Low Stability of Brand-Attribute Associations Article Critique - Essay Example

? Article critique: The low stability of brand-attribute associations is partly due to market research methodology Introduction “Brand attributes area bundle of features that highlight the physical and personality aspects of the brand” (‘Brand Attributes’ 2012). Brand attributes have definite roles in increasing brand loyalty. According to Business directory (2012), brand loyalty is “The extent of the faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases, irrespective of the marketingpressure generated by the competing brands” (‘Brand Loyalty’ 2012). According to Carvalho et al. (2011), “brand associations and product attributes are critical when a new foreign brand is introduced into the market” (Carvalho et al. 2011: 135). Each brand or product may have specific or unique attributes which may catch the attention of the consumers. For example, specific attributes of Coca Cola brand are: “Great Tasting, Very Refreshing, Thirst Quenching, High Quality, Worth What it Costs, Goes Well With Meals and Snacks etc” (‘Brand Attribute Differentiation’ n.d.: 6). These unique features encourage the consumers to taste coke drinks frequently. In short, brand attributes play a significant role in determining the consumer associations with various brands. Summary of Article Dolnicar S. and Rossiter J. R. published an article ‘The low stability of brand-attribute associations is partly due to market research methodology’ in International Journal of Research in Marketing in 2008, which explains an experiment conducted by them to study the reasons for the low stability of consumers’ brand-attribute associations. In order to increase the stable brand-attribute associations, they recommended: use of a shorter, brand-prompted attribute association task; inclusion of a “don’t know this brand” option to isolate ratings of brands unknown to the individual; omission of the standard instruction to guess when uncertain; and, in cross-cultural studies, translation of instructions and attribute descriptions into appropriate ?rst languages. They accepted the fact that it is difficult to accept 100% brand loyalty even with the above improvements. They concluded that the imperfect stability in brand loyalty means that consumers learn brand-speci?c attribute associations that are temporary but stable enough to lead them to try or re-try the brand (Dolnicar and Rossiter 2008: 104). The structure of the article The structure of the article is well balanced. All the necessary components needed for a research study is well incorporated in this article. Some hypotheses were discussed in the Introduction part. However, the Introduction gave more importance to the methodology of the study rather than the background details of the study. The authors could have provided the findings of previous researchers to make the Introduction more meaningful. Body of the article is provided under the label “Factors hypothesized to affect brand-attribute association stability”. One of the most significant aspects of this article is the fact that the body has been given under various subheadings so that the readers can easily identify various information. Different factors relevant to the study were given under different subheadings. It should be noted that different headings and subheadings are given with the help of bold and italic letters so that the readers may not face any problems in reading the paper. In the Method part, the authors discussed various methods used in their study. Details of the participants, sample size, nature of sample, primary and secondary data collection methods, etc., were explained comprehensively in the Method part. The Methodology part was explained further with the help of tables. Dependent variables and independent variables were also explained in the Method part. The fourth section is the Results. The Result section is divided into two parts: Univariate and Multivariate Perspectives. Again, the Result section is also explained with the help of tables so that the readers may get the details about the results easily. Results obtained in the study were discussed comprehensively in the Discussion section. Instead of giving Conclusion as a separate section, it was given as the last paragraph of the discussion. A separate Conclusion section would have been more appropriate for this article. In short, the structure of the article is generally good apart from the slight mistakes in the Introduction part. Methodology The authors used a brand-image survey as the major data collection source. This survey was conducted among same consumers on two different occasions to get more reliability to the data collected. Surveys and interviews were conducted by the authors for primary data collection. However, they analyzed the data using a different scale. Stability of brand attribute associations was measured on the basis of the following formula: Stability = 11/(10 + 01 + 11) ? 100%, where “11” refers to the frequency of associations made in the ?rst interview and again in the second interview, “10” indicates the frequency of associations made in the ?rst interview but not in the second, and “01” indicates the frequency of associations made in the second interview but not in the ?rst. The above formula helped the authors to account for the “forward” nonrepeat rate and the “backward” nonrepeat rate, since instability can occur forwards (10) or backwards (01) during the two interviews (Dolnicar and Rossiter 2008: 104). Sample This survey was conducted twice within a short time period because of the awareness that in the long run, same consumers may change their purchasing attitudes and behaviors. Participants in the study were undergraduate business students at an Australian university. It should be noted that brand awareness and loyalty are seen mostly among teenagers and, hence, the selection of the participants fully justified. However, it would have been better, had the authors collected samples from few more universities. It should be noted that culture and social factors can affect the consumer attitudes immensely. Diversity among the participants would have given more credibility to this study. Findings In order to increase brand-attribute associations, the authors suggest lot of options. However, they accept the fact that 100% brand loyalty cannot be achieved under any circumstances. The findings are not much clear even though the authors try to analyze the findings or results in two different perspectives: univariate and multivariate. In other words, it is difficult for a layman to understand the findings of this study. The authors could have discussed the findings in simple language so that all the people may understand it. Even though the authors attached a conclusion paragraph at the end of the discussion part, they failed to explain the limitations of this study. Recommendations for future study would have given more clarity to the findings of this study. Conclusion In my opinion, this article has lot of positives and negatives. It tried to analyze brand loyalty or brand associations through different perspectives. However, it failed to present the ideas in simple language so that even layman can understand it. References ‘Brand Attributes’ (2012) [Online] Accessed 24 June 2012 . ‘Brand Attribute Differentiation’ (n.d.) [Online] Accessed 24 June 2012 . ‘Brand Loyalty’ (2012) [Online] Accessed 24 June 2012 . Carvalho, S. W., S. Samu and S. Sivaramakrishnan (2011) ‘The Effect of Country-Related Brand Associations and Product Attributes on Attitude toward Unfamiliar Foreign Brands: A Schema Congruity Perspective’, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 23 Issue 2: 135-150. Dolnicar, S. and J. R. Rossiter (2008) ‘The low stability of brand-attribute associations is partly due to market research methodology’, Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 25: 104–108. Read More