Customer Attitudes Toward Bmw Motorcycles Essay

This final report is the finish summary version of overall information, knowledge, and data of the marketing research under the area of BMW R1200 GS/GSA motorcycles in UK. The BMW Motorrad under the BMW group has been producing motorcycles since 1923 and has providing a variety range of motorcycle styles (bmwgroup, 2012). In addition, the model of BMW R1200 GS/GSA motorcycles is a major consideration motorcycle in adventure sport style for all bikers in UK as it was named in the top ten model of new motorcycles registration (MCIA, 2011). However, The Motorcycle Industry Association defines Adventure motorcycle as â€Å"These bikes encompass trials which similar in style to Enduro motorcycles but are predominantly designed and capable for on-road use (MCIA, 2012)†. The objective of this research paper is to discover attitudes of UK customers towards the model. To be more specific, the research paper will look into the association between brand images, quality and price perception of the current riders towards this BMW motorcycle model. Moreover, the research paper will explore customer satisfaction and the loyalty of the brand. Additionally, this research paper will determine the outstanding in product value of BMW R1200 GS/GSA that it has over its rivals in the adventure motorcycle segmentation. The paper will first provide background information of conceptual model in brand equity which would provide a basic understanding of how to measure and manage brand equity. Furthermore, the explanation in the model of satisfaction towards loyalty will be discussed. Besides, the hypothesis of the study model will be illustrated. In the next section, the method of conducting online surveys and the utilization of this technique will be discussed. Thirdly, the interpretation from the obtained data will be shown in the finding and analysis section. Finally, the conclusion of the paper will be discussed to sum up the entire research paper including limitations and ethics issues. Literature review In the book, Managing Brand Value (Aaker, 1991) has defined the term of brand equity as the connection of the name and emblems to a set of assets that would increase the value of the company’s products or services. In addition, during the customers buying decision process (McKinsey 1996) has found in his research that brands affect 18 percent of total purchase decisions. Therefore, these can be indicated that branding act as one of the significant factors towards customers purchasing. However, the suggestion from (Keller, 2003) stated that the power of a brand would remain in customers ‘mind together with their perceived experiences and they will learn about the brand over time. Hence, there is the development process of strengthen the brand of a company. The figure (2) illustrates the framework of brand equity from (Keller, 2003). Figure 2 Brand Equity Framework Source: Keller, K (2003). Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall The framework provides 4 steps that involved in building a strong brand however, the hierarchy of brand equity determine that in order to move up in each level, there is a requirement from the successful of the previous one. The first level, companies have to set up a brand identity which will imply brand silence and would lead customers to aware the brand (Keller, 2003). The next step is to create an appropriated brand meaning involve either performance or imagery that related to the brand (Keller, 2003). Thirdly, it is a significant to response the judgments and feelings (opinion, evaluation and emotional) from the customers to gain brand attitudes in customers point of view (Keller, 2003). Lastly, the companies need to create a brand resonance by trying to minimize the gap between what companies think and what customers think via communication tools that would permeate put the brand into consumers’ mind, resulting in a good relationship with them (Keller, 2003). However, after building the strong brand equity, (Keller, 2003) has claimed that brand loyalty would appear to be one of the benefits to the brand. On the other hand, most companies consider the customers to be one of the significant keys to make the company successful. Therefore, (Erdem & Swait, 2004) propose that the determination of successful business in long-term is to deliver the value to customers which related to (Marconi, 2000) suggestion that one of the factors which would make customers to remain loyal over brand is customer satisfaction. However, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (figure 3) will be used to explain the model of customer satisfaction. Figure 3 the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Source: (Johnson, Gustafsson, Andreassen, Cha, 2001): â€Å"The evolution and future of national customer satisfaction index models. (theacsi.org, 2001) explained that customer satisfaction occurs from two driven factors which can affect the satisfaction either directly or going through the perceived value factor (quality relative to the expense). From those two driven factors, the first factor is customer expectation, which is the customer’s anticipation of the quality of the products in both prior consumption experience from consumer and the expectation from company’s product quality deliver. In addition, the second factor is perceived quality which determine by the