Brand Preference Survey - Research Paper Example

Marketing Research Literature Review A brand is very important in penetrating the market and the product has to make an impact in the desired market. The brand therefore plays a very important role in the daily life of consumers. There has been a growing interest in determining the perceptions consumers, especially teenagers and young adults towards brands. Bosch (2003) asserts that brand awareness amongst teenagers and young adults has been on the rise. In fact, it has become a vital description of how young consumers define themselves and how they want their fellow youngsters to view them. In spite of this very important tendency, the available information on the relationship between the young consumers’ consumption values and cognitive maturity is very scarce. This paper aims to discover the perceptions of the young consumers involving the wearing of T-shirts that have been branded. Teenagers and young adults, often referred to as the youth, are known to be brand conscious since they are able represent and identify themselves with particular brands. In their wearing of wide variety of branded t-shirts seen with every young person on the streets which are large enough to be identified without any kind of confusion. Most of them are usually conversant with the types of brands on the clothes they wear, the names of the latest fashions and even the latest electronic devices. McNeal (2002)found out at most of the brands the young people are interested in are the globally recognized brands such as Dell, Nike, Reebok, Manchester United, Arsenal, USA, Adidas and Nokia amongst others. More studies show that teenagers and young adults view people with and without branded clothing differently from people older than or younger than them. Chan (2004 asserts that there are two things that differentiate the young consumers from their older counterparts. Firstly, they admit that Nike and Adidas were their preferred brands for their shoes and Aqua VI, Ben Sherman and Black Hearts Brigade for the T-shirts. Second, they also acknowledge that modern and the latest brands like the ones with slogans that communicate a message of what they stand for. T-shirts that communicate their view of the world and speak their opinion of what happens in the world. Slogans like “One People, One World,” “Family Matters” are some of the slogans that the young people prefer on their t-shirts. These researches done in the past add value to any market research that is aimed a developing branded t-shirts for the young adults and the teenagers. More research shows that children aged between thirteen and nineteen years are less concerned with brands that are associated with food products. They are conscious about such brands that are associated with records, artists, video games, toys and sporting goods. The young adults have a slightly different interest with regard to their perception. They prefer brands of the latest technological gadgets like Nokia, Sony Eriksson, Samsung and Motorola. The more mature young adults of ages between 23 and 27 years are interested in brands that are related to the latest car models and the bigger gadgets. Nokia is the most popular brand among the young consumers which explains why Nokia is aggressively campaigning with a strategy targeted to reach consumers ranging from teenagers to mature adults. The marketing department of Gamma Inc. has to develop branded T-shirts that meet the tastes and preferences of the young consumers as discussed earlier. This is because, the teenagers and the young adults make the most of any populations and are recorded to be the highest spenders when it comes to consumer products like the branded T-shirts. The older generations don’t pay much attention to the brand while the very young don’t care much. If the children aged below 13 years of age care about the brand, they dong have much of a choice because most of them are presented with already bought clothes from their parents. The marketing research to be done by the Gamma Inc. has to focus on the future as much it focuses on the present. The brands as much as they have a force in the present, they also determine the future trends of young consumers. This will largely depend on the brands that will be driving the market at the time. The designing of branded T-shirts for sale is not a fire fighting exercise. It is the designing of a product that will stay in the market and appeal to the future generation of young consumers. A look into the future is vital for any marketing researcher and strategist. Predicting the future speeding trends in the market is certainly an innate desire that helps to cultivate the product as it grows up. How many of the young spenders will prefer a certain brand of T-shirt in the future is certainly an issue to be concerned when designing a marketing research. After knowing that the teenagers and the young adults are conscious about the kind of brands appear on their clothes, something has to be done such that the branded T-shirts that are designed and developed with the participation and the engagement of the young consumers. As a market researcher, your mind should be acutely focused on the advantages of procedures that will ensure that the product you develop will still be appealing to the young people in many years to come. As far as the value attached to the brands is concerned, most of the young consumers associate the brands they chose for their T-shirts with their desire for a life of satisfaction, fun, happiness