To Analyze Branding Impact on Fashion Buying Behavior: Next Plc Study

This literature review investigates the impact of branding on customer buying behavior within the fashion industry, using Next Plc as a case study. It begins with an introduction to branding, emphasizing its role in differentiating products and building customer relationships. The main body explores key concepts like brand equity, including brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, and brand loyalty, drawing from Aaker's model. It then analyzes how brands influence consumer behavior, examining the consumer decision-making process, including problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase action, and post-purchase actions. The review synthesizes various research papers and journals to illustrate these concepts. The conclusion summarizes the importance of effective branding in achieving business success, particularly in the fashion industry, and suggests areas for future research. The study emphasizes the significant impact of branding on consumer behavior, highlighting factors such as cultural, social, and internal influences.

Literature Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Title: To analyse the impact of branding on customer buying behaviour within fashion sector:
A study on Next Plc
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, brand is considered as a status symbol but why question arises. It can be
anything quality, features or benefits. Branding is the marketing tool used by the organizations
for building a strong brand image of the product or services and increasing the awareness of it in
the mind of the consumers in such a way that every time they think of purchasing something, that
particular brand comes to their mind. Branding has become an integral part of every
organization. This study aims at analysing the impact of branding on the buying process of the
consumers in the fashion industry. Along with that, this study provides an in depth knowledge
and understanding about the key concept of branding and the consumer behaviour.
MAIN BODY
Theme 1: Understanding the concept of branding
Products are made by the companies but the consumers buy the brand. Thus, the business
organizations go for branding with the objective of differentiating their products and services
from their competitors. According to KVASHNINA and BORTNIK (2017), branding helps in
building a relationship with the customers and companies differentiating strategy in case the
products cannot be easily differentiated in terms of their features. As described by Kotler, the
concept of brand has the capability of conveying six different levels of meanings to the specific
target audience and it is called “Six Dimensions of the brand”. First is attributes, each brand
communicates a specific set of attributes like prestige. Second is branding strengthens the
attributes of the products by highlighting their core benefits which makes it more attractive.
Third is value, the brand describes the core values and beliefs attached with the product and
services. Forth is culture, which shows the target group of audiences which is completely based
on the socio cultural characteristics. The last two are personality and users, in which the brand
tries to represent the behavioural personality patterns of the target group of customers.
Branding is basically the set of marketing strategies which is being used by the
organizations for differentiating their products and services from its competitors and crating a
long lasting impact over the minds of the customers. It creates a unique name and identity in the

mind of the consumers through various marketing advertisements. Branding is a combination of
several other concepts. There are four concepts of brand as proposed by Aaker.
Illustration 1: Brand equity in Aaker model. (Sources: Relationship between the
Integratedness Criteria of Marketing Communication Tools and Consumer Based Brand
Equity (CBBE) in Iran’s Food Industry. 2015)
According to Tanveer and Lodhi (2016), an important part of branding is brand equity,
which mainly refers to the asset and liabilities in relation to the brand which also includes name
and symbols which has a huge impact over the values which is arising from the particular
product or services. It signifies the unique marketing effects on the particular brand. The positive
side of brand equity is that there are times when the consumer is willing to pay more for the
same quality because of the attractiveness and the attribute attached to that product. But it is also
very important to manage the brand equity properly otherwise it can have a negative impact on
the brand and its products. The Aaker model of brand equity highlights the core value associated
with the brand equity. First is brand awareness, which is one of the major determinant of brand
equity. It reflects the ability of the consumer in recalling and recognizing the brand linking it
with its corresponding products. It is very important for the consumers to be aware of the product
so that it can be added in the purchasing choices. As per Su (2016), perceived quality, it refers to
the customer's perception about the overall quality of the product and services. It is a kind of
intangible thing which relates to the overall feelings and attachment towards a brand. It can help
in generating values that could provide a reason to buy and along with differentiation the brand

