Examination Image Identity Cues Effect On Brand Equity

Brand equity is one of the important indicators of brand strategy performance which is not only determined by the activities of micro-enterprises, but also more subject to industry environmental impact. Study on brand equity from industrial economy perspective can provide a theoretical basis for the cultivation of strong local brands and policy guidance for the industrial upgrading. These important distinguishing features make the brand equity of marketing perspective become an important means of strong brand assessing about brand management. And the study on identity cues effect on brand equity and generating mechanism of brand equity, a burning question within the academic research field.China clothing market is a relatively fully open but also close to perfectly competitive market. International top luxury brands, international brands, the brands of Japan& Korea, brands of Hong Kong, Macao Tai wan and mainland, act different roles in China clothing market, as well as the competition are increasing incentives. As one of the four basic human needs such as clothing, food, housing and transportation, the apparel industry is a never fading industry. But the industry's low barriers to new entry and other characteristics make the increasingly competition become fierce in this industry, and filled with many changes.The Competition of apparel industry currently has been in the evolution from initial competition on economies scale of production to the competition on strength of design and brand. Therefore, choosing representative brands of clothing industry as study objective and explore brand equity formation law of these brands can provide useful lessons to promote the healthy development and strategies for upgrading of China's apparel industry.From the apparel industry perspective, this paper examines the effect of identity cues on brand equity, the research ideas are the following:Theoretical framework:Based on literature of brand equity this paper proposes conceptual framework of brand equity transmission, and based on three aspects of brand image proposes the hypothesis of identity cues effect on brand equity.Research Methods:based on formative composite scale, to design a questionnaire which is pre-tested to ensure the validity of comprehesive evaluation of brand equity.Use dual-survey mode and stratified sampling of 2215 consumer respondents and 97 professionals of apparel industry, to ensure representative of sample and primary data.Choose apparel brands by method Delphi, finally select 153 apparel brands and make the evaluation objective representative of apparel industry.Use factor analysis and standard deviation method to construct the evaluation model of brand equity.Empirical research: Apply multivariate variance analysis to verify hypothesis of the brand identity effect on brand equity. Apparel industrial Economics:Based on the history of the brand evolution of brand in apparel market, apply new industrial organization to analyze industrial structure and behavior effect on brand equity.The main research contents are as follows:(1) Building conceptual framework of brand equity transmission processBased on literature review, this paper builds conceptual framework of brand equity transmission process: Brand equity is the result of business investment in the brand program. Business investment in the brand result in manifestations of brand identity indicators, thus affecting brand equity in the marketing perspective; The brand, in marketing perspective must first have value to customer, then it may have value to enterprises; Not only brand has positive benefit to customer but also to enterprises, which eventually lead to a great financial value of brand.Based on the product image, benefit image and strenth image of brand and the characteristic of apparel brand, this paper refines six incicators of brand identity, this paper proposes the hypothesis of identity cues effect on brand equity, that is product type effect, brand origin effect, price level effect, brand reputation effect, market operators time effect and shop scale effect on brand equity. (2) Exploring the diminishing law of brand equity index system and internal linksBy curvilinear regression analysis, the study found that diminishing law of unaided-recall of brand is shown as Logarithms function when N (means ranking) is equal or lesser than 13.77 and Exponent function when N is greater than 13.77 among the 153 brands.The diminishing law of aided-recall of brand is shown as Exponent function. The diminishing law of others indicators of brand equity are shown in Cubic function.Internal link among indicators:by principal component analysis, this paper gain four main components, which is brand image, behaviour loyalty, brand awareness and emotional loyalty; By factor analysis of index weights survey data, it obtains five common factors, which named as value and satisfaction, quality-behaviour-loyalty, impression, lenovo & premium and leadership. (3) Establishing empirical comprehensive evaluation model of brand equityBased on previous research, this paper design the investigate mode of dual-evaluation of consumers and channel sellers. Findings indicate that the internal relations of brand equity:the principal component analysis of brand equity, the paper obtains four main components based on evaluation data, and five common factors by factor analysis based on index weights data. Proposed 5 hierarchy evaluation model of brand equity, and found ranking result of five brand equity model are no significant differences. This study shows that based on the same data the results of the different empirical expression patterns are not significantly different.