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IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION – A STUDY OF

HYUNDAI
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INTRODUCTION

The ever-increasing competition in the automobile business reveals that

companies can no longer depend only on providing functional features of their
products but also communicating strong brands that can create special image in
the eyes of the consumers. While the role of communicating image and
personality of brands as some key factors in many brand communication
literatures has been studied, there seems to be an issue of lack of major and
critical studies in particular on buying behavior.

Companies today are becoming customer centric and highly focusing on

satisfying their customers as they have realized that in present cut throat
competition, satisfying and delighting the customers is very crucial. Because of
the constant change in needs, expectations and lifestyle of customers, most of
the companies are in dilemma that how to satisfy the customers and which
strategy should be adopted. The same problems have been witnessed by Indian
automobile industry. Even Hyundai Motors is a leading automobile giant in India
is very much conscious about understanding the needs and expectations of the
customers.

The current thesis intends to investigate an evaluation into customer perception

and its alignment to brand image in reference to Hyundai India. Organizations
are continuously trying to cope up with the challenging business environment and
due to numerous brands current everywhere in market place in the present time,
as a result it has become very straightforward for a purchaser to befall puzzled at
their purchasing time organizations trying to adjust or alter its consumer
behaviour with time to get maximum benefit from the market. Therefore, the
current study would like to focus on consumer behaviour and its alignment to
brand image.
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Korean giant Hyundai's subsidiary Hyundai Motor India has lined up a range of
new models, besides stepping up its marketing push in rural areas, to make a
splash in India, the world's sixth largest automobile market. Since inception,
Hyundai Motors India Limited has dominated the automobile market with the
reputation of being the fastest growing automobile manufacturer in India.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd., the country’s second largest manufacturer of

passenger cars and the largest exporter since inception has attained a significant
growth in enriching its Brand Power under Modern Premium Brand direction.
HMIL has steadily climbed up the ranks demonstrating a steady increase in
awareness and preference for its premium offerings among the customers. One
of the most popular cars that have taken the Indian market by a storm is Hyundai
Creta. Owing to its looks, great design and excellent performance, this vehicle
has been a hot-seller since the beginning and the same is expected out of the all-
new Hyundai Creta 2018.

Hyundai has witnessed a considerable increase in sales contribution from its

premium segment cars. The sales contribution of the premium aspirational
brands (XCENT, ELITE i20, i20 ACTIVE, VERNA, CRETA, ELANTRA and
TUCSON) has gone up from 54.19% in FY2015-16 to 60.54% in FY2017-18, this
shift is a testimony of rising customer aspirations and preference towards
Hyundai products. The most prestigious award-winning brands like ELITE i20,

the Next Gen VERNA, CRETA, ELANTRA and TUCSON have become segment
icons and set new benchmark in premium products category.

Hyundai also achieved Number 1 position in JD Power APEAL 2017 awards for
EON, GRAND i10, ELITE i20 & i20 ACTIVE. And reiterated its commitment
towards quality, by scoring No.1 rank in JD Power IQS 2017 for Top 3 models
GRAND i10, VERNA and CRETA, and achieved overall 2nd position, compared
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to the 4th position in 2016.These wins are testimony of Hyundai’s relentless

pursuit towards highest quality and service.

The study measures automotive brand influence in India of mass market

passenger car brands, based on consumer awareness and perceptions of the
brand. Strong brand influence may have a positive effect on purchase intent for a
particular brand, as brand influence scores correlate highly with brand
consideration rates. Brand image and reputation have gained significant
importance over the last five years for consumers in the Indian auto industry and
are key purchase criterion. Brand Influence Scores measure the impact a brand
has in the market, which is critical for automakers to track and measure.
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OVERVIEW OF INDUSTRY

The Indian auto industry is one of the largest in the world. The industry accounts
for 7.1 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Two
Wheelers segment with 80 per cent market share is the leader of the Indian
Automobile market owing to a growing middle class and a young population.
Moreover, the growing interest of the companies in exploring the rural markets
further aided the growth of the sector. The overall Passenger Vehicle (PV)
segment has 14 per cent market share.

