What factors affect to brand equity at sun life vietnam

This study researches to examine the factors affecting brand equity from the perspective of customers using Aaker's Model, it was determined the relationship between levels brand equity

RESEARCH PROJECT

(BMBR5103)

WHAT FACTORS AFFECT TO BRAND EQUITY

AT SUN LIFE VIETNAM ?

Advisor’s assessment

Advisor’s signature

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TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT 6

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 Company background 7

1.2 Research problem statement 8

1.3 Research objective 11

1.4 Research scope 11

CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 What is Brand? 12

2.2 Brand equity 13

2.3 The concept of brand equity 15

2.4 Keller’s brand equity model 18

2.5 Aaker’s brand equity model 20

2.6 Luming Wang and Adam Finn’s brand equity model 23

2.7 Hypotheses 24

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY 26

3.1 Data collection method 26

3.2 Sampling 27

3.3 Measurement Techniques 28

3.4 Data analysis 31

CHAPTER IV: KEY FINDINGS 32

4.1 Cronbach’s Alpha 32

4.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis 33

4.3 Assessment of customers about Brand Equity of Sun Life Vietnam 35

CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION 36

5.1 Brand Loyalty of Sun Life Vietnam 36

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5.2 Brand Awareness of Sun Life Vietnam 37

5.3 Perceived Quality of Sun Life Vietnam 40

5.4 Brand Associations of Sun Life Vietnam 43

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION 45

REFERENCE 48

APPENDIX 50

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Foremost, I would like to thank for knowledge I have gained from MBA course of Open University Malaysia and specially express my sincere gratitude to

my advisor Dr Hung Bui, for offering his precious time and effort for proofreading

my Researching Project, for his guidance, valuable comments and suggestions It is worth to mention that he was a perfect match for my Researching Project in terms

of language and proficiency This work would not have been more successful without his help and patience I also want to express my profound gratitude to my Dad and Mum – you are the best in the world and I’m so proud of you! Big thanks

to friends, MBAOUM K19A classmates, Marketing colleagues at Sun Life Vietnam who went out of their ways in providing immeasurable supports and positive energy And also my thanks go to those who will read this Researching Project until the very end Last, but not least, it is a pleasure to thank those interviewees and the customers of Sun Life Vietnam, who took part in my survey, for your kindness, time, and effort

Trinh Xuan Nam

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ABSTRACT

Sun Life Vietnam is a new insurer in Vietnam after Sun Life Financial acquired PVI Sun Life and renamed of PVI Sun Life to Sun Life Vietnam Insurance Company Limited to reflect its new status as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Life PVI Sun Life didn’t invest more in advertising and marketing activities to build brand equity So the awareness about PVI Sun Life‘s Brand equity is low Additionally, “Trust” of customers on Brand equity is a very important key point of competitive advantage in Life insurance industry in Vietnam It makes business activities become difficulty

One of the most valuable assets of any company is its brand equity that the company could earn more benefits from consumers Sun Life Vietnam is new insurance company in Vietnam Understanding current fierce competition, CEO of Sun Life Vietnam determined one of the most important objective is Sun Life Vietnam need to diffuse brand equity to Vietnamese and flash on Vietnam Life Insurance market

This study researches to examine the factors affecting brand equity from the perspective of customers using Aaker's Model, it was determined the relationship between levels brand equity with four factors: brand loyaty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand assciations; and this study analyzed based on four factors above and data will be analyzed using SPSS software

Data collection methods included 19 questionnaires as part of a customer survey to brand equity at Sun Life Vietnam Thus, this research aims to examine above factors that affect to brand equity at Sun Life Vietnam I think results of this research will help the CEO of Sun Life Vietnam have solutions to improve and increase brand equity

Key words in this research: brand loyaty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand assciations, brand equity, insurance, Sun Life Vietnam, Vietnam insurance

On Dec 31st, 2015, Sun Life increased its share of charter capital up to 75% and on Nov 7th, 2016, upon approval of the Ministry of Finance, Sun Life acquired the remaining 25% charter capital from PVI and becomes a 100% foreign owned, Canadian life insurance company operating in Vietnam under the brand name of Sun Life Vietnam Insurance Company Limited