evaluation of the product’s quality from customer toward the organization. However, the figure shows that there is a negative relationship between customer complaint once they disconfirm with the expectation and customer loyalty. This can be explained as the more satisfied from the customers, there is less chance in the resulted of getting complain from the customers. However, (theacsi.org, 2001) suggests that there is a chance of turning unsatisfied customers to loyalty customers after the compensations have been introduced to them. To conclude, in order to gain customer loyalty, the companies have to deliver the value of the products to meet or exceed customers ‘expectation as loyalty customers are more likely to create repurchase activity. The another related support to the important in loyalty of customers provided by (Reichheld.F.F, 1996) in his book, The Loyalty Effect, in which he stated that in order to bring in a new customer to the company is five times more costly than it is to retain an existing customer. Research Design The early discussion was about satisfying the customers who act as a main player of building the successful businesses as they are involve in many organization’s process. Hence, it is clear that the framework of this research paper is to focus on the importance of satisfying customers as it will create the benefit toward the company in term of brand loyalty. (Gobe, 2001) states that, there is several area of supporting customers into customers’ satisfaction such as price-quality-relation. Furthermore, (Keller, 2003) consider brand attitude in brand equity process to be a drive towards loyalty as well. This research design will be classified as causal research to obtain evidence of cause-and-effect relationships (Malhotra, Birks, Wills, 2012). These ideas made the hypothesis of the study as: H1a: There is a relationship between brand image perception and the level of customer satisfaction for BMW R1200 GS/GSA H1a: There is a relationship between quality perception and the level of customer satisfaction for BMW R1200 GS/GSA H1a: There is a relationship between price perception and the level of customer satisfaction for BMW R1200 GS/GSA H2: There is a relationship of BMW R1200 GS/GSA customers toward purchase loyalty The Figure 4 illustrates the study model involving the relationship between brand attitudes towards customer satisfaction in BMW R1200 GS/GSA and customer satisfaction in BMW R1200 GS/GSA towards brand loyalty. Methodology This research has been utilized quantitative in order to gather data under one particular model of BMW motorcycles, which is R1200GS/GSA. The objective of quantitative is to collect customer’s attitude influence factors relate to each participant perceptions. However, this survey method has introduced a set of questionnaire with 25 closed questions. The period of survey collection was between 10th November and 10th December 2012 through online survey technique under the survey site named Wufoo. The format of online survey included structure scales in a range from 1 to 5 and yes or no questions. The questionnaires have been distributed and upload onto BMW Motorrad Parklane Facebook and UKGSer page. The total respondent is 11 people which specific that have to be BMW R1200 GS/GSA riders. The questionnaires have been mainly divided into 6 sections. The first 3 questions were designed to seek for the top three requirements of participants that they consider before purchasing any adventure motorcycles. In the next section, 3 questions were designed to find the competitive advantage factors and the relative of price-to-quality in perspectives’ view. In the third section, 5 questions were used to determine the customers’ judgment toward the product quality. Moreover, there are a set of 5 questions used in search for customer feeling toward BMW R1200 GS/GSA. In addition, the others 5 questions were used to indicate customer resonance and their potential of creating benefit toward the brand. Finally, 5 questions were used to gain demographic information of respondents. Limitations The limitation of time was the major restrictive as the data collection periods is within 1 week. Furthermore, the difficultly of realizing the actual target population as some of respondents may not own the actual motorcycle in BMW R1200GS/GSA. Additionally, there are no female respondents in all of the returned forms. The scope down of the research topic into a specific model of motorcycle created an obstacle to find the right target of respondents. The post on facebook page has bias of gained non-geographic target group information as there are respondents which are not in UK. Moreover, some of the forums and websites are not currently frequently activated making the posts being used ineffectively. Finally, with the limited number of 10 respondents, resulted in low resources are being used in the evaluation. Ethical considerations The purpose of doing this research paper has been announced and posted on every websites and forums before the actual online-survey. There is a statement state clearly in term of confidentiality that respondents’ information is treated with highly confidentiality. In addition, the questions in the questionnaire under the demographic section have provided an alternative of ‘prefer not to answer’ option to allow the refusing of answering for respondents as they may have an uncomfortable