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Executive Summary 1. Introduction A customer’s brand loyalty on the basis of brand attitudes towards a specific product depends on the product’s relevant benefits provided by the company, the brand’s perceived ability to provide the benefits as well as on the uniqueness of the product. Beauty soap is a necessary product. Customers purchase the product normally for skin friendliness, less use of quantity, anti-bacteria etc. benefits. Some beauty soaps including Lux, Meril, Keya are available in Bangladesh. All of these brands are exposed to advertisement.
The attitude of a brand loyal customers to these brands or to its attributes is very important to the company for advertisement design and thereby their sales and profit. Buyers usually buy product when they are motivated by any purchase motivations. For the purpose of this study brand attitudes were measured by benefit composition. The purchase motivations can be linked with the benefits of the product in the category of need. For example, if consumers’ purchase motivation is problem removal (bad smell from mouth) can be linked to the fresh mouth texture benefit for the toothpaste.
In this study target audiences has been grouped into four categories. They are New Category users (NCU), Brand Loyals (BL), Brand Switchers (BS), and Other Brand Loyals (OBL). BLs are very important for companies’ profitability in the sense that the profit of a brand product does not come from the mass market but from the brand’s most loyal users ??? the relatively small proportion of the households that accounts for large percent of sales volume. Thus the company should concentrate on the BL customers. Normally the customers want some benefit from the brand products.
In case of beauty soap the benefits are aroma, skin friendliness, various colors, various sizes, attractive package, less use of quantity, reasonable price and anti-bacteria. Therefore, a customer’s brand loyalty on the basis of brand attitudes towards specific product depends on the product’s relevance benefit provided by a particular brand, the brand perceived ability to provide the benefit as well as on the uniqueness of the product. 1. 1 Origin of the Report This report has been originated as the fulfillment of “Project writing/Internship” course of the BBA program. I had to prepare this report under the supervision of Mr.
Syed Habib Anwar Pasha, lecturer of Faculty of Business Administration of Eastern University. I hope this report will give a clear idea about the brand attitudes of brand loyals of beauty soaps and their adverting implications. 1. 2 Problem Statement Brand attitudes of brand loyals of beauty soaps and their adverting implications are unknown. 1. 3 Justification Customers’ attitudes towards a brand are very important to a company in sales and profit terms. Beside this, the attitude of a brand loyal customer to the brand or its attributes is very important to the company for advertisement design and thereby their sales and profit.
That’s why it is necessary to identify brand attitudes of brand loyals of beauty soaps and their adverting implications. 1. 4 Literature Review Brand Attitude: Brand attitude refers to the buyer’s overall evaluation of the brand with respect to its perceived ability to meet currently relevant motivation. Brand attitude consists of logical benefits called cognitive component guiding the buyer’s behavior. It is also associated with emotional feeling of the buyers called affective component energizing buyer’s behavior. Brand Loyals:
Brand loyals are the customers who are attitudinally and behaviorally loyal to a brand and purchase the brand repeatedly. Brand Switchers: Brand switchers are the customers who change brands occasionally. Other Brand Loyals: Other brand switchers are the customers who do not use the brand but buy competitive brand. Benefit: Benefits are product attributes that the buyers want. Benefits are the ‘Surface means” used in advertisement and promotion offers to connect the brand with a motivation and thus influence brand attitude (Rossister-1987). Benefit Composition Rule:
Brand attitudes can be measured by benefit composition. Benefit composition rule describes how the buyer combines benefits in mentally arriving at an attitude toward the brand. This procedure makes the managers understand how the benefits of products should be handled. Benefit composition rule identifies the unique benefits, equal benefits and inferior benefits across the brand. Accordingly advertisement campaign can be designed. According to benefit composite rule, brand attitude is measured by the following formula (Rossister, 1989). Abs = ( Bbis Iis
Where Abs = Brand attitude Bbis = Benefit belief (delivery) for the brand Iis = Relevance weight (importance) on benefit Uniqueness is indicated by the variance of Bbis across brand. If Bbis equal across the brand, then there is no uniqueness. 1. 5 Objectives of the Report Broad Objective: The broad objective of the study was to measure brand attitudes of brand loyal customers of beauty soaps to identify the advertisement implications. Specific Objective: The specific objectives were: — To measure the attitudes of brand loyals of Lux, Meril and Keya beauty soap, — to provide guideline for advertising campaign, — to identify the benefits of beauty soap , — to determine the importance of the benefits of beauty soap and — to determine the brand belief (delivery) of beauty soap 1. 6 Scope of the Report I am very fortunate that I could work on this topic. I have had an opportunity to gather knowledge by working on this report. The area of concentration of this report is confined in investigating brand attitudes of brand loyals of beauty soaps, uniqueness of brands and their advertising implications. . 7 Limitations I have faced some barriers for making a complete and perfect report. These barriers limitations, which hinder my work, are as follows: . I was placed for only 3 months of time. The time span was not sufficient enough. Therefore, it was very difficult to carry out the whole analysis. . I have done two other courses with this (Project writing/Internship) course, which hindered the opportunity to put me the full effort for this study. . During data collection, some respondents have showed their unwillingness to answer. . 8 Methodology The methodology of the study including sample selection, data namely collection, data analysis, etc. is being detailed below. Sample Brands: A number of beauty soaps are available in the market. Such as, Lux, Meril, Keya, Arometic, Tibbet, Cosco etc. Out of these available brands Lux, Meril and Keya have higher demand, continuous supply and higher sales. Thus these brands were selected for the purpose of the study. Sample Respondents: The sample population is not the whole target group rather only a part of it.
