Female Car Buyers: Preferences and Brand Identifying Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

The article examines factors influencing decision-making among potential female car buyers in Muscat. Through qualitative and descriptive research, the findings revealed that the branding of vehicles has an impact on the decision-making process among women at the time of purchase. Specifically, brand perception, in terms of experience with brand visual elements, is a significant factor in brand intake. The research concluded that product branding should be aligned with the needs of clients, displaying brand visual elements through direct experience, and remaining relevant in monitoring and planning for future brand intake strategies. This research evaluation will review the research question, objective, methodology, and findings in terms of their accuracy, applicability, and consistency. The review will then identify the primary concepts in the article and provide an evaluation through comparative analysis of other relevant articles. In addition, the evaluation will relate the findings to the Omani market in the context of how branding can influence product intake.

Overview of the Article

The article expounds on the elements of brand preference and how it influences the process of decision-making. Specifically, the article focuses on the modern Omani female segment with the purpose of appraising, investigation and categorization of the primary factors influencing their preference of car brands. The study is based on two hypotheses testing similarities and variances in marketing cars for male and female segments. Through qualitative method, the descriptive research concentrated on collecting information for assessing and reviewing the variables in play during the process of decision-making as influenced by preference and brand choice.

The journal article concentrates on the consumer decision model proposed by Engel, Blackwell and Kollat, which defines environmental and individual influences in brand acceptance and perception. This model is based on a seven-step process of decision-making commencing with problem recognition and ending at giving a feedback. Individual influences that can affect this process include personality, attitudes, brand knowledge, motivation, resource, and lifestyle. Environmental influencers are defined as cultural, social, and family influences. These attributes are derived from the Consumer Behaviour Theory put forward by Jeff Bray. The literature review was supported by four previous studies carried between the year 1993 and 2002.

Through direct interview, the research captured the view of senior marketing personnel for branded cars in an automobile company, and potential and current women car owners. The interview targeted 8 respondents classified in terms of age (20+, 30+, 40+, and 50+) and nationality (Omani, African, Canadian, Asian origin). The research reviews concept testing, symbolism, female segmentation profiling, and psychographic insights. The findings indicated that each segment is influenced by brand perception, in terms of experience with brand visual elements. The article concludes that product branding should be aligned to the needs of clients for ease and sustainability of brand intake.

Evaluation of the Article

The article, Identifying the Preferences and Brand Choices of Female Customers for Cars: A Study Conducted in Muscat Region, of Sultanate of Oman, is basically a summary of primary research conducted in the region of Muscat (Simba 2013). The researcher supposes that purchase decisions of women are usually grounded on their tastes, likes and dislikes, habits, and preferences (Simba 2013). It should be mentioned that the structure of the research article is well-palmed. The selected methodology, which is a descriptive research with quantitative method, corresponds the purpose of the study, which is to review, analyse, and classify factors determining the consumer choices of cars and their brands in Oman (Simba 2013). Moreover, it allows checking the hypothesis formulated by the researcher. Still, quantitative research is more typical of the studies investigating the preferences of the customers. For example, both researches, by Salim, Jahdhami, and Handhali (2015) as well as then one by Bewal and Bewal (2014), apply quantitative methodology.

Literature review is an integral part of every research providing the investigation of the earlier findings regarding the subject under disunion. For example, Simba (2013) presents a model of consumer’s decision, which comprises such stages of buying a car as search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, purchase act, post purchase evaluation, and feedback. The researcher was very cautious in associating different steps involved in the consumer decision model since the proposed conceptual framework was rather broad and multifaceted (Cole 2015). However, literature review section is no big in this article. At the same time, Salim, Jahdhami, and Handhali (2015) provide a deep analysis of literature thus contributing to the study of customer preferences. The article by Bewal and Bewal (2014) concentrates on the peculiarities of consumer behaviour and specific features of retailing in the Middle East on the whole and Oman in particular. The other researchers with similar subjects cover the following issues. For instance, the aspects of environmental and personal attributes are clearly defined (Erika 2016). Though not fully explained as was expected for a research article of this level, the author was able to separate influences as independent of each other. Among the notable environmental influencers explored by the author are social class, culture, situation, family, and personal influence (Damlola 2012).