Sun Life Vietnam has provided life and health insurance, education plans and pension products to Clients throughout the country Since it was launched in 2013, Sun Life Vietnam has become the country’s sixth largest life insurance provider and

a market leader and industry pioneer in pensions

Sun Life Vietnam adopts “Client for life” strategy in which clients are the focus of all business Its mission is to help Vietnamese clients achieve lifetime financial security by offering a strong suite of life insurance, health riders and savings products So far, Sun Life Vietnam has already established itself as one of the leading life insurance providers and an industry pioneer in pensions for both individual and corporate clients

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Nowadays, lots of insurance companies are convinced that one of their most valuable assets is their product brands and services The Brand equity is one of those capitals which preserve company's value and also have the loyalty of customers in follow The more the Brand equity in customers' mind the more the company can achieve revenues For this reason, CEO of Sun Life Vietnam decide to invest in activities that enhance brand equity to create competitive advantage and confirming its position as a global brand

1.2 Research problem statement

Market changes

Markets have been changing over time and are still changing fast New markets are emerging continually, and communication channels about products and services and selling them are changing at a revolutionary pace (Kotler, 1999) Thus, marketing is also changing to meet those changes in the world

Even though customer satisfaction drives customer loyalty, it suggested that care must be taken for customers (Donaldson, B and O’Toole, T., 2007) As Philip Kotler (1999) describes in his book, the goal of marketing today is to create customer satisfaction and firms’ profitability by building valued relationships with customers Intense communication and interaction strengthens relationship or bond with customers and thus creates more loyal customers (Donaldson, B and O’Toole, T., 2007)

Brand awareness in any industry gives that company an edge Brand awareness accomplishes several objectives for companies seeking to increase sales

in the marketplace (Lea Nathan, September 2011)

In financial services, especially the insurance industry, the financial performance is intimately attached to customers loyalty (Diacon & O’Brien, 2002)

As the selling cost of an insurance policy is not recovered unless the policy is renewed (Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman, 1996), thus, customer loyalty is one of

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the most important determinant of economic success to the insurance firms (Mishra

& Prasad, 2014; Moore & Santomero, 1999) In this regard, customer loyalty is an area of interest not only in academia but among marketing practitioners (Lovelock, 2008; Sagib & Zapan, 2014)

Although the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty has been researched in different industry at large, however the examination of the impact of the relationship between perceived value and loyalty has mostly been ignored by the health insurance perspective (Yang, Jun & Peterson, 2004)

Commonly, the healthcare insurance service products are distributed through a very complicated insurance agency network (Grönroos, 1982) In this respect, building a distinctive and purposeful relationship between customers and the healthcare insurance providers will require a superior level of service qualities provided by insurance firms (Gera, 2011; Rahman, AbdelFattah & Mohamad, 2014; Wong, Tong & Wong, 2012)

Corporate Image described as a company's image as how “customers see and perceive” the firm (Gronroos, 2007) Clow and Beisel (1995) and Mazursky and Jacoby (1986) added that the customer’s image of particular service firm will have a direct effect on their attitude on future expectations There is evidence that “image”

is significantly related to perceptions of quality (Darden & Schwinghammer, 1985) Because, the firm image will precede customer evaluations as these assessments are components of the image (Mazursky & Jacoby, 1986)

Aside from technical quality and functional quality, firm's image was drawn as

an initial decision for customers to determine the quality of service provided (Clow, Kurtz & Ozment, 1998; Faché, 2000; Mazursky & Jacoby, 1986) That’s mean, when services are difficult to be evaluated, then firm image shown as an important factor that influencing the perception of customers towards the quality of service provided (Andreassen & Lindestad, 1998; LeBlanc & Nguyen, 2001)

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Previous studies established a positive relationship between the firm image and expectations in several service industries, such as catering, financial services, or travel agencies (Rodríguez del Bosque, San Martín, Collado & García de los Salmones, 2009; Clow, Kurtz & Ozment, 1997; Devlin, Gwynne & Ennew, 2002)

A positive firm image develops cues that give source of the appearance of expertise that are capable of increasing a message’s of persuasive effect (Schindler & Bickart, 2005)

Interactive technology

In addition, those (above) market changes move the marketing generation (industrial age) to an ‘information age’ and later to a ‘relationship age’ (Keith, F and Tahl, R., 2005) Today, information and communication technology (ICT) developments and innovations are playing a vital role in the contemporary market (Naudé, P and Holland, C P., 2004; Brady et.al, 2008)