India is also a prominent auto exporter and has strong export growth
expectations for the near future. Overall automobile exports grew 13.01 per cent
year-on-year between April-December 2017. In addition, several initiatives by the
Government of India and the major automobile players in the Indian market are
expected to make India a leader in the 2W and Four Wheeler (4W) market in the
world by 2020.
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COMPANY INTRODUCTION

Hyundai Motor India Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hyundai Motor
Company headquartered in South Korea. It is the second largest automobile
manufacturer with 17% market share as of 2017 and 5.5 billion USD turn-over in
India.

Hyundai Santro Xing/Atos Prime (Discontinued-2014) was manufactured only by

Hyundai Motor India Limited. Hyundai Motor India Limited was formed on 6 May
1996 by the Hyundai Motor Company of South Korea. When Hyundai Motor
Company entered the Indian Automobile Market in 1996 the Hyundai brand was
almost unknown throughout India. During the entry of Hyundai in 1996, there will
be only five major automobile manufacturers in India, i.e. Maruti, Hindustan,
Premier, Tata and Mahindra. Daewoo had entered the Indian automobile market
with Cielo just three years back while Ford, Opel and Honda had entered less
than a year back.

For more than a decade till Hyundai arrived, Maruti Suzuki had a near monopoly
over the passenger cars segment because Tata Motors and Mahindra &
Mahindra were solely utility and commercial vehicle manufacturers, while
Hindustan and Premier both built outdated and uncompetitive products.

Hyundai Ranked the ‘Number One position in After Sales Customer Satisfaction’
with the all-time high score of 923 points in J.D. Power 2017 India Customer
Service Index (Mass market) Study. This result is a testimony of Hyundai Quality
products along with strong efforts and focus towards customer satisfaction
through Service Quality. Hyundai will continue to invest in achieving highest-level
of customer satisfaction to make Hyundai as the Most Loved and Trusted brand
in Indian market.
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To support its growth and expansion plans, HMIL currently has 490 dealers and
more than 1,293 service points across India. In its commitment to provide
customers with cutting-edge global technology, Hyundai has built a modern multi-
million dollar R&D facility in Hyderabad.

Present status of the company, with strong commitment to add Brilliant Moments
to the lives of our customers through our Modern Premium product offerings and
Next Level Customer Service Experience, have closed the financial year 2017-18
on a positive note with a growth of 5.2 per cent and highest domestic volume of
5,36,241 units meeting our customer aspirations. The company launched the
facelift of the Grand i10, Xcent and the i20 in FY 2017-18 as also the new
generation of the Verna. The Verna has been a big success in India and in fact
the company is still receiving a positive response for the car, so much so, that the
company decided to make it more accessible by introducing a 1.4-litre petrol
version. The financial year 2018-19 will also be something to look forward to for
Hyundai as the company is all set to update the Creta and also bring in the all-
new Santro. We can't wait to see what this year has instore for the Hyundai
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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Due to the emergence of globalization and liberalization there is a stiff completion

among the Automobile industries which are focusing attention in capturing the

Indian markets an automobile is no more considered as luxury once, now

occupies a part of day to-day life and has become a necessity. Customers have

now changed their attitude that yesterday’s luxuries are today’s necessities. To

be a successful marketer it is absolutely essential to study the perceptions of the

prospective buyers and track their drivers of those perceptions.

The study also finds there is marked divergence between automakers’ brand

messages and the degree to which customers actually internalize these themes.

Although many advertisements focus on excitement, elegance and trendiness of

a new vehicle, such messages often do not resonate with customers. Instead,

customers prefer advertising that provides information on a vehicle’s new

features, technology-related improvements and innovation in order to distinguish

it from other vehicles in the market. Understanding their current positioning

relative to the competition from a consumer’s perspective as well as the type of

messaging themes that appeal most to a target segment helps automotive

manufacturers sharpen their marketing efforts. Generally, consumers are able to

differentiate more effectively on vehicle features they can see, touch and feel

than on intangibles.
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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To analyze what kind of impact does organization’s brand image create on

the consumers buying behavior in passenger car industry

 To examine the Impact of brand image on consumer perception on

Hyundai cars.

