Dissertation: Branding Impact on Customers' Buying Behaviour

This dissertation examines the impact of branding on consumer buying behavior, focusing on the case of Giorgio Armani. The research explores how brand image, trust, and social status influence customer decisions. The introduction provides an overview of branding concepts and the research's aims and objectives. A literature review analyzes the viewpoints of various authors on branding's effect on consumer choices, followed by the research methodology, which employs a qualitative approach with questionnaires to gather data. The data analysis and findings are presented, leading to conclusions and recommendations regarding the influence of branding on customer behavior and brand loyalty, with a focus on the fashion industry. The dissertation offers insights into effective branding strategies and their impact on consumer purchasing decisions.

DISSERTATION
(The impact of branding
on customers’ buying
behaviour)

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the research work performed over the topic “The impact of branding
on customers’ buying behaviour” is a record of original work performed by me. The information
and data provided within this report is authentic which doesn't involve any kind of fake
information.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I want to thank to all the people who provided me guidance in performing this
investigation. I also want to thanks my colleagues and my team members for their support and
coordination with me which supported me in gathering data and its evaluation in the light of
research aim and objectives.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This reports aims at the study of the impact of branding on consumers buying behaviour .
Consumers buying behaviour is refers to as the process where the decision regarding the buying
of the product is taken considering the quality, packaging, prices and its utility to the individual.
In order to understand this concept the major point which have been focused is the concept of
branding and how it affect consumers buying decision. Branding plays a vital role in influencing
customers decision to purchase and consume the product. In this report the introduction section
has been written which consists the study about the branding and its concepts along with the
aims and objectives of the research has also been mentioned. In this research the chosen
association is Giorgio Armani which is the leading brand of clothes fro both men and women.
The researcher have chosen this association for the research as this is the leading brand among
all other brands. Along with this Literature review is also documented so that the different view
point regarding the concepts of branding on consumers buying decision can be studied which
have been given by various authors. With the help of these different branding concepts the next
steps of the research methodology have also been taken into consideration. Research
methodology is the major part within this investigation as with the help of this factor only the
data regarding the branding and its impact on the consumer's buying decision have been
gathered. Research methodology is comprises of the methods through which the data have been
collected. In regard to complete this investigation the researcher have used the qualitative
method of research so that the data can be gathered in a quality. In addition to this, data analysis
has be done with the help of primary source of data collection where the questionnaire has been
used to gather the accurate data by asking number of questions to the customers preferring
Armani. Apart from this recommendation and finding have been mentioned which are related to
the questionnaire and the issues related to the investigation about the topic. The documentation
of the conclusion is done on the basis of the findings from the research so that the accurate and
relevant outcomes can be gathered.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
TOPIC:-............................................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................5
Overview of investigation...........................................................................................................5
Background of investigation.......................................................................................................5
Rationales....................................................................................................................................6
Research Aim..............................................................................................................................7
Research Objective:-...................................................................................................................7
Research Questions:- ..................................................................................................................7
Time scale...................................................................................................................................7
Structure of dissertation:-............................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2: LITERARTURE REVIEW .....................................................................................9
The brand image create customer’s loyalty................................................................................9
The brand create or inspire trust in customers..........................................................................11
Branding show the social status and affect the buying behaviour of the customer..................13
Brand attract more customers than similar industry brands......................................................15
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................18
CHAPTER 4: DATA INTERPRETATION..................................................................................23
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ....................................................32
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................32
Recommendation ......................................................................................................................32
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................34
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................37

RESEARCH TITLE:-
“The impact of branding on customers’ buying behaviour: A case study of Giorgio Armani
S.p.A.”
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Overview of investigation
Branding is refers to as a marketing practice where a company perform several activities
in order to create a name, design or symbol that can be easily identifiable by the people as
belonging to company. An organisation performs number of activities in order to a positioning
its branding in a positive manner within marketplace (Dhurup, Mafini and Dumasi, 2014). This
is so because an effective branding is only possible by a company when it work toward regularly
interacting and maintain a relationship with customers. For this organisations mainly focuses
over offering high quality product so that the price which company is offering must create equal
value that a customer is paying for purchasing that product. That means a product must offer
such benefit and value which worth the money consumers are offering (Shahin Sharifi and
Rahim Esfidani, 2014). In addition to this several other methods like making customer aware
about availability of particular product and benefits its offers with the help of advertisement,
promotional events, providing after sales services etc. By performing such practices a brand
become able to creates a particular perception about it in the mind of customers and due to
which the customer get attracted toward a brand and line up within the store to get the latest
product of that brand (Sasmita and Mohd Suki, 2015). It is a kind of human nature as when they
found anything appealing which support them in enhancing their life and status within the
society. In order to perform investigation over “The impact of branding on customers’ buying
behaviour”, Giorgio Armani organisation has been taken into consider which is one of the well-
known brand throughout the world and deals in fashion products or services.
Background of investigation
Branding is also proves to be critical for a business growth and success as it help in
forming a perception regarding a company's product or services (Abosag and F. Farah, 2014).
There are number of benefit that an organisation get through branding such as greater recognition
within marketplace, helps in increasing the business value among several stakeholders that
further support in organisational growth. For studying effectively regarding the impact of