The digital landscape across Viet Nam continues to grow and mature showing

no signs of slowing Cell phone and particularly smartphone ownership has not yet reached a saturation point so this market has grown and will continue to grow While computers still account for a significant percentage of the internet access in Vietnam, that share is declining as mobile internet access and mobile social media access is rapidly increasing Social interaction is a critically important online activity for the Vietnamese and Facebook is holding strong as the leading platform for social media Beyond social interaction or perhaps in tandem with that interaction the Vietnamese are steadily consuming online content centered in both news and information as well as entertainment Each of these areas will be of key importance to media and marketing efforts Due to this background, interactive technology has proven to offer unique marketing opportunities for the companies and to be used as a tool to build brand equity(©reachingvietnam.com, April 2016)

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Customer changes

In life insurance industry, the Consider process have most number of mention,

so this is an important step to make customers to actions Moreover, the brand equity selection is the biggest concerns of consumer when considering buying Life Insurance or recommend others to buy life insurance (©Buzzmetric, April 2016)

For this reason, I conducted this research to know clearly about factors affect brand equity of Sun Life Vietnam In this study, the factors are evaluated to affect brand equity are brand loyaty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand assciations The main content of this research will show clearly about the relationship between the above factors and brand equity Thus, the CEO of Sun Life Vietnam has recognized that what factors are of paramount importance to improve and increase brand equity

1.3 Research objective

By examining a case insurance company - Sun Life Vietnam, the purpose of this research is finding factors affect to brand equity Include workings: try to define brand equity and four factors including brand loyaty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand assciations; design research conceptual framework and test to check influence relationship between above factors and brand equity then recommendation

to improve and increase brand equity at Sun Life Vietnam

1.4 Research scope

This research focuses to issues related to brand equity based on four factors including brand loyaty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand assciations The survey is also built to collect feedback from customers of Sun Life Vietnam to provide a clear understanding of above factors to enable CEO of Sun Life Vietnam

to set the effective strategies to improve brand equity

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CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW

Research conducted for the literature was gathered from academic journals, books and through the World Wide Web The researcher aspired to gather academic information post 2006 in order to gain an up to date view of literature available in the brand equity area Various factors of brand equity available to companies are addressed, giving a brief description of each method There is however limited literature which coincides with popular factors of brand equity used by companies

to build brand equity

2.1 What is Brand?

A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/brand (Accessed December 8, 2016)

Brands can be a tangible commodity (or matter), a service (non-physical), shops, a place, an organization or an idea, the brand is a name, but may affect customers (Kapferer, 2008)

According to Kotler (2000) brand name, associated with one or more of the products of a product line, it is used to determine the source and characteristics of the product or products Agreeing with the point on the American Marketing Association (AMA) says the brand is a name, symbols, logos, graphics, designs

or set of factors in order to identify and distinguish goods services of one seller or group of goods and services of competitors (Keller, 2008)

Author Nguyen Dinh Tho and Nguyen Thi Mai Trang in the study of brand value (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2002) for the traditional view that this watch brand as a

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component of the product Meanwhile, Davis (2002) argues that brand is not just a name or a symbol that it is more complex, it is a set of attributes provides the target customers the value they require According to this point of the product is considered to be part of the brand (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2002)

According Lnapp (2000), the brand is the synthesis of all that impressive, is perceived by customers and consumers, drawn from the different positioning of eyes, spirit based on the emotions and the benefits Additional functionality is felt

According to the American Marketing Association: Branding a name, word, symbol design drawings, or set of factors in order to identify and distinguish goods or services of one person or a group of sellers with goods and services of competitors

There are many concepts of the brand, but the brand is generally the entity (product or organization) determined commitment to create the face value of the entity

2.2 Brand equity

Brand equity is the brand value in comparison to the brands rivals (Neal and Strauss, 2008), and brand associations are ‘the other informational nodes linked to the brand node in memory and contain the meaning of the brand for consumers’ (Keller, 1993, p 3) In Keller's point of view brand equity is the distinctive influence of brand knowledge upon the reaction on customers' side to the brand marketing (Keller, 1998) Brand personality, one of the original components of brand image, makes the brand image by means of the other physical constituents, adjectives, practical features and profits of brand usage (Maehle and Shneor, 2010);

as a result, it will have an impact on the brand equity

Brand equity is deemed as a market-oriented, relational asset connected with brand and located in the relationship between brand and customer (Srivastava et.al, 1998) Definition of brand equity based on consumers is close to the consumers

