According to Deborah Wheeler (2000) “The growth and spread of new information media is often seen as part of the globalization of culture, but in fact local cultural traditions are often adapted to the new media” (p.1). Globalization is the process of growing social, political, cultural inter- connectedness and economic interdependence which has resulted many changes in business settings, and these changes has driven the marketers to prioritize their international marketing researches because this globalization has creates more opportunities and threats for the global market. While the previous refers to the increases in resource accessibility, trade, market and investment potential, the latter refers to the increases in two levels which are competition and uncertainty. (Thoumrungroje, 2004)

After the globalization, Marketing researches shed the lights on one marketing strategy to be considered more than others which is the global Marketing Mix strategy, known as the 4P’s of Marketing, which are product, price, place and promotion. This strategy used to translate well the message of the international marketing of all companies because the lifestyle and the way of thinking differ from one country to another. This concept was created to face branding, pricing, distribution channels and promotional advertising challenges of a company. (Hosmer & Media, n.d)

As the competition among companies takes an uphill rise, the concept of perceived quality is becoming more and more in the minds of academics and business practitioners today, especially the marketing ones. That is because the perceived quality of a product has an important effects on the purchase purpose of the consumer and also affects brand profitability, brand equity, brand power , and market share. (Vantamay, 2004)

Marketplaces at Lebanon is a small image of marketplaces of world where companies both large and small depend on marketing professionals to help build brand loyalty in order to attract new profitable customers. The more you understand the people’s attitudes, needs and want the more you attract them to be your loyal customers. The study of consumer behavior let the successful retailers predict about the ways that people may act in their role as consumers, this predictable model could be known as the consumer decision-making process. Moreover, it was suggested that consumer attitudes are both an advantage and an obstacle for people who practice marketing because its influenced by emotional feelings and beliefs towards goods, these influencers could affect negatively or positively on buying decision making. Also, as Gregory Dean (2010) said “a consumer’s attitude is clearly based on a utility function when the decision revolves around the amount of pain or pleasure in brings”.(para. 5)

People needs are often changed by number of factors individual such as environment, communications with others, and past experiences , that’s why marketing research is needed to be updated whenever there will be a market or product development to find a way to deal with factors that affect this market. One of these factors called brand image, this factor appears as an easily term but it is the most complex term in marketing research. The importance of brand image has motivated many marketing experts to initiate researching the theory of ‘brand equity’ (Tam, 2007)

This triggers question to know what factors emphasize the Lebanese consumers’ choice. In this research, the tendency of buying brands, among the Modern University for Business and Science students, will be tested in order to find out what factors that contribute to their purchase choice. What factors influence their consuming behavior? how does Brand image have an impact on consumers’ choice?

In order to answer the research question, a methodology based on quantitative analysis will be used. It will be a deductive research, I gathered data based on some theories that defend my study.

Literature Review

Gaining market share is the main purpose of all companies in the world, for this goal they are trying everyday to find new ways and new strategies to branding their products or their name, and they are spending billions of dollars to build a brand image on consumers’ minds.

What is a stronger brand name: Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Louis Vuiton or Armani? Why is a brand strong or weak? How do brand strength levels change over time? Why? How do Brand strengths vary by country and markets and why?

2.1 Brand

“A Brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it ” (Kalakumari & Sekar, 2012)

“The traditional American definition of brand is, a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them, which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors” (Lee & Zhang, 2000)

Brand is an influential tool to attract more consumers to buy exacting products. It manages the external perceptions of an organization, and it is a subject for communication between the organization and people. Moreover, it plays an important role in personification because it serves as the identity of product or in other words it is the DNA of a product, it gives all the realistic information about it. What is more, it is the source of a promise to the organization’s members which includes “consumers”.

2.1.1 Brand identity and Brand image

Brand image has been assigned different meanings from the day it was introduced into the marketing discipline by Gardner and Levy (1955). Some researches has define brand image as brand identity, but according to the recent studies that have claimed that brand image and brand identity are two different concepts but they are interchangeable. However, Brand image is how a brand is perceived by consumers, while brand identity is the way that the company exposes the brand in the market, and how it wants to be perceived by the customers. Eventually, customers may not have the same image of the brand that the company presented. (Bian X., 2011)

Brand success occurs when brand identity meets the brand image. There are four elements for building a successful brand which are ,name of the tangible product, essential brand, augmented brand and prospective brand .Actual product refers to the product or service which meets the needs of the customers. Basic brand, considers the packaging of the tangible product that should grab potential customers’ attention. The brand can be further improved with the value gave during and after the sale. At last and most importantly, a potential brand is recognized through creating customer loyalty. (Tam, 2007)