branding on consumers' buying behaviour the Giorgio Armani has been considered which work
as a fashion retailer throughout the world. Giorgio Armani is one of the well known Italian
luxury fashion brand which is founded by Giorgio Armani (Zekiri and Hasani, 2015). It involves
number of activities like manufacturing, designing and distribution of shoes, accessories,
watches, leather goods, home interior, cosmetics and eye wear. In addition to this it maintain a
chain of brand for offering variety of products like Armani Junior, Giorgio Armani, Giorgio
Armani Privé, Armani Jeans, Emporio Armani, Armani Exchange and Armani Collezioni. It
maintains a positive brand image throughout the world as an offerer of high quality luxury
fashion items (Esmaeilpour, 2015). For representing and differentiating its product within market
place it associate the name of Armani with high-fashion for leveraging the value the brand have
in market for already established products.
Rationales
The main aim behind conducting this project is to develop an understaffing regarding the
role that branding help in influencing the consumer behaviour and in what manner. The
information gathered through the investigation support in enhancing the knowledge of researcher
as well as reader regarding the role of branding in growth and success of an organisation. In
addition to this it also help in enhancing the understanding of several tools and techniques that
are used within an investigation to gather, analyse and interpret the information in effective
manner (Akhtar and et. al., 2016). This investigation will provide benefit to both business as well
as students with the help of this information. It is so because this will help business persons in
determining the number of actions which they can take in order to enhance their branding
practices to have greater influence over the consumers for achieving competitive edge at
marketplace. On other side, this dissertation also have academical benefit as it will support
students in gathering the information regarding importance of branding to a business and tactics
they adopt for creating an effective brand image by getting a real example of Giorgio Armani
(Moreira, Fortes and Santiago, 2017). Apart from it, this investigation also support business
persons in developing their understanding regarding actions they must perform in order to
perform positive branding which support them in achieving competitive edge
Research Aim
The main aim of this dissertation is "to demonstrate the importance of branding on
customer behaviour. A study on Giorgio Armani S.p.A.

Research Objective:-
 To explain the meaning of branding and the importance of this in the marketing sector.
 To examine the impact of customer buying behaviour in contact with a well-known
brand.
Research Questions:-
 How can brand image create customer’s loyalty?
 How can the brand create or inspire trust in customers?
 Can branding show the social status and how can this affect the buying behaviour of the
customer?
 Why does a particular brand attract more customers than similar industry brands?
Time scale
It plays a crucial role in ensuring the systematic flow of activities involved within an
investigation for accomplishment of research objective. For presenting time scale a tools is used
which is known as Gantt chart (Khan and Rahman, 2016). It refers to a pictorial representation of
number of activities to be performed within investigation and time take by them along with the
sequence of their accomplishment. This support in assisting the actions performed by researcher
in right direction.
Structure of dissertation:-
The proposed investigation will be performed in effective manner by performing work as
per specific format (Fatima and Lodhi, 2015). This investigation contains a structure of six
chapters which is described below:
Chapter 1: Introduction
In the first section of this dissertation there is a overview about the current topic of study
and direction in which this will proceed. It support in developing an understanding regarding the
dissertation topic in the mind of readers so that they would be able to gather further information
presented (Akkucuk and Esmaeili, 2016). Further it also enlist the research aims and objective
along with the time scale.
Chapter 2: Literature review
In next chapter of this dissertation there is an in-depth description regarding the influence
of branding over consumer buying behaviour by taking into consideration the view point of

several authors which is collected from different sources like books, journals, articles etc. The
critical evaluation of authors view point has been performed in reference with aims and
objectives so desired outcome can be achieved (Bhanot, Srinivasan and Srivastava, 2014).
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
In this section of investigation there will be detailed discussion regarding the number of
tools and techniques that are used by researcher in order to collect, interpret and evaluate the
information to reach over a particular conclusion (Shobeiri, Mazaheri and Laroche, 2014).
Chapter 4: Data Analysis
In this section, all the information collected regarding research topic will then be
evaluated according to pre-specified research aims and objectives. In addition to this it also
provide detailed information over the findings.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
In this chapter of dissertation overall findings will be evaluated for presenting the
conclusion of investigation (Sharp, 2016). In addition to this it also present recommendation on
the basis of issues found throughout investigation.
Chapter 6: Reflection
This is the last chapter of investigation where a reflection over the personal experience of
researcher while performing investigation will be presented. This will includes learnings and
issues faced by researcher (Bian and Veloutsou, 2017).

