Malaysian Brands Research Articles

Determining Factors of Home-based SME Malaysian Brand Purchase Intention: A Conceptual Paper

Determining Factors of Home-based SME Malaysian Brand Purchase Intention: A Conceptual Paper

Crossing borders and crossing the line

ABSTRACT In 1989, the Malaysian music group, Search, were a popular culture phenomenon across the Nusantara, successfully exporting their Malaysian brand of hard rock and heavy metal retrospectively termed rock kapak (lit. axe rock). Their success set the stage for cross-border collaboration in Indonesia, which included recordings, tours and a feature-length film. In 1992, the group was subject to a long hair ban that restricted broadcast of their music on television and radio in Malaysia. As a result of their defiance of the ban, the band’s live performances in the country were denied permits. This study conceptualises the connections and contestations mobilised by Malay rock as a crossing of nation-state borders and a crossing of moral boundaries. The former is viewed in inter-regional popular culture exchanges within the Nusantara region, while the latter is analysed in terms of Malay rock’s defiance to authoritarian moral policing. The boundary crossings of Search signify the musical mobilities of Malay rock, read as an informal cross-Nusantara ‘movement’ of mostly male, working-class youth who challenged conservative ethno-national states. While Search’s mobility across the region clearly represents a porous crossing of domestic and regional borders, it was the affectively ‘moving’ aspects of their ballads that appealed to a wide demographic of Nusantara audiences and the politicians that were complicit in controlling their public image.

A Gestalt and Semiotic Analysis of Brand Communication on Disability Inclusion: The Case of Malaysia and The US

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underscore the United Nations’ effort in advocating disability inclusion in education and the infrastructure of member countries. Brands can also play their role by promoting disability inclusion through their brand messages. Brand messages are powerful as they advocate causes and ideals that include disability inclusion through repetitive and omnipresent messages whose ultimate goal is to influence the target audience’s behaviour. This multiple case study compared brand communication from ten brands each originating from Malaysia and the United States using Saussure's model of semiotics. It was found that Common Fate is the fundamental gestalt principle in most brands’ communication on disability inclusion of both countries and that positive nomenclature was used as the signifier that underlined the organisations' positive perception of disability inclusion. Our moral obligation is to include persons with disabilities (PwDs) in society, and brands can play their role by promoting the universal ideal of disability inclusion. This study was borne out of the intrigue in understanding how images in brand communication have been incorporating disability inclusion. Brand messages are ubiquitous and powerful as they can set the agenda on disability inclusion by giving it appropriate prominence. The proposed multiple case study will examine brand communication from ten brands, each originating from Malaysia and the United States. The criteria used to select the brands will be vital as confirmed by the industry in the case of Malaysian brands and the highly indexed brands deemed by the Disability Equality Index (DEI) for U.S. brands. Saussure's model of semiotic analysis will be used to examine the brand messages in terms of their communication on disability inclusion. The model of semiotics to be adopted is broken into components such as a sign, signifier, and signified, thus providing us with an insight into the sign in the form of websites by brands, the dominant symbols (signifier), and the interpretations of these symbols (signified). It was found that Common Fate was the key gestalt principle found in the communication on disability inclusion by all brands in Malaysia and the US and that positive nomenclature was adopted as signifiers that promoted the organisations’ positive perception of disability inclusion.

Extant Corpus on Retail Brand Choice Behavior and Multifactor Modelling on its Impact on Malaysia's Retail Stores

This study proposed to close the ostensible research gap by examining the impacts of price sensitivity, risk perception, brand awareness, brand experience/brand familiarity, and consumer purchase behaviors on the retail brand choice behavior in Malaysia's retail stores. Moreover, the analysis method will be pivoted to the Smart PLS path modeling technique, which is much more robust and precise. Therefore, this study's proposed research framework was underpinned by Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavioural and Prospect Theory as well as identifying the most significant factors impacting the retail brand choice behavior in Malaysia's retail stores. The empirical outcomes of this study provide a useful reference in teaching and research for students and faculties who do research or are concerned about retail brand choice behavior issues. In addition, it provides practical guidelines to assist local Malaysian brand retail chain store top management to consider and use the research output in this study to further strengthen their brand management vis-à-vis foreign retail stores in Malaysia. The SEM-PLS results showed that the direct effect of relationships between price consciousness, brand awareness, brand familiarity, risk perception, and consumer purchase behavior was significant and had statistical support for brand choice behavior in Malaysia. As for the moderating effects, consumer purchase behavior as moderator on the relationship between brand awareness, brand familiarity, and consumer brand choice behavior has been statistically established. However, statistical support could not be proved on the moderating effect of consumer purchase behavior on the relationship between price consciousness and risk perception with consumer brand choice behavior in Malaysia's retail stores. The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research were also discussed.