 To find out the customer brand preference towards Hyundai four wheelers

with different model of cars.

 To find the reason for purchase of satisfaction level towards Hyundai

brand in Delhi and NCR region.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Brand Image: A Key Element of Branding

Brand has developed into memorable effects towards the customer, having a
brand also assist customers in different traditions and everything that was
unbranded is going scarce in the market. A brand can generate importance and
image on products. The main goal of brand strategy is to influence buyer’s
attitude towards brand for instance they were convinced to proceed in a certain
way. Additionally, nearly all branding policies intend to influence customers to
purchase and utilize by giving the customer particular experience (Aaker, 2012).

Firms pay attention to create value for their products and brands. Brand
management, is also consistent with strategic logic, deals with creating extrinsic,
intrinsic and/or combined values for customers. Intrinsic value creation relies on
objective features related to experiential or functional utility offered to customers
whereas intrinsic value creation focuses on symbolic and experiential attributes
which are evaluated as subjective responses as ends in customers. The third
type of value creation adopts a combination of both objective and subjective
features as a unique outcome (Högström et al., 2015)

Brand image is the impression in the consumer’s mind of the brand’s total
personality (real and imaginary qualities) and brand image is developed over a
period of time through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme, and it is
authenticated through the customer’s direct experiences. Brand is the image of
the product in the market. Some people distinguish the psychological aspect of a
brand from the experiential aspect. The experiential aspect consists of the sum of
all points of contact with the brand and is known as the brand experience. The
psychological aspect, sometimes referred to as the brand image, is a symbolic
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construct created within the minds of people and consists of all the information
and expectations associated with a product or service (Saxena, 2015).

People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the
brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product
or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A
brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as
it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace. The art
of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management. Orientation of
the whole organization towards its brand is called brand orientation (Gupta,
2009).

Brand image represents “the reasoned or emotional perceptions consumers

attach to specific brands” (Low and Lamb, 2010, p. 352) a set of beliefs held by
customers about a particular brand, based upon some intrinsic and extrinsic
attributes of a market offering resulting to perceived quality, and customer
satisfaction. Perceived quality refers to the customer’s perception of the overall
quality or superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose,
relative to alternatives.

Careful brand management seeks to make the product or services relevant to the
target audience. Therefore cleverly crafted advertising campaigns, can be highly
successful in convincing consumers to pay remarkably high prices for products
which are inherently extremely cheap to make. This concept, known as creating
value, essentially consists of manipulating the projected image of the product so
that the consumer sees the product as being worth the amount that the
advertiser wants him/her to see, rather than a more logical valuation that
comprises an aggregate of the cost of raw materials, plus the cost of
manufacture, plus the cost of distribution. Modern value-creation branding-and-
advertising campaigns are highly successful at inducing consumers to pay, for
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example, 50 dollars for a T-shirt that cost a mere 50 cents to make, or 5 dollars
for a box of breakfast cereal that contains a few cents' worth of wheat (Correia,
2014)

Chernatony (2011) Brands should be seen as more than the difference between
the actual cost of a product and its selling price - they represent the sum of all
valuable qualities of a product to the consumer. There are many intangibles
involved in business, intangibles left wholly from the income statement and
balance sheet which determine how a business is perceived. The learned skill of
a knowledge worker, the type of metal working, the type of stitch: all may be
without an 'accounting cost' but for those who truly know the product, for it is
these people the company should wish to find and keep, the difference is
incomparable. Failing to recognize these assets that a business, any business,
can create and maintain will set an enterprise at a serious disadvantage. A brand
which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand recognition. When
brand recognition builds up to a point where a brand enjoys a critical mass of
positive sentiment in the marketplace, it is said to have achieved brand franchise.
One goal in brand recognition is the identification of a brand without the name of
the company present. For example, Disney has been successful at branding with
their particular script font

