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seexinyijoyce_research.docxRESEARCH PROPOSAL 1
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 11
SEE XIN YI JOYCE
0010515270
GRADUATE DIPLOMA
GA
EFFECTS OF OFFENSIVE IMAGES AND TESTS, BRAND RECALL & BRAND IMAGE
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
INTO UEA
INTRODUCTION 3
TITLE 3
TIMETABLE 3-4
LITERATURE REVIEW 4-6
METHODOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES 6
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH 8
LIMITATIONS 8
CONCLUSIONS 8
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 8-11
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
This assignment is a research proposal which is meant to prepare me for the final research I will carry out in the field I am planning to pursue in the near future. I have always desired to do some marketing in future and therefore, it is obvious that I am going to research a marketing topic. This research proposal aims to study the effects of offensive images and tests, brand recall, and brand image. Marketing is a very significant part of financial forecasting and on the other hand brand is the vehicle that drives sales to meet the financial requirement (Fan, 2002).
Title
The title of my research is the effects of offensive images and tests, brand recall, and brand image. Many companies have suffered as a result of the brand recall and offensive images, and this should show the power a brand has on the products.
A Timetable
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Section |
When Tasks Completed |
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Week 1 |
Statement of the problem and study hypothesis. |
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Week 2 |
Study objective and Research Questions. |
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Week 3 |
The significance of the Study and Definition of key terms. |
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Week 4 |
Literature Review/ Conceptual Framework and Research Methodology |
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Week 5 |
Work Plan |
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Week 6 |
References and Appendices/Annexures |
A literature Review
A brand is defined as a type of product that is manufactured and sold by a particular organization under a specific name. The strength of the brand heavily determines the price which customers are willing to forego for that particular product and a strong brand can be a great source of income for a company. Every industry has an organization with a strong brand, for example, in the telecommunication industry, the iPhone Series tops the brand list. Apple sells its phone at a very high price, and consumers purchase them all over the world because it is Apple. In the automobile industries, there are many players which include: BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler and General Motors (GM) (Vlasic, 2014).
Researchers have found out that strong brands are also used to advertise, which is another source of income. Individuals interested to promote their product will seek to associate it with a strong brand and the promoter and the brand owner share the profits. In accounting, a brand defined as an impalpable asset is habitually the most appreciated asset on an organization's balance sheet. Brand possessors manage their brands prudently to generate shareholder value, and brand assessment is a significant management practice that assigns a money value to a brand and permits marketing speculation to be managed (e.g.: highlighted across a collection of brands) to make the most of the shareholder value. Even though only assimilated brands appear on a business's balance sheet, the conception of assigning a value to brand forces marketing frontrunners to be attentive on long-term stewardship of the brand and managing for value (Gregory, 2003).
Brand recall is a huge problem for organizations and establishments that have had to recall their products have paid the price maximally. For the case of this research, I will focus on General Motors and their brand recalls and how the recalls have affected their business operation and benefits. Researchers have already found out that brand recall makes customers lose trust in the company. Once customers lose the trust, they will not purchase more of the product, and therefore, the company will slowly lose market share. For the case of General Motors, their brand recall had already caused a big damage, one of the cars it manufactured had caused the death of several people and on top of the cost of recalling and repairing the vehicles, the company was required to compensate the families that suffered the detriments and this actually led to the company being declared bankrupt (Esquivel, 2014).
A historical research done shows that General Motors (GM) has suffered financially due to the recalls. Brand recall is a huge burden to the company as the research shows that the latest recall was done in 2014, and it involved the calling back of 800,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s due to ignition problem, other 1.5 million cars of different models due to faulty power steering and other 3.4 million which they produced in the years 2000 and 2004. The same research shows that the GM cars have caused many deaths over the years beginning with the Reuters cars of 1970 which always exploded when hit from behind by impact and this was because the fuel tank was placed behind the car making it vulnerable to such risks (Pollock, 2014).
The GM bankruptcy was the ultimate point of all these fatalities as a lot of money was used to compensate the families of the fatalities. Later the government of the United States revived the company by injecting some substantial amount of money to keep the company operating. Today the company is slowly recovering from the penalty it paid, and now they are doing damage control by recalling the cars. Even though the company now is up, it provides a good case study for this research, to prove how brand recalls and poor images can affect a business (Nagesh, 2014).
Methodological Techniques
I am going to do a qualitative research on this problem. This is because I will not need many people and it will be a desk research over the historical archives on the web about brands that failed due to recalls like some of the brands GM owned. I will heavily utilize the historical research as it is a type of qualitative research that attempts to describe and learn from the past, to put the problems of today into proper context. I will use both primary and secondary data. Primary data are those that happened first in time and may found in archives or electronic form. It also includes interviews with those who participated in the events (narrative research or oral history) and on the other hand, secondary data are works of historians who have interpreted and written about primary sources. They reflect the assumptions and biases of people who wrote them.
