Dissertation Propsosal

1.1 Virgin Background

If you were to ask a consumer today on their thoughts of the company Virgin, it is not only Virgin Atlantic that may derive from a consumers mind, but Virgin money, Virgin megastore, Virgin trains and Virgin media are just some of the companies in an endless list that differs from consumer's minds in which Virgin are involved in.

Virgin has created more than 300 branded companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people, in 30 countries. Global branded revenues in 2009 exceeded £11.5 billion (approx. US$18 billion) (http://www.virgin.com/about-us).

The Virgin name and brand was co- founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1970 when the first Virgin Mail Order was introduced.

When once asked in an interview, "What does Virgin stand for?" Sir Richard Branson replied "Fun (http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/may2009/sb20090519_058809.html).

Virgin is known for its brand strength and targeting new business ventures, with an image which appeals strongly to a younger market audience living a frivolous free, rebellious life style, thus knowing how to differentiate his brand.

1.2 Problem Area

Although Virgin have targeted numerous sectors it is difficult to monopolise and lead markets against competition. The right channels of communication need to be adapted in order to become sole market leaders in any market of product or service. Literature fails to demonstrate how effective marketing communication is from a consumers' point of view. This study will use Virgin to explore how consumers perceive brands which are heavily influenced by brand strategies. The research will investigate how brand communication affects consumers brand perception on Virgin

1.3 Research Aims

The report will look into the brand associations of Virgin and the influence that are held in the minds consumers. Virgin's brand communication will be explored identifying how it affects consumer's brand perception.

1.4 Research Objectives

 What are the brand associations of Virgin (RO1)

 How do consumers respond to Virgins brand communication (RO2)

 How is the brand communicated to influence brand perception (RO3)

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

"The literature review is a central building block for any piece of academic research" (Remenyi, Williams,Money and Swartz 1998). This chapter therefore will present a review of theories, existing literature and previous studies that are relevant, related and linked to the brand perceptions and communication strategies by Virgin.

2.2 Branding

Murphy (1992) claimed that brands can be categorised under various definitions including visual, perceptual, image, personality, added value and positioning. A Brand differentiates its products from competitors by allowing customers to form a value and perception of a brand.

2.3 Brand Equity

According to Aaker, 2010, brand equity is a "set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand's name and symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or that firm's customer". Figure 1 displays Aakers model of brand equity.

Figure 1: Aaker's Brand Equity Model

The four main asset categories for Aaker (2010) is brand name awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality and brand associations. If the four assets have linked consumer brand knowledge and marketing stimuli, Virgin have a strong position in generating value from brand equity.

2.4 Brand Awareness

Brand awareness refers to the strength of a brands presence in the consumers mind Aaker (2010)

Awareness is measured through the different ways consumers remember a brand via recognition or recall. It can be measured from the way consumers remember a brand through recognition e.g previous exposure of the brand and/or recall e.g. what brands of product can you recall/remember. Brand awareness can vary from brands unknown to consumers, to brands which consumers are highly aware of (Atilgan et al., 2005). Increasing awareness benefits the brand's market audience as customers unknown of the particular brand have now been exposed.

2.5 Brand Association

Past research in psychology has results demonstrating that "...recognition alone can result in more positive feelings"(Aaker 2010) Therefore creating a higher and positive arousal when either thinking of purchasing a product from the particular brand. Krishnan (1996) supports this theory as brand leverage is based on high brand equity, which equals to positive brand associations. For example, familiar associations that consumers link to a brand as Kotler 1998) suggests McDonalds are; fun, high calories and golden arches. On the other hand, Keller (1998). Aaker (1991) defined brand associations as "anything linked in memory to a brand". The association of Richard Branson with the company Virgin will be exposed through the researcher's primary research in order to find out what associations are linked when mentioning Virgin or Richard Branson to participants. Brand associations helps create value to firms and its customers by helping to process information, form positive attitudes, differentiate the brand, establish a reason to buy and to help form an overall image of the brand (Aaker, 1991).

2.6 Brand Name Dominance

Brand name dominance is the awareness level at which a brand name is the only name customers are able to recall when discussing a particular product (Aaker 2010). Although Virgin is not a generic name, they have however, branched into more than one market segment. Although seen into branching into new and different markets is positive for the company, this can be a disadvantage if they have not dominated