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1994; Dickson & Ginter 1987), the product category's life cycle stage (Kardes & Kalyanaram 1992) and product knowledge (Alba & Hutchinson 1987; Bettman & Sujan 1987).

It is being challenged that, from traditional assumption, consumer preferences is predetermined. Conversely, it may be possible to mould consumer preferences, particularly in fragmented and information-rich markets. Carpenter et al's (1994) study which researched on product differentiation also suggests that consumer preferences can be shaped based on the information provided to consumers. Thus, it may be better to adopt a proactive stance by attempting to influence consumer preferences through a positioning strategy, rather than reactively responding to them (Punj & Moon 2002).

The perceptual map is a useful tool for determining the position of a brand in the marketplace. It is a visual representation of consumer perceptions of a brand and its competitors using attributes (dimensions) that are important to consumers (Jobber 2007). The key steps in developing a perceptual map are as follows.

Identify a set of competing brands.

Identify important attributes that consumers use when choosing between brands using qualitative research.

Conduct quantitative marketing research where consumers score each brand on all key attributes

Plot brands on two-dimensional maps.

This method will be employed in this research.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) emphasise the benefits of dominating synergy across multiple Media to build brand equity of products and services. Researchers and practitioners have embraced the concept and it is now firmly embedded in marketing strategy. The American Association of Advertising Agencies (Schultz 1993) defines IMC as follows:

A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines - for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations- and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.

The basic premise of the IMC approach is that, through the coordination of marketing communications efforts, the firm can reach diverse audiences with a consistent message, thus resulting in optimal market coverage and greater impact on the target market for the least amount of investment. Wright et al (2007) indicate that a global brand has perceptual aspects related to the minds of its users or customers where successful brand communications relay messages about specific qualities and characteristics such as product reliability, status, sophistication and elegance (see Czerniawski & Malo 2000).

The 'brand knowledge' (Keller 2003) consists of brand awareness (recognition and recall) and brand image (associations held mentally by customers). Any product that is sold under the umbrella of a brand name will develop an identity that is based on a customer's experience of the product, marketing activity, word-of-mouth and the customer's individua本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。