RESEARCH PROPOSAL - PART 1: INTRODUCTION, REVIEW OF LITERATURE, PROBLEM STATEMENT, RESEARCH QUESTIONS
accenture89
ResearchProposalExample11.docx
RESEARCH PROPOSAL: EXPLORING THE CANADIAN MARKET FOR
2
Research Proposal:
The Role of Branding on Customers' Satisfaction in the Digital Market: A Case Study on Two Sport Brands in Vancouver
The business world has changed dramatically due to digital marketing technology. Digital marketing is a marketing strategy in which marketers sell their products online via Internet and customers can buy their needs without going to a real market place by gadgets and in this way they have more alternatives for a product and they can compare products, their prices and quality before any purchasing (Yuvaraj & Indumathi, 2018). It means that by taking advantage of digital technology, business owners are trying to make better decisions in terms of product development, profitability, brand management, sales and customer relations, and to encourage customers to buy their products by creating attractive ads. For example, in Vancouver, the most markets such as Lululemon and Public Myth use digital marketing technology to raise customers' awareness about a brand, product inventory, prices, and promotions on current or new products and to encourage people to buy products online.
The importance of digital marketing is that marketers using this technology can easily introduce their products to their customers to attract them and make more sales and profit. In fact, digital marketing helps marketers to access to the target audience with a cost-effective method (Borić et al., 2016).
But the most challenging issue for marketers who are using digital marketing technology is how to create a brand and attract their customers. It means that one of the problems of the digital age can be attributed to e-branding which is a valuable tool for marketing activities if marketers can create a positive relationship between the brand and their customers. Digital branding or re-branding refers to how a brand is designed and is built online through websites, apps, social media, and other digital tools (Fegade, 2013).
In other words, digital branding is a combination of digital marketing and e-branding to extend a brand online. Booth & Matic (2011) state that access to these online tools will help shape online brands and attract customers and their loyalty. Many of customers prefer to buy their needs in-store because they do not know some companies and brand and they cannot trust their quality, for this reason, a brand must try to create a remarkable relationship with customers to gain their attention over its competitors (Borić et al., 2016). As cited in Alasgarli (2019), the brand guarantees the identity of a company. According to Strong and Bolat (2016), branding based on the right frameworks leads to the attraction of loyal customers and makes an identity for a company's product. Holbrook (2014) in his researches shows that branding has a vital impact on building a strong relationship between brand and customers and finally leads to an increase in the financial profitability of a company.
Two popular sports brands in Vancouver are Lululemon and Public Myth that communicate with their customers via some internet tools like websites, social media, google advertisements to introduce their brand to new customers, convey their message to them and inform fans from their new products. This research concentrates on the investigation of the relationship between digital marketing and two brands of Lululemon and Public Myth, or the role of digital branding in introducing these brands, and how these brands in the digital market can influence customers to purchase advertisement products. It also compares these two brands based on their strategy in the digital market. So, in this research, the case study is Lululemon and Public Myth in Vancouver, and the research methodology will be quantitative.
The Research Questions are:
1. What are the effective strategies in building brand awareness in digital marketing?
2. To what extent a brand influence customer buying decisions from a digital market?
3. To what extent a brand guarantees the success of companies trying to use digital marketing technology?
The Research Objectives are:
1. To determine the level of customers' satisfaction in fulfilling their needs from Lululemon and Public Myth brands through digital marketing technology.
2. To find out how the brand satisfaction with Lululemon and Public Myth affects on customers behavior and loyalty.
3. To evaluate the impact of digital marketing and e-commerce on consumers’ perceptions of Lululemon and Public Myth brands in Vancouver.
4. To compare the digital branding strategies of Lululemon and Public Myth in increasing their market share.
Literature Review
Granata & Scozzese (2019) by analyzing some academic literature, discuss how the internet tools can help marketers to improve their marketing and what they should do to build a cohesive relationship with their customers. According to Granata & Scozzese (2019), digital marketing, e- brand, or marketing by building a design, name, or logo can help marketers to create a sustainable relationship with their customers. The results of their researches demonstrate that the existence of a strong relationship between customers and a business creates a trust between customers and brand of the business, and finally lead to customer loyalty. Moreover, it is recommended the cooperation of businesses with customers in a technological setting is necessary, and informing customers from a brand in websites can help to companies to ensure their brand equity (Granata & Scozzese, 2019).