2.1.2 Brand Power and Market Share

According to Stobart (1994) brand power and dominant market share could be occurred through perceived product quality. Generally, entrepreneurs and managers have a great impact on creating power brands. They understand a need and desire of a specific group of customers then they create products and supply the associated services that satisfy those needs extremely well. Effective ‘quality control” procedures make sure they do things right the first time in delivering those products and services. Therefore, they achieve superior quality when they sell them the high quality with a less cost of lower quality competitors. Then, they advertise and promote the benefits and the advantages they got using those products. The customer perceives the high quality and the added value offered by the product. The result : a power brand is created and dominant share follows. (Vantamay, 2004)

(draw brand power conceptual model)

2.1.3 Brand equity

According to Kwok Keung Tam (2007), brand equity is the value premium that a company realizes from a product with a recognizable name as compared to its competitors. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable using its name or symbol and superior in quality and reliability. Also it depends on the number of people with regular purchase, in that way it could also be a source for the firm to generate cash flow because people aren’t buying just an ordinary product but they are buying unique value. However, when people are ready to pay more for a standard product instead of branded one, here the brand fails that means brand equity is negative. This might happen if a company caused a widely publicized environmental disaster or had a major product recall. So, when the company wants to expand its product line, it has to consider the brand equity conceptual model.

(draw conceptual model)

For the consumers, brand equity could provide them information about the brand which influences their confidence during the purchasing process. Nevertheless, the brand equity could reduce the expenses of promotions because when brand equity is positive, brand image is positive too that means consumers don’t focus on the short term promotion but on the whole brand. Brand equity has five main areas, which are Brand awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand association and brand positioning.

Brand awareness is one of major determinants of brand equity. Brand awareness consist recognition of one particular brand which allows a potential customer to recognize about a specific product or service’s existence, and confirms that he or she has previously been exposed to it and creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting a product. (Csapó, 2010)

In addition according to Kwok Keung Tam (2007) there is two tasks should be done to achieve brand awareness which are namely increasing brand name identity and associating it with the product class. Also, To raise brand awareness some techniques could be useful as advertising and celebrity endorsement.

Referring to Somphol Vantamay (2004), perceived quality is “the consumer’s judgment about a product’s overall excellence or superiority. Similarly, the definition of it is “the customer’s perception of the overall quality or superiority of the product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives.” (p.3)

Furthermore, Using perceived quality strategy may lead to consumer satisfaction, which will be shown through perceived performance and expectation. As well, there are many definitions said by some scholars, as consumer’s perception towards tangible and non tangible characteristics of a product is perceived product quality. these characteristics may include some added value characteristics as performance, durability, conformance, features, serviceability, aesthetics and reliability etc. Moreover, sometimes the actual quality of the product doesn’t confirm all these characteristics but the perceived quality of a product could be derived from consumer’s past experiences. (Vantamay, 2004)

A consumer gives a brand loyalty by purchasing the same product or service over and over again rather than buying from other suppliers that sell the same product category. As well, brand loyalty could be defined as the degree of purchasing repeatedly the same brand by the same consumer within a product class.

Brand loyalty is more than repeat the purchase. sometimes customers buy a brand because they need the product gave by this brand but they didn’t find the brand they want, and here occurs the spurious loyalty. A perfect brand loyalty happens when customers have a high attitude towards the brand which push them to repurchase no matter if there other products less expensive. this type of loyalty is needed by the firm because customers are ready to pay higher prices and with their word of mouth they could bring other customers to the firm. for example, if Lara has brand loyalty to company X she will purchase X’s products even if company Y’s are cheaper or of higher quality.

Brand association is ” the linkage that exist between a brand and the other nodes stored in memory” (Korchia, 2007). Every company through consumer buyer research must understand its brand as well as competitors’ brands . Such a research studies existing and potential customers, past customers, industry experts, and intermediaries. A strong brand should be difficult to be copied by other companies, and such a powerful brand is associated with beliefs and values. (Ghodeswar, 2008)

Brand positioning occurs when brand occupies a distinct position comparative to competing brands, in the mind of the customer. Companies use this brand positioning marketing strategy by differentiating the features and characteristics of their brands, or they try to create a specific image of the brand as luxurious, inexpensive, premium and utilitarian through advertising. Branding it’s all about adding psychological value on service, products and companies. Such value could be in the form of emotional links, beliefs, values, and feelings that people relate to the brand. Once a brand is positioned, it is very difficult to reposition it without destroying its credibility. (Lee & Zhang, 2000)