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view The client is an individual or organization they claim to be that value of a brand should be considered valuable by customers Thus, the power of the brand hides in what customers learned through time and experience or seen or heard about brand (Keller, 2003) In addition, brand equity, will play a special role in service firms Because of strong brand names, make sure to intangible products and able customers to understanding and ability to make the diagnosis According to Keller, being familiar with brand can play an important role in consumers' purchasing decisions and that include the following deceptions: Learning, attention and selection; Brand awareness and image, as parts of Keler brand knowledge, are responsible essential roles in consumer decision making (Atilgan & et al, 2009)

An attempt to define the relationship between customers and brands produced the term “brand equity” in the marketing literature (Wood, 2000) The brand equity generates a type of added value for products which help with companies’ long term interests and capabilities (Chen, 2008) Over the past two decades, a great deal of research has addressed various aspects of brand equity; brand equity is generally accepted as a critical success factor to differentiate companies and service providers from its competitors Brands with high levels of equity are associated with outstanding performance including sustained price premiums, inelastic price sensitivity, high market shares, and successful expansion into new businesses, competitive cost structures and high profitability all contributing to companies’ competitive advantage (Keller and Lehmann 2003; Vazquez et al 2002 )

Brand equity is significant in assisting consumers to process information, especially, when the information is overloaded (Krishan and Hartline, 2001) For firms, growing brand equity is a key objective to be achieved by gaining more favourable associations and feelings of target consumers (Falkenberg 1996) In other words, financial meaning from the perspective of the value of the brand to the firm and customer-based meaning from the perspective of the value of the brand to the customer which both come from a marketing decision-making context (Kim,

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and An 2003) In addition, Yoo, at el (2000) states that understanding the dimensions of brand equity and investing to its growth raises competitive barriers and drives brand wealth The subject of brand equity is very rich in the context of definitions, models and measurement issue; several brand equity measurement methods have been suggested by different researches

2.3 The concept of brand equity

During the past few decades, brand equity has become one of the major areas

of attention to managers and marketing researchers owing to its major role as a significant intangible firm asset Many definitions of brand equity exist One of the most widely accepted definitions states that brand equity is the “added value endowed by the brand to the product” (Farquhar 1989) There are some other definitions by other researchers as well Aaker (1991) conceptualized brand equity

as a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to

that firm’s customers Definition by Keller (1993) focused on marketing; he described brand equity as “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand” Brand equity has also been defined as “the enhancement in the perceived utility and Desirability a brand name confers on a product” (Lassar, Mittal and Sharma 1995) Vázquez et al (2002) mentioned that brand equity is the utility that the consumer associates to the use and consumption

of the brand Clow and Baack (2005) pointed out another definition: they considered brand equity as a set of characteristics that make a brand unique in the marketplace, allows the company to charge a higher price and retain a greater market share than would be possible with an unbranded product

We can evaluate the brand equity from different perspectives, As Baalbaki (2012) mentioned brand equity can be seen from three different perspectives:

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Figure 1 Brand Equity Perspectives

Financial perspective (Financial- based brand equity)

Brand equity in the 1980s, as seen from the financial perspective, was viewed

as a method that gave managers guidance in understanding brand enhancement In this perspective, the measures focused on stock prices or brand replacement (Myers, 2003) Simon and Sullivan (1993) defined brand equity as “the incremental cash flows which accrue to branded products over and above the cash flows which would result from the sale of unbranded products” Supporters of the financial perspective (FBBE) define brand equity as the “total value of a brand which is a separable asset – when it is sold or included in a balance sheet” (Atilgan et al., 2005) Wood (2000) discussed that from a financial perspective it is possible to give a monetary value to the brand that can be useful for managers in case of merger, acquisition or divestiture Estimating a financial value for the brand is certainly useful but it does not help marketers to understand the process of building brand equity

Employee perspective (Employee-based brand equity)

Youngbum Kwon (2013) discussed that the definitions of Employee-based brand equity and Customer-based brand equity are similar in respect that they are both values that come from the innate nature of the brand Employee-based brand equity is defined from the employee perspective and is based on the differential effect that brand knowledge has on an employee’s response to his or her work environments and cultures (King and Grace, 2009).Youngbum Kwon (2013) presented a three dimension model based on King and Grace (2009, 2010) and

