Human Service Organisation in Australia – Australian Red Cross
October 9, 2023
BSM109 on Campus 2016-2017
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Investigating the buying behavior of customers over the brand knowledge and the corporate image of Philips
Background:
In today’s world for most businesses, the primary capital is considered to be their brands. In past decades the company’s value has been measured concerning the equipment, tangible assets, and products.
The current assignment will focus on the consumer market of Philips Electronics Private Limited. At present, Philips is in the third stage in the market with a share of around 10 percent, which is competing with the leading brands such as Dien Quang and Rang Dong. So Philips is striving hard to change the situation and wants to become the leader in the market of Vietnam by the end of 2020.
Currently, Philips is providing services and products in three major areas:
Healthcare: In the field of equipment for medical diagnostics Philips is the leader at the top level. It is helping surgeons in the fight against cancer and heart disease. As it progressed it started focussing on the health and the wellbeing of the customers more (Ezeuduji, et al., 2014).
Lifestyle: In the segment of lifestyle Philips had the innovation of Ambilight TV and DVD recorders. A leadership position was recognized by the company in the lighting and it has introduced the electrifying new product concept of Senseo coffee.
Technology: In the cars, we drive and in the offices along with the sports stadiums the semiconductors and the products of lighting from Philips are fixed. The presence of Philips has been proven at the global level (Guo, 2016). It even brightens the monuments like the pyramids, the Olympic events, and the Eiffel Tower.
A new brand movement has been unveiled by Philips Electronics which focuses on getting the brand impression of simplicity quickly to customers around the globe. If the brand positioning of the company is built on sense and simplicity, then the drive will focus on the fame and the benefits that are offered by simplicity. Along with this, it allows the customers to experience the simplicity openly firsthand.
In around 10 markets all over the world like China, UK, Germany, etc. The new drive was taken by Philips of select supermarkets spanning the print, online, TV, and outdoor media (Jewell & Saenger, 2014).
The current report will focus on researching the methods of research carried out by Philips for positioning their products. The study aims to investigate the buying behavior of customers over the brand knowledge and the corporate image of Philips. Overall Philips is considered to be the best brand, while its brand image is good and every characteristic of its products is in the positive score field.
Aims, objectives, and questions:
As per Ezeuduji et al, the draft proposal identified the aims, objectives, and questions for resolving the topic of the institution of a prolific brand positioning strategy. The research aim is directed towards the identification of plausible recommendations in making Philips the leading brand in the market which could be used for effective brand positioning of Phillips. The research objectives could be considered reasonable sources for obtaining the research questions (Ezeuduji et al., 2014).
The research objectives individually refer to the variables that could influence the strategic performance of the organization in a specific market. As per, the profound objective of the research could be observed in the identification of different factors which will influence the buying behavior of customers in Vietnam.
Thereafter, the research objective suggests the identification of disparities between Chinese students and British students in the context of purchasing behavior. Another research objective is to determine the factors that affect the selection of a supermarket in the UK by consumers of different nationalities (Guo, 2016).
Essay on One Key Lesson from the Failure of the League of Nations
Literature Review
For the present study, it is very important to measure the awareness of the products of the brand Philips with the customers of Vietnam. The measurement of the awareness of the brand is not found much in the literature. The research on the measurement of awareness of the brand was performed by Laurent et al. (1995). Brand awareness has been distinguished into three types which have been confirmed by Kapferer (2003):
- TOM awareness: it will help measure whether this brand is the first that will come to mind of the individuals who have been interviewed regarding the brands for the given category of products.
- Spontaneous (Laurent et al.) or Unaided (Kapferer) awareness: It will help measure the impact of a brand that is, to what extent to which the brand is spontaneously associated with the given category of products.
- Assisted awareness: the target audience is questioned about the brand and its products.
Background- Technological strength of Philips
Philips has the sense and simplicity of promising the brand and this company differentiates itself from others with the help of the process of innovation. The method that is used for developing relationships with customers and the kind of focus that is given by their staff in providing the customers with a superior experience about the customer is unique. As per Ahmed, et al, the influence of social media is presently becoming the activity that is most important on the web; from which it is identified that there are a lot many areas upon which they are supposed to expand their horizon for keeping the promise towards the customer new and always focused (Ahmed, et al., 2015). There are around 200 million users who have joined Facebook in just one year and around 34 percent of bloggers have blogged about the products and the brands of Philips. The rest 78 percent of customers will completely depend on the peer-to-peer recommendations in the selection of the supermarket.
Firstly, Ballings &Van den Poel said that it can have to take notes and later the teams responsible for servicing will engage with and supply the support to the clients. By using all these factors, there was a kind of negative response then the plan was made and changes to the path of advertising turned into a positive response. To make the supermarket selection effective for positioning the brand Philips has chosen the driving channels of peer-to-peer support. It is understood that more than 50 percent of the queries posed by customers will be best answered by various other customers only (Billings &Van den Poel, 2014). This is a kind of community for support and commitment. On the whole, the effectiveness is measured through simple KPIs. It is mainly focussed on the delivery of the support that is true.
The uniqueness and the creativity that is used by Philips will be known by this drive. But these new ideas were already applauded by the customers with their experience.
Brand positioning- Driven strategies
As per Kim, et, the whole thing is characterized by the sense and simplicity that Philips reflects itself as a market-oriented company. Everything it does is intended to meet the needs of customers and is purely based on the insights of customers. It’s been more than 100 years since the company did not stop its interaction with people daily. Every day more than a million products of Philips are purchased (Kim, et al., 2015).
As per Kim, Im & Han, in the year 1981, the company Philips was established it started light bulbs as a simple product. As it progressed through the years the portfolio was enlarged into the products of technology, which has become highly complex for most of the users. It has been realized by Philips for which it has determined the easier method and launched a repositioning of the brand which is known as simplicity (Kim, Im & Han, 2013).