Other research of Granata & Scozzese (2019) evaluates the role of social media in relation to brand value and examine that how brand loyalty leads to brand trust. The purpose of this research is to measure how social media marketing leads to the development of the brand value. This research did on 250 students through an online questionnaire to measure their perception of the luxury brands before and after visiting a Facebook page of a luxury brand. The result of this survey through search engine marketing analysis reveals that vising a Facebook page of a luxury brand has a positive effect on the level of customers' satisfaction. In general, the results of this research show the importance of creating a social network to meet the needs of consumers.
Alasgarly (2019) investigates the FMCG consumers, in terms of their income level and age in Azerbaijan, to in this way, examine brand identity and its impact on customer behavior. The level of customer satisfaction with the brand and consumer loyalty are other factors that are measured in this research. The quantitative research method uses in this research for gathering and analyzing data. According to Alasgarly (2019), there is a positive relationship between brand trust and customer satisfaction with the FMCG brand.
Tanha (2018) studies how businesses with brand story can communicate with customers through social media. His survey is qualitative and define some terms of related to marketing, also represents an 8-step social media marketing strategy that helps businesses to build a brand for connecting with enthusiasts. According to Tanha (2018), raising brand awareness, increasing the loyalty of customers, enhancing the quality of sale are some reasons for utilizing social media by marketers.
Yuvaraj and Indumathi (2018) state that digital marketing is a good platform for manufacturers to introduce their brand names to customers. According to Yuvaraj and Indumathi (2018), a precious asset for a business is the brand image. Customers prefer to buy brands that they know and trust, and today, with the advancement of technology, connecting with customers through digital marketing plays an important role in gaining customer trust by informing customers about the values that a product will have (Yuvaraj and Indumathi, 2018).
Khandelwal et al. (2018) in their research examine the importance of digital marketing strategy deployed by companies through websites to obtain new customers, assess the effective factors in the consumers' buying behavior, and analyze consumer satisfaction. Their samples are people who living in Delhi NCR. They use structured questionnaires to gather their needed information. The questionnaires are composed of three parts of the respondents' demographic, the effective factors in making a reliable website, and the evaluation of the level of consumer satisfaction by scoring in selecting a specific website for online shopping. Their findings demonstrate that digital marketing has a high major impact on customers, and it is an efficient marketing tool that would be useful for companies. According to Khandelwal et al. (2018), the marketing strategy needs some constructive changes in the design section to gain more consumer satisfaction. These redesigns are related to spacing, setting the option for choosing a language, displaying the logo, establishing a space for informing consumers about offers, and discount on special occasions and events. In addition, considering a part for studying feedback for each product, setting 24*7 times service for live chat, and setting accurate and reliable on a website about each product would be useful. They measure the level of customer satisfaction in terms of brand awareness, benefits of a product, and their suggestions.
The study of Fakhimi et al. (2018) about the role of digital marketing and branding in the healthcare industry, demonstrates that advertising in social media, websites and other digital environments can help the healthcare companies to build their identities, introduce themselves through their brand and services to patients, in addition, informing patients about the quality of their services, encourage them to get their needed services from these companies.
Nizar & Janathan (2018) examine the impact of social media on consumers' purchase decisions about a well-known brand in Sri Lanka that is called Dialog Axiata who is a company of telecommunications service and the largest mobile network operator in this country. The objective of this research is to define the terms of marketing social media and the behavior of consumers in their purchase patterns. The research method is survey method through the distribution questionnaires of research forms in google and interviews to gather primary data. The result of researches demonstrates the quality of products and benefits that consumers receive from products are valuable for consumers and these are reasons for consumers' loyalty. So, findings recommend to the manager of Dialog Axiata to produce cost-effective products based on consumers' needs to consumers can afford to buy them. Also, determine an appropriate pricing strategy based on its competitors to attract more consumers Nizar & Janathan, 2018).
