Brands and the Internet

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Method

Since we are addressing a problem of perception, we found a qualitative method to be most appropriate.
Further, this chapter will present how our sample was selected and how data was gathered and interpreted.
The chapter ends with a discussion assessing the chosen method.

Research design

In order to fulfil our purpose and see how printer manufacturers use functional and repre-sentational factors in their communication with their customers, we chose to develop a questionnaire as an analytical tool. The interest to examine how brands are perceived took form based on a discussion with Anna Blombäck, a doctorial candidate at Jönköping Inter-national Business School. Anna Blombäck drew our attention to the lack of existing re-search within the field of industrial branding, which was also supported by the literature we found.
We believe that the gaps in this area of research pose as a serious problem for industrial marketers since there are no theories guiding their brand strategies. It seems as if industrial marketers today have to use a trial and error approach to their branding, rather than being able to ground it on relevant research. To get an understanding of how close or far apart the concepts of business and consumer branding are, we decided to examine printer manu-facturers since these brands carry both consumer and business products. Another aspect making the printer manufacturer industry interesting was the possibility it offered to com-pare companies that have separated business and consumer segments and those treating all buyers as one segment. It also allowed for comparisons within the brands having two sepa-rate entries. Furthermore, since printers represent non-frequently bought products, brand-ing is according to Rowley (2004a) important for these kinds of infrequently purchased products.
We limited our study by selecting to examine only one communication channel, the Inter-net. Through web site branding firms have the possibility to clearly separate these two cus-tomer segments, why this marketing channel suited our purpose well.
Since the purpose of this thesis is to examine brand perception it would have been difficult, and not very beneficial, for us to perform quantitative research with the aim of falsifying or verifying existing theories (Bryman 1995; Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003). This is due to our intention of generating in-depth knowledge, which a quantitative study does not of-fer. Referring to the above mentioned definition of perception stated by Kotler et al. (2005) the suitability of a qualitative study was further reinforced.
Further, since the range and variety of industrial firms is quite large, it would be difficult to draw any conclusions for industrial firms in general. The aim of this thesis is to gain a grea-ter understanding of what factors printer manufacturer stress through their web sites. To perform our study and fulfil the formulated purpose, we chose a qualitative approach since we wanted to generate knowledge rather than testing the existing one. Further strengthen-ing our choice of method is the fact that we did not position ourselves outside of the study as observers, instead we chose to actively engage in it.
One of the commonly mentioned benefits with qualitative research is its flexibility (Holme & Solvang, 1996). We believed this to be of great importance to us due to the lack of re-search performed in our area of study. Holme and Solvang (1996) further argue that the flexibility is at the same time a weakness of the approach. We believed that since were the ones completing the questionnaire, adding questions along the way would not pose any problems. The possible difficulty facing us here was if any of the web sites would be up-dated and changes would have been made. However, to exclude this possibility we saved all examined web pages from a single date.
Other drawbacks usually connected with qualitative research according to Svenning (1997) is the subjective judgement of the researchers that can affect the results of a study. It is our belief however, that it is impossible for people to be strictly objective, why this is a prob-lem facing all researchers.

Sampling

Normally, when an examination of the entire population is no feasible, a sample can be se-lected and examined in order to draw general conclusions applicable for the population at large (Bell, 1987). We performed a non-probability sample since according to Svenning (1997) there is no need for probability sampling when employing qualitative research.
In order to find out how many printer manufacturers there are, we visited web sites such as www.pricerunner.se, www.mycom.se, www.onoff.se, and www.siba.se. From these web si-tes printer brands were found and most of them reappeared in all web sites. Through this search method we also learned that the word printer includes a great variety of products, and thus many different market segments.
Since there are so many different usage areas for printers we decided to limit our study in order to make our selection more coherent. To be able to select a sample out of the initially found population, that would fit our purpose, we decided to create a few assumptions that companies had to live up to, in order to be selected. This is in line with Svenning (1997), who state that in qualitative studies the objects of study can be selected based on certain qualities. No companies solely manufacturing photo printers were included in our study, since these firms seemed to be directed exclusively towards individual consumers. Further, companies only offering multifunction machines (where printers are included), or other more specialised printers such as bar-code printers were all excluded since these seemed to be marketed only to other businesses. Overall, to be included the manufacturers had to produce printers that both consumer and business buyers were likely to purchase.
Due to the great number of existing printer manufacturers making quite different products throughout the world, we believed that it would be beneficial for us only to look at a selec-tion of this population. Since our focal point is to examine if there are any differences in brand-emphasis between consumer and business web sites, we believed this to be most ac-curately displayed when looking primarily at firms that offer the same products to both segments, but have chosen to divide their market into two.
When examining the different printer brands we found that although some made a distinc-tion between their business and consumer markets others did not. We found it interesting to see how these printer manufactures communicated with their customers through their web sites. We believed that the examination of printer manufacturers would give us a solid ground in order to see how representational satisfaction and functional benefits are used. Further, our study will allow us to spot any potential differences between messages sent to consumer and business markets, not only between brands but also within the same brand.
After conducting the above mentioned sampling we had acquired a sample size of seven-teen printer manufacturers. We chose to divide these seventeen companies into two sub groups. In the beginning of the thesis, our main interest was to examine those companies that had developed two separate web sites, one for their consumers and another for busi-ness buyers. However, as mentioned above, we soon realised that it would be of interest for us to also investigate companies offering equivalent products that had decided not to divide their market into two. Another reason for dividing the printer manufacturers into two groups was that by analysing each group separately we could distinguish if there are any similarities or differences between the two chosen branding strategies or not.