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Aaker (1991) research The three dimensions are Brand knowledge, Role Clarity, Brand commitment Cardy et al (2007) argued that subjective and emotional employee judgments concerning an organization reflect brand equity in the reflection of several following questions: what is the employee perception of an organization’s reputation; does it convey a sense of respect to its members; does an individual associate certain emotions, lifestyles, or experiences with an organization; has an employee forged an organizational identity, or considered the firm a part of himself or herself (Ashforth and Mael, 1989) All these questions describe subjective, intangible factors that imply developing an emotional tie with a firm or its culture In a marketing sense, brand equity results in increasing the positive feelings that make one less likely to defect to a competing product HRM can adopt the brand equity concept to strengthen the psychological contract with employees and make them less likely to leave According to King and Grace (2009), Employee-based brand equity serves as a foundation to build Customer-based brand equity because employees who understand and wholeheartedly endorse the organization’s objectives deliver these values to their customers

Consumer-based brand equity

In recent brand equity literature, there are two prominent theoretical views that provide valuable insights into the body of customer based brand equity Aaker (1991) defined four basic dimensions of customer-based brand equity: perceived quality, brand awareness, brand associations, and brand loyalty Another prominent theoretical conceptualization is Keller’s (1993) customer-based brand equity model The basic premise of Keller’s (1993) customer-based brand equity model is that

“the power of a brand lies in what customers have learned, felt, seen, and heard about the brand as a result of their experiences over time” (Keller, 2003, p 59) His model is an insightful way to represent how brand knowledge is the key to creating brand equity Keller (1993) viewed customer-based brand equity as “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand” He

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conceptualized the sources of brand knowledge as brand awareness and brand image In brief, the customer-based brand equity dimensions of both Aaker’s (1991) and Keller’s (1993) models are strictly intersecting What Keller (1993) left out from Aaker’s framework in defining the customer-based brand equity is the brand loyalty dimension

Keller (1993) defined consumer-based brand equity at individual level taking brand knowledge as a starting point, which is conceptualized as an associative network, where the associations are nodes In 2003, he defined brand equity as differences in customer response to marketing activity The concept behind the brand equity is to form how customers think and feel about the product or service relying on positive experience A company should create a situation that your customer will have positive thoughts and feelings and perceptions concerning the brand Keller model identifies 6 elements including brand salience, brand performances, brand imagery, brand feelings, brand judgments and brand relationships

Figure 2 Keller’s Customer-based Brand Equity Pyramid

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The first stage relates to brand identity and uses brand salience as a measure of the awareness of the brand (Keller, 2008) Formally, brand awareness refers to customer’s ability to recall and recognize the brand; brand awareness also involves linking the brand name, logo and symbol to certain association in memory Building brand awareness involves making sure that customer understand the product or service category in which the brand competes (Keller 2001) Based on Keller’s model, Kerri-Ann et al (2008) explained that the first step in building a strong brand

is to ensure the correct brand identity; the purpose is to create an identification of the brand with customers and an association in their minds with a specific product class or need To do this, brand salience must exist, which represents aspects of brand awareness and the range of purchase and consumption situations in which the brand comes to mind The salience building block is, therefore, made up of two sub-dimensions – need satisfaction and category identification

Kerri-Ann et al (2008) discussed the second step of Keller’s model as establishing brand meaning by linking tangible and intangible brand associations Brand meaning is, therefore, characterised in either functional (brand performance)

or abstract (image-related) associations Brand response is the third step in the Keller’s model and represents opinions and evaluations of the brand based on a combination of associations identified in brand meaning These judgments include overall quality, credibility, consideration and superiority Brand feelings are customers’ emotional responses and reactions to the brand Keller (2003) identifies six types: warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval and self-respect Brand relationships constitute the final step in the pyramid where brand response is converted to create an intense, active loyalty relationship between customers and the brand The pinnacle of the pyramid is resonance, which refers to the nature of the relationship between the customer and the brand It is described as having four elements: behavioural loyalty, attitudinal attachment, sense of community and active engagement (Keller, 2001) There is an obvious sequence in this “branding ladder” and this meaning cannot be established unless identity has been created

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Responses cannot occur unless the right meaning has been developed and the relationship cannot be forged unless the proper responses have been elicited (Keller, 2001)

