03 Decision Making Assignment Sample
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Introduction
The study develop clear understanding and application of research in brand building and the tasks relate to the research needs and the need of information expected for taking brand decisions. The key considerations of BHT (Brand Health Tracking) and their role are also clarified in context to service providers of Australian telecommunication industry within the study. This topic is very important as brand and BHT plays a significant role in the business. In this competitive scenario, the companies seek variety of ways to connect with customers emotionally and create lifelong relationships. For the same reason, the brand development and continuous improvement of brand health is extremely important to stand out of the crowd in the market. It is necessary to focus on BHT aspects to differentiate themselves from competition and have better business performance.
The study provides clarification on the business objectives and research objectives along with improvement plans. Then after clarifying the research objectives, the required information to fulfil the objectives are explained to understand the role of informed decision making. The preferred data collection and research design with rationale is explained in next sections to understand the BHT brand decisions.
Business & research objectives
The business objectives in telecommunications industry relate to the innovation, modernization, consumer satisfaction, and accelerated growth and efficiency gains across the countries. The secondary objectives of business is to increase public awareness on the new services and technologies, demonstrate the benefits of newly launched services through pilot projects and promote their deployment, undertake multiple activities to increase the usage of technologies, internet and services in society, enhance utilization of Information, Communication and Technology.
The research objectives in context to BHT are the brand goals that include ultimate goals like revenues and enhancement of brand image. The brand building research objectives are to increase awareness and knowledge of people, establishment of brand identity in the market, increase awareness in the consumer market, increase the engagement of consumers with the brand, and enhance the brand loyalty, equity, and revenue margins (Smith, 2006). Many telecommunications companies are conducting many activities to increase their brand value. Some of the effective strategies are as follows:
- Building emotional connection with the brand can impact the purchase decisions of consumers in positive manner. These consumers are connected and aligned with the products or services of company. For example, Apple dominates in the market as it has positioned itself well in the market.
- Strengthening of brand internally can help in building strong brand by guiding employees to acts as brand advocate and promote positive company culture(Malaska, 2010). For example, Zappos, an online retailer says that it is all about delivering happiness by showcasing their products on employees.
- Brand consistency and focus need to be maintained so that the customers appreciate the brand.
Information required to fulfil the objectives of research
This section provides clarified understanding of role of information in brand decision making and requirement of information for fulfilment of research objectives. The description of information to be collected and output examples is provided to assist the decision making of company.
Role of information in branding
Businesses always have an element of risk and business decisions are tougher than they seem. Being a business owner, you can never be completely sure whether a particular decision can yield profit or loss to the company. In such situations, successful businesses prefer to do market research before making any critical decision. It is clear that effective information and research helps in better decision making of brand and empowers the key decision makers with possible recommendations (Williams, 2003). The suggestions after research and information collection are based on the factual data and allow business owners to take informed brand decisions with higher possibilities of perceiving the impacts or outcomes. The businesses are making regular efforts for collecting information as a part of their strategy as it helps in understanding the market trends, behaviour of consumers, brand perception and awareness. It helps businesses to comprehend its position in market, anticipate the changes, identify new business opportunities and provide right marketing mix.
Information required for brand decision making
BHT (Brand health tracking) plays a vital role in knowing the information before taking brand decisions. The market research and information gathering techniques depends on different industries. The telecommunication industry can leverage the market research and information for better development of brand. The required information can be collected from various sources and their output is mentioned below:
- The new ideas can be generated for improving the brand image in market and reroute the perception of customers towards the product and services. The anticipated output is optimization of brand strategy, better brand positioning, improved brand awareness and personification(Driesener, 2014). It can be done by taking customer surveys and gathering feedback on the services provided to customers.
- Content strategy can be improved by embodying the language of customers. The likes and dislikes of customers can be acknowledged through various channels like online and offline. It helps in choosing the right influencers to promote content in the market.
- The competition can be assessed by evaluating the competitors within the industry. It helps in maintaining the position in the market. The information gathered can also be used in improving the products and services of company(Smith, 2006). It can be anticipated that it also helps in strategizing the uniqueness of products and services.
- The information gathered from customers in various events can helps in understanding target audience and providing customized products and services. The business can be focussed on right target market and helps in achieving better performance. Moreover, the customer feedback and response to marketing campaigns help in analysing the current marketing strategy of company.
- The market information and research can help in understanding the potential substitutes for products and services. It will also help in keeping the track of new technologies in the market.
- The most important part of gathering information is getting the detailed trend analysis that helps in assessing the effectiveness of brand and business decisions. It helps in visualizing the business responsiveness and avoiding the potential business risks(Malaska, 2010). The informed decisions help in achieving better business sustainability.
Brand health tracker and pyramid
The brand development can help in improving the bottom line of business and for developing the brand, it is important to understand the decision making process of consumers. The decision making process of consumers is detailed below:
The decision making proves initiates with awareness which comes from gathering information relevant to the brand. The decision making process is followed to take informed decisions by organizing the relevant information, defining the options and choosing the most suitable option. After taking the action, the post purchase evaluation is initiated to understand the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. In the final step, the decisions are evaluated to review the decision (Feldman, 2018). The brand health tracker and pyramid is clarified below for understanding the difference between the selected products i.e. Netflix and YouTube.