CHAPTER 2: LITERARTURE REVIEW
Literature review is defined as the scholar paper that contains information regarding a
particular topic of study with an aim to extract appropriate conclusion over same. This is a kind
of framework which support a reader in enhancing their knowledge about a particular topic so
that they would be able to understand about findings (Alalwan and et. al., 2017). It is basically a
process of evaluating the secondary information which is gathered from different sources like
journals, articles, books, newspapers etc. for ascertaining information about a particular topic of
concern. In this section the researcher critical evaluate the view point of two different authors
over a particular topic. This support the investigator to form up a base by developing certain
understanding regarding the topic so that this understanding can be further expanded with the
help of primary investigation. In addition to this it also support the investigator in effective
representation of primary information by evidencing it with previously conducted research data
over similar topic which is critically evaluated in literature review (Kang, 2015).
The brand image create customer’s loyalty
According to the view point of Adrian Swinscoe, 2017, in order to gain a legion of loyal
followers a business is firstly required to establish the brand identity among its stakeholders.
This creation of identity involves several factors like way a customer perceive brand, value it
provide to stakeholder, quality of work performed by the company. These are crucial factors as
manner in which a customer perceived brand plays a crucial role within the decision they form
for developing a trust over the company. This is the main reason why a particular business takes
their brand identity as a serious matter to be focused while formulating a decision regarding
promotional and other practices within marketplace. There are eight factors which are required to
be consider by an organisation in order to develop their positive brand identity within
marketplace. These factors are mentioned below:
 Find thing make brand unique:- In order to create a positive brand image within
marketplace it is crucial for an organisation to offer something unique in term of their
product or services which is not available among other competitors. This is because if
any organisation or business have nothing to offer that make them unique or different
from other rivalry then it is quite difficult for creating the brand loyalty. According to
Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott, 2017, Every business who want to achieve

success try to provide a clear value preposition and present them in front of its customers
which support in influencing them and make them attracted toward the offerings of
particular company. Once an organisation be able to identify its unique selling
propositions it is required to be presented within the marketing campaign in order to
make customers aware about it and providing them a reason to buy.
 Remain consistent:- It is very difficult for an organisation to keep their brand identity
consistent from the starting of their execution but it is consider to be a key to inspire the
customer loyalty toward the brand. For this if a social media and other pages are
forwarding a direct message to customers regarding the company's product or services
and not directly from the website of company then there is a chances that customers get
confused. Hence in order to develop a positive brand identity then a company must take
time and carefully plan the brand strategy so that they can promote the real message that
they actually want to circulate among customer using different platform.
 Form Brand Alliance:- Building positive relationship with several different brands and
forming up partnership with those brand benefit the company in many ways. It help in
elevating the brand's image which contribute toward increasing the customer base and
increasing the profitability of organisation. According to Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi,
2014, the strategic partnership not only expand the reach but it also help in improving the
relationship with customers. In addition to this it also provide an option of swapping the
promotions and special discount offers to partners which can be passed to the customers
base.
On the other hand as per the view point of Wheeler, A., 2017, a image that a particular
brand holds determine how a customers perceive company in term of logo, website, product,
quality, emotion etc. A positive brand image is the main reason behind a customer who flock up
in a line for hours within the store for purchasing the newest product offered by a particular
brand. This is so because a brand which offer higher value to the customers be able to develop an
effective relation among the company and customer in a manner that whenever they want to
purchase product users prefer that particular brand. According to Corsi, Overton and Casini,
2014 by maintaining a positive relation with customer a brand become able to develop a emotion
in the mind of user which always influence them to purchase product from that particular brand.
This help in building a base of loyal customer which also support a brand in launching a new

product and getting acceptance in market. It is so because when a company launch its new
product its existing and loyal customer always seek to try them and also suggest other to go for
the purchase of same. This is so because when a brand get valued by the customer then it build
up trust among it followers that they won't get cheated if uses new product or offering from the
same company or its partners.
The brand create or inspire trust in customers
According to the view point of Thomas Smale, 2017, when a consumer as well as
prospects of a company holds up trust among them, at that time they more likely buy from that
particular brand. On the other side when a company have the trust of its customers then they also
have an advantage to command the price higher then average and boost up the lifetime value of
each consumer. But this is not possible to achieve so easily as for gaining trust among customers
it is crucial for an organisation to remain consistent in messages they deliver, develop an
understanding regarding the buyers and delivering the promises on timely manner. These are the
factors which are considered by Giorgio Armani and it become able to get a tremendous growth
in market place by maintain a higher goodwill about its quality of offering within the fashion
retailers. This contributed up-to a great extend in developing a loyalty customers base but it take
lots of time and efforts by the experts of Giorgio Armani with the formation of several strategies.
These are mentioned below:
 Be accessible:- The main focus of Giorgio Armani is to remain approachable to the
customers and allow them to interact with the company regarding their feedbacks and
suggestions. In order to remain accessible toward the customers, the Giorgio Armani
focuses toward setting up their fashion retail stores at several places so that customers
are not required to put more efforts for reaching the stores and purchasing products. In
addition to this with the enhancement of technological environment, Giorgio Armani
started offering its product online using e-commerce over which customers can purchase
products while sitting at home and interact with company or suppliers directly by
marketing their comments which then answered by the company.
 Have a reliable product:- The major challenge in front of each company is that people
always tend to buy products or services as per emotion and not logic, but when the
product arrive at the customer's doorstep then they only get satisfied with the quality of
product in a justification of their purchase. This is the main reason behind the worldwide