Aims and Objectives of the Research
The aims to study the effects of offensive images and tests, brand recall, and brand image. The objectives of this research are to use General Motors Company as a case study to determine the effects of brand recall and offensive images (Holt, 2004).
Limitations
The only limitation is that sometime historical research from books may contain writers who have exaggerated the story to suit a particular audience. This means that I will have to take lots of time to go through the main materials and find some consistent information so as to use in my research and this is time-consuming. Time is money, and it is the most precious commodity today.
Conclusion
Brand is an essential segment of the business and companies spend a lot to protect their brand. Many times people purchase related items and leave others not because they are not good but because of the brand they possess. Many times I have seen people prefer to buy iPhone at the expense of Tecno Mobile simply because of the Brand strength yet both phones are smartphones, and they perform the same functions (Kotler, 2004).
Annotated Bibliography
1. Birkin, M 1994, "Assessing Brand Value," in Brand Power, ISBN 0-8147-7965-4
This book seeks to describe the assessment of brand value, and it is very useful in that it will provide an insight of what brand means to the various stakeholders of an organization.
2. Esquivel, P 2014, "O.C. district attorney's office files consumer suit against GM". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035.
This journal explains the financial impact of the GM mistakes in designing and how much it cost them when it comes to compensation for victims in court. The journal goes back in time up to the 1970s when the GM troubles began, shows the financial detriments that GM has suffered through compensation of victims who sued the company.
3. Fan, Y 2002, "The National Image of Global Brands", Journal of Brand Management, 9:3, 180-92,
This book explains how to manage brand to make sure that it delivers what it is meant to deliver, and the book is very useful to show how some organizations fail to manage their brands and consequences of their actions.
4. Gregory, J 2003, Best of Branding. ISBN 0-07-140329-9
This book seeks to show the best practices of branding, and it is useful in providing guidelines on how to create strong brands.
5. Holt, DB 2004, "How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding" Harvard University Press, Harvard MA.
This book seeks to describe how brands become an icon and things that consumers adore, how to make the consumers give anything for the brand. Also, it seeks to show the advantages that the iconic brands bring to their owners over the normal brands.
6. Knapp, D 2008, "The Brand Promise", McGraw-Hill, New York, ISBN 978-0-07-149441-0.
This book seeks to describe how brands become an icon and things that consumers adore, how to make the consumers give anything for the brand.
7. Kotler, P 2004, "Marketing Management", ISBN 81-7808-654-9
The book mentioned above is very imperative as it seeks to show the power of brand in marketing and the relative effects of a weak brand when it comes to marketing. Marketing management is very significant, and this book shows how marketing can be done efficiently to save on cost and maximize the profits.
8. Martins, J S 2000, The Emotional Nature of a Brand: Creating images to become world leaders. Brazil: Marts Plan Imagen Ltda.
This book is essential as it addresses the latest marketing strategy of 3.0 which appeals to the emotions of the consumers to result to customer detainment. It is critical as it describes how management can create a brand that appeals emotionally to the target market.
9. Miller, K and Muir, F 2004, the Business of Brands, ISBN 0-470-86259-9.
The book mentioned above is very imperative as it seeks to show the power of brand in marketing and the relative effects of a weak brand when it comes to marketing. It also reflects on some of the very successful brands and how the owners are using them to reap major profits.
10. Nagesh, G 2014, "More than 90% of GM ignition-suit claims rejected". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660
This journal seeks to describe the reasons as to why General Motors recalls the cars and why the call is very important. Also, the journal reviews some of the potential problems that the company might find themselves in if the recall is not successful.
11. Olins, W 2003, On Brand, London: Thames and Hudson, ISBN 0-500-51145-4.
The book mentioned above is very vital as it seeks to show the power of brand in marketing and the relative effects of a weak brand when it comes to marketing.
12. Schmidt, K, and Chris, L, 2002, Inclusive Branding: The Why and How of a Holistic approach to Brands. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, ISBN 0-333-98079-4.
This book seeks to show the best practices of branding, and it is useful in providing guidelines on how to create strong brands. How to maintain the strong brands and make them something that consumers worship.
13. Wernick, 1991, Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology, and Symbolic Expression (Theory, Culture & Society S.), Sage Publications, London, ISBN 0-8039-8390-5.
14. Pollock, L 2014, "What You Need to Know About the GM Recalls". Wall Street Journal.
This journal is also very significant as it explains all the recalls that GM have ever made and the factors that led to the recalls.
15. Vlasic, B 2014, "2 Executives Leave G.M. After Wide-Ranging Recall". The New York Times.
This journal seeks to describe the reasons as to why General Motors recalls the cars and why the call is very important. The journal also describes the bankruptcy that GM went through in 2009 and gave details on the reviving of the company by the government of the United States.
