Disentangling the role of income level on premium brand perceived quality, awareness, association, and loyalty: A comparative study within Thailand and Indonesia

Komm Pechinthorn,Rahmawati Rahmawati,Nico Irawan,Sineenat Suasungnern,Jirangrug Samarkjarn,Kyawt Shinn Thant Zin

doi:10.31106/jema.v18i1.10208

Abstract

The level of income is one of the specific consumer conditions that susceptible to influence their brand decision-making. Unfortunately, studies on the influence of income mainly focused on price without considering the relationship between brand and consumers. This study aims to examine how brand perceived quality, awareness, association, and loyalty related to the level of income in emerging countries like Thailand and Indonesia. Premium and high-class coffee chain brands choose as the object of this study as the exponential growth of the coffee culture in both countries. A total of 283 respondents have completed an online questionnaire and verified it to be processed into the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and LSD post hoc test for multiple comparison statistical analysis. The result of this study shows that although high-income and low-income consumers in Thailand tend to have the same perceived quality toward the premium coffee brand, in general, there is a significant difference in the mean of brand perceived quality, awareness, and association between various consumers income level in Thailand. Interestingly, this study found that there is no significant difference in the mean of premium coffee brand perceived quality, awareness, association, and loyalty within the group of income levels in Indonesia. This indicates that Indonesians tend to ignore how much money they have in their pocket when it comes to coffee as the coffee culture becoming a new habit and lifestyle.

Highlights

A brand is considered as one of the indefinite intangible assets of firms that represent the engagement of particular firms with their consumers in terms of emotional, social, and economic benefits
This study aims to examine how brand perceived quality, awareness, association, and loyalty related to the level of income in emerging countries like Thailand and Indonesia
This study aims to extend and conduct comparative research on how premium coffee chains brand perceived quality, awareness, association, and loyalty related to the level of income in emerging countries like Thailand and Indonesia

Summary

Introduction

A brand is considered as one of the indefinite intangible assets of firms that represent the engagement of particular firms with their consumers in terms of emotional, social, and economic benefits. González-Mansilla et al (2019) classified four dimensions of brand equity by combining perspective and behavioral dimensions such as brand awareness, brand associations, the degree of loyalty, and perceived quality. While brand loyalty is a consumer's positive attitude, commitment, and consistency to repurchase a particular brand out of the set of alternative brands (Laksamana, 2018; Saritas & Penez, 2017; Wahyuni & Fitriani, 2017), perceived quality can be defined as customers assessment and judgment regarding overall differences between product performance perception and expectation (Marakanon & Panjakajornsak, 2017; Stylidis et al, 2020)

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