Assessment Part 2: The Dissertation Proposal THE ROLES OF BRAND EXPERIENCE AND BRAND IMAGE IN PURCHASE INTENTION

THE ROLES OF BRAND EXPERIENCE AND BRAND IMAGE IN PURCHASE INTENTION: A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON BETWEEN CHINA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM
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Introduction
The global economy is characteristic of increasingly complex consumer demands coupled with equally increasing competition across the wide range of economic sectors around the world. Globalization and the widespread use or incorporation of advanced technology in carrying out daily business operations further enhance the competitive nature of the global economy. Business organizations are utilizing such concepts and platforms for sustainable growth and development within their diverse sectors of operation. The use of advanced communication and information technology, for instance, plays a significant role in the monitoring of consumer behavior towards a given good or service. Such initiatives seek to establish an understanding of what features or aspects of a given product or service appeals most to the consumer to evoke a positive reaction of making a purchase. Business organizations use such information to develop effective product and service designs, and marketing strategies to increase customer product awareness and subsequent purchases of the said goods or services. In essence, business organizations depend on the ability of their brands to evoke or rather form an appeal to the consumers, which influences the latter to make a purchase. The brand image created by the business organization’s designing and marketing strategies creates a platform for the consumers to form a relationship with the product or service in question CITATION Ahm18 \l 1033 (Ahmed, 2018). The process of making the purchase, on the other hand, creates an experience for the consumer through an interactive forum upon which customers express a wide range of human elements through the simple act of buying the product CITATION Bra09 \l 1033 (Brakus, 2009). Brand experience and brand image are thus essential factors in the marketing of goods and services as both may pose either positive or negative repercussions on the overall performance of an organization. Provided herein is a detailed description of how the two elements affect the consumers’ purchasing intent across different cultural backgrounds of the United Kingdom and China.
Brand Experience
Business organizations develop their brands to create a certain identity through the designs, packaging, and communications to the public or the environment in which it exists. The outlined features of a brand stimulate a chain of reactions from the consumer as they make purchases of the product, which materialize in the through the consumer’s feelings, behavioral responses, cognitions and sensations CITATION Bra09 \l 1033 (Brakus, 2009). Brand experience refers to such stimulations from a brand through the outlined aspects of a brand and plays a significant role in determining whether or not a consumer purchases a given product or service CITATION Bra09 \l 1033 (Brakus, 2009). It is, therefore, an important factor to consider while developing a marketing strategy for a given good or service as it functions to create an understanding of how consumers experience the products. Brand experience consists of various important elements with each playing equally significant roles in determining how a consumer experiences a given brand.
Brand Image
Brand image refers to the impression created by a product or service on the consumers and through which business organizations form their unique identities in the market. It is the brand image that presents the various dimensions of what business organization represents and what it stands for in the highly competitive market CITATION Ahm18 \l 1033 (Ahmed, 2018). The identity formed through the brand image serves to differentiate one organization from the other and thus enhance the competitiveness of a given organization in the market. Globalization demands for the standardization of products and thus leading to the proliferation of similar product designs in the market. Brand image functions to alleviate the similarities and challenges of the global standardization by creating a unique identity with the power to influence the purchasing intention of the consumer CITATION Ahm18 \l 1033 (Ahmed, 2018). Brand image builds on the premise of the diverse perceptions or positioning of the product in consumers mind upon its introduction into the market. Positive positioning of the product by the consumers correlates to unique market differentiation and thus providing the business entity with a competitive edge over other industry players. Brand image is integral to consumer behavior and hence a primary contributing factor to consumers’ purchasing intentions and decisions.
The consumer’s cultural background greatly influences their purchasing intentions as it affects their perception of the brand image and brand experience. The cultural orientation of consumers also forms one of the important elements to take into consideration when designing and developing a product’s marketing strategy CITATION Moo11 \l 1033 (Mooij, 2011). The cultural background of a person influences how they perceive or approach various aspects of life including their purchasing or consumer behaviors. Culture forms an essential part of human beings and builds upon a complex combination of the social, political, and economic features of life. The cultural orientation of consumers has various dimensions which affect the consumer’s purchasing intentions and behavior due to its subsequent effects on the latter’s experience of the brand and their perception of the same CITATION Moo11 \l 1033 (Mooij, 2011).
Literature Review
Both brand experience and brand image affect the purchase intent of consumers through different ways as both manifest in unique ways among the customers. Shaffie et al. define a brand image as the many perceptions which customers have in their minds about brand induced from introducing the brand to market CITATION Sha14 \l 1033 (Shafiee, 2014). A positive attitude on a brand during its introduction into the market creates a competitive advantage for the firm over its competitors in the industry. As such, business organizations should strive to come up with effective designing and marketing strategies to evoke positive notions from the consumers on their products and services. Brakus, Schmitt, and Zarantonello (2009) define Brand experience as the conceptualization of the brand-related stimuli forming part of the brand’s identity, design, packaging, communications, and environments, which create sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses in consumers. In essence, brand experience refers to the manifestation of the purchase intent of a consumer leading to the actual buying of the product or service. Experiencing a brand is an important concept of in consumer and marketing research on how the brands influence the consumer’s attitude or other forms of consumer behavior when making a purchase. The two concepts, brand experience, and brand image influence the purchase intent of consumers, and both are a product of an individual’s way of life and its subsequent effects on the perception of various aspects of life as a whole. A person’s culture holds a great influence on how they behave or perceive things in a given context or situation. The social, political, and economic...