condition. The collected data and information will be used in an education area only; there is no hidden purpose in either businesses or individual organization. Findings The process of gathering data took 4 weeks and there are 72 perspectives viewed of the survey in total. However, there are only 11 entries out of 72 viewed which can be transfer into 15.3% as the conversion rate. The average time per respondent to finish the survey is 3.16 minutes each. However, there is 1 out of 11 responded that is a fault data due to the location of the respondent is outside UK. In the first section, 50% of total responded consider exterior design to be considered the most when they buy an adventure motorcycle, while seat comfort is their second consideration with 40% of total. In addition, they consider bag and storage to be the third choice with 40% of the total. In the next section, 60% of total respondents have agreed that BMW R1200 GS/GSA is worth its price. In addition, 90% of them perceived that this model is more superior to other brands within the same price category. Moreover, the data explained that 70% of respondents perceived the superior fact as this model is the best in handling, while another 30% expressed the fact as the endure motorcycle. The third section is finding of the customers’ judgment toward the product quality with the full score of 5 marks. The best perceived value in quality of the model is safe follow by status symbol, quality product, trustworthy, and lowest is high performance product with the scores of 4.5, 4.2, 4.1, 3.9, and 3.6 points respectively. The data shows the customers’ feeling toward BMW R1200 GS/GSA in the fourth section. It is freedom that customer feel the most with 4.2 while fun is their second perceived with the score of 4 out of 5. The respondents share the third feeling that come in to their mind of excitement and self-respect with 3.9 point, while social approval is the last place in their feeling of 3.8 point. In the Fourth section, the data is used to analyze the customers’ resonance toward the model. However, out of 5, respondents show 4.1 point as they are happy with the model the most, while the fact that they satisfied and willing to refer the model to others share the same scores of 4 point each. Lastly, perspective expressed their love to BMW R1200 GS/GSA only 3.7 point. Finally, the data from the survey shows that all of 10 entries were male which translated into 100%. The average group is between 46-55 years old with the percentage of 80 out of total. Moreover, 50% of the total earns their income more than  £50,001 yearly while 40% of them earn the average between  £25,001-  £50,000 yearly. Moreover, 70% of respondents married and which left remaining 30% of them as single. Finally, the education fact shows that 50% of the total respondents graduated their highest education in high school while other 40% and 10% are undergraduates and master level respectively. Conclusion According to the study, exterior design consider to be the most important to customers when they buy as it’s related to social approval most customers agree that BMW R1200 GS/GSA give them that feeling. However, BMW is considering this factor as one of the main development processes make the company continuously improve a better look in designing along with new technologies attached to their bikes. Moreover, the seat comfort and storage is considered to be significant to all adventure riders. Due to a long distance in riding their motorbikes, they require a suitable seat to support their physical body and space to storage their goods. Results also show that BMW R1200 GS/GSA has the competitive advantage over the rival in the same category as customers perceived that the model has the best balance in control. On the other hand, only 60% of customers perceived this model is worth a premium price due to the less agreement that this model is a high performance product. However, customers still satisfied with the product even though, the customers have standard perceived that this motorcycle model is worth to spend money on. Therefore, it can be analyzed that there is less relationship between price and satisfaction. The relationship between product quality and satisfaction can be interpreted as there is a positive relationship between these two factors. The research shows that customers are highly consider BMW R1200 GS/GSA as a safe motorcycle and high quality product. The company has captured the most important need in every rider which is safety, and delivers the value to them clearly which resulted in gaining the satisfactions from value deliver. However, by looking at specifically to individuals that has less satisfaction, it is only the fact that BMW R1200 GS/GSA is not high performance enough for them. In term of brand image, the customers is highly involved with status symbol as the high score of 4.2 point can determine that the company has created brand association and meaning towards customers. Moreover, the company has well delivered the feeling of freedom in this product make a fulfillment in the want of adventure travelers. Therefore, brand image has positive relationship toward satisfaction. Finally, with the high number in people who are happy and satisfied with BMW R1200 GS/GSA related to their willingness to refer this motorcycle model to others. 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