Strong and Bolat (2016) conclude that through information and communication technologies such as digital technology, speed, and efficiency in the process of purchasing goods in a business to business or business to customer processes have increased and have led to an increase in customers' satisfaction. They also believe that a combination of practical and emotional factors is important to B2B customers in contrast with the opinion of researchers who believe that there is no place for feeling like trust in B2B. The results of their research show that the success of the Panasonic brand refers to its reputation, quality, and personal relationships between staff and B2B customers.
Borić et al. (2016) stress that one of the advantages of digital marketing via social networks is their low cost. A company can through social networks raise the sale of its product and brand awareness, enhance customer loyalty, and launch new products to market. They believe that the results of the use of digital marketing technology can be easily and in a short time measurable and can have a significant impact on creativity because when the marketer realizes that the method used has not had a positive effect on customer acquisition, he can benefit from creativity instills another way immediately. Many brand creators and marketers try to have a greater impact on the customer's mind by customizing a brand through creating an emotional value in the product (Borić et al., 2016).
Dunuwille & Pathmini (2016) use exploratory and deductive research to examine the impact of brand image on customer satisfaction in the mobile market in the Kennedy region of Sri Lanka. The results of their studies show that brand image is directly related to customer satisfaction. They also state that the most important element of brand image is brand awareness and loyalty. Brand loyalty can gain market share, attracts new customers, supports market extension, reduces marketing costs, and increases the competition with competitors. Their research results show that managers should have more focus on making decisions over brand loyalty to help the company to market more products. Dunuwille and Pathmini (2016) recommend that advertisements in the field of mobile phones will be very effective in obtaining customers' satisfaction.
Yasmin et al. (2015) at first, in their study, compare traditional and digital marketing and then examine the importance of digital marketing in relation to product sales. Their findings show that digital marketing not only has no boundaries for customers on access to information and products, but also it has a positive effect on sales of manufacturers, and all companies can use digital tools such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and social media to promote and sell their products. They believe that a company will be successful in digital marketing if it prioritizes the customers' needs. They also suggest that companies should use specific social media strategies to increase the effectiveness of digital marketing.
Fegade (2013) investigates the role of online social media in enhancing brand awareness. His research objectives are whether social media networks (SMC) increase the awareness of consumers of the brands and how consumers communicate with brands. His findings show the positive relationship between the usage of social media and the increase of consumers' awareness of the brand in comparison with traditional ways of communication with consumers. The increase of loyalty of consumers to a brand, being cost-effective, sharing opinions are some of the advantages of using SMC that he concludes in his research. Fegade (2013) cites that the research engine optimization is a good tool for building an online brand. In addition, the results illustrate that brand name causes consumers to purchase needed products with more reliability, and less thinking and a strong brand name lead to consumer's loyalty.
Kiran (2011) conducted a study on the effect of digital marketing on customer buying behaviors in UAE and used qualitative methodology in this study. He argues that cosmetics brands like Lancôme and Dior strongly seek digital marketing technologies. According to Kiran (2011), digital marketing channels play an important role in brand success, the attraction of customers and competition with competitors.
Muller et al. (2008) believe that due to its interactive nature, the Internet has created a new opportunity for marketers to create a brand identity for their brand that can convey concepts related to their product to the customer so that they can gain customer loyalty. They explain that quality and design of websites are one of the effective ways for making brand in the digital world which influences on customer' satisfaction and loyalty and leads to a great brand image or the current conception of the customer from a brand to persuade customers' intentions to return to the websites for purchasing. The results of the studies of Muller et al. (2008) show that visitors' satisfaction with a website will have a positive effect on their loyal behavior and interest in revisiting them and even recommending the website to others.