The target groups can be classified as new category users, brand loyals, brand switchers, and other brand users. Out of the four categories, for the purpose of this study, the population has been narrowed down to the brand loyals. The brand loyals of the selected beauty soaps living in the Dhaka metropolitan area were the population. So, data were collected from the respondents only if they were the brand loyals of any one of the three selected brands. Sample Size: The sample size was 90 brands loyals consisting of 30 from each brand.
Sampling Technique: Convenience sampling. Data Sources: Data were collected mainly from primary sources. The respondents were the primary source of data. Personal interviews were conducted to collect data from the respondents by using a structured questionnaire. Besides; some supplementary data were collected from secondary sources. These were books and web sites. Data Collection Procedure and Instrument: Data were collected using a formal structured questionnaire and through personal face-to-face interviews. Brand attitude measurement procedure:
As stated earlier, the brand attitude is measured based on the overall evaluation of the benefits. Benefit composition rule that measures brand attitude of a particular motivational state was used for this purpose. This benefit composition model was also favored by some scholars (Tucker, 1960; Wilkel and Edgar, 1973,Myers et al. 1968). According to benefit composite rule, brand attitude is measured by the following formula (Rossister, 1989). Abs = ( Bbis Iis Where Abs = Brand Attitude Bbis = Benefit belief (delivery) for the brand Iis = Relevance weight (importance) on benefits
Uniqueness is indicated by the variance of Bbis across brand. If Bbis equal across the brand, then there is no uniqueness. Data analysis: The analysis was done in light the analysis procedure used for measurement procedure of attitude used by Rossiter (1987). 2. 0 Findings The findings of the empirical research have been reported in this section. The benefits of the three brands of beauty soap, the relative importance of the benefits, the brand attitudes of the buyers, and the advertisement instrument that the managers of these companies should design etc. ave been accommodated as detailed below. Determining the Brand Benefits of the Beauty Soaps: The benefits of the beauty soap of three brands under study were found similar to the brand loyals (BLs) of three brands. However, the perceived importance of the benefits differs across BLs. The brand benefits are skin friendly, anti-bacteria, scent, attractive package, use of less quantity, reasonable price etc. were found as the benefits using the brands (Table 1). Table-1: Benefits of Beauty Soaps Benefits | Frequencies of Replies | | | Lux | Meril | Keya | |Skin friendly |30 |30 |30 | |Use of less quantity |27 |29 |30 | |Anti-bacteria |30 |30 |30 | |Scent |30 |29 |29 | |Color variety |30 |28 |25 | |Various sizes |30 |30 |30 | |Attractive package |30 |30 |30 | |Reasonable price |30 |30 |30 | Importance of Benefits of Beauty Soaps: The Importance of Benefits of the Beauty Soap is discussed separately as bellow. Importance of Benefits of Lux to the BLs (Brand Loyals): Table-2: Importance of Benefits of Lux Soap to Brand Loyals Benefits |#8 |#7 |#6 |#5 |#4 |#3 |#2 |#1 | |Parameter |V |f |vf |f |vf |f |vf |f | |Parameter |V |f |vf |f |vf |f |vf |f | |Parameter |V |f |vf | |Skin friendly |5. 93 |6. 43 |4. 87 | |Use of quantity |4. 57 |5. 73 |4. 3 | |Anti-bacteria |5. 33 |5. 83 |5. 20 | |Scent |5. 83 |6. 27 |3. 23 | |Color variety |5. 80 |5. 40 |4. 97 | |Various sizes |6. 03 |5. 53 |4. 93 | |Attractive package |5. 53 |5. 7 |5. 37 | |Price |5. 83 |6. 53 |5. 07 | Uniqueness of Lux: Color variety and various sizes of Lux are the unique benefits of the brand. This brand gives superior delivery of the said benefits better than other brands (Table 8). Uniqueness of Meril: The skin friendliness, anti-bacteria, scent and attractive package were found as the uniqueness of the brand (Table 8). Compared to other two beauty soaps, it has the highest delivery or benefit belief of skin friendliness, anti-bacteria, scent and attractive package.