Consumers may look on branding as an important value added aspect of

products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or
characteristic (see also brand promise). From the perspective of brand owners,
branded products or services also command higher prices. Where two products
resemble each other, but one of the products has no associated branding (such
as a generic, store-branded product), people may often select the more
expensive branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the
reputation of the brand owner (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2010).
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Some promotion activities aren’t intended to directly increase sales based on the
promotion, but instead attempt to keep business, product or service in front of
target customer. For example, sales and coupons are retail promotions intended
to directly increase sales during a specific time period. Sponsoring a youth sports
league is a promotion intended to increase brand awareness over a longer period
of time. Promotions can also introduce to new customers. Giving free samples
lets potential customers try product or service risk free, increasing their
awareness of your company. Social media campaigns seek to increase brand
awareness by encouraging customers to refer to their contacts (Gupta, 2009).

Hyundai recognizes the potential of promotional activities and hence has always
gone for different and varied marketing strategies to create positive brand
awareness. In year 2012, company started a brand campaign globally that
emphasized on its Modern Premium thinking process. As the technique would
make brand mindfulness, a publicizing contract with Saatchi and Saatchi was
made, who then chose to utilize the Bollywood whiz SRK. The primary period of
the promoting effort was an advertisement that focused on presenting the vehicle
by utilizing silliness to expel the numbness. The second period of the
advancement focused on clearing any questions that potential purchasers may
have had. This was done through a promotion including Shah Rukh Khan. It gave
importance for highlighting the vehicle's elements. Likewise, Hyundai advanced
the vehicle through their current client base by running a "consumer loyalty
crusade" which broadcast existing client's experiences through promotions.
Throughout the latter portion of 2002, Santro was repositioned as an excellent
car to target more youthful customers. At the end of the day, new TV
advertisements were made to advance the repositioned Santro. Whereas, to tap
the rural industry, Hyundai held hands with merchants in provincial ranges and
advanced Santro through street shows. Additionally to guarantee that the rural
purchasers knew about the quality, they likewise advanced through test drives
(Moorthi, 2014).
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The descriptive study is a fact-finding investigation with adequate interpretation.

The descriptive study aims at identifying the various characteristics of a problem
under study. It reveals potential relationships between variables and also
setting the stage for further investigation later

Types of Research

The survey method is used in this research. Their search gathered for a specific
purpose either through personnel interviews/questionnaires etc. The data also
will be collected from the library reference, technical and subject based books,
journals and magazines, websites and other previous studies. To know about
details of HMIL data is collected from magazine, web pages etc.

Design of Research Instruments

In the marketing research it has main research instruments in collection the
primary data that is questionnaire.
The structured questionnaire is the research instrument to collect the primary
information for this marketing research projects. A Questionnaire consists of a set
of question presented to respondent for their answers. Questions may be open
ended or close ended, it depends upon the Marketing Research.

Sample Selection

Sample Unit: - Who is to be surveyed? The marketing research must define the
target population that will be sampled. The sampling unit for the project is taken
from Delhi which is the current users of Hyundai Cars.
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Sample Size: - How many customers should be surveyed large samples can
give the more reliable results then small samples yet it is more costly than
small samples. I have taken 100 samples in this project survey from which
have chosen 100 samples.

Sampling Method: - Sampling is the process of selecting units (e.g., people,

organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying the sample we
may fairly generalize our results back to the population from which they will be
chosen. In short, the process of drawing sample from a population is known as a
sampling.

Two types of sampling methods are: -

I. Probability Sampling
II. Non-probability Sampling
For Present study Non-probability sampling method is used and in that
convenience sampling technique is taken for use.
Non-probability sampling it is not based on the theory of probability. It does not
provide a chance of selection each population element. The merit of this type
sampling is simplicity, convenience and low cost.
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