EFFECTS OF BRANDING ON PRODUCT IMAGE

(A STUDY OF UNILEVER NIG PLC)

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

It is paramount for an organization to promote an awareness of differences between the products and those of competitors.  Branding is one of the strategies of differentiating a product so that a company can compete in non-price basis i.e. a company product should be differentiated from competitive products.

Branding strategy is often used by companies selling reasonable standardized products such as soap, toothpaste and body cream or automobile to a brand market that is fairly homogenous in its demand for the given item.  Kotler and Keller (2006) said that “to be branded product must be differentiated” physical products vary in their potentials for differentiation.

Anyanwu (2006) said that branding is essential for advertising effectiveness.  This is because it is branding that distinguishes similar goods of different manufacturers.  It helps consumers to identify the brand identity of various goods.  A brand may begins with a name as in the case of ‘Pears’ ‘Omo’ ‘Lipton’ and ‘Lifebuoy’ but extends to other vital features – typography, colour, package design, slogan etc.  These are features which assist in creating, stimulating and maintaining demand. 

Confidence and consequently, image are based primarily upon satisfaction with using a company’s product and service and dealing with its people without the reality or value being present, it is virtually impossible to create the image of it.  The image of the company or its brand should be a major source of differential advantage.

Obviously, every research work seeks to proffer solution to certain research problems or questions.  Selecting a good brand name is one of the major tasks facing the management of an organization.  Bad brand name does not only destroy the image of a particular product but also affect consumer’s pre-disposition towards the other products produced by the company.  The negative effect of giving a bad brand name to a product necessitates the study on the effect of branding on the image of Unilever Nig Plc products.  Many organizations use loose words as their brand names.  Sometimes firms or organizations do not know the branding strategy to adopt which will result into:

1.                 Loss of customers to competitors

2.                 Decrease in sales volume

3.                 Loss of current market stand to the underdog competitors

4.                 Decrease in the organization or firm new product performance

1.3    RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This research work is aimed at providing solutions to branding problems facing an organization which may directly or indirectly affect the image of their product(s).  The following objectives will be pursued in this research work:

1.     To examine the effect of branding on new product image.

2.     To investigate if effective branding have any effect on sales volume.

3.     To investigate if branding affect consumer buying decisions.

In the course of carrying out this research, the following questions will be answered:

1.                 Does branding have an effect on new product image?

2.                 Does effective branding have any effect on sales volume?

3.                 Does branding affect consumer buying decisions?

Hypotheses are tentative statements or arguable assertion formulated about the characteristics of a defined population which may be accepted or rejected after critical investigation and tests (Adaramola, 2001).

In this regard however, state that every research work must be hinged on two forms of hypotheses, namely: null hypothesis (H0) and alternative hypothesis (H1).  The testable hypotheses for this research work include:

HYPOTHESIS 1

H0: Effective branding does not have any effect on new product image.

H1: Effective branding has an effect on new product image.

HYPOTHESIS 2

H0:     Effective branding does not have effect on sales volume.

H1:     Effective branding has effect on sales volume.

HYPOTHESIS 3

 H0:  Effective branding does not have effect consumer buying decisions.

 H1:  Effective branding has effect on consumer buying decisions.

The study will enable the management of Unilever Nigeria Plc and other organizations to know the effect of effective branding on their products or product image.  It will also contribute to the academic discipline serving a good and reliable secondary data for the up-coming researcher who might be interested in conducting further research on the same course.

Product: It is anything that meets the functional needs of customers.

Brand: It is a specific name, symbol or design or more usually some combination of those used to distinguish a particular product from those of competitors.

Awareness: Creating a developing striking presentation of a brand and spending sufficiently on advertising and promotion.

Brand name: Consults of words, letters or letters that can be vocalized.

Brand marks: It is the part of the brand that appears in form of symbol, design or distinctive colour or lettering.

Market: All potential customers sharing a specific need or want who might be willing and able to exchange something to satisfy that need and wants.