and high standards of information and being at par with what is the latest in the world. Such a life is highly associated with the consumers who use the branded T-shirts. Basically, this shows that the value attached to these branded T-shirts are developed log before they reach their teenage years. It is however very important to know that research has proved that the young consumers have mixed feelings about T-shirts with different brands. Even though they have a desire to own branded T-shirts, they also have negative feelings about what effects a certain brand might have on their image (McNeal, 2009). They feel that people putting on clothes like branded T-shirts are viewed to be arrogant, cunning, greedy and craft. To understand more how teenagers and young adults relate to branded T-shirts, Gamma Inc. has to do more research into brand marketing to get a clear picture of their consumer behavior before producing and rolling out the branded T-shirts. Main Aim To find out if teenagers and young adults buy branded T-shirts and how they purchase them. Specific Objectives 1. To determine the consumer trend of teenagers and young adults of branded T-shirts 2. To investigate the perceptions the teenagers and young adults have towards branded T-shirts 3. To determine the types of brands the teenagers and the young adults prefer for their T-shirts. Method A discovery based method was used to determine whether and how the teenagers and the young adults purchase the branded T-shirts. The qualitative technique of in-depth interviews was chosen to define the spending trends of the young adults and the teenagers (Fourier, 2008). The interview was well structured with the main aim of finding out the direct or indirect consumers experiences (teenagers and young adults) with branded T-shirts in form of conversations with an intention. The sample was purposively selected with vital differences in the socio-demographic personalities to get a wide range of perceptions on the consumption of branded T-shirts. A total of eight teenagers and young adults aged between 14 to 23 years were interviewed in their neighborhoods. The interview questions were a follows; Who buys you the branded-shirts? Why do you like branded T-shirts? What types of brands do you like for your T-shirts The interviews were tape recorded and transcripts produced for thematic analysis. The researcher listened to the tapes again following the transcripts line by line to ensure that the nothing has been missed form the responses give by the six respondents during the interview. Findings The thematic analysis of the in-depth interviews produced several answers. The question of who bought the teenagers and the young adults showed how most of them are still dependent on others, especially parents to buy them clothes. In fact some of the teenagers were at a loss in determining whether they bought themselves anything and they made comments like ‘I just have them’ or ‘I just get them’. However, the patterns did show that the participants did know how they got the branded T-shirts. Generally, most of them identified that they bought the clothes on their own, or they made their own choices but the money was provided by the parents, or older siblings. They supplier of money was taken to be the one who bought them. ‘My parents’ ‘My Mum gives me the money, and then I buy them’ ‘She (Sister takes me shopping and then buys me the one I want’ .My dad buys me everything. Another way that the teenagers get the branded t-shirts is hat of buying it themselves. This response was received from the 3 of the four young adult’s respondents and one of the teenagers (Seventeen years old). The following examples are some of the explicit responses to buying the clothes themselves: ‘No one has ever bought me anything good, I do it by myself’ ‘I get my own stuff.’ In the teenagers and the young adult’s statements, there is a sense of identification that goes with the kind of brands they like on their t-shirts. Only a few of them described their reason of liking the branded t-shirts as casual as liking any other clothes. Many of them found it difficult to respond to this question and could not get a reason as to why the like and buy branded t-shirts. The common response was, ‘I just like them’ ‘I just buy them’ At least three of the respondents admitted that they liked the branded t-shirts because they were cool and made them look as cool as their friends. The three responses to why they buy the branded t-shirts were: ‘They are just cool; I can’t imagine putting on jus a plain thing!’ ‘I buy them because most of the time pals have the same. I must fit in the crew men. I don’t want to look like the odd one out’ ‘They just make me feel good; on top of the world, especially when it carries my best brand.’ These responses and the other discussed earlier suggest that the teenagers and the young adults may not have a self driven reason why they buy branded t-shirts. However, two of the respondents, 25% of the sample, admitted that they just buy t-shirts and they don’t like branded ones. Most of the reasons have external factors like what others might think of them and peer pressure. For reason, the branded t-shirts to be produced by the Gamma Inc. company should give the teenagers and the young adults a reason to buy them continuously. The questions to what types of branded they liked on their t-shirts, the answers revolved around the whether the brand was the latest or on fashion. Only one respondent, a young adult, mentioned liking such brands like Nike. Although this draws a lot of concerns about the old brands like Nike, Adidas, Umbro and others and the influence they have on the young consumers. The responses to what kind of brands they liked on their t-shirts were: ‘Any brand on fashion will do for me’ ‘The latest brands like those of the current great musicians, football teams or the winning basketball team. Anything current that keeps me on top.’ ‘The gorgeous one (A girl)’ “Any cool fashionable brand can do.” These responses show that the type of brand that Gamma Inc. should put on the t-shirts should be latest fashions that are cool enough to appeal to the teenagers and the young adults. Quantitative Research The findings from the qualitative research can be made more valid and relevant to the Gamma Inc. an effort to determine the purchasing trends of the teenagers and you adults. Unlike the qualitative research which was administered to a very small sample, the quantitative research will look at the purchasing trends of a larger population of teenagers and the young adults. The ones targeted will be those who are able to visit our website and any other place where the questionnaire will be posted. The people to participate are expected to be many and that is the essence of a quantitative research. The quantitative research will be done through the use of a questionnaire. The development of the online questionnaire is very important. The designing the questionnaires for the online quantitative data collection followed general guideline which includes: Careful definition of the Objectives of Study Determination of the Sample Group Formulating the Questionnaire Carrying out the Questionnaire Analysis and Interpretation of the Results The definition of the objectives produced the following new objectives: Do you usually buy branded-shirts? Do you usually buy the branded t-shirts personally? Why do you like branded T-shirts? Which brands do you like for your t-shirts? The sample is likely to be very large and the questions were formulated in such a way that only the required population filled the questionnaire. This was done by informing the participants that they are only allowed to fill the questionnaire if they are within the age bracket, (14 years to 23years of age). The formulation or writing the questionnaire was done in such a way that measures and scaling was used to make the questionnaires suitable for a quantitative research. The designed questions for the online questionnaire are those that had some background to the qualitative research and findings done earlier. For example, the question “Do you like branded t-shirts” could be asked because there were some respondents in the qualitative research who admitted they don’t like t-shirts while others do. The line between the background and personal information is very thin, so the questions should be formulated in such a way that personal realm is not intruded unless very necessary. The scales of measure were different depending on the question but they all took a scale of 0 to 4: Examples of the scales are: a). 0 No answer 1 Not at all 2 A little bit 3 Much 4 Very Much Questionnaire Name of respondent (Optional): Age (Years): Below 14 14 – 19 20-23 Above 23 No Answer Do you wear Branded t-shirts: 0: Never 1: rarely  2: Sometimes  3: Often  4: Very Often Do you Usually Buy Branded t-shirts? 0: Never 1: rarely  2: Sometimes  3: Often  4: Very Often Do you like branded t-shirts? 0: No 1: A little  2: Sometimes  3: Much  4: Very Much Which Brands do you like? 0: None 1: Any  2: Fashionable  3: Latest  4: Old Ethical Considerations for the qualitative and Quantitative Researches There are different ethical issues that should be considered in carrying the above research be it qualitative and quantitative. Independence and Anonymity: The participants should know that they are not obligated to answer any question unless they want to Incentives: If there are incentives to be used in collecting the data they should be used sparingly and not as bait to force the participants to respond. The questionnaires should not require the name of the respondent for validity. It should have an option for anonymity. There should confidentiality to a certain extent. If some questions require identification for the purposes of follow-up, the participants should be assured that the information is confidential and will not be shared without their consent. The data given by the participants should be handled by the researchers in order of the privacy Act. The information that is needed to be private should not be released to unknown persons. The participants should be informed why the questions are being asked and how it will benefit them. The interview questions and the questionnaire questions should be reviewed and approved by an unbiased ethics committee. The information that the participants give should not harm them in any way. References Bosch, G., (2003). The meaning of brand names to children: a developmental investigation. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13 (3), 205-219. Chan, H. (2004). Material world: Attitudes towards toys in China. Young Consumers, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp 54-65. Fourier, S., 2008. Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, March, 343-73. McNeal, G.U. (2002). Kids as Customers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children. Lexington Books, New York, NY. McNeal, H.Y. (2009). The Young consumer: A new market. Journal of Retailing,Vol 45, pp. 15-22. Read More