Aaker (1992) provided the most comprehensive brand equity model which consists of five different assets that are the source of the value creation These assets include: brand loyalty; brand name awareness; perceived brand quality; brand associations in addition to perceived quality; and other proprietary brand assets – e.g., patents, trademarks, and channel relationships

Figure 3 Aaker’s Customer-Based Brand Equity Framework

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According to Aaker (1996) there are several aspects of the definition that needs to be emphasized First, brand equity is as earlier mentioned a set of assets, and these need to be created and enhanced through investments Second, each of these assets creates value in several different ways, which has to be managed with sensitivity in order to perform effective brand-building activities Third, brand equity does not only create value for the firm, but for the customer as well, and by customer the authors mean both the end user and those in the distribution chain, such as retailers which can be critical to market success Finally, in order for assets and liabilities to form the basis for the brand equity they need to be linked to the brand’s symbol or name However, if there would be a change in the name or symbol of the brand it could affect or even eliminate assets or liabilities (Aaker, 1996)

Brand awareness, as one of the major asset categories, consists of making consumers get a greater awareness of the brand Brand awareness is a key and essential element of brand equity which is often overlooked (Aaker, 1996) Brand awareness refers to “the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category” (Aaker, 1991) Brand awareness has different level; at the recognition level, it can provide the brand with a sense of the familiarity as well as a signal of substance, commitment and awareness and at the recall level, it further affects choice by influencing what brands get considered and selected For many companies, brand awareness is pivotal and it underlies the strength of successful brands (Aaker, 1992) Awareness plays an important role in most of conceptual models of brand equity Brand awareness generates a high level

of purchase, mainly because consumers are likely to buy those brands they are familiar with enhancing the firm’s profitability and sales (Baldauf et al., 2003)

A strong brand is not only managed to achieve as much general awareness as possible, they are striving for strategic awareness It is a huge difference in just

A brand’s loyal customer base is a key factor to consider when placing a value

an a brand because brand loyalty and predictable sales and profit streams are most likely to be connected Without its loyal customer base the brand is vulnerable or has only value in its potential to create loyal customers Aaker (1996) further emphasizes the fact that “it is simple much less costly to retain customers than to attract new ones”

Perceived Quality, is considered an asset for the brands due to several reasons according to Aaker (1996) Firstly, perceived quality is the only brand association that has been proven through multiple studies to drive financial performance Results from these studies have shown that the profitability is affected by perceived quality through enhanced market share and prices They also showed that it has a major impact an ROI due to being a major driver of customer satisfaction Secondly, perceived quality is an important strategic variable for many companies,

as it is often their key positioning dimension Within categories of price and premium brands, perceived quality is often the key variable in defining differentiation Thirdly, perceived quality is usually the what the consumers base their purchases on, and therefore it makes out a fundamental measure for the brand identity The perceived quality influences other elements of how consumers perceive the brand as well, and as the perceived quality improves so does the other elements

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Brand associations or brand image is perhaps the most accepted aspect of brand equity In fact, it is anything linked in customers’ memory to a brand Brand assets

Based on Aaker’s model, Ovidiu (2005)discussed that brand assets refers to patents, trademarks and channel relationships which can provide strong competitive advantage Trademark protects brand equity from competitors who might want to confuse customers by using a similar name, symbol or package Patent can prevent direct competition if strong and relevant to the purchase decision process Finally, a distribution channel can be indirectly controlled by a brand as customers expect the brand to be available

Model presented by Luming Wang and Adam Finn (2013) is quite different from prior consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) research that examined well-known brands in different product categories Their research focused on the within-product category differences in terms of the sources of CBBE To facilitate the comparison, they proposed a hybrid measurement model of CBBE that systematically integrates various existing CBBE dimensions and examined the substantive difference among master brands and their sub-brands within a product category They explained that this model distinguishes the latent CBBE construct from its dimensions, and separates its formative dimensions (causes of CBBE) from its reflective (effects of CBBE) dimensions based on the causal relationship with the construct They added another formative dimension, that is brand emotions, to expand the coverage of the CBBE domain from solely cognitive to include cognitive and non-cognitive, spontaneous emotional reactions to brands They emphasized that formative dimension (such as uniqueness and perceived quality) jointly define CBBE Eliminating any of them may alter the conceptual domain of the construct and decreases the construct validity; especially, formative dimensions

During the process of theory and literature study, Aaker’s brand equity model

is considered one of customer based brand equity model with high generality which scientists conducted to qualify practically