According to Argyriou et al. (2005), changing in markets and the emergence of new competitors, companies need more to create a brand and create value for their brand to attract more customers through value transfer. The results of their studies illustrate the value of a brand or the value of brand understanding reflects the strength of a brand's longevity in the customer's mind and reflects the intangible dimension of a business's performance. In addition, branding creates a connection between customer satisfaction and quality with the amount of sales, profits, and return on investment. They conclude that an important feature of a brand equity is that it needs time to manage, while maintaining brand sustainability and maintaining justice resources, and making the right decisions about the brand.
Theoretical Framework
As cited in Strong and Bolat (2016) digital technologies is considered as a tool for promoting a brand and the way for interacting with customers. Digital technologies, due to their high speed and efficiency, lead to the improvement of companies' business performance and also play an effective role in branding.
Mirabi et al. (2015, as cited in Areeba et al., 2017), the quality of products, brands, and advertisements play a key role in consumer’s purchase attitudes and the level of their satisfaction, especially in the digital market. In addition, to make changes to branding, the electronic revolution has revolutionized the marketing of relationships and focused on intangible and measurable assets such as the brand. In fact, branding is a symbol of a relationship with customers that have affected by online advertising channels and has the business world changed in terms of the relationship and the financial transaction system between the customer relationship and the marketers (Argyriou et al., 2005).
Digital environments provide opportunities for marketers to easily use the digital tools for their marketing purposes, as well as create the conditions for marketers to easily find, collect, and process the information they need (Järvinen et al., 2012).
Research Design
The Method
The research method for this study is a qualitative or non-numeric analysis that focuses on understanding concepts that people give to social actions. This method will be used for gaining a specific type of data.
The Instrument
This research will be based on an exploratory study to achieve insights into the problem. The exploratory research method is used when the theory is related to research or goals after data collection (Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A., 2012). In this study, the intended research strategy based on our research design that is the qualitative research will be the case study and an ethnographic interview. The purpose of the research is to observe and interview with a women who are customers of two brands of Lululemon and Public Myth in order to gain a depth understanding of what is the perception of people about a brand, how they behave and communicate with a brand. This way will be helpful for a researcher to obtain some point of view into the ways through which the use of the digital marketing strategy can influence customers' perceptions of Public Myth and Lululemon. In this way, we will have the primary data from interviews with customers of these two brands in-store, and the secondary data can get from other sources like managers of these companies, online sources, and so on.
Some of the common questions will ask on the interview are:
1. How do you get to know these brands?
2. How do you prefer to buy these brands?
3. What does the brand name have in mind?
4. Does social media play a role in your choice to buy their new products?
5. Which one fulfills your needs?
Sampling Method
The sample size in this study includes women of different ages who buy the sportswear they need from brands specific to women, such as Public Myth and Lululemon products in Vancouver. The sample size will include 6 participants for every brand in each method. It means that an interview with 6 customers of Lululemon and observing the behaviors of 6 of them. Also, an interview with 6 customers of Public Myth and observing 6 behaviors of them.
The Benefit of the Research
Branding is the science of brand management based on some elements such as value, culture, and name to build an identity for a company to generate a positive impact on consumers' behaviors and purchasing power (Kapferer, 2012 as cited in Strong and Bolat, 2016). The advantage of this research is that marketers understand the importance of branding and how digital marketing can help them to introduce their brand to customers and how to convey the message of their brand to influence customers for buying. Digital marketing can be a good platform for informing customers of the brand, products, services, price, identifying competitors and attracting customers.
Ethical Issues or Bias
The important factor in research is related to the ethical issues. In fact, the respect for participates, the concern about their welfare, and considering justice are three principal factors in every research (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Also, having an informed consent of participants, whether in interviews or questioners, is necessary. Our research should not have any threat and harm for participants and do confidentiality. Some of the practical difficulties that may I have in this project will be gathering relevant and accurate answers from interviews and getting information from the digital marketing managers of these companies because of confidential issues.
Scope and Limitations
The limits of this research are mainly the following:
1. This process is time-consuming because the interviewer must convince audiences to participate in the interview and it is the challenging part of research. In addition, sometimes the researcher gains a lot of information that is not related and useful and will be a time-wasting task for the interviewer.
2. Some customers are from other nationalities, they may not be fluent enough in English and may not give the right answers.