(4) Emperical research on identify effects of brand equity Using the SPSS GLM, this paper verifies the effect of the brand identity cues on the brand equity. The empirical analysis findings are as follows:The effect apparel brand occasions and gender on the brand equity is significant; And apparel brand origin effect is significant.Apparel brand price grade effect is significant. The higher the grade, the higher the brand equity index; Apparel brand reputation effects is significant, higher reputation in the market then the higher the index of brand equity.Apparel brand management time effect is not significant. The conclusion is that the watershed of brand equity index is 15 years apart from the top luxury brands. That is the brand equity index of market operation with more than 15 years is significantly higher than the brand equity index with less than 15 years market operation in china market;Stores scale effect of apparel brand on brand equity index is significant. Also exclude a small number of samples, among the stores size of apparel,500 is as the dividing line. That means that the brand equity index of stores scale with more than 500 stores is significantly higher than the brand equity index with less than 500 stores market operation in china market. (5) Discuss structure and behavior impact of apparel industry on the brand equityBased Structure-Conduct-Performance analysis paradigm of market, this paper analyses the relationship of the demand structure, supply structure, the marketing behavior of clothing brand enterprises with brand equity of the apparel industry. Any brand equity is the result of the interaction between the middle view of industry and behavior of enterprises micro-behavior. Finally, the combination of demand and supply of the brand, this paper forecast that tide brand will seek to enter the clothing market over the next decade China, and draw the conclusions of wheeled effect between demand and supply of apparel brand.The innovativeness points of the paper are followings:(1) Innovativeness in the Perspective of brand equity studyFrom the perspective of industry economics to study, the paper choose a 153 representative apparel brands as study objective to carry out the empirical and comparative research, which is first time of so larger brand sample in brand equity academic study fields. The perspective of this research is clearly different from previous studies with little comparative analysis of industry economics thanks to the previous research limited by the research funds.Secondly, based on the new industrial organization theory of the ynamic and two-way SCP paradigm, the paper analyses the influence of apparel structrue and behavior on brand equity and the cause of formation of brand equity. Thus, the study is distictively different with previous study in the micro-perspective of marketing and financial field.(2) Innovativeness of abundant to brand equity theoryBrand equity transmission process:Based on the theoretical basis of brand value, such as Wang Chengrong, Biel, Keller and others theoretical ideas, build the conceptual framework of conduction process of brand equity.Brand equity is the function results of business investment into brand. Business investment in the brand make the brand forming a variety of performance of brand image attributes indicators in the market, thus affect brand equity of marketing perspective. The brand of marketing perspective provide value to the customers, thus it may have value to the enterprises; only the brand which provided value to the customer and enterprises can continually gain profit, which eventually leads to a number of brand equity in financial perspective.This paper propose that brand image made both with conscious image and physical image, then divide brand image into three attribute such as product image, benefit image and strenth image, this three attribute finally propose as image identity indicators. This paper matrixes brand equity evaluation index of the marketing perspective into two dimensions, the horizontal dimension of the brand equity are the value of brand to customers and value of brand to the enterprise; three dimensions of vertically are divided into:behavioral indicators, emotional indicators and brand image. Finally this paper proposed theoretical framework of the brand value chain, and that the six indicators of brand image attributes have an impact effect on brand equity. Although there are a lot of the academic study about the brand's attributes effect or brand origin effect on brand equity, there is relatively little about the systematic empirical study of brand identity cues on brand equity, particularly such as the apparel category effect, price level effects, the time scale effect and shops scale effect, in academic areas is still very rare.(3) Innovativeness of brand equity study methodsInnovation of evaluation model:The paper set up indicator system matrices of brand equity in marketing perspective, based this to design the dual mode with consumer perception and channel experts evaluation.Comparison of comprehensive evaluation model of brand equity:The paper establish 5 hierarchy evaluation models of brand equity by principal components and the factor analysis, gain the conclusion that the is no significant different between the brand equity ranking by 5 hierarchy models, which is a meaningful exploration and setup the foundation laid for the follow-up study.