PDF Food Chain - Compress PDF
PDF Food Chain - Compress PDF
PDF Food Chain - Compress PDF
BRAND EQUITYOF
FOOD RESTAURANTS IN
KARACHI
SYED MEHDI RAZA &
TARIQ JALEES
College of Management Science
PAF-Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology
Email : [email protected]
Abstract
The objective of this study was to measure consumers’ perception on the brand equity of
the fast food chains operating in Karachi. The selected fast food chains for the purpose of
this research were KFC, McDonalds, Subway and Mr. Burger. A closed ended
questionnaire based on a liker rating scale was developed. The questionnaire was based
on literature survey, and the theoretical framework. The field survey was carried out in
October 2004. The final sample size was of 83 respondents. The brand equity of KFC
with the mean of 3.95 was highest and the brand equity of Mr. Burger with a mean of
3.13 was lowest. The respondents’ opinions varied normally with standard deviation of
0.69 to 1.02. The developed hypotheses were tested through one way and two- way
ANOVA. Subway and Mr. Burger have adopted a niche-focused strategy and it was found
that they both are doing well in their respective areas. KFC was found to be the leading
brand. McDonalds has to improve a lot in terms of brand image and positioning. It is one
of the most marketed and advertised fast food brands in the country and it has not been
successful as shown by its relatively low brand equity score.
i. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
An Overview
Brand is a powerful concept as it blends performance – based values with
while Mercedes may compete with other brands of cars on rationally evaluated
performance value, it may be bought mainly because of the emotional value of perceived
prestige.
Through well-conceived and effectively managed brands, firms are able to build
favorable reputations, which enhance the confidence of the buyers and consumers. Even
in times of difficulty firms reap the benefits of well – developed brands. As John
Charlton Collins once remarked, “In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we
know our friends”. But brands don’t just command respect because of their value to
corporations, they do so because they add to the quality of life. The brands we use are
making non – verbal statements about the consumer as a person. People choose brands,
not just because of their utility, but because consumers perceive that brands are affecting
and depicting their personalities. (Marriott, 2002)
Research has shown that brands are multifaceted concepts and to talk about ‘a
brand’ sometimes overlooks the richness of the concept.
“Brand Equity is a set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and
symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service to a
firm and/or that firm’s customers. The major brand asset categories are:
• Brand awareness
• Brand usage
• Brand Judgment
• Brand Performance
• Brand Imagery
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is the basic tool that depicts the acceptability of the brand and
builds the perception of the firm within the target market. It also determines the market
penetration strategy in terms of mass or niche. There are many brands, which are known
across the board, but show low performance on the other hand there are brands that have
low awareness in the market but they are performing very well, because they have been
successful in capturing a strong niche in the particular market. Awareness is the basic and
Brand usage is the action parameter for any brand. It determines the level of
consumer satisfaction while consuming the brand and it shapes the overall consumer
behavior towards a brand. It leads to the development of consumer loyalty and ensures
Brand Judgment
regard to the brand. It measures how customers put together the different performance
and imagery indicators of the brand to form different kinds of opinions. Customers may
make all types of judgments with respect to a brand, but in terms of creating a strong
brand, four types of summary brand judgments are particularly important: quality,
Brand Performance
Brand performance relates to the ways in which the product or service attempts to
meet customers’ functional needs. It refers to the intrinsic properties of the brand in terms
of inherent product or service traits. It transcends the products and features and
encompass aspects of the brand that argument these characteristics. Any of these different
performance dimensions can serve as a means by which the brand is differentiated. There
are five important types of attributes and benefits that often underlie brand performance:
primary ingredients and supplementary features, product reliability and durability, service
effectiveness, efficiency and empathy, style and design, and price. (Keller, 2004)
Brand Imagery
Brand imagery deals with the extrinsic properties of the product or service
including the ways in which the brand attempts to meet customers’ psychological and
social needs. Brand imagery is how people think about a brand abstractly, rather than
what they think the brand actually does. Many kinds of intangibles can be linked to a
brand, but four categories can be highlighted: user profiles, purchase and usage
situations, personality and values, and history, heritage and experiences. (Keller, 2004)
Although not always apparent, the most important assets of a firm are intangible.