The main purpose of this study aims to examine factos affect brand equity at Sun Life Vietnam I have chosen Aaker model and found four factors including brand loyaty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand assciations and formulates them as my hypotheses in order to examine association between aboved factors and brand equity

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The brand assets factor which related patents, trademarks, and channel relationships will not mentioned on this reseach because other studies doesn’t utilize it and this factor little impacts to customer

The research hypotheses were divided into following four categories:

 H1: Brand Loyalty affects to customer loyalty at Sun Life Vietnam

 H2: Brand Awareness affects to customer loyalty at Sun Life Vietnam

 H3: Perceived Quality affects to customer loyalty at Sun Life Vietnam

 H4: Brand Assciations affects to customer loyalty at Sun Life Vietnam

Research model

Brand Assciations (H4)

Perceived Quality (H3)

Brand Awareness (H2)

Brand Loyalty

(H1)

Brand Equity

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CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY

Introduction: Since the purpose of this research is to examine the influence of factors attributes towards Brand Equity of Sun Life Vietnam, a structured questionnaire was developed to collect the needed information from the Sun Life Vietnam customers Questionnaires were self-administered and distributed by utilizing a convenient sampling method

3.1 Data collection method

Research description

Sample size n>= 5K where K is obsevation parameter (Vicente and Miguel, 2013) Minimum size of sample size is 5*19 = 95, so the stage of research conducted consisted of a survey which was distributed to 100 respondents The questions were designed around the research objectives The questionnaire was standardised for all respondents

The researcher was able to reduce the misinterpretation of the questions by aiding respondents, thus limiting errors (Saunders et al 2007)

Data collection progress

The survey for this research designed and sent directly to current customers

Progress:

 1 Nov - 10 Nov : send survey

 11 Nov - 30 Nov : support survey respondents how to input answer

 1 Dec - 5 dec : receive the feedback surveys

Results Send: 100 / Receive : 100

Invalid : 0 / Valid : 100

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3.2 Sampling

According to Malhotra (2010) a sample is defined as the people who provide the relevant information to answer the research objectives The following stage describes the sampling strategy used

Target customers: The target customers can be defined as: males and females

over the age of 18, who bought products of Sun Life Vietnam

Method: Non-probability was chosen as not every element of the target

customer has a chance of being selected because the inclusion or exclusion of elements in a sample The researcher has chosen quota sampling, as it is the most sophisticated non-probability technique

Sample Size: 100 questionnaires were distributed The total customers of

27,500 males and 22,500 females customers of Sun Life Vietnam was divided into groups based on a 6 years age difference apart from the over 61 age category to have an equal amount of representatives in each age category

55 surveys were dedicated to male, 45 surveys were dedicated to fermale; the number of surveys distributed to each age category was determined by calculating the percentage of the overall sex of customer dedicated to each age category, and dividing the number of surveys accordingly

The percentage was calculated to one decimal place, and that percentage was divided by sex ratio to determine the number of surveys per age group (i.e 55 surveys per 100% equals one survey for every 1.8% of the customers) The division

of these numbers was performed to one decimal place, leaving figures such as 5.7 surveys for a group.These figures were then rounded up to no decimal place to determine the number of surveys for each age group

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Age Category

% Total customers

Total Customers

% of Sex Population

Sample size

Table 1 Sampling Frame Quotas for Age and Gender

For ethical reasons surveys were not distributed to persons under the age of

18 All respondents were verbally notified that no personal information will be disclosed to any other party

3.3 Measurement Techniques

Questionaries are Likert itemised rating scale was used Respondents were provided with a scale containing a short statement Respondents were required to

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select the specific category which best described their opinion The scale had five response categories ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” as recommended Stevens et al (2005)

Brand loyalty

Aaker (1991) defines brand loyalty as ‘the attachment that a customer has to a brand’ Two different levels of loyalty are classified: behavioural and cognitive loyalty (Keller, 1998) Behavioural loyalty can be indicated by a number of repeated purchases (Keller, 1998) or commitment to rebuy the brand as a primary choice (Oliver, 1997, 1999) Cognitive loyalty refers to the consumers’ intention to buy the brand as the first choice (Keller, 1998; Yoo and Donthu, 2001) Another indicator of loyalty is the customer’s willingness to pay higher price for a brand in comparison with another brand offering similar benefits (Aaker, 1996; Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001; Srinivasan et al., 2002)