3. Observing and paying attention to customers behavior to analyze their behavior, may violate the law of respect for privacy and create problems.
Deliverables
At the end of this research, our deliverable will be an interview with 5 questions from women of different ages. So, by the end of the research, we will have 24 recorded data that should be analyzed.
References
ALASGARLI, Y. (2019). Brand identity and its effect on consumer behavior in FMCG sector Ughur. A project presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of B.Sc. in Marketing. Retrieved from http://unec.edu.az/
Areeba, T., Mudassir, H., & Talha, H. The impact of social network marketing on consumer purchase intention in Pakistan: Consumer engagement as a mediator. Asian Journal of Business and Accounting 10(1).
Argyriou, E., Kitchen, Ph., & Melewar, T. (2005) The relationship between corporate websites and brand equity A conceptual framework and research agenda. International Journal of Market Research, 48 (5).
Baxter, P., and Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559.
Borić, S., Stanisavljev, S., Kavalić, M., Vlahović, M., & Tobolka, E. (2016). Analyisis of digital marketing and branding for the purpose of understanding the consumers in digital age. International Conference on Applied Internet and Information Technologies. DOI:10.20544/AIIT2016.45
Booth, N & Matic, J. (2011). Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions. Corporate Communications: An International Journal,
16(3), 184-191.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. SAGE Publications, Inc.
Dunuwille, V. M., & Pathmini, M. G. S. (2016). Brand image and customer satisfaction in mobile phone market: study based on customers in Kandy. Journal of Business Studies, 3(1), 1–13.
Fakhimi, A., Ladoni,T., Ebrahimi,H., & Askari, Z.(2018). The effect of marketing strategy on purchase intention by mediating role of marketing channel, digital marketing, branding and advertising in healthcare. Marketing and Public Policy Conference Proceedings.
Fegade, A. (2013). Online branding: Building powerful brands through online social
media networks. Chaitanya (Business Journal). ISSN no. (2277 –6885).
Granata, G. & Scozzese, G. (2019). The actions of e-branding and content marketing to improve consumer relationships. European Scientific Journal, 15 (1).
Granata, G. & Scozzese, G. (2019). Social media marketing as a tool to manage luxury brands. International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 9 (4), 280–284.
Järvinen,J., Tollinen,A., Karjaluoto,K., & Jayawardhena, C. (2012). Digital and social media marketing usage in b2b industrial section. The Marketing Management Journal, 22 (2), 102-117.
Kiran, K. (2011). The importance of digital branding in luxury cosmetics- a consumer perception in UEA. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/31157662/Dissertation_Proposal
Muller, B., Flores, L., Agrebi, M., & Chandon, J. (2008). The branding impact of brand websites: do newsletters and consumer iviagazines have an ivioderating roie? Journal of Advrertising Research. DOI: 10.2501/S0021849908080471
Nizar, N. A., & Janathanan, Ch. (2018). Impact of digital marketing on consumer purchase behavior: A case study on Dialog Axiata with specific reference to social media marketing. APIIT Business, Law & Technology Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Strong, J & Bolat, E. (2016). A qualitative inquiry into customers’ perspectives on branding and the role of digital technologies in B2B: A case study of Panasonic. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 15 (1), 97-116.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students. England: Pearson Education Limit
Tanha, M. A. (2018). An introduction to brand building via social media. International Journal of Management Research & Review, 8(6).
Yasmin, A., Tasneem, S., & Fatema, K. (2015). Effectiveness of digital marketing in the
challenging age. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 1(5), 69-80.
Yuvaraj, S., & Indumathi, R. Influence of digital marketing on brand building. (2018). International Journal Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET),9 (7), 235–243.
Kiran, K. (2016). The importance of digital branding in luxury cosmetics- a consumer perception in UEA. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/31168117/
Khandelwal, M., Sharma, A., Varshney, D., & Dagur, A. (2018). To analyze consumer satisfaction level in digital content marketing with emphasis on shopping website.
International Journal of Engineering &Technology, 7 (3.12), 637-642.
Thecasestudyasatype
ofqualitativeresearch
