The effect of the brand manufacturer country on brand value (a case study of the elevator industry)

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Business Management

Treatment: Marketing

Abstract

The present research has investigated the effect of the brand manufacturer country on brand equity: a case study of the elevator industry. The type of descriptive research is survey type. The statistical population of the research was employers, engineers, consultants and other decision-makers in the selection of elevator brands for construction projects, 230 of whom were selected by a simple random method. The research tool included a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using the validity method of content analysis and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha test. Data analysis was done using SPSS19 and Lisrel8.5 software. Examining the results showed that the brand manufacturer country had a significant effect on the three variables of brand equity, brand power and brand awareness. Also, the two variables of brand power and brand awareness have a significant effect on the variable of brand equity.

Keywords: brand manufacturing country, brand equity, brand power, brand awareness

Chapter One: Generalities

Chapter One

Research Generalities

1-1) Introduction

Trade name has enabled the producer to obtain the benefits provided by products with unique and excellent quality and also provides an opportunity to transfer these identifiable relationships to other products and services. Although naming and brand management have existed and been applied for several decades, brand equity is a central and fundamental concept for most organizations that have emerged in the last twenty years (Chen and Chang, 2008: 40). Since strong brand names help to increase profits and reduce marketing costs of organizations, the emergence of brand equity has increased the importance of marketing strategies and provided a focal point for researchers and managers (Chen, 2009: 307).

Attention to concepts such as brand, its management and brand equity will achieve a suitable position in the minds of customers. Strong brand equity allows companies to better retain customers, address their needs more effectively, and increase profit(s). Brand equity can be increased by successfully implementing and managing continuous communication marketing efforts by providing value to customers and listening to their needs (Salipan, 2010: 43). Ignoring the points that the brand-customer relationship has provided in the market and not applying and optimism that this relationship will definitely be established in the long term will lead to failure. The core idea of ??the brand may lie between the perfect customer and the prospect, but the totality of the brand idea or perception is rooted in the experiences with the brand itself and all its messages and interactions and the like. In the market, a brand will be considered a strong brand according to its high specific value. Brand equity will be higher if loyalty, awareness, perceived quality, strong channel relationships and association of brand meanings are also higher (Delgado-Balster and Manora-Elliman, 2005: 187). Many people generalize the mentality they have of a country to the goods made by that country. This issue can be effective for the owners of brand names in adopting superior brand strategies. The country of the brand is one of the topics of interest of researchers in international marketing, which affects the special value of the brand. The mental image of the country is an important external sign related to branded products (Nair and Durmosglou, 2008: 791). The country of the brand is a variable that is used to gain a competitive advantage in international marketing. Many consumers use the image of the country of origin to evaluate products. In fact, the country of the brand is an important factor that affects the attitude of customers towards foreign products. When customers are unfamiliar with foreign products, they often examine the brand's country of origin as a guide to product quality (Wang et al., 2014: 770). For example, it is believed that Japanese goods are more authentic. German cars are great. Italian pizzas are very good. A country of origin is a home for a company or a company that customers refer to through a brand name.Manufacturers from countries that generally have a favorable image find that their brands are more easily accepted than brands from countries that are less favorable. Foreign products are often related to the country of origin of the brand. Various companies have used relations with the country of origin to achieve good profits in the goods markets (Kinra, 2005: 16). Therefore, in this research, the influence of the brand manufacturer's country on the special value of the brand in the elevator industry has been investigated.

In this chapter, the generalities of the research, which include: statement of the problem, importance and necessity of the research, objectives, assumptions, scope of the research, and finally the definition of specific concepts and words, are discussed. Today, the consumer is considered as the main key to the success or failure of a company, so understanding consumer behavior is very important. But the mistake many managers make is that they think that the only features of the product or service provided to the customer determine victory in the competitive market campaign. They are unaware of the fact that in the middle of the market, it is the brand names that demand the same and not the products and services (Zarei et al., 2011: 60). Until a few decades ago, the goods were simply manufactured goods without any personal perspective. were produced and consumed. But today, brand names play a very important role in the buying process. For this reason, researchers and industry managers have assigned a valuable place to brand names in the marketing activities of companies. Today,

consumers expect more from products than their functionality. The superior personality resulting from the possession and consumption of a particular brand has caused the brand to have an important concept. Consumers in the new world of business are faced with many brand names in the market, that's why they have more choices in choosing brand names (Verontis and Terraso, 2007: 7). Meanwhile, the globalization of trade has led to the presentation of global brand names with different manufacturing countries. Some countries, by creating a positive image of themselves at the international level and the people of the world, seek to promote the brand names provided by the manufacturers and service providers of their country. This is rooted in the fact that the image of the manufacturing country is considered as one of the sustainable competitive advantages for companies (Greke et al., 2014: 175). Therefore, one of the important criteria that can be considered in the buying process of consumers is the country of the brand. In fact, the brand's manufacturing country is used by consumers to evaluate the quality and performance of that brand (Khan and Bamber, 2008:580). The influence of the country of the brand manufacturer on consumer perception has attracted a lot of attention since 1960 and has been one of the important topics in the field of marketing. While the national reputation of products varies from country to country, consumers tend to generalize their attitudes and opinions towards the products of another country based on their knowledge and information about that country and their personal experiences of product characteristics such as technical excellence, product quality, design, financial value, image and acceptable credibility of the country of origin of a brand. give (Panda and Mishra, 2014: 495). Perceptions of the country of the product are effective in guiding the perceptions of product-related features, such as product quality, and this shows that the evaluation of consumers is guided by the effects of the perception of the product's country rather than being guided by the quality of the product. The country of origin is used as the first and best guide for consumers in evaluating new products with complex conditions, along with the least attention to product-related features (Kinera, 2005:16).  Regardless of whether the name of the manufacturer's country has a positive or negative reaction, the country, the type of product and the perception of the company and its brand will affect the perception of the customer. Consumers tend to treat products and countries in a stereotyped way due to their experiences, hearings and myths. They strongly judge some countries and certain groups of goods, for example, they say the best English tea, French perfume, Chinese silk, Italian leather, Japanese electronic industry, etc.