It is considered that the decision making process of consumers is the base for evaluation of brand. While in the initial stages of awareness and information, the brand is considered and accordingly, the decision is made. Furthermore, the action and outcomes are also dependent on the purchase experience of the particular brand and its post purchase experiences (Alleyne, 2008). The typical components of brand health tracker are explained in below figure to gain further clarifications in the study.
The awareness stage occurs when the consumer has heard about the brand and that awareness persists for long time. Familiarity means the closeness with the brand in context to probe for knowledge or any kind of advertisements (Driesener, 2014). The consideration means that interest of consumer in the particular brand and has a willing to consider the brand in near future. Experience means the brand experience of consumers in last 6 months or ever used. Regular means the usage of brand by consumer in regular manner. The loyalty/bond is the last stage of brand health components where the consumers consider the brand as favourite and likeliness to recommend the brand in the market.
In context to the telecommunications industry, the comparison of Netflix and YouTube is conducted for tracking their brand health. YouTube and Netflix have made it to the list of top brands and shows growing value of online streaming sites. The brand indicates their respective perceptions of public. Netflix concentrates on establishing itself as a producer of content and not only a streaming service (Miglani, 2015). Whereas, YouTube is all about influence because every other brand want to leverage the subscribers existing on the YouTube to enhance their business. YouTube is leading the influencing part in the video business (Arrington, 2008). However, it is facing major competition from Netflix in accordance to their revenue model. The brand ranking for competitors is provided below to understand the brand health of Netflix and YouTube.
Streaming has become quite regular in daily life of people, especially from last two years. YouTube and Netflix have joined the top brand index. Netflix is a subscription based service that provides licensed content as well as rents content. It has gained significant audience through content creation (Liedtke, 2017). The consumers pay monthly fees as subscription for availing the services. On the other hand, YouTube is an advertising based site that hosts videos uploaded by different users. And the registered as well as unregistered users can watch the videos (Farris, et al., 2010). While watching the videos, consumers are exposed to advertisements. So, the comparison indicates that YouTube get free content and sells advertisements, while Netflix creates and distributes the licensed content and sell subscriptions.
In context to brand health, both the brands have good amount of awareness, familiarity and consideration in the target market. But after the consideration stage, the selection and action depends on the willingness of user (Williams, 2003). The experience of Netflix is better than YouTube as the advertisement shown in YouTube can risk the engagement level of consumers and ultimately, impacts the usage experience (Feldman, 2018). The regularity with Netflix among users has been very common in recent time because they are regular with the opted subscription for long time. Also, Netflix engage its customers with good amount of loyalty. The engagement vs. Reach data for service providers is provided in below figure that clearly shows the dominance of Netflix in the market over the time.
The data in above report indicates that the brand health of Netflix is much better than of YouTube as Netflix has gained significant majority. Netflix is consistently crushing its competition with the factor of time spent by consumers on the platform as it has 28 hours of viewing time per home (Feldman, 2018). The evaluation of BHT indicates that Netflix has better brand following in the market.
Research design and approach
The study provides clarity on the prioritising the brand decisions with the help of BHT and its evaluation within the telecommunication industry. The comparison of Netflix and YouTube is made to understand the BHT evaluation of brands. In this section, the approach and research design is discussed to achieve the objectives of research study.
The data for conducting the research can be collected through quantitative or qualitative approach. The qualitative approach aims to address the open-ended questions related to the topic. The methods under qualitative approach include group discussions, interviews and focus groups. On the other hand, the quantitative approach addresses the basic questions of topic in systematic manner (Judd & Smith, 2009). The methods employed under quantitative approach are direct questioning and surveys.
Both the approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages. The qualitative approach is considered for exploring the unintended consequences and effects of the program but they are quite expensive and time consuming for implementation. In addition, the findings of study cannot be generalized. The quantitative approach has advantages that they are cheaper for implementation and quite standardised so that the effect can be measured properly (Patton, 2009). However, the quantitative approach has limited capacity for investigation and providing unexpected differences. It is considered that the quantitative collection approach in peer based programs is difficult to be implemented and experiences low participation.
Data Collection approach
The study concentrates on BHT analysis and its importance in the business. The research is based on the data collected from valid sources. The data collection approach selected in this study in specific context to BHT is telephonic interview. This section discusses the advantages and pitfalls of selected approach and justify the selection within the study. In the current research landscape, the are many methods of data collection that are taking the advantages of web and mail for collecting the data and reach people in extensive manner (Patton, 2009). The appropriate data collection approach helps in gaining relevant and actionable insights within the study. In context to telephonic interview, it has many advantages as well as disadvantages. This type of interview has become very common due to its advanced approach and connecting with more sample. The advantages and disadvantages are highlighted below.