Consumer Engagement With Visual Content on Instagram

Despite Instagram’s popularity among the Y and Z generation consumers, social media research investigating factors that can influence customer engagement on Instagram remains limited. The uses and gratifications theory underpins this study which investigates how social media marketing of prominent Malaysian brands on Instagram impacts customer engagement. ScrapeStorm web scraper tool was used to extract posts and comments from the public Instagram accounts of four notable Malaysian brands. The findings reveal that different features of social media, affect consumer engagement differently. Social media influencers had a positive impact on consumption and creation-based customer engagement. Contextual features are negatively correlated with contribution-based customer engagement. In terms of content, videos had greater engagement rates, followed by images of people and images without people. Results also show that consumers reacted positively to informative textual content. Some implications for theory and practice are highlighted.

Factors Influencing the Customer Dining Experience and Retention at Marrybrown in Malaysia

Marrybrown is a Malaysian brand that develops steadily in Halal fast-food chains, which deliver great value products and exceptional quality service. Marrybrown has utilized its competitive advantages and successfully sustained itself among the competitors in the same market. This study investigates the factors influencing the customer dining experience and retention at Marrybrown in Malaysia. The research method is an online survey and analyzed using V-ONE. The findings indicated that food quality, location preference, menu innovation, restaurant environment, and service quality are important variables that affect the customer dining experience and customer retention at Marrybrown located in Malaysia. The findings provide suggestions for future research and improvement of the services provided by Marrybrown located in Malaysia.

Clarifying the brand personality construct in Malaysia

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the variations in brand personality trait items to describe both global and local brands in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopted both factor analytic and experimental methods to investigate the internal and external validity of Malaysia brand personality (MBP) scale. They followed a stringent scale development process that ensures the scale conform to psychometric properties. Findings In seven studies, the results show that the 22-item four-factor Malaysian brand personality scale adheres to strong psychometric properties of scale development process. The findings further indicate that there are seven indigenous traits, while most traits emerge from factor analyses originate from studies of Aaker (1997) and colleagues (2001). This confirms universality of some brand personality traits and dimensions. Research limitations/implications Within the limits of the study, we did not examine the MBP facet level, and were confined to those respondents in Klang Valley only. Practical implications The MBP scale enables marketing managers in Malaysia to focus on brand personality dimensions that their customers can relate to. In other words, marketing communications can be more efficient when managers can identify brand personality traits that enhance customers’ behaviors and profitability. Originality/value Malaysia is a multicultural and multiethnic country which is increasingly becoming the focus of international brand expansion. The authors view that the development of the MBP scale is timely and should provide managers further insights into the brand personality structure that is relevant in Malaysia.

Culture of Brand Origin (COBO): The Impacts of Language and Linguistics on Purchase Intention of a Brand

This paper provides new insights into origin effect by focusing on new significant parameters pertaining to culture namely language and linguistics factors. It is postulated that the identification of culture of brand origin (COBO) on the basis of its language, and evaluation on linguistics components in a brand name can influence consumers to purchase a brand. The study is quantitative in nature using a survey method on consumer samples on which they were asked to evaluate food products sold under four different Malaysian brand names whereby each brand name is representing four different languages (i.e. Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Tamil and English) that are used for communication within the major ethnic groups in the country. Results from a survey of 504 working adults comprised of Malay, Chinese and Indian respondents indicated that the elements in COBO have an influence on consumers’ purchase intention. The study findings imply the importance of COBO as a tool to predict consumer’s intention to purchase by using linguistic components found in product’s brand name. Managers can appreciate the usefulness of language as a strategy in brand positioning and determining the most effective linguistic pattern to be applied in a brand name. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1p32

Testing the dimensionality of Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale (CETSCALE) among a young Malaysian consumer market segment

The purpose of this paper is to test the dimensionality of the Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale (CETSCALE). This present research assessed a two dimensionality, namely uni-dimensional and two-dimension measure, of CETSCALE in order to determine which one is better in explaining consumers’ perceptions towards domestic brands in the Malaysian context. The findings show support for the 2 component model that was proposed with good reliability values and validity assessment. Implications for researchers and practitioners are proposed based on the findings. Key words: Consumer ethnocentrism, dimensionality, validity, reliability, perception, Malaysian brand

Dimensions of Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Study on Malaysian Brands

Although Malaysian market is deluged with value-for-money Malaysian brands since decades ago, not all the Malaysian brand achieved national recognition. The objective of this research is to develop a valid and reliable model of Malaysian brand equity by assessing the dimensions of the brand equity and its constructs. Based on 30 constructs, which were compiled from literatures, four variables were included for brand awareness, seventeen variables for brand association, five for perceived quality and four for brand loyalty. Factor Analysis was conducted to identify dimensions of brand equity and its constructs. Principal Component Analysis with subsequent rotation (varimax) was conducted on 30 constructs of a questionnaire. According to the four dimensions proposed by Aaker (1991) in the brand equity literature, a four factor solution that reduced the 30 constructs to four factors was chosen in this study. The factors produce a Cronbach alpha of 0.96, with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The brand equity constructs with a loading below 0.6 were excluded from further analysis. 14 constructs remained in this study.