The impact of brand personality on buying decision of the consumers in fashion industry- “A case study of Marks & Spencer”

This research aims to examine the impact of brand personality on the purchasing behavior of consumers in the fashion industry, with a case study of Marks & Spencer. It will explore the importance of brand personality in developing an effective brand image and address the management problem of declining performance in the clothing department. The research will provide recommendations for improving brand personality and strategies to meet consumer needs.

Running head: MARKETING RESEARCH ESSENTIALS
Marketing research essentials
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................2
Management Problem................................................................................................................3
Research problem.......................................................................................................................3
Research objectives....................................................................................................................4
Research question.......................................................................................................................4
Research hypothesis...................................................................................................................4
Research method........................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Title: The impact of brand personality on buying decision of the consumers in fashion
industry- “A case study of Marks & Spencer “
Introduction
This research has proposed to examine the impact of brand personality on the
purchasing behaviour of the consumers. Brand management is a key factor for attaining the
attention of the existing and potential consumers where emotional brand attachment plays an
important part. The fashion industry has been chosen as the industry for evaluation as there is
significant increase in competition among different fashion brands. Marks & Spencer has
been proposed to be chosen as the case for analysis. The research will aim to develop
awareness among the management in Marks & Spencer so that they can develop effective
strategies to address the needs of the consumers.
Literature Review
As stated by Badgaiyan, Dixit and Verma (2017), brand personality serves as a
symbolic function in contrast to product related functions which serve utilitarian function for
all the consumers. On the other hand, Rezaei et al. (2016) states that brand association
explaining the relationship between emotional connection and symbolic consumption which
is the consumers develop with the brand is known as brand personality. Consumers tend to
develop affinities with different brands based on their own personality. According to Matzler
et al. (2016), the human characteristics of a brand developed from the anthropomorphizing of
a brand is known as brand personality. Researchers in the past have been able to identify the
importance of brand personality where consumers have purchased a brand product to express
their own self to others. Toldos-Romero and Orozco-Gómez (2015) states that image of the
brand, quality of the brand, attitude towards the brand, commitment, affect and persuasion are
considered as the impact of effective brand personality. Various researchers have empirically

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tested these behaviours but in most of the cases, the transfer is not clear. Vahdati and
Mousavi Nejad (2016) states that it is more effective to use singularity of brand personality
rather than considering all its dimensions. This implies that while developing personality of a
brand organizations need to develop attributes that converge at a single point. On the
contrary, Gómez Aguilar, Yagüe Guillén and Villaseñor Roman (2016) suggested that use of
a reflexive second order model has better explaining capability of brand personality and its
outcomes.
Management Problem
Marks & Spencer have been planning to shut almost 100 stores all over the United
Kingdom due to the lack of effective performance from the clothing department of the
organization (Wood 2019). The retail fashion section of the companies has been suffering for
quite a long time where the majority of the consumers are preferring to purchase fashion
products from rival companies. Therefore, the company has been incurring heavy losses
which resulted in downsizing of their operations to re-launch the brand with new brand
personality and image.
Research problem
This research will aim to address the above mentioned management problem where a
market survey will be conducted to evaluate the significance of brand personality in
developing an effective brand image within the organization. Moreover, it will aim to
examine its influence on the purchase intention and buying behaviour of the consumers. A
market survey will be conducted based on the above objective to identify the perspective of
the retail consumers in United Kingdom and provide suitable recommendations to address the
issue.

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Research objectives
 To examine the impact of brand personality on purchase intention of the consumers in
Marks & Spencer
 To highlight the key elements of brand personality
 To examine key literature to highlight the factor affecting purchase intention of
consumers
 To recommend suitable strategies essential for improving personality of companies in
the modern industry
Research question
What is the impact of brand personality on purchase intention of the consumers in Marks &
Spencer?
Sub questions
What are the key elements of brand personality?
What are the different factors affecting the purchase intention of consumers?
Research hypothesis
H0: There is no significant impact of brand personality on the purchase intention of the
consumers in Marks & Spencer
H1: There is significant impact of brand personality on the purchase intention of the
consumers in Marks & Spencer
Research method
In this research, mixed method will be proposed as the research design. It means that
both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected and analysed (Schoonenboom and

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Johnson 2017). The primary data will be collected conducting surveys and interviews with
the retail consumers in United Kingdom. In order to keep the quality of the data, a large
sample size will be chosen consisting of 200 respondents. The collected data will be
analysed using statistical tools such as Ms Excel and SPSS. Coding will be used to analyse
the qualitative data collected for the interview (Palinkas et al. 2015). A sequential
explanatory research design will be used where the quantitative data will be analysed at first
and then the qualitative data will be analysed to validate the data from the quantitative
analysis (Subedi 2016).

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References
Badgaiyan, A.J., Dixit, S. and Verma, A., 2017. If brands are people, then people are
impulsive—assessing the connection between brand personality and impulsive buying
behaviour. Journal of Brand Management, 24(6), pp.622-638.
Gómez Aguilar, A., Yagüe Guillén, M.J. and Villaseñor Roman, N., 2016. Destination brand
personality: An application to Spanish tourism. International Journal of Tourism
Research, 18(3), pp.210-219.
Matzler, K., Strobl, A., Stokburger-Sauer, N., Bobovnicky, A. and Bauer, F., 2016. Brand
personality and culture: The role of cultural differences on the impact of brand personality
perceptions on tourists' visit intentions. Tourism Management, 52, pp.507-520.
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K.,
2015. Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method
implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health
Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544.
Rezaei, S., Ali, F., Amin, M. and Jayashree, S., 2016. Online impulse buying of tourism
products: the role of web site personality, utilitarian and hedonic web browsing. Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 7(1), pp.60-83.
Schoonenboom, J. and Johnson, R.B., 2017. How to construct a mixed methods research
design. KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 69(2), pp.107-131.
Subedi, D., 2016. Explanatory sequential mixed method design as the third research
community of knowledge claim. Am J Educ Res, 4(7), pp.570-577.
Toldos-Romero, M.D.L.P. and Orozco-Gómez, M.M., 2015. Brand personality and purchase
intention. European Business Review, 27(5), pp.462-476.

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Vahdati, H. and Mousavi Nejad, S.H., 2016. BRAND PERSONALITY TOWARD
CUSTOMER PURCHASE INTENTION: THE INTERMEDIATE ROLE OF ELECTRONIC
WORD-OF-MOUTH AND BRAND EQUITY. Asian Academy of Management
Journal, 21(2).
Wood, Z. 2019. Marks & Spencer closes 17 more stores in new blow to high street. [online]
the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/15/marks-and-
spencer-stores-close-m-and-s-hull [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].