These assets may include brands, symbols, slogans, training manuals, processes, people
skills and other items, which define the company and its position in the minds of
consumers. Few, if any of these show up on a firm’s balance sheet, but when the asset
value of these items exceeds the cost of developing them, a firm has valuable brand
equity. Brand equity involves brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand
associations and other brand assets. (Rise, 2000)
Brand equity gives value to customers. This value is achieved by helping
customers in processing information about the marketplace and gain confidence in their
purchase decisions. Ultimately brand equity enhances consumer satisfaction while using
the product. (Rise, 2000)
Brand equity gives value to the firm by increasing the effectiveness of marketing
programs. The components of brand equity allow a firm to develop a competitive
advantage over other players. Ultimately that leads to higher price earning ratios and
enhanced shareholder value, achieved because of the brand loyalty of customers.
(Kapfrer, 2001)
In the two broad categories used to classify brand interpretations, the brand as a
positioning device has been termed into the input perspective since this reflects
managers’ views of the brand as a strategic tool. For successful positioning there needs to
unlikely for two people to have exactly the same image of a brand, but their images may
For low involvement categories, where customers habitually buy the brand, or
undertake minimal information searching, brand image is a holistic impression of the
brand’s position relative to its perceived competitors. To identify the brand’s image a low
involvement evaluation procedure would be appropriate, for example mental mapping.
Customers are asked which brands they believe a particular brand competes against. The
brand under focus and the other named brands are then written on cards. These are
shuffled, given to the person who is asked to arrange all the cards on a desk in such a way
that those brands perceived to be similar are placed close to each other. After a record
photograph is taken of the way the cards were arranged, the respondent is asked to
explain their map, and from this, insight is obtained about the brand’s image. (Marriott,
2002)
Brand equity has been described as the value a brand name adds to a product.
That value can be a halo extending beyond the current product category to other product
classes. Generally, brand equity results from all the activities needed to market the brand.
Therefore, it can be viewed in terms of the brand – focused marketing effects of those
activities. It has received a great deal of attention recently for several reasons, the
foremost of which is the increasing strategic pressure to maximize marketing
productivity. That pressure yields managerial attempts to gain advantage by increasing
efficiency. In addition, references to marketing success based on synergy, consistency
and complimentarily have tended to support a deeper understanding of the underlying
components of products, and have awakened marketing managers to survival
opportunities in an era of flat markets, increasing costs and greater international
competition. (Earls, 2003)
The literature on brand equity shows two major focuses viz. financial aspects and
consumer behavior effects specific to a particular brand. For marketers, the consumer
effects are the appropriate focus and include a number of cognitive effects. (Keller, 2004)
The underlying basis of brand equity is consumer memory. Much of the cognitive
psychology literature has been devoted to the study of memory structure and the process
of memory. Most of the widely accepted work involves a conceptualization of memory
structure involving associative models. An associative model views memory as
consisting of a set of nodes and links. Nodes are stored information connected by links of
varying strengths. When the consumer thinks about a product, or recognizes a problem, a
“spreading activation” process connects node to node and determines the extent of
retrieval. For example, if a consumer’s automobile is damaged in an accident, he or she
will encode the information in a node in memory, which may activate other nodes
including those devoted to insurance agency information, the dealership which sold the
last car, advertising information about a new model, and others. The factor that
determines which and how many nodes are activated, is the strength of association
between the nodes. Once the consumer thinks of the need for a new car, specific
information most strongly linked to the new car model will come to mind. The
information will include features like price, styling, and the consumer’s past experience
with it, word of mouth, and other information. (Keller, 2004)
The manner by which brand equity is conceptualized has obvious implications for
how it is measured. Keller and Lehman (2002) provide a broad, integrative perspective
on measuring brand equity. They define the ‘Brand Value Chain’ in terms of a series of
three steps in the creation of value of a brand. According to this model, the first step in
value creation is when an investment in marketing activity affects the consumers’ mind
set or brand knowledge (e.g. in terms of brand awareness, associations, attitudes,
attachments and activity). The second step is when brand knowledge, in turn, affects
market performance (e.g. in terms of price premiums and elasticity’s, cost savings,
market share, profitability and expansion success). Finally, the third step is when market
performance affects shareholder value (e.g. in terms of stock prices and market
capitalization)
Keller and Lehman identify key measures associated with each stage of this value
creation process, as well as a set of ‘filters’ or moderator variables that impact the
transfer or flow of value between stages of the model. Although a review of all the
possible marketing and research methods, techniques, and measures associated with each
of the three different stages of brand value creation is beyond the scope of this paper it is
useful to highlight some notable recent research advances for each stage. (HBR, July
2004)
Product/Market Performance
Several researches have applied conjoint analysis to measure aspects of brand
equity. For example, Rangaswamy et al (2000) used conjoint analysis to explore how
brand names interact with physical product features to affect the extendibility of brand
names to new product categories. Swait et al (2000) proposed a related approach to
measuring brand equity which designs choice experience that account for brand name,
product attributes, brand image and difference in consumer socio – demographic
characteristics and brand usage. They defined the equalization price – a proxy for brand
equity – as the price that equated the utility of a brand to the utilities that could be
attributed to a brand in the category where no brand differentiation occurred. (HBR, July
2004)
111 METHODOLOGY
The concept of fast food restaurants emerged in the early 1980s in Pakistan. The
first brand in this category was Mr. Burger, and thus it has the first mover advantage on
which it could not bank upon due to the advent of international fast food chains like KFC,
McDonalds and Subway.
