1.0 : Introduction Research Topic : Effects of Brands on Purchase Evaluations of University Students 1.

1 Background of research A brand name is lucidly more than what that constitutes to the labelling of products. It is made up of complex symbols which represent many ideas and attributes associated with product it represents. It also involve putting symbolic markings on products for instance pottery, clothing and forged tools. Some stark examples would be NIKE for sports, Giorgio Armani for men & women garments, Loreal for cosmetics and beauty, and etc. Today, the notion brand is more inclined on having certain meanings or status for consumers, which is capable of influencing their evaluations of branded products. 1.2 Problem Definition According to Mary Bucholtz (2008), it is said that a frequent practice of teenagers on consumption was branding, or the association of brand name with social group. University students, which can be assimilated to teenagers are growing savvy about the notion brand, it is as such, deemed to be momentous to perform a study on the brand effects in relation to their buying decision. Albeit there are numerous researches on the domain of brand over the recent years, there is little evidence on its impact on university students buying decision. Thus, this research is designed in the ideal of addressing the issue mentioned. 1.3 Research Questions On the basis of the research focal point, the research questions are outlined and enumerated as below : 1) What is the relationship between price sensitivity and perceived brand quality? 2) Is there a significant difference in terms of awareness of advertisements across male and female university students? 3) What is the relationship between course stream and perceived brand performance?

1.4 Research Objectives 1. To determine the relationship between price sensitivity and perceived brand quality. 2. To examine the difference in brand awareness level across male and female university students. 3. To investigate the relationship between course stream and perceived brand performance. 1.5 Significant of Research This research is to investigate how the brand name can affect buying decision of university students. Other than that, this research also can help the students know what the other factors which influence their buying decision through particular brand. Besides that, it also can benefit to the marketers for what kind of product category most popular for the students. From there, the marketers can use different kind of marketing strategy to attract the university students to consume their product with their precious brand name.

2.0 : Literature Review In conducting this study, it was deemed necessary to examine the concept of brand, brand elements and consumer buying behavior, brand awareness, brand loyalty and brand performance in relation to purchase decision. A brand at its root is merely a name, symbol, sign or design that is used to distinguish one product or service from its competitors according to the American Marketing Associations definition (Jevons, 2005).

2.1 : Brands on consumer buying behavior A brand name is a notion that constitutes more than that of a label. A brand name may be a major product attribute and part of what consumers buy. It is in fact, a convoluted symbolic device that is capable of representing an assortment of ideas and attributes associated with the product it acts on. Having said so, it may be implied that consumer in turn, form complex attitudes and perceptions towards the brand name. These attitudes can be connected in respect with brand the perceived meaning of brand name, the verbal connotation of the brand name and another association resulted from company promotional activities and usage experience. The reputation of a brand is a major concern in the context of a consumers ultimate purchase decision. As such, a brand must be understandable so that it can be appropriately adopted to create the highest perceived quality or brand equity in the minds of the consumer. Consumer behavior refers to the activities in which people acquire, consume and dispose products and services (Blackwell et al., 2001). From consumer perspective, a brand is a guarantor of reliability and quality in consumer products (Roman et al., 2005). Many people do consume a wide range of products every day, from basic necessities to high-valued collectables. Owing to the proliferation of products in the market, such phenomenon is one of the most interesting and hence heavily investigated topics in the marketing field. As mentioned by Schiffman and Kanuk (2000), consumer behavior is about how people make their decisions on personal or household products with the use of their available resources such as time, money and effort. Blackwell et al. (2006) further provide a holistic view that defines consumer behavior as the activities and the processes in which individuals or groups choose, buy, use or dispose the products, services, ideas or experiences.

2.2 : Brand Awareness Brand awareness is one of momentous determinants of consumer purchase decision. It succinctly refers to the ability of a potential consumer to recall and recognize the brand, linking the brand with its corresponding product class (Keller, 2003). The level of brand awareness lies in a continuum, with brand recognition being tiered at the lowest end whilst the first named brand with unaided recall being tiered at the highest end. A growing body of evidence, however, suggests that the consumer in many purchase situations is, at best, a passive recipient of product information and one who tends to spend minimal time and cognitive effort in choosing among brands (Keller, 2003). In situations involving common, repeat-purchase products, consumers may choose a brand on the basis of a simple heuristic for example brand awareness and evaluate the brand subsequent to purchase (Keller, 2003). In such instances, awareness results mainly from exposure to advertising and other sources of information. It is paramount for the potential consumers to be aware of a branded product so that it can become one of the purchasing choices. This can be justified on the ground that the product needs to enter the awareness set, evoked set before it transmogrifies into the consideration set (Blackwell et al., 2001) and an increase in brand awareness would allow it to enter and trudge into the later set. Be it as such, brands that possess greater awareness would be more likely to be purchased (Yasin et al., 2007). This tacitly explains why consumers tend to buy a recognizable or acclaimed brand rather than an unfamiliar one (Keller, 2003).

2.3 : Brand Loyalty Brand loyalty is one of the core components of brand equity and also positively and directly affects brand equity (Atilgan et al., 2005). Under the influence of brand loyalty, consumers continue to buy the brand, regardless of the superior features, prices and convenience owned by its competitors (Aaker, 1991). The more loyal the consumers are towards the brand, the less vulnerable the customer base would be. Based on the practice that repeat buying is one of the indicators for brand loyalty, (Keller, 2003), be that as it may, challenges that such measure may not be absolutely accurate. This is due to the fact that some consumers make habitual purchase towards a particular brand just because of its prominence in stock and effective promotions. According to (Keller, 2003), it is essential to treat the customer with respect in order to keep them loyal. Moreover, customers can also be rewarded for their loyalty towards the firms so that

repeat purchase behavior will prevail. For instance, several airlines like Cathay Pacific, KLM and chain stores such as TOPMAN provide club-cards or loyalty cards to reward their customers with discounts and other benefits.

2.4 : Brand Performance (Keller, 2006) proposed some indices related to the evaluation of market behavior. He considered the market share, price and distribution coverage as the indices of brand performance measurement and he also pointed out that the brand performance measurement using the market share often provides a widespread and sensible reflection of the condition of a brand or its customers. When a brand has a relative advantage in consumers mind, its market share should increase or at least not decrease. He also points out that the market share or the sale related information is widely affected by distribution coverage. If a brand has a main market or loses that or it is developing in a region, the sale will be largely affected. (Keller & Lehman, 2003) consider the price elasticity, price premium, market share, cost structure, profitability and the success in category extension as the main indices of brand performance measurement. According to their research, the brand premium is in fact the added price that a customer pays for the brand of a product and the price elasticity is the increase or decrease of brand demand as a result of rise or decline in prices. Thus, when customers already have favorable opinions and knowledge about a brand, any aspect of the marketing program is likely to be more effective for the same expenditure level. In addition, according to Keller and Lehman (2006), the profitability and the development of opportunities are other factors of performance measurement and demonstrate the brand success in supporting line and category extensions and new product launches to the related categories.

2.5 : Research Model

Research Model
Independent Variables Dependant Variable

Brand Awareness

Brand Loyalty

Brand Purchase Decision

Brand Performance

Figure 2.1 : Theoretical Framework of the Effects of Brands on University Students Purchase Decision

2.6 : Hypothesis Formation

Ho : There is a significant relationship between price sensitivity and perceived brand quality. H1 : There is no significant relationship between price sensitivity and perceived brand quality.

Ho : There is a significant relationship between expectation on brand specifications and brand trustworthiness. H1 : There is no significant relationship between expectation on brand specifications And brand trustworthiness.

Ho : There is a significant relationship between gender and awareness of brand specialty store. H1 : There is no significant relationship between gender and awareness of brand specialty store.

Ho : There is a significant relationship between brand specification and brand trustworthiness. H1 : There is no significant relationship between brand specification and brand trustworthiness.

3.0 : Research Method 3.1 : Research Setting This research is an exploratory study on the effect of brand towards the buying behavior of the university students. It is a cross-sectional research as the research was conducted at a particular of time that we have set. We collected our data through online survey where questionnaires are distributed through Internet to the respondents. 3.2 : Sample used The sampling frame of this research that we have decided is the university students either from local or from overseas. The university students that we have included are both pursuing degree and master programme. The sample size that we have chosen for our research project is 100 university students due to the time constraint. The sampling technique that we have adopted in this research is the non-probability sampling technique. Before we distributed our questionnaires to the public, we did a pilot testing on 10 students in our university. The errors that we made are as the following: (i) (ii) (iii) The inconsistency in data scaling where there was a mixture of likert scale and multiple choices in one of the section in the questionnaire. The questions that were being asked in Section B and C were insufficient. There were some similar questions appeared in the questionnaires.

Therefore, we did the necessary changes in the questionnaires and added two questions in Section B and C. The problems were solved after that and could prepare to be distributed out to the respondents. We distributed our online questionnaires by using convenience sampling method. We used this technique because it is cost-saving. The questionnaires consist of four part where section A is demographic and section B, C, D are likert scale. 3.3 : Data collection We collected our primary data through the online survey. The type of questionnaire that we used is the Internet-mediated questionnaires. We distributed the questionnaires to 100 university students from both local and overseas through Internet. We chose this method because it is the most efficient way for us to collect a large number of responses prior to the quantitative analysis. In addition, we also used secondary data in our research project to support our research objectives and questions. We searched the related journals to our research topic from the library of University Tunku Abdul Rahman.

3.4 : Measurement Scales Reliability test was used for our research in order to determine the stability and consistency of the variables. Cronbachs Alpha reliability test was used to test the reliability of the findings obtained from the questionnaire. When the Cronbachs Alpha value of 0.6 or more, it generally means that the level of reliability of the findings in the questionnaires is high. Therefore, using Cronbachs alpha in term of measurement of the level of reliability shows the consistency of the result. Descriptive statistics provide simple summaries about the sample on demographic section. The data were presented in the form of pie charts to ease the understanding and to give a clearer picture on the section. Chi-Square test is employed to test the difference between an actual sample and another hypothetical or previously established distribution such as that which may be expected due to chance or probability. Chi Square can also be used to test differences between two or more actual samples. Therefore, in this research, we used Chi Square to test the course streams and brand personality. This is where art students were assumed to expect branded products to deliver a sense of personality, depicts and portrays their personalities. On the other hand, for the science students, their concern of brand performance is on functionality, the extend which the brand performs the requirements of the students. T-test was tested in this research where it is to compare the values of means between two samples. Therefore, in our research, we tested on whether male university students are influenced by brand equally as female university students. We will "rejects the null hypothesis" when the pvalue is less than the significance level (Greek alpha), which is often 0.05 or 0.01. When the null hypothesis is rejected, the result is said to be statistically significant. Spearmans rank correlation coefficient is a non-parametric analysis which assesses how well the relationship between two variables. In our research, the two variables are I am a price-sensitive buyer versus I expect my preferred brand's price to be matched with its quality. If there are no repeated data values, a perfect Spearman correlation of +1 or 1 occurs when each of the variables is a perfect monotone function of the other.

4.0 : Research Results 4.1 : Reliability Test

Section Buying Behaviour Brand Awareness Brand Loyalty Expectations on Brand Performance

Cronbachs Alpha 0.000 0.483 0.541 0.866

No. of Items 6 6 6 6

Based on the above figure, 100 cases (respondents) were used in the calculation of Cronbachs alpha. The highest obtained alpha score is 0.866 in the Expectations on Brand Performance section, which indicates that that sections scale has high internal consistency (reliability). The second highest is in the Brand Loyalty section where the Cronbachs Alpha score obtained is 0.541 which indicated that the mentioned section is not so reliable.

4.2 : Spearmans Rank Order Correlation Correlations Correlation Coefficient q2 Sig. (2-tailed) N Spearman's rho Correlation Coefficient q20 Sig. (2-tailed) N **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). q2 1.000 . 100 .307** .002 100 q20 .307** .002 100 1.000 . 100

A Spearmans Rank Order Correlation was run to determine the relationship between 100 respondents price sensitivity and preferred brand to be matched with its quality. There was an average, positive correlation between the two variables, which was (rs (98) = 0.307, P = 0.002). The hypothesis is supported.

Correlations q19 Correlation Coefficient 1.000 q19 Sig. (2-tailed) . N 100 Spearman's rho Correlation Coefficient .625** q24 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 100 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). q24 .625** .000 100 1.000 . 100

Another Spearmans Rank Order Correlation test was run to determine the relationship between 100 respondents expectations of their preferred brand to meet its specifications and their expectations of their preferred brand to be fully trustworthy. There was a significant positive correlation between the two variables, which was (rs (98) = 0.625, P = 0.000). The hypothesis is supported.

4.3 : Independent-Samples T Test

Gender Male Female

Group Statistics Mean Std. Deviation 70 30 3.2143 3.1667 .89916 .83391

q14

Std. Error Mean .10747 .15225

Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Sig. t-test for Equality of Means

df

Sig. (2Mean Std. tailed) Differenc Error e Differenc e .805 .799 .04762 .04762 .19211 .18636

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper -.33362 -.32529 .42885 .42053

q14

Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed

.708

.402

.248 .256

98 58.94 8

A t-test was conducted in comparing the values of means between two samples namely 30 male and 70 female university students. The question in interest is pertaining to whether male or female university students are aware of their preferred brand specialty stores in respect to gender. The p-value is determined as 0.402, implying that the difference between the two means is not statistically different from zero tested at 5% significance level. The hypothesis is not supported.

4.4 : Chi Square Test Course * q22 Crosstabulation q22 1.00 2.00 3.00 Count 2 4 20 % within Course 3.3% 6.6% 32.8% % within q22 66.7% 50.0% 62.5% % of Total 2.0% 4.0% 20.0% Count 1 4 12 % within Course % within q22 % of Total Count % within Course % within q22 % of Total 2.6% 33.3% 1.0% 3 3.0% 100.0% 3.0% 10.3% 50.0% 4.0% 8 8.0% 100.0% 8.0% 30.8% 37.5% 12.0% 32 32.0% 100.0% 32.0%

Total 4.00 24 39.3% 64.9% 24.0% 13 33.3% 35.1% 13.0% 37 37.0% 100.0% 37.0% 5.00 11 18.0% 55.0% 11.0% 9 23.1% 45.0% 9.0% 20 20.0% 100.0% 20.0% 61 100.0% 61.0% 61.0% 39 100.0% 39.0% 39.0% 100 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Art Course Science

Total

Course * q22

Case Processing Summary Cases Valid Missing N Percent N Percent 100 100.0% 0 0.0%

Total N Percent 100 100.0%

Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) a Pearson Chi-Square 1.013 4 .908 Likelihood Ratio 1.002 4 .910 N of Valid Cases 100 a. 4 cells (40.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.17.

The third test is Chi square test. The cross-tabulation allows us to understand that both art and science students have different perceptions in terms of brand personality. Based on the Pearson chi square result we obtain, chi square (1) = 1.013, p = 0.908. This tells us that there is no statistically significant association between course the perceived brand personality. Thus, the hypothesis is not supported.

5.0 : Discussion and Conclusion 5.1 : Summary of Results

5.2 : Implication of Research This research attempts to find out the effect of brands on consumer purchase evaluations. Albeit there are a lot of brands throughout the globe, whether they are influential towards consumers is the main focal subject and concern. As such, this study would provide insights for further study in this issue.

Under the premise of brand, four different domains were investigated, namely brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand performance and consumer buying behaviour. Through an understanding in university students buying behaviours, marketers can formulate the brand associations accordingly. In terms of brand awareness, owing to the fact that consumers will buy any branded product only after they are exposed and hold a certain extent of knowledge towards them, traditional promotional mix activities or channels such as advertising and word of mouth should be resorted instead to build up university students awareness. In terms of brand performance, having discovered that customers judge the brand quality and its price sensitivity based on the elements of materials, style, colour, durability, price and performance and ultimately as to whether these elements are incorporated into the brand so that it meets its specifications, it would be wise for marketers to collaborate with their suppliers and retailers in the promissory action of delivering consumers (university students) as what specified. Furthermore, it is of utmost importance to ensure that the brand meets its specification in order to match up with the sense of trustworthiness that university students projected on the brand, which is the pre-requisite to any meritorious brand loyalty behavioural formation.

5.3 : Limitations of the Research During the course of the research, several limitations have been determined to have hindered the results obtained. Although the research has met its objectives, there were some limitations which could not be eluded. Firstly, time constraint on this research had caused us to have a small sample size of respondents who did the questionnaires. Therefore, the results that we obtained might not be very accurate and conclusive. Secondly, human variation may be another limitation pertaining to the research. Each and every individual differs cognitively let alone that fact the research area is broad, involving various abstract elements and this would limit the accuracy of the research results as the ranking ( 1 to 5 ordinal scale) may be perceived differently. For instance, the scale 4, which amounts to agree, may be cognitively perceived as highly agreeable by one whilst measly agreeable by another. In both the scenario, it would be a predicament to effectively evaluate the responses of each and every respondent. 5.4 : Suggestions for Future Research Firstly, we suggest that this research study can change to a longitudinal study instead of a crosssectional. Hence, we could observe the changing in buying behavior of the university students towards perceived brand. Secondly, the sample size of the respondents should be increased. A larger sample size can increase the accuracy of the results of the research. This could provide much more conclusive results. Aside from that, other kinds of research methods such as focus group and even some quantitative research methods could be used so as to provide findings from different perspectives. Moreover, it would also be deemed paramount to narrow down the scope of this research study into specific industry or product. This would allow us to perform a detailed analysis on the specific industry and generality of the discussion of the research can be eliminated.