As we know that those were considered as uniqueness, which have a delivery of more than average, that is 5 or more than 5, from that point of view use of quantity and price of Meril should have uniqueness. But these are negative side of this brand. Because use of quantity 5. 73 means it is in between just above average and high. That means BL consumers think that Meril soap is finished quickly than use and price 6. 53 means the price of this soap is in between high and very high. That’s why these two criteria (use of quantity and price) are not considered as uniqueness of Meril beauty soap. Uniqueness of Keya: Table 8 indicates that Keya has uniqueness in the price compared with other two brands. Because price is lower than other brands.
Brand Attitudes of the BLs toward Beauty Soaps: Brand attitudes of the customers were measured using the formula described in methodology section (Abs = ( Bbis Iis). The attitudes of the BLs of the beauty soap under the current study have been summarized in this section. Table-9 Attitudes of the Brand Loyals toward Beauty Soaps |Parameter |Lux |Meril |Keya | |I |D |I x D |I |D |I x D |I |D |I x D | |Skin friendly |5. 97 |5. 93 |35. 40 |6. 97 |6. 43 |44. 82 |5. 57 |4. 87 |27. 13 | |Use of quantity |5. 17 |4. 57 |23. 63 |6. 13 |5. 73 |35. 12 |5. 7 |4. 93 |25 | |Anti-bacteria |6. 13 |5. 33 |32. 67 |6. 77 |5. 83 |39. 47 |5. 63 |5. 20 |29. 28 | |Scent |6. 37 |5. 83 |37. 14 |5. 60 |6. 27 |35. 11 |5. 60 |3. 23 |18. 09 | |Color variety |4. 43 |5. 80 |25. 69 |4. 57 |5. 40 |24. 68 |3. 33 |4. 97 |16. 55 | |Various sizes |5. 17 |6. 03 |31. 18 |5. 20 |5. 53 |28. 76 |5. 23 |4. 93 |25. 78 | |Attractive package |4. 4 |5. 53 |24. 33 |5. 50 |5. 97 |32. 84 |4. 87 |5. 37 |26. 15 | |Price |6. 47 |5. 83 |37. 72 |5. 70 |6. 53 |37. 22 |5. 63 |5. 07 |28. 54 | |Total | | |247. 76 | | |278. 02 | | |196. 52 | | In the above table, I = Importance of Benefits to Brand Loyals D = Consumer Benefit Belief (Delivery)
An explanation of one row will clarify it more. Let’s take the “Skin friendly” row of Lux brand. Here the average importance of benefits (I) of skin friendliness of Lux soap to brand loyals is 5. 97 (table-2) and average consumer benefit belief delivery (D) of skin friendliness of Lux soap is 5. 93 (table-5). By multiplying these two numbers (5. 97 and 5. 93) we get 35. 40 (table-9). In this way the rest of the calculation has been conducted and then according to the formula I have added all the multiplying (IxD) results. From table 9 it can be concluded that the attitudes towards the Meril beauty soap of the brand loyals were highest to the brand as the total score was 278. 2, which is highest score compared to other brands. According to the table the brand loyals of Lux beauty soap revealed their second highest attitudes toward the brand (247. 76). Again the brand loyals of Keya beauty soap were placed at the third position for their attitudes toward the brands with a score of 196. 52. , 3. 0 Conclusion The study was all about measuring brand attitudes of brand loyals (BLs) of Lux, Meril and Keya beauty soap. The measurement of brand attitudes based on benefit composition rule of three beauty soap provided a clear picture of the brand benefits, the relative importance of brand benefits, the brand benefit belief or the delivery of the benefits.
Among the brands the brand loyals of Meril were found to have the highest attitudes to the brand followed by the attitudes of the Lux brand loyals and attitudes of Keya beauty soap’s brand loyals. The study identified some benefits of the beauty soap namely, skin friendly, use of quantity, scent, anti-bacteria etc. But the delivery of all the benefits was not very effective. Based on the benefit wanted by the BLs and the uniqueness of the delivery of some benefits the company and the advertising agency can develop a new advertising campaign to grow more confidence of the brand loyals (BLs) and to attract the brand loyals. ———————– Chapter-1 Introduction Chapter-2 Findings Chapter-3 Conclusion Chapter-4 Recommendations And Advertisement Implications