Advantages of Telephonic Interviews
- Lead to better response rates in target areas
- Quick conduct and completion of interview process
- Reach maximum samples in the wide geographical areas
- Better accessibility as everyone has landline or mobile that helps in getting the sample of audience(Judd & Smith, 2009)
- Telephonic interview helps in targeting the demographics based sample
- Cost effective as compared to other methods and impact the value of business in positive manner
- Improved control in targeting the specific samples for selected studies
- Personal in nature and helps in enhancing the business image among target group
- Leads to more recommendations, referrals and ultimately, more sales.
- The data quality can be quite high, provided the interview questions and guidelines are maintained by interview professionals.
Disadvantages of Telephonic Interviews
- The questions asked in interview has to be very simple as the complex questions cannot be asked over phone. The complicated questions have to be seen for answering them correctly.
- The customers are more likely to perceive the market research calls as sales calls and refuse to participate in the research.
- Unlike face-to-face interviews, the body language and observations cannot be judged, no matter how skilled and experienced are the interviewers(Patton, 2009).
- When surveys can be conducted with an online panel, telephonic interviews as an alternative can be considered as more expensive.
Telephonic Interviews is conducted for BHT analysis in context to telecommunication industry and it can help in analysing the feedback of users, usage analysis, satisfaction level of consumers, brand perception and overall health in significant manner. However, online surveys are cheaper but for this study, telephonic interviews are considered so that the extensive data can be collected related to the research topic.
Research design and process
The research design process in context to the Brand Health Tracking is explained below to understand the process to be conducted for completion of research study. The research design is systematic approach to conduct the study in scientific manner. It is the synchronization of data and identified components to gain the outcomes or objectives of research study. The research design suitable for this study is evaluation research as the brand image decision making need to be evaluated. This research design is extensive by nature and have extended components. The research process is multi-step and all the steps are interlinked with each other. Any changes in one step can lead to further review of other steps throughout the research process. The steps of research process are explained below.
- Step 1: Problem identification
The problem is identified at this stage and also, research question is framed. The focus of this study is to understand the role of information in prioritizing the brand decisions in context to telecommunication industry.
- Step 2: Literature review
The investigation about research topic need to be understood before proceeding with the research problem. The functional knowledge about the identified problem need to be gained properly (Patton, 2009). In this case, the brand value, brand decisions, telecommunication industry and alike information can be gathered.
- Step 3: Problem clarification
The broad problem need to be cut down to understand specific issues and narrows the scope of research study. In this study, the purpose of study is clarified i.e. role of information in prioritizing the brand decisions.
- Step 4: Defining the population
The specific group of people is focussed for conducting the study. In this study, the people belonging to telecommunication industry is selected.
- Step 5: Instrumentation Plan
The roadmap for the research is prepared under this section and clarify the participation of people within the study.
- Step 6: Data collection
The data is collected with the help of selected methods. In this study, telephonic interviews are selected as data collection approach.
- Step 7: Data analysis and findings
The data is collated and analysed with consideration of research objectives. The final answers are extracted from the analysis and interpretations of collected data. The results of analysis are summarized according to the set research questions.
Conclusion
The study has concentrated on the understanding and application of information and research in building the brand and need while taking important brand decisions. The study clarifies that the successful businesses always prefer to do market research before making any critical decisions and it also helps in empowering the key decision makers with possible and feasible recommendations. This topic is very important as brand and BHT plays a significant role in the business in specific context to telecommunication industry. The business objectives and research objectives in context to BHT are clarified for betterment of telecommunications and improved brand management in the industry. The BHT analysis of YouTube and Netflix indicates that Netflix has a higher brand value and health as compared to YouTube as it has invested in improving their brand value over the time and gained extensive consumers in the market. In context to research design and method, the telephonic interview method is selected for collecting the data and using it for conducting the systematic research process.
References
Alleyne, R., 2008. YouTube: Overnight success has sparked a backlash, s.l.: The Daily Telegraph.
Arrington, M., 2008. YouTube RickRolls Users, s.l.: TechCrunch.
Driesener, C. P. S. R. J. &. S., 2014. Brand and Advertising Awareness: A Replication and extension of a known empirical generalization. Australasian Marketing Journal, 12(3), pp. 70-80.
Farris, P. W., Bendle, N. T., Pfeifer, P. E. & Reibstein, D. J., 2010. Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Feldman, D., 2018. Netflix’s Content Budget Is Updated To $13B For 2018, s.l.: Forbes.
Judd, C. M. & Smith, E. R. &. K. L., 2009. Research methods in social relations. 6 ed. Fort Worth: TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.
Liedtke, M., 2017. Netflix sinking deeper into debt to fuel subscriber growth, s.l.: The Toronto Star.
Malaska, S. T., 2010. Co-creation of Branding by Network Actors, s.l.: Paper presented at 10th Annual EBRF Conference: Co-Creation as a Way Forward.
Miglani, 2015. How Netflix Makes Money? , s.l.: Revenues .
Patton, M., 2009. Qualitative evaluation and research methods. 2 ed. Newbury Park: Sage.
Smith, A. C. G. B. R. a. W., 2006. Brand personality in a membership‐based organisation. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 11(3), pp. 251-266.
Williams, M., 2003. Measuring business starts, success and survival: Some database considerations. Journal of Business Venturing, 8(1), pp. 295-300.
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