Factors Predicting Brand Promise Delivery: The Mediating Role of Brand Knowledge between Internal Brand Marketing and Brand Commitment

Purpose – The present study seeks to explore the predictors of brand promise delivery and the mediating role of internal brand knowledge between the relationship of internal brand marketing and internal brand commitment for better promise delivery of the brand. Methodology – The present paper is based on extant literature relating to brand supporting attitude, i.e., internal brand marketing, internal brand knowledge and internal brand commitment, and brand supporting behaviour, i.e., brand promise delivery. Findings –The study proposes a conceptual model based on the role of internal brand knowledge as a mediator in the internal brand marketing and internal brand commitment linkage. Practical Implication –The study can be of immense use to Insurance Companies selling different policies. The study illustrates that for the better performance by the employees it is deemed necessary for the company that they provide complete knowledge to the employees about the different policies. Companies can adopt internal brand marketing to make the employees more informed and more committed, consequently resulting into better brand promise delivery by the employees. Originality/Value –The paper is among the first attempt to examine the mediating role of internal brand knowledge between internal brand marketing and internal brand commitment link. Limitations –Being conceptual in nature, the major limitation is its lack of empirical data to establish the significance of proposed models. There is a need to conduct an empirical research in future to overcome the same.

Conceptualisation of Role of Social Media Engagement in Influencing Purchase Behaviour of Gen Y: Role of Trust and Risk

Purpose: The present study seeks to conceptualise the role of social media engagement in purchasing intentions of gen Y and moderating role of trust and perceived risk. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws upon the extant literature to present a series of research propositions relating to social media engagement. Findings: The study proposes a conceptual model based on the antecedents and consequences of social media engagement, and the moderating role of perceived risk and trust in the relationship between brand equity and purchase intentions. Research limitations: Being conceptual in nature, the paper needs to be empirically tested. Originality/value: The paper is among the first attempt to examine the moderating role of perceived risk and trust in the relationship between brand equity and purchase intention.

An Analysis of Brand Equity and its Influence on Customer Satisfaction of a Football Team among Female Fansin Public Universities in Kenya

The increasing competition in the business sector requires that teams that are involved in developing the brands come up with brands that consumers can easily differentiate from those of the competitors to make their brand stand out. Football teams rely on fans for their success, providing income through ticket sales, television viewing and purchasing team branded products. Yet this area remains unexplored in Kenya hence the researchers desire to assess the influence of brand equity on customer satisfaction of football team among universities female fans in Public Universities in Kenya. The specific objective to be undertaken for the research were; to examine the influence of brand image on customer satisfaction of a football team among female fans in public universities in Kenya. The Ministry of Sports will recognize how the female fans impact on sports and justify higher budgetary allocations for female league. The research study was anchored on the social identity theory propounded by Tajfel which states that society is made up of social groups that have power and status at their disposal. The study adopted explanatory research design to determine the influence of brand equity on customer satisfaction of a football team. A target population of 1846 respondent was investigated. A sample of 319 was then used for the study. Stratified and snowball sampling techniques were employed. Semi-structured questionnaire was used as instrument of data collection. Content validity was measured through expert judgment while reliability was measured by use of Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient method at p less tha 0.05. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics comprising of chi-statistic, multiple regression analysis and Anova. The first objective sought to examine the influence of brand image on customer satisfaction among female football fans in public university. The result shows that the value of chi-statistic is15.719 with a p-value of 0.015. Since the p-value is less that the chosen level of significance (0.05), we reject the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between brand image and customer satisfaction

Customer Relationship Management Practices and Impact on Customer Satisfaction of Delivering

The purpose of this study was to examine the various facts of CRM (Customer Relationship Management practices adopted by Manatec in Puducherry. The research design in this study will consist of descriptive research whereby different aspects with regards to CRM in the Manatec have been extracted from existing studies and tested on a sample of customers. This study examined the demographic profile of customers, customer awareness of CRM policies, customer perception on CRM practices, factors influencing CRM practices and role of E-CRM measures of Manatec in customer satisfaction. This study utilized 52 samples in various parts of Puducherry. The data for the study have been collected through a questionnaire. The statistical tools like simple percentage, chi-square, correlation and factor analysis was used in this study. This study revealed that the customer relationship management practices followed in Manatec are satisfactory to the customers.

Online Shopping: A Fiduciary Relationship between e-tailer and Customer

According to Internet World Stats' statistics (2012), more than two billion people are linked to the Internet and this number shows that 30 per cent of the world population use the Internet. As a result, this can be used as an efficient marketing platform. The convenience of online shopping renders it to be an emerging trend among consumers. Online shopping involves sharing of personal and financial information from the buyer. This makes the e-tailer to stand in a fiduciary position against the buyer and he is required to act for the sole benefit of the buyer. He has to duly address the security issues involved in the online shopping transactions and exhibit highest order of diligence and care. This paper aims at identifying the potential security threats involved in the online shopping transactions and the remedial measures adopted by the e-commerce companies. The paper also exemplifies from Indian e-commerce as demonetization, along with rapid digitalization, has not paved the way for cashless transactions, but also, for the e-commerce crimes.

