Advertisers must remember that advertising messages are interpretend differently between different genders (Maldonando, Tansuhaj &

Muehling, 2003; Hogg & Garrow, 2003; Putrevu, 2001).Prevoius study have proven that females were more likely to engagae in elaboration than men (Maldonado & Muehling, 2003). Hogg and Garrow (2003) found that women paid more intention about the details of the characters of an ad when asked to analyze advertising messages. They said that this may be explained by the fact that females have a greater tendency than men to consider external information and information related to others. Women are comprehensive processors who try to gather all available information about the product. In building brand preferences, Alreck and Settle (1999) proposed six strategies: 1) Need association- the product/brand linked to need through repeated messages. 2) Mood associations- brands should be associated with good feelings through slogans,songs. 3) Subconscious motivation-use of symbol to excite consumers subconscious motives. 4) Behaviour modification-consumers are conditioned to buy the brand by controlling cues and rewards. 5) Cognitif processing-penetrating perceptual and cognitive barriers to create favourable attitudes towards the brand/product. 6) Model emulation- portraying idealized lifestyles for consumers to imitate.

Attributes are the characteristic or features that an object may or may not have and includes both intrinsic and extrinsic (Mowen & Minor, 1998) .Benefits is the positive outcomes that come from the attributes.People seek products that have attributes that will solve their problems and fulfills their needs (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Understanding why a consumer choose a product based upon its attributes helps marketers to understand why some consumers have preferences for certain brands (Gwin & Gwin, 2003). In the study by Gwin and Gwin (2003), the Lancaster model of consumer demand (1966, 1979), also reffered to as the product attributes model,was used to evaluate brand positioning.This model assumes that consumer choice is based on the characteristics (or attributes) of a brand.Each product is abundle of attributes and that choice is based on maximizing utility/satisfaction from the attritubes subject to budget constraints. However there were two limitataions of the model: (1) the model is static and deterministic and (2) the model does not explain how the preferences for attributes were formed.This article also also didi

not mention if experience with the product played a part in influencing attributes preferences.

Both tangible nad intangible attributes of a product are equally important in choosing a product or brand (Myers, 2003). There is no evidence that certain attributes are more related to customer loyalty than others (Romariuk & Sharp, 2003). It was, found though, that the more attributes (non-negative) associated with a brand, the more loyal the customer (Romariuk & Sharp,2003).Romariuk and Sharp (2003) suggested that marketers should focus more on how many attributes the brand should be associated with and not what attributes. However, this study did not specify what sort of attributes marketers should associate the brand with; i.e. whether they should be relevant or irrelevant attributes, tangible or intangible etc.This is because it is important that consumer accurately lean about product attribute performances since it would influence their interpretations of product performance by causing memory encode and retrieval bias.Unfounded product attribute relationship beliefs can mislead them into expecting something that is not there.(Mason & Bequette, 1998). Hence if products fall short of customer expectataions,then dissactisfaction would result.Nevertheless, it was found that through irrelevant, some attributes may still be important in influencing consumer choice.Persistent preferences for product attribute soccurs when there is low ambiguity in the initial potential choice for salient attributes coupled with experience,although those attributes maybe irrelevant (i.e. an attributes usually not associated with favourable brand outcomes (Muthukrishnan & Kardes, 2001). Consequently, Mason and Bequette (1998) also said that perceptions on product performance based on salient attributes are more important in influencing the consumer purchase behaviour than actual product attribute

However perception of product performance on the salient attributes are more important than actual performance (Mason & Bequette, 1998).Mowen and Minor (1998) suggested that marketing managers should know the attributes that consumers expect in a product and how positively or negatively they rate these attributes to help develop and promote a successful product.Retailers need to be knowledgeable of the product attributes perceived as the most important by each individual consumer group in order to build and maintain market share (Warrington & Shim, 2000). It is the consumer who determines which attributes matter to them. Different consumer groups place different importance on

Markerters should consider using advertisement, which may play a role in making attributee important to consumers that might not have been considered before (Gwin & Gwin, 2003),Romariuk & Sharp (2003) suggested two objectives of short-term and longterm brand building. In the short term, managers need to identify a specific attributes to be communicated to the market,based on which message gave the best execution.The key aim is to develop likeable advertisement.In the long-run,managers need to build up a bank of consumer perception about the brand to make it the one most often thought of

and make it difficult for competitors to have access to the minds of consumers (Romariuk & Sharp, 2003). The brand name of the product itself is an important attribute. Brands have both functional (product-related) and symbolic dimensions (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz, 2001), On the product related benefit side, consumer evaluate product performance based on its capabilities, usage effectiveness, value for money and reliability. The purchase and consumption of products is increasing regarded by consumers as an indirect way of communication to improve their self image and deliver certain impressions to other people in their environment (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz, 2001), Therefore the brand name benefits perceived by consumers is highly interrelated to the product-based benefits. Big brand means a better image and a better product (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz, 2001), Howevwer, as mention earlier, Mason and Bequette (1998) suggested that perceived product performance is more important than actual attribute performance. Similarly Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity might be influenced by attribute knowledge more than consumer preference. This may be due to consumer biasness and prejudice, Consumers product evaluations are influenced by memory. The biasness can be reduced by having current information, experience and knowledge (Mason and Bequette ,1998). Therefore, its not surprising that brands that consumers believe offer superior value are most preferred brands chosen often (Myers, 2003). Brands with higher equity resulted in greater preferences and high market shares.

Price is another form of attribute used by consumers to evaluate a product.Price can sometimes be an indicator of quality; with a higher price indicating higher quality (Mowen & Minor, 1998; Siu & Wong, 2002). Consumers perceive that a higher price can be attributed to the higher cost of quality control (Siu & Wong, 2002). Some consumers are highly price sensitive (elastic demand),whereby a high prices may shift consumers to

competitive brands (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Therefore price can have a positive or negative influence on customers.

20 p.

1 p.

1.

2 p.

Recent Readcasters

Add a Comment
d1c9cecb70cd0f

Submit

Characters: 400
document_comme 4gen

Ashutosh Guptaleft a comment read this 07 / 05 / 2010 Reply asasassasasaleft a comment sss 04 / 26 / 2009 Reply

Send me the Scribd Newsletter, and occasional account related communications. Discover and connect with people of similar interests. Publish your documents quickly and easily. Share your reading interests on Scribd and social sites.

Email address: Submit