positioning. Third is brand association, which refers to what people feel when they come across a
brand. It reflects the feelings of the customers while seeing the advertisement for the product or
also during the buying process. Last is brand loyalty, under the influence of brand loyalty, it
becomes difficult for the consumers to switch to another brand irrespective of their superior
features. The more the customers are loyal towards a particular brand, the less vulnerable will be
the customer base. Brand loyalty plays an important role in enhancing brand image of the
company.
Theme: 2 Analysing the effect of brands on consumer behaviour in fashion industry
According to Rehman and et.al (2017), consumer behaviour can be positive or negative
which is completely dependent upon the outcome of their evaluation process. The customer
attitude is the major part in conducting the market research. The positive attitude of the
consumers can result into not only sustaining the competitive advantage but it is will also help in
improving the financial health of the organization. Branding plays a key role in influencing the
behaviour of the consumers. There are certain factors that forms negative attitude. The major
reason is that an overly priced product policy which might have an opposite impact over the
positive attitude of the consumers towards the product as well as the brand.
Illustration 2: Consumer decision making process. (Source: What is Consumer Decision
Making Process. 2018)

There are five stages being involved in the consumer buying process which considers
before, during and after purchase processes. First is problem recognition, under this, the
consumer identifies and becomes aware of the dissatisfaction or the problem. It is the most
important stage in decision-making as without recognizing the needs an individual will not seek
to buy goods and services. There are several reasons that may cause recognition of problems
such as depletion of stock, environmental changes, changes in financial situations and so forth.
Second is information search, after identifying the need, the consumer will try to solve the
problem or satisfy the need. As defined by Panwar and et.al (2019), the information is divided
into two, which is, internal and external. In internal, the search is initiated by the consumers
which is completely dependent upon the culture and prior shopping experience while in external
search, the relevant information is being gathered from the external environment.
Next stage is alternative evaluations, in this, the consumer evaluates the alternatives
based on the number of dimensions, features, characteristics and so forth. The product features
along with its benefits are the factors that influence the consumers decision to buy the particular
product. After conducting proper evaluation, the consumer will take decision with respect to
which product to be purchase from the alternatives available. Fourth stage is purchase action, this
stage involves the procedure which includes complete selection of the brand and the outlet from
where to purchase the required product. The consumer mainly prefers to go nearby for
purchasing low value items while will prefer to go far places for purchasing higher value
products which involves high price sensitivity. Thus, after all these selections, the consumer
finally makes the final purchase.
The last stage is related to the post purchase actions. This also an important part which
leads to increasing the satisfaction level of the consumers. Mostly consumers tend to compare
their product with another on the basis of features and characteristics. Sudha and Sheena, (2017),
states that if the perceived value is lower than what was expected then the product and the brand
fails to meet the customer's satisfaction level which will have a serious consequence which
means that the consumer might not consider that brand in their future purchasing. This will result
into spreading negative things about the brand through word of mouth. Thus, all these stages has
a huge impact over the buying behaviour of the consumers which the organizations are required
to consider for the purpose of effectively branding their product and services and positively
influence the customer's behaviour.

CONCLUSION
It can be summarized that brand is a guarantee and an assurance which defines the quality
of the product. Branding is a strategy which is being used by the organizations for the purpose of
achieving higher success. If the business organization manages its brand effectively especially in
fashion industry, it will result into substantial payoffs. On the other hand, if it is mismanaged, it
will be very harmful for the brand and reputation of the organization. There are various factors
that affect the buying behaviour of the consumers such as cultural factors, social factors and
other internal and external factors. Future research based on a specific organization and how it
has dealt with the branding and it impact should be carried out. From, the research, it can be
concluded that branding has an impact on the consumer minds in different ways and even the
fashion industry brands have a huge impact.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
KVASHNINA, K. and BORTNIK, I., 2017. BRANDING AS A FORM OF PR-
ACTIVITIES. EUROPEAN AND NATIONAL DIMENSION IN RESEARCH. p.130.
Panwar, D. and et.al, 2019. Consumer decision making process models and their applications to
market strategy. International Management Review. 15(1). pp.36-44.
Su, J., 2016. Examining the relationships among the brand equity dimensions. Asia Pacific
Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
Sudha, M. and Sheena, K., 2017. Impact of influencers in consumer decision process: the fashion
industry. SCMS Journal of Indian Management. 14(3). pp.14-30.
Tanveer, Z. and Lodhi, R. N., 2016. The effect of brand equity on customer satisfaction: An
empirical study based on David Aaker's Brand Equity Model. IUP Journal of Brand
Management. 13(3). p.43.
ur Rehman, F. and et.al, 2017. Determinants of personal factors in influencing the buying
behavior of consumers in sales promotion: a case of fashion industry. Young
Consumers.