There is a marked difference in the customer base of the selected brands. KFC
and McDonalds target the general public and they do not possess any strong niche,
whereas Subway and Mr. Burger enjoy a strong presence in their respective clusters.
The focus of the study is Brand Equity. Based on the foregoing literature survey
MODERATING DEPENDENT
PREDICTING VARIABLE
VARIABLES VARIABLES
BRAND
AWARNESS
BUYING
BRAND EQUITY
USAGE DEMOGRAPHICS
PERFROMANCE
ATTRACTIVE
DELICIOUS
IMAGERY
PLEASANT MEMORY
OCCASIONS
Based on the literature survey and theoretical framework, the following two
HYPOTHESIS ONE
of the subject brands i.e. KFC, McDonald, Mr. Burger and Subway.
HYPOTHESIS TWO
H3: At least three of the demographics would have moderating effects on the
POPULATION
The total household population of Karachi metropolis is more than 0.6 million
households; on the other hand there are about 3200 fast food outlets in the city out of
SAMPLE SIZE
The four fast food brands were selected to get a blend of both local and
international presence in the market. One hundred consumers were selected non-
and hence the final sample size was of 83 respondents. According to Sekran (1992) if
multivariate techniques were to be used than sample size should be at least 10 times the
number of variables. Considering that the study comprised of five dimensions for
measuring brand equity, therefore, the sample size of 50 would have been appropriate.
A closed ended questionnaire based on a like rating scale was developed. The
questionnaire was based on foregoing literature survey, and the theoretical framework.
The questionnaire comprised of 22 questions 10 were related to the research study and 12
were related to personal data. The field survey was carried out in October 2004.
The respondents’ opinions were fed on to the excel sheet. The questions were on
the columns and the respondent’s opinions were on rows. Brand equity comprised of five
components, and each component comprised of two sub-components. First the averages
of the sub-components were calculated then the averages of the components were worked
out yielding an overall Brand Equity Score for each brand, which resulted in the equity of
each brands. Then the excel statistical package was used for generating statistical
summary, measure of central tendencies, dispersion and Pearson correlation, one way
The sample of 83 respondents was taken on a non – random basis and the demographics
Age Income
Gender Qualification
Household Size Residence
Family Type Profession
Organization Preferences
IV SURVEY FINDINGS
The data on brand image was based on Liker rating scale; therefore it was
possible to calculate the measures of central tendencies and dispersions. The results
Table – 1
Brand Equity Score
Measures of Central Tendencies and Dispersions
of Mr. Burger with a mean of 3.13 was lowest. The respondents’ opinions varied
the least preferred and five representing the most preferred opinions. The respondents’
AWARENESS
5
4 KFC
3 Mcdonald
2 Subway
1 Mr Burger
0
1
USAGE
5
4 KFC
3 Mcdonald
2 Subway
1 Mr Burger
0
1
JUDGEMENT
5
4 KFC
3 Mcdonald
2 Subway
1 Mr Burger
0
1
PERFORMANCE
4.4
4.2 KFC
4
3.8 Mcdonald
3.6 Subway
3.4
3.2 Mr Burger
3
1
IMAGERY
5
4 KFC
3 Mcdonald
2 Subway
1 Mr Burger
0
1
Consumers’ buying behavior varies from product to product. For products such as
restaurants the consumer buying behavior is generally of seeking variety. In this type
behavior the consumers switch the brands for sake of variety. In this research an attempt
has been made to ascertain the brand a consumer would most likely to switch to satisfy
his variety seeking need. Thus a correlation matrix was developed to ascertain the
consumer’s correlations of brand switching with other brands. The summarized results
are as follows:
Correlation between none of the brands is higher than 0.80, which indicates that
Subway (.25). This indicates that the customers of KFC in order to satisfy their variety
Similarly a relatively stronger relationship was found between Mr. Burger and
Subway (0.23). This indicates that Mr. Burger consumers’ are most likely to visit Subway
HYPOTHESES RESULTS
HYPOTHESIS ONE
H1: There is no significant difference in the respondents’ opinions on the brand equity
This hypothesis was tested through one-way ANOVA and the summarized results are
presented below:
Table 3
One Way ANOVA Test
At 95% confidence level and (3,328) degree of freedom, the F critical value of 2.63,
is less than the F calculated value of 14.75. Therefore, there is a significant difference of
respondents’ opinions regarding the brand equity of the selected fast food brands.
