Malindo Air.
Positive recognition to the brand Based on the calculation that has made on the questionnaire, we can conclude that Malindo Air brand awareness by the respondents is relatively positive. The respondents were able to recognize the brand when the airline was placed in the list of other airlines companies in Malaysia. Most respondents are aware with the advertisement of the airline which the results that calculated from they question of “how did they come to know Malindo Air”, 43% of the respondents answered “from advertisement”.
Due to this finding, the conclusion that we can make is that the consumers have a good perceptions of generally known big airlines company that possess high publicity. However, we could not find further perceptions towards other airlines in this study as this
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study is specifically designed for Malindo Air. The level of awareness is mainly different compared to each other.
Moderately effective advertisement Even though advertisement dominates the recognition of the brand, we get to the conclusion that the advertisement of Malindo Airline is moderately effective. From the question of “how the respondents feel towards the advertisement of Malindo Air”, almost half of them which is 48 respondents out of 100 respondents thought that the advertisement of Malindo Air was moderate.
Highly positive brand image
The overall conclusion for the brand image of Malindo Air has highly positive results. We can see it from the Section C of the questionnaire that the answer of the brand image through the respondent’s own perceptions towards the airlines and through the service quality provided by the airline were mostly good. Which we came to know that, Malindo Air has a positive identity in the eyes of the public.
Any other local airline company in Malaysia can substitute Malindo Air
This was made according to the hesitation held by the respondents to their commitment towards Malindo Air. From the Section C of the questionnaire when the respondent were asked through their personal perception towards Malindo Air, it indicated that most respondents held a skeptical thinking towards their commitment and preference towards Malindo Air. We can also see from the question on “how like do they feel attached to Malindo Air” which the results shows the general attitude held by those respondents were mostly “moderate” with the range of 2.8 – 3.85. In other words, from
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 67 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air these respondents’ mind that Malindo Air is not so distinctive airline which the respondent’s decisions still vague in choosing Malindo Air as their first choice.
5.1 Limitations
There were few limitations regarding this study. The biggest limitation was the short time sequence of the analysis, which can effect later in the findings. In addition, the researcher is lack of experience and knowledge about the arrangement of the empirical study that limits the insight of the study in depth. One of he factors that limits this study is, it was rather difficult to get exactly the right respondents which who have experienced flying with Malindo Air, so the researcher broaden the sample all population.
5.2 Recommendation for further research and the case company
The consumer perception towards the brand is very crucial (D. Van Oudheusden, 1990). Thus, the continuation of this research is really recommended for the benefit of the airline itself. It can help the company to a great extent as further research may gain a deeper understanding towards the consumer perceptions.
The researcher and the airline personnel are recommended to do a further research in the future. It is highly recommended for the airlines to carry out the survey to get a precise result towards this study as the company is already know the internal market situation in the company.
In building the consumer’s understanding, the brand awareness about the product or service can influence consumer’s behavior and opinion (Watson, 2003). To build a deeper understanding of the consumer, the companies need to investigate the
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customer’s wants and needs by conducting a research method (Arken, Andrew, 2002). Future recommendation suggested that the in-depth qualitative research might be the best way to do in-depth research.
The Sun newspaper in October 2015 stated that Malaysia is one of the highest Internet users in the world where it is recorded that the Internet users has exceeded to 20.1 million users and 16.8 million being active in social media. To support that statement, the example that we can take is Air Asia who is one of leading low-cost carrier in the world uses Twitter to build brand awareness and it has 2.16 million followers. Social media can be used as powerful marketing tool to reach the consumers in order to build brand awareness.
In conclusion, the researcher of this thesis suggests that the case of Malindo Air should continue this investigation to improve its awareness in order to create brand equity.
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Nik Nur Shuhadah Nik Hassan 69 Brand Image and Brand Awareness Case Study: The Public Perceptions Towards Malindo Air REFFERENCES JOURNAL
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