The role of brand equity in influencing purchase intentions / Azureen Mohamad Asri

Malaysian market is growing rapidly with its local and national products and services. In today's highly competitive markets with more and more brands available, customers are having various offers of different brands to be chosen from. The increasing numbers of different brands in the market has lead to a need for the brand organizations to maintain and improve the brand equity of the particular product or service. However, as some researchers had concluded their studies, brands are one of the most valuable assets which a company has (Farquhar, 1989; Aaker, 1991; Kapferer, 1997; Keller, 1998). Brand equity influences the purchase intention of goods (Aaker, 1991, 1996; Yoo and Donthu, 2001). Familiar brand names always resulted in repeat purchasing behaviour. Brand is defined as the identity of a specific product, service, or business and it could take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, colour combination or slogan (Aaker, 1991). According to Cobb-Walgren et al. (1995), high brand equity levels are known to lead to higher consumer preferences and purchase intentions, and as stated by Aaker and Jacobson (1994), it will lead to higher stock returns. This can further lead to loyal and satisfies customers whose continued patronage is essential to the growth of sales and profit (Gregory, Smith, and Lenk 1997; Pun and Ho 2001 ). Therefore, this study attempts to look at the brand equity dimensions which affect the intention to purchase a product or service.