HYPOTHESIS TWO
The hypothesis was that at least three of the demographics would have contingent effect
(moderating variable) on the relationship of the predictor’s variables and dependent
variables. This hypothesis was rejected. Only one demographic characteristics i.e.
respondents’ opinions on the equity of the four brands by area of residence were found to
be significantly different than the respondents’ opinions on an overall basis. This
hypothesis was tested through two-way ANOVA and the summarized working and the
results is presented below:
Table 4
Two way Anova Tests
Source of
Variation SS Df MS F P-value F crit
Rows (residence) 1.73 6.00 0.29 4.35 0.01 2.66
Columns (overall) 3.25 3.00 1.08 16.33 0.00 3.16
Error 1.19 18.00 0.07
Total 6.17 27.00
CONCLUSIONS
KFC has the highest brand image with a mean of 3.95 followed by McDonalds
Subway and Mr. Burger have adopted a niche-focused strategy and it was found
that they both are doing well in their respective areas. KFC was found to be the leading
brand. McDonalds has to improve a lot in terms of brand image and positioning. It is one
of the most marketed and advertised fast food brands in the country and it has not been
APPENDIX ONE
QUESTIONNAIRE
15 – 20
21 – 25
26 – 30
30 – 35
36 – above
Q2) Qualification:
Matriculation
Intermediate
Graduation ______________________ please specify
Masters ______________________ please specify
Post graduation ______________________ please specify
Q3) Gender:
Male
Female
Q4) Income:
2–5
6 – 10
10 and above
Sadder
Defense
Clifton
PECHS
Gulshan
F.B. Area
Nazimabad
Joint
Independent
Marketing
Engineering
Doctor
Self-Employed
Banker
Teacher
Other
Private
Multinational
Domestic
Semi government
Public
Self owned
Social enterprise
Once a week
Twice a week
More than twice a week
Depends on mood
Alone
Friends
Family
Peers
Fast food
Family restaurants
Hotels
Informal food outlets
AWARENESS
Q.13) Rate the following brands in terms of your awareness? (5 being high
and being low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
Q.14) Rate the brands you would consider buying? (5 being high and 1 being
low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
USAGE
Q.15) Rate the fast food you would prefer to eat? (5 being high and 1 being
low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
Q.16) Rate the fast food you have visited in the last month? (5 being high and
1 being low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
JUDGEMENT
Q.17) How favorable is your attitude towards the fast food brands you have eaten within
last month? (5 being high and 1 being low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
Q.18) How well the following brands satisfy your needs? (5 being high and 1 being
low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
PERFORMANCE
Q.19) Which brand packaging has an attractive look? (5 being high and 1 being low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
Q.20) Which brands are more delicious to eat? (5 being high and 1 being low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
IMAGERY
Q.21) Which brand do you think bring pleasant memory? (5 being high and
being low)
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
Q.22) Could you eat the fast food in various situation and occasions?
a. KFC 5 4 3 2 1
b. McDonalds 5 4 3 2 1
c. Subway 5 4 3 2 1
d. Mr. Burger 5 4 3 2 1
APPENDIX 2
REFERENCE
WEB SITES
www.kfc.com
www.mcdonalds.com
www.mcdonalds.com/pakistan
www.subway.com