The word positioning refers to the location of the products and services in the market. The crucial part is where will the consumers look at those products or brands that are being located in the market. For instance, the value of the product is seen by the customers for the money they pay. Then the brand might be associated with them as high or low quality (Lakshmi, et al., 2017). For taking in the market and finding out the suitable positions this is the key market study.
Creation of a Strategy for repositioning
This is a qualitative and quantitative method responsible strategy. There are various stages involved in moving the product which are as follows:
- To find out the weaknesses of the introductory position research has to be carried out
- Taking on the right track has to be researched
- To improve the position plans are created and accordingly, actions are taken
In the year 2003, a difficulty was faced by Philips that its investment in the media was somewhat not focussed and its awareness about the different product segments is superficial. In addition to this, the products of Philip have been marketed below with a lot of other names with the help of many unrelated approaches to advertising. Hence a great uncertainty was created in the minds of customers.
This created a challenge before Philips. Hence, its vision was to generate clear objectives for plans so that it would help the company reposition itself along with its linked brands. Later a brand promise was set by Philips, which was clear and simple to follow. This was known as the sense and simplicity (Lammers & Ryll, 2016).
Creating the reliability path
According to Maarit Jalkala & Keränen, Philips needed to recognize the key issues that have hindered them in moving forward. Across several products, the resources were superficially spread with their developments in many countries (Maarit Jalkala & Keränen, 2014). Within the organization of Philips, decision-making was developed as an irregular process. It has been noticed that there were many products, besides, there were numerous markets, but consistency was lacking in advertising.
Meeting the needs of the customer:
The foremost challenge was to change the image of Philips. This has been built by sense and simplicity strategy. At present, the message that Philips is getting is that on the whole, it is focussing on the needs of the customer.
As per Maheswaran & Somasundaram, the concept of sense and simplicity was shown in all the products of Philips that are newly developed along with the existing ones (Maheswaran & Somasundaram, 2016). If the company is involved in designing the latest electric kettle, then it will be concerned with offering state-of-the-art and easy use of products. The same principle is applied to all the products of Philips.
New products from Philips
The products that are newly developed by Philips are:
- Highly advanced based on the leading technologies in the market
- It has been designed by doing careful research on the customer’s end
- Easy to use and experience
Philips is also having a look at all its existing products to make it easy for the customers so that it can fit into the strategy of sense and simplicity.
The other major element of sense and simplicity is communication. All the exchanges of Philips have to be easy to understand (Mayer & Peev, 2015). From this, the message that is given has been directed to the target customers and is quite simple to follow.
Research Question
Research questions that can be observed in the context of the research proposal could be illustrated as follows:
- What are the technological strengths used by Philips to attract customers?
- What are the internal changes that are initiated by Philips to link to its theme of sense and simplicity?
- Which factors influence the corporate identity and reputation?
Research Methodology
In this report on the brand positioning of Philips in various countries, secondary research has been conducted. So in this specific review of the research and the secondary research will be talking about the brand positioning, the factors affecting the brand positioning concerning the buying preferences of the customers, and the facts, along with trends (Panda, 2015). The assumptions of moving the market share in terms of brand positioning are also reflected.
Data analysis
The data has been collected from the market shares of various countries and the rural areas such as Vietnam in which the competitive position of Philips is also included. In this document, the sources will be collected from the research institutions, the industry, and the dealership panels that are in combination with the estimates of management (Pike, et al., 2016). The following table shows the performance related to the factors that influence the brand reputation of Philips:
Figure 1: the performance related to the factors of selection of market in the UK and China
Source: (Mayer & Peev, 2015)
In the following figure, the sales related to Vietnam on the selection of market have been represented:
Figure 2: Working Capital
Source: (Mayer & Peev, 2015)
In the following figure, the sales related to the rural areas of Vietnam on the selection of market have been represented:
Figure 3: Inventories
Source: (Mayer & Peev, 2015)
Significance of the Study
From the research, it is understood that the positioning of the brand will have a positive correlation with the shares in the market and the brand equity. When the sale of the brand increases, then the market share of the brand will also increase (Pike, et al., 2016). Based on this correlation, it has been found by the researcher that there is a positive incidence between brand positioning and the influence on the choice of the buyer.
In addition to those of the secondary research and from the further readings the significance of positioning in creating the insubstantial brand value by having a comparison of the equivalence points will be the key to gaining the attention of buyers towards the brand (Singh, Kalafatis & Ledden, 2014).
Based on the above research, some of the recommendations can be provided for future research. Firstly, based on the research approach chosen, the following are the two points which are recommended such as examining the facts regarding the brand recall and the recognition among the customers of Vietnam and identifying the corporate identity and reputation of Philips by researching these concepts on how they are influenced over the buying behavior of consumers. Secondly, suggestions can be given that future research should be based more on scientific research. The interesting thing is studying the sustainability of the products of the brand. Hence, in further research, the investigation should be in a broader way.
Limitation of the Study
In this literature, there are only some of the old values, and the facts and figures are limited. Most of the available literature helps find out the conclusions from the general market and might not be relatively accurate.
Since brand positioning is a very wide subject, in this report the researcher has just touched on the ways that are possible for positioning the brand so that the buyers get influenced. But the in-depth research for every type of brand positioning for every aspect will relatively give more accurate data.
Timeline:
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| Ethic Check List |
References
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Ballings, M. and Van den Poel, D., 2014. The Dangers of Using Intention as a Surrogate for Retention in Brand Positioning Decision Support Systems. In Data Analysis, Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery (pp. 181-188). Springer International Publishing.
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