Small and Medium Enterprise Development using Social Media Marketing: A Research Study

Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has been giving more emphasis to stable the economy by increasing Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) in Bangladesh. But the problem is that SMEs are facing great challenges developing business at starting and also sustaining due to incapacity in costly traditional marketing channels. It is also noted that most of the internet users are aware about use of internet as personal social media platform. SMEs of Bangladesh are not aware of using Social Media Marketing (SMM) as the tools for business growth especially at starter. The aim of this research study was to review the present various traditional marketing channels with cost to identify whether the cost is affordable or not for SME marketing as starter. Research objectives were also to find involvement with SMM as free marketing tools and to find laps and gaps of using SMM for SME business growth. This research study was designed in such a way that the sample selection presents the SME study population. Here in the research study, most relevant SME sectors and also booster sectors were included in sample design. This research study shown that only 17% Bangladesh SME’s are using SMM platform for business development. Following the objectives of this study, marketing channels both traditional and SMM were reviewed. How much SMEs are engaged in SMM was also studied. This research study came up with laps and gaps of SMEs at SMM for business growth. Recommendations were put following the findings.

Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction of Commercial Bank Customers, Nairobi Kenya

Marketing strategy remains a critical driver of customer satisfaction and competitiveness in the banking industry globally. Despite this, Commercial banks in Kenya are yet to attain required customer satisfaction levels. This is evident in the low average customer satisfaction index (CSI) which dropped from 67% in 2011 with a downward trend to 60% in 2015 way below the Kenyan Banking industry benchmark of 77%. Studies on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction revealed both positive and negative results. The main purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction of commercial bank customers in Nairobi, Kenya. The target population was 1,072,500 customers of commercial bank customers in Nairobi. A sample of 384 was drawn using proportionate stratified random sampling technique to constitute 242 Retail, 81 Business and 61 corporate customers. The results revealed that service quality significantly contributed to customer satisfaction at (β=.488, p less than .05). It was concluded that service quality contributes to customer satisfaction. The study recommends a more emphasis on improving and maintaining high service quality levels translating to customer satisfaction. Therefore the research provides a validated service quality model that can be used to clearly measure levels of service quality in relation to levels of customer satisfaction.

A Study on Consumer Perception on Malted Health Food Drinks in Udaipur City

Healthy living is prime concern of today’s society. Many studies show that people are adopting health related changes in their eating habits. These changes create a new opportunity in food and drink industry. This is the reason health drink industry emerged as the most popular and growing segment of overall soft drinks industry in the world. As compared to the other food supplement health drinks stands the top in position, because these drinks have no side effects. There is enormous competition in between various international brands of health food drink companies. They are coming with new products and strategies. Malted health food drink is among best substitute of a complete food. India, the world’s largest malt bases drinks market accounts for 22% of the world’s retail volume sales. These drinks are traditionally consumed as milk substitutes and also available in mixed with water and marketed as nutritious drinks mainly consumed by the old, the young and the sick persons. Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as malting. The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air. This paper is designed is such a way where perception of consumers about malted health food drinks are not only explained in details but also tested through proper application of statistical tools.

Malted Health Food Drinks: The Ultimate Substitute of Food Supplements in Indian Market

Dietary Supplements are defined as any product that can be taken by mouth that contains a dietary ingredient intended to supplement a diet. Dietary ingredients in these products may include vitamins, minerals, herbs, or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, glandulars, and metabolites. Malted health food drink in India comes under FMCG-nutraceutical market. All marketing companies aim to satisfy consumer and then earn profit and it is also true with malted health food drink market. So, consumer plays a vital role in the health of economy local, national and international. Experiential and emotional approaches of marketing are key strategies for the firms. These are new approaches where companies offer their products to consumers as per their emotional and experiential appetite. Malted health food drinks are very much linked with health related issues and emotional and experiential marketing is core approach for selling these products to the consumers. This paper tries to explain these concepts of marketing with special reference to malted health food drink.

Behavioral Finance: A Paradigm Shift

The evaluation of behavioral finance attempts to better understand and explain how emotions and cognitive errors influence investors and the decision making process. This study gives an overview of the concept of classical finance and behavioral finance in the beginning and thereafter throws light upon the need and origin of behavioral finance. This paper also presents that how behavioral finance can help investors and financial analysts to better understand the market mechanism of functioning as well as the investment behavior of the stakeholders to this process. Behavioral finance is not a replacement to the classical finance paradigm, but an alternative solution to explain the market inefficiency and the irrational behavior of investor. Also investment decision is seen as a result of an interaction between the investor and the investment environment.