The Customer Behaviour Towards Hybrid Cars in the UK Dissertation

The Customer Behaviour Towards Hybrid Cars in the UK - Dissertation Example References 82 Appendix A: Questionnaire 88 Acknowledgement Without the continued emotional and financial support provided by my parents, I may have not reached the end of this journey. During my studies there were times when work commitments and intermittent financial stress made me believe that I would not be able to see this journey through. It was during these times, and many others, that my parents' words of encouragement and their confidence in my ability gave me the motivation to persist. No words of thanks can adequately express the depth of my appreciation and love. I would also like to seize this opportunity to personally thank my supervisor -----. I cannot express the extent to which his support and understanding allowed me to reach the end of this journey. His encouragement, support, understanding and, above all, his prompt, constructive and greatly appreciated criticism and feedback, were invaluable to the research, writing and completion of this study. Thank you. Abstract The area of brand equity has received significant research attention in recent years. An emerging debate addressed whether brand equity should be considered from a consumer-oriented perspective or a market performance-oriented perspective. While current literature has focused on building and conceptualizing brand equity, there is no consensus on how it should be measured and what constructs should be included in the measurement process. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify and operationalize brand equity constructs in a way that allows researchers to empirically measure them, and effectively analyze the key factors associated with brand market performance. This study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by defining and operationalizing specific brand... The area of brand equity has received significant research attention in recent years. As a result, current marketing research attempts to conceptualize, measure, and manage brand equity in a way that drives brand market performance, and helps firms in strategic decision making. Aaker (1991) proposed nine main issues to consider while analysing brand equity: 1) identifying the basis of brand equity; 2) creating brand equity; 3) managing brand equity; 4) forecasting the erosion of equity; 5) the extension decision; 6) creating new names; 7) complex families of names and sub-names; 8) brand equity measurement; and 9) evaluating brand equity and its component assets. Keller (1993) posited that companies are motivated to study brand equity for two reasons: one is financially-based to estimate the value of a brand more precisely for financial reporting purposes, and the other is strategy-based to improve marketing productivity. He argued that evaluating the brand in the minds of consumers is a prerequisite for brand market performance. Such a link is a core component of this study's proposed models. Also, an emerging debate has started to address whether brand equity should be considered from a consumer-oriented perspective or a market performance-oriented perspective. Motameni and Shahrokhi (1998) recognized the confusion and disagreement in conceptualizing and defining brand equity, and they also identified two perspectives or schools of thought: the marketing perspective and the financial accounting perspective.