Evaluating the Impact of Brand Attachment on Brand Equity: A Study on Selected Brands of Smart Phone Handsets

Abstract

Brand Equity is a term that is much often used in marketing context but its meaning still remains unclear in the mind of many. A proper exact definition will include the term value and consumer’s perception, both of which again are very abstract. Researchers have been trying to come up with many scales in order to measure such a complex intangible resource and this study is an extension to those initial researches. Many marketing gurus around the world have already managed to crack the code and come up with interesting and effective ways for the measurement of customer-based brand equity. This study has taken help from all of their works and tried to determine the effect of brand attachment on brand equity. Three smartphone brands were chosen for the study. Each had varying degree of popularity in the market, while all three brands had similar products to offer to the consumers. The brand chosen were Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi. Constructs for measuring brand equity were chosen, using the work of famous marketer, Matthew Thomson, Queen’s School of Business, Queen’s University. There were three independent variables: affection, passion and connection (all these are the facets of brand attachment). Questionnaire was prepared to see how these attachment constructs affect the dependent variable brand equity. Survey was conducted on the premises of a renowned university of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The sample size chosen was 60. Sample was random and non-probabilistic in nature. The collected data was then fed into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the output was then analyzed. The SPSS output contained descriptive statistics, along with correlation matrix, reliability analysis, regression table, ANOVA test results and coefficient results. The study conducted was of small scale and so the researcher decided to focus on the correlation and coefficient results to establish and examine the hypotheses. After thorough examination of the results provided by SPSS, it was concluded that the construct Affection is the only item of brand attachment that has a significant effect on brand equity in the aforementioned industry. The other items of the brand attachment, Passion and Connection, have whatsoever no effect on a brand’s equity