Another component, which is integral to a research article, is sample involved in a research. For the study of car preferences conducted by Simba (2013), the sample consisted of eight women. However, this sample is too small and does not provide the real vision of the situation in the country. Although it is satisfactory for a qualitative analysis, statistical quantitative calculations will not be possible. For the research of customer preferences towards selected local Omani products by Salim, Jahdhami, and Handhali (2015), there was a sample of 125 respondents, which makes this research valid and reliable. Moreover, bigger sample allows making some generalizations. Finally, Bewal and Bewal (2014) in the research on hypermarkets in Oman involved 159 participants who responded to the survey.

On the whole, Simba (2013) included environmental and individual impacts, which influence the customer’s choice. Thus, environmental ones include culture, personal impact, social class, and personal influence, the individual influencers comprise motivation, customer resource, attitudes, knowledge, personality, and lifestyle. This approach of carrying out conceptual and theoretical literature has also been adopted by Best Brands (2015), Elder and Krishna (2013), Hussain (2017), Kajalo and Lindblom (2015), and Gayathri (2014). Despite having carried out a relatively adequate literature review, relying on just four case studies is not adequate for a research study of this magnitude. Besides, the researcher used very old sources in the literature review published between the year 1993 and 2002. Although the information in these sources is scientific, there are several dynamics in the market research that cannot remain the same over a span of a decade or more (Holt 2015). This means that the secondary resources relied upon in the research are outdated and might present gaps in relation to latest literature on the topic. Since this specific research was carried out in the year 2013, it would have been prudent if the researcher had used recent literature to accommodate the dynamics in academic libraries on the topic of branding and customer behaviour.

The findings and discussion aspects are also presented in the articles under analysis. The common feature is that they are related to the literature review. The author has managed to substantiate the individual and environmental influences that make a customer accept and use a brand. Through the use of five categories of attributes distributed to each category of the respondents, the research article has employed a technical scientific analysis method that is replicable in line with the underlying objective as was the case in a study by Khraim (2011) and Karimi (2013). Also, the findings of Salim, Jahdhami, and Handhali (2015) support the necessity of keeping quality and brand image as well as reasonable price. As for the conclusion, it provides a transparent relationship between the attributes of branding and their perception among different categories of female customers.

Application of the Evaluation to the Omani Market

As established in the findings of the research article on branding cars and perception of women in Oman, it is apparent that proactive product display and experience are instrumental elements for illuminating brand essence. Besides, it indicates how this process enables customers to develop positive attitude towards a product (Kotler et al. 2013). In relation to the Oman market, the modern Omani customers are people of means who can afford what they perceive will meet their needs. For instance, being a conservative Islamic society, a product must be branded to accommodate the Muslim culture in order to build general customer acceptance (Macharis & Laurence 2014). This means that any product targeting this market must be branded on the basis of quality and Islamic faith to avoid any cultural clash that might hinder product intake and general acceptance. For instance, diverse companies that want to expand and function regarding Oman female segment market should consider its fundamental peculiarities like specific demands to the quality of goods, their appearance, luxurious characters etc. In other words, the features that differentiate female from female products should be emphasized by using patterns peculiar to representatives of the target culture, their values, and beliefs (Mothersbaugh & Hawkins 2015).

Specifically, as part of the environmental influencers in product intake, it would be prudent to concentrate on product core strengths to ignite the urge of the rather conservative Oman population to develop interest on such a product. For example, in the case of the Lexus brand of the Toyota Company, the branding should be concentrated on Islamic friendly colours, terrain, comfort, and general looks to capture the female market segment (Muthuraman & Mohandoss 2016). In order to sustain the brand intake in the Oman market, the triangulation of the attributes such “how”, “what” and “where” would facilitate the identification of any unmet customer demands, examination of the enablers in innovating design, and identification of the capabilities of a brand to meet the needs of customers (Nasrinsulthana & Hyder 2015). For instance, the advertisements for any brand in the Oman market must appeal directly to this population for them to feign a feeling of belonging. In order to easily penetrate the Oman markets, companies dealing in different products must roll out target branding through market segmentation, product positioning, target marketing, and adequate deployment of resources (Oman Convention & Exhibition Center 2016).

As a matter of fact, targeting branding is effective with the companies insist on creating customer close tie customer relationships, which is a common phenomenon in the Omani culture (Shende 2014, p. 7). As part of the brand awareness campaign, any company interested in penetrating the Oman market must amalgamate its products as a policy for efficiency and self-marketing to make the environment adoptable and friendly to the conservative Omani population (Simha 2014). Basically, any product in the Omani market should be aligned to a functional concept of flexibility and quantifiable satisfaction as perceived by the targeted market (Zhang, 2015).