No Statement Mesurement

1 Think about Sun Life Vietnam first when have demand of

insurance product

5-point Likert type scale

2 Will buy Sun Life Vietnam product in comparision with

another brand

3 Will repeat to purchase Sun Life Vietnam product

4 Advocacy Sun Life Vietnam product to friends, relatives

Table 2 Brand Loyalty Statement

Brand Awareness

There are different ways in measuring brand awareness, how well consumers remember a brand This can be measured in different aspects, if you recognize a brand from a previous exposure (recognition), if you can recall any brands from a

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specific product class with any assistance (recall), the first brands you recall mind) and finally if there is only one brand that can be recalled for the product class (dominance) (Aaker, 1996)

(top-of-No Statement Measurement

5 Impress Sun Life Vietnam brandname 5-point Likert

type scale

6 Recognize that Sun Life Vietnam is a life insurer

7 Recognize logo and brandcolor of Sun Life Vietnam

8 Recognize and remember Sun Life Vietnam products

9 Easy to recognize Sun Life Vietnam with other life

No Statement Measurement

10 Sun Life Vietnam products with good benefits 5-point Likert

type scale

11 Advisors are professional and friendly

12 Sun Life Vietnam have good customer service

13 Policy issue with expectation time

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14 Low premium fee

Table 4 Perceived Quality Statement

Brand Association

Brand association include product attributes, customer benefits, uses, users, life-styles, product classes, competitors and countries Associations can help customers process or retrieve information, be the basis for differentiation and extensions, provide a reason to buy, and create positive feelings Consumers use brand associations to process, organize, and retrieve information in memory and this helps them to make purchase decisions (Aaker, 1991 1992)

No Statement Measurement

15 Sun Life Vietnam is a prestige, professional insurer 5-point Likert type

scale

16 Sun Life Vietnam designed flexible products

17 Sun Life Vietnam is an insurer with outstanding

quality

18 Sun Life Vietnam is a top of Vietnam insurers

19 Sun Life Vietname products make life financial

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CHAPTER IV: KEY FINDINGS

This research used official quantitative methods, is done by surveying techniques through detailed questionnaires to assess the scale and test the model set out Using Cronbach Alpha coefficients for reliability testing closely extent that the item in question interrelated scales; exploring factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify factors affecting brand equity, this is the method of analyzing the effectiveness in finding the factors influence the research goals, and determine the importance of each factor among factors Continue regression analysis to see the real impact of these factors to some degrees

According to Lee Cronbach (1951), Cronbachs alpha is a coefficient of internal consistency Nunnally (1978, p 245) recommends that instruments used in basic research have reliability of about 0.6 or better

Corrected Item-Total Correlation—This is the correlation of the item designated with the summated score for all other items The corrected item-total correlation should be > 0.3 (Maltby 2007, Brzoska 2010)

Testing the of the reliability of measurement about factors affect to Sun Life Vietnam Brand Equity by SPSS software for such results Table 6

No Variables Parameter Cronbach’s

alpha

Corrected Total Correlation

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The analytical results show that all the coefficients Cronbach 's Alpha of factors is greater than 0.6 then the survey results should be reliable The Corrected Item-Total Correlation is greater than 0.3, so variables should not have disqualified

Details of inspection results of Cronbach’s alpha are presented in Appendix 1

4.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is tool to analyze the correlations of a large number of variables to define the underlying structure by identifying factors assumed to represent dimensions in the data:

 These dimensions can guide in creating new composite measures to reduce the number of variables

 These dimensions may also correspond to concepts that cannot be adequately described by a single measure

 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA):

 We start (conceptually) with a number of factors, and the variables representing these factors

We can then test how well our specification of the factors matches the actual data EFA method is interdependence techniques, meaning no dependent variable and independent variables that rely on correlations between variables together (interrelationships) EFA to a set k shortened observation variables into a set F (F

<k) the more significant factor The basis of this reduction is based on a linear relationship of the factors with the original variables (observation variables)

Factor loading (load factor weighting factor or factors) is an indicator to ensure the practical significance of EFA:

 Factor loading> 0.3 is considered to reach the minimum

 Factor loading> 0.4 were considered important

 Factor loading> 0.5 are considered to have practical significance

Conditions to explore factor analysis is required to satisfy the requirements: