A STUDY ON CUSTOMER PERCEPTION

TOWARD BRAND AWARENESS WITH

REFERENCE A.R.ENTERPRISES.
1. Introduction
For most companies in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) environments,developing and
maintaining strong brands is a key element oftheir marketing strategy (Aaker, 2002; Keller &
Lehmann, 2006). In comparison, companies targeting business customers often put less
strategic emphasis on branding (Bendixen, Bukasa, & Abratt, 2004).Consequently, according
to the most recent brand ranking conducted by Business Week and Interbrand, only 17
Business-to-Business (B2B)brands are listed among the 100 most valuable brands worldwide
(Business Week, 2009). This low number is particularly surprising given the much larger
economic importance of B2B relative to B2C transactions (Hutt & Speh, 2006).
Marketing managers in B2B markets therefore face an important question: Have they unjustly
neglected branding as a marketing instrument, or do B2B market characteristics prevent
brands from being effective? These managers receive little guidance from
marketing academia because previous research has mainly focused on B2C brands (e.g.,
Bendixen et al., 2004). However, considerable differences between organizational buyers and
consumers prevent an easy application of findings from this research stream to a B2B
context. In particular, compared to consumers, organizational buyers are characterized as
being exposed to different risks with a personal and an organizational dimension (Mitchell,
1995), as processing information more intensively (Johnston & Lewin, 1996) and as putting
greater emphasis on establishing long-term supplier relationships (Webster & Keller, 2004),
leading to more rational buying decisions (Bunn, 1993; Wilson, 2000). Brand awareness is
the focal independent variable in our study. It is a key branding dimension (e.g., Aaker, 1996)
and has been shown to have an impact on brand choice, even in the absence of other brand
associations (e.g., Hoyer & Brown, 1990). Applying Keller's (1993) well established
definition of brand awareness to a B2B context, we define brand awareness as the ability of
the decision-makers in organizational buying centers to recognize or recall a brand. In
previous research, increases in sales have been identified as a key aim of branding activities
(Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). Therefore, we consider market performance as a key
consequence of brand awareness in our framework. We define market performance as firm
performance in terms of the development of the quantity of products or services sold, which
in turn is captured by customer loyalty, the acquisition of new customers, the achievement of

the aspired market share, and the achievement of the aspired growth rate (Homburg &
Pflesser, 2000). As recommended in a number of recent studies in the marketing literature
(Lehmann, 2004; Mizik & Jacobson, 2003; Rust, Ambler, Carpenter, Kumar, & Srivastava,
2004), our framework also incorporates financial performance, defined as the return on sales
of the SBU in the marketplace relative to that of its competitors.

NEED OF THE STUDY

Today costumers are facing a growing range of choice in the different brands
of products and services. They are making their choice on the basis of their perceptions
of brand, quality service and value.The company has to adopt strategies to keep brand
in consumers memory. Astrong brand awareness means easy acceptance of new products.
An organization has tomeasure the level of awareness of the potential customers and
has to adopt different strategies to enhance the awareness level and to identify the
appropriate promotional tool. B r a n d a w a r e n e s s i s a s s e t w h i c h b r a n d ma n a g e r s
c r e a t e a n d e n h a n c e t o b u i l d brand equity. It is related to the nature and features of
product. It leads to brand strength which is constituted by measuring the variables like
leadership, stability, market, geographic, trend, support and protection etc...Creating brand
awareness with the use of advertising, promotion even management etc... a different brand
has different kinds of awareness which retains recognition. Brand awareness satisfies a need
of the consumer. A consumer as aims , ambitions, motivations drives and desire. Consumer
feels more powerful when he uses the brand. Satisfactions or preference for a brand shows
how loyal the consumer is likely to be brand. In todays competitive business scenerio where
every companies product is competing with each another retaining loyal customer is an
essence for which inceasing the level of brand awareness is very vital.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the emerging knowledge based economy it has become necessary to know how
much market power lies with the brand name. The study of brand awareness is essentialin
marketing planning. Customer needs and preferences keep changing where brand
sultimately command customers loyalty

. The realistic side of the problem is to know the acceptance level of the brand
awareness towards the product. This study will helps us to understand the brand
awareness and what problems are being faced by the consumers, to which appropriate

measures to be taken to solve the problems.This project has mainly been taken up to
understand the brand awareness, buying motives to ensure the Brand awareness
towards Mahindra Xyloapart from this, it ist o u n d e r s t a n d t h e n e w
o p p o r t u n i t i e s i n t h e m a r k e t f o r t h e i mp r o v e m e n t o f b r a n d awareness and sales
towards the products

Meaning of brand awareness:

Brand awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and
is correctly associated with a particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of the
target market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years
of a product's introduction.
Brand awareness is related to the functions of brand identities in consumers memory and can
be reflected by how well the consumers can identify the brand under various conditions.
Brand awareness includes brand recognition and brand recall performance. Brand recognition
refers to the ability of the consumers to correctly differentiate the brand they previously have
been exposed to. This does not necessarily require that the consumers identify the brand
name. Instead, it often means that consumers can respond to a certain brand after viewing its
visual packaging images.] Brand recall refers to the ability of the consumers to correctly
generate and retrieve the brand in their memory
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
A study on customer perception toward brand awareness with reference A.R.Enterprise
SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:

To judge the awareness level of the prospect customer.

To know how they are aware regarding the product.

To judge in which way they have developed the awareness.

To identify the consumer needs

PERCEPTION OF THE CUSTOMER

1. Are you a price sensitive consumer ?
2. Which of the following is true for our products ?
3. Do you know who our competitor are ?
AWARE OF THE PRODUCT
4. Do you use products because they are most available ?
5. What is the image of our product in your mind ?
6. Do you buy only branded products ?
7. When you hear about a product category can you recall our products ?
8. Which products of our company are you aware off ?
9. Can you name the personally who endorses our products in advertisements ?
10. Can you quote the price and quatity of different packages of our product ?
11. How did you find out about our product ?

DEVOLOPED THE PRODUCT

12. Which of the following according to you help to build a good brand image ?
CUSTOMER NEEDS
13. Are you a loyal customer for the same products you buy ?
14. which of the following touch points have you been exposed to ?

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

To know about the customer satisfaction level

To know about factor affecting consumer buying behaviour
To know about the factors influencing awareness of the product
To know about the media through which consumers get more awareness