A study to indicate the importance of brand awareness in brand choice - A cultural perspective

Abstract: According to theory, consumers choose a brand they recognise, before an unfamiliar brand in an unknown environment. If the consumers do not choose according to theories, what are the factors that have a greater affect on the buying behaviour? There is not so much research about the effect of brand awareness on brand choice, which is why this subject was investigated. One of the purposes of this dissertation was to do a research about brand awareness; to see to what extent it matters when purchasing the first time in an unfamiliar environment. One of the objectives was to determine if there were any differences in buying behaviour between the chosen cultures. The research group was limited to the students from China, India and Iran at Kristianstad University. The research questions were important since they structured the problem that was to be answered and made it easier to limit the scope of the dissertation. The questionnaires that were handed out reflected our research questions. This made it possible to observe which product the students recognised most and which product they recognised least. The result was used in our analysis. The conclusions of the dissertation was that all investigated factors had some importance for choice of brand, while quality had a greater affect on brand choice than brand awareness. Further, it was no difference in buying behaviour between the cultures. Finally, it was not possible to state any differences in buying behaviour the first time compared to today.