Impact of Customer Satisfaction on Organization's Brand Image: A case study on Tesco

Running head: IMPACT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON ORGANIZATION'S BRAND
IMAGE
Research proposal on “Impact of Customer Satisfaction on Organization's Brand Image: A
case study on Tesco”
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1IMPACT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON ORGANIZATION'S BRAND IMAGE
1. Title of Research:
Impact of customer satisfaction on organization's brand image: a case study of Tesco
2. Research questions
1) What are the factors that affect the customer satisfaction for an organization?
2) How does customer satisfaction affect the brand image of an organization and its
business performance?
3) How a leading business organization, such as, Tesco, can improve its services to build
customer satisfaction?
3. Literature review
In the competitive business environment, an organization’s brand image depends heavily
on the customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Bilgihan, 2016). Thus, every organization invests
consistently on building a brand image and reputation. These are very important factors that
contribute in increasing the market share and growth of a business. Thus, the businesses are in
continuous effort in improving their customer service to earn customer satisfaction. As stated by
Wheeler (2017), the marketing managers of any organization pay special attention on building a
reputation and brand identity for the company. However, that depends on many factors and one
of those is customer satisfaction. On the other hand, customer satisfaction depends on variety of
factors.
3.1 Determinants of customer satisfaction
The determinants of customer satisfaction are variable for different type of products,
services and type of industry. In a study by Oghojafor et al. (2014), it is seen that marketing

2IMPACT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON ORGANIZATION'S BRAND IMAGE
techniques are highly important in telecommunications industry. Along with the product or the
core service, the promotion and distribution techniques are quite impactful on the level of
customer satisfaction. Trust is also a major factor that determines customer satisfaction in the
telecom market of Nigeria that contributes in brand reputation. Thus, in the telecom industry,
marketing and promotional techniques play a major role in determining customer satisfaction and
loyalty.
On the other hand, in a study on the determinants of the customer satisfaction on the
service quality of the city bus service in Malaysia by Noor & Foo (2014), the authors focused on
three attributes of the bus services, comfort, safety and accessibility, other than trust and found
that these factors highly vary when the product or service type changes. For example, there is
difference between the minibus services and long distance bus transit and these attributes lead to
different type of customer satisfaction for these different services. Thus, it can be said that
product differentiation requires different dimensions or attributes for achieving customer
satisfaction.
The determinants of customer satisfaction change according to the product or service type
or industry type. In this context it can be highlighted that Möhlmann (2015) explored the sharing
economy for addressing the determinants of customer satisfaction. It is found that in the sharing
economy, the major determinant of customer satisfaction is the self-benefit, coupled with utility,
trust, familiarity and cost savings. Service quality and the community are also important factors
that help to gain customer satisfaction. The author also found that internet capacity, smartphone
capacity, trend affinity and environmental aspects have no impact on the customer satisfaction in
case of sharing economy.

3IMPACT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON ORGANIZATION'S BRAND IMAGE
On a broader perspective, Liat, Mansori & Huei (2014) conducted a study on evaluating
the association between the corporate image, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in the hotel
industry of Malaysia. It is found from the study that service quality is a highly important factor in
the hospitality industry. As there is fierce competition in the hotel industry, the organizations
must focus on delivering the highest quality of products and services to the customers to create a
corporate image and brand loyalty. All these factors are associated with one another and
contribute significantly in the long term business growth and also ensuring sustainability in the
Malaysian hotel industry.
3.2 Determinants of corporate image
Corporate image is the perceived impression that is created by the interactions and
experiences with the brand and it is developed over time through consistent advertisements and
direct experience and relationship with the customers. There are many factors that affect the
corporate image. Alhaddad (2015) showed in his study that brand image, brand trust and
perceived quality of the products and services are the determinants of brand loyalty. In the brand
loyalty model, the author found that when the customers have a better perceived quality of a
product or service, they would like to experience the product or service. If they get a good
experience, the brand image gets better and they would become brand loyal. However, apart
from products and services, the CSR activities of the companies also create corporate image and
lack of such initiatives or activities negatively affect the consumer’s perception about the image
of the company. Hence, even if the company is providing better quality products or services, it
would have a negative image, which would hamper its business eventually (Tran et al., 2015).
On the contrary, Japutra, Ekinci & Simkin (2014) explored the factor of brand attachment
and stated that it is a powerful element to predict the favorable consumer behavior. Brand