Conclusion and Recommendations

Based on the deductions of the evaluation, this research article was well written and covered the various aspects of branding from the basis of the customer decision-making model. Apparently, the individual and environmental influences are significant towards understanding the customer decision-making process on the basis of a brand. The article has cleverly related the customer decision-making process to brand qualities and experiences in influencing the perception towards a product. However, there are some adjustments that could be made to the journal article to make it more inclusive and updated. For instance, I would recommend an expansion of the literature review to cover other consumer behaviour concepts such as hierarchy of influential factors captured in the Fishbein’s attitudinal theoretical model and Oliver’s expectation-confirmation model. This would give the researcher an opportunity to delve deep in the analysis (Solomon 2013). The above models proposed mind maps that integrate the consumer decision model’s individual and environmental influences to the hierarchy of thoughts in the process of decision-making.

Reference List

Best Brands 2015, Top brand recall across 16 categories, Web.

Bewal, R & Bewal, S 2014, Hypermarkets in Oman: a study of consumers’ shopping preferences. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 42 no. 8, pp. 717-732.

Cole A 2015, The implications of consumer behaviour for marketing, Anchor academic publishing, London.

Damlola, A 2012, ‘The effect of consumer behaviour and attitudinal tendencies towards purchase decision (a case study of Unilever Nigeria PLC)’, Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, vol. 1, no. 12, pp. 88-118

Elder, R & Krishna, A 2013, ‘The visual depiction effect in advertising: facilitating embodied mental simulation through product orientation’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 988-1003.

Erika, K 2016, Improving household cleaning services for PRN-Kiinteistösiivous’, Bachelor thesis, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Web.

Holt, D 2015, Brands and branding: cultural strategy group, Web.

Hussain, M 2017, ‘Study on consumer decision-making process in the selection of home cleaning company’, Bachelor thesis, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Web.

Kajalo, S & Lindblom, A 2015, ‘Market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and business performance among small retailers’, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 43, no. 7, pp. 580-596.

Karimi, S 2013, ‘A purchase decision making process model of online consumer and its influential factor a cross sector analysis’, PhD Thesis, Manchester Business School, Web.

Khraim, S 2011, ‘The influence of brand loyalty on cosmetics buying behaviour of UAE female customers’, International Journal of Marketing Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 123-133.

Kotler, P, Keller, L, Koshy, A & Jha, M 2013, Marketing management: a South Asian perspective, 14th edn, Imprint Pearson Education, New York, NY.

Lakshman, D & Gayathri, L 2014, ‘A study on consumer preference on users of cars in Krishnagiri’, International Journal of Business and Administration Research Review, vol.1, no. 5, pp. 132-140.

Macharis, C & Laurence, T 2014, Consumer behaviour for purchasing cars, Web.

Mothersbaugh, D & Hawkins, D 2015, Consumer behavior: building marketing strategy, 13th edn, McGraw-Hill Education, New York, NY.

Muthuraman, B & Mohandoss, K 2016, ‘Impact of consumer based brand equity of Toyota cars in Oman’, International Journal of Applied Sciences and Management, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 219-225.

Nasrinsulthana, M &Hyder, S 2015, ‘Brand preference among customer using Toyota car in Oman’, Intercontinental Journal of Marketing Research Review, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 62-67.

Oman Convention & Exhibition Center 2016, Oman automotive market report 2016, Automobile Bulletin, Oman.

Salim, AS, Jahdhami, MAH, & Handhali, SNS 2015, A study on customer preferences towards selected local Omani (FMCG) products. International Journal of Science and Research, vol. 6 no. 4 pp.1273-1277.

Shende, W 2014, ‘Analysis of Research in consumer behaviour of automobile passenger car customer’, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, vol. 4, no. 2, pp.1-8.

Simha, S 2014, ‘Identifying the preferences and brand choices of female customers for cars: a study conducted in Muscat region, of Sultanate of Oman’, International Journal of Science and Research, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 312-320.

Solomon, M 2013, Consumer behaviour: buying, having, and being, 10th edn, Pearson Education, London.

Zhang, Y 2015, ‘The impact of brand image on consume behaviour: a literature review’, Open Journal of Business and Management, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 58-62.