Separate-site firms

Canon is a Japanese company. It was founded in 1937, and the main focus of Canon at that time was cameras. This has over time developed and today they offer printers, scan-ners, calculators, binoculars and other closely related products (Canon, 2005).
Dell was established in 1984 in the United States. Products offered by Dell, besides print-ers, are computers, servers, software etc (Dell, 2005).
Hewlett-Packard (HP) was founded in the United States, in 1939. Besides printers, HP offers a variety of computer related products such as screens, calculators, scanners, cam-eras, and severs, to mention a few (HP, 2005).
Lexmark was started in 1991 as a spin-off to IBM. The company, which origins from North America, offers various models of printers and some consumable goods in connec-tion to them (Lexmark, 2005).

Single-site firms

Brother is a Japanese brand and it was created in 1928. Besides selling printers the com-pany also offers for instance sewing machines, typewriters, and fax machines (Brother, 2005a; Brother, 2005b).
Citizen started to produce watches in 1930 in Japan. Today the company manufactures watches, jewellery, printers and other electronic equipment among other (Citizen, 2005a; Citizen, 2005b).
Epson was founded in 1942 in Japan. The company offers a variety of produces such as computers and peripherals, including PCs, printers, scanners and projectors, watches, plas-tic corrective lenses (Epson, 2005).
Gestetner was established in 1881, and since 1995 the firm is part of the Ricoh corpora-tion. The company’s product selection consists of printers, copiers, fax machines and scan-ners (Gestetner, 2005a; Gestetner, 2005b).
IBM was founded in 1911 in North America, however, the name IBM was not adopted until 1924. IBM produces, along with printers, computers, servers, software and other computer accessories (IBM, 2005a, IBM, 2005b).
Konica Minolta is the result of the joining of Konica Corporation and Minolta Corpora-tion in 2003. The headquarter of Konica Minolta is located in Japan. Offered products are printers, scanners, cameras and other camera related products (Konica Minolta, 2005).
Kyocera was founded in 1959, in Japan. Originally, the Kyocera business-plan concerned ceramic components. Today, the company still offers ceramic components but also in-cludes printer, electronic components and telephones (Kyocera, 2005a; Kyocera, 2005b).
Mitsubishi is a Japanese firm, which was founded in 1870. Besides selling printers Mitsu-bishi is engaged in a variety of markets such as aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding, nuclear power engineering, waste treatment plants, satellites, oil products, beer, property and casu-alty insurance, and warehousing (Mitsubishi, 2005a; Mitsubishi, 2005b).
OKI was created in 1881 in Japan. Even though OKI is manly famous for its printers in Europe, the company supports a variety of other products such as ATM machines, com-puters, telephones and much more (OKI, 2005).
Ricoh is a Japanese firm which was established in 1936. Besides printers Ricoh supplies scanners, computers, servers and software (Ricoh, 2005).
Samsung was founded in 1938 in South Korea. Samsung offer their customers products such as, printers, cameras, white goods, televisions, telephones and much more (Samsung, 2005).
Toshiba was formed in Japan in 1965. Besides selling printers, Toshiba offers a selection of computers, copiers and fax machines (Toshiba, 2005a; Toshiba, 2005b).
Xerox is a North American company which was founded in 1961. Xerox’s main offering is printers. Along with this the company offers associated supplies, software and support (Xe-rox, 2005).
We chose to exclude Sony from the examination of printer manufacturers since the com-pany does not display any printers of their own brand on their web site.
Throughout this thesis, the web sites will be referred to only by printer brand names, since all information is gathered from these web site addresses. The references coded as 2005a are the Swedish or international pages that have been used for the analysis. The company presentations above are however sometimes based on additional information from foreign sites, referred to as 2005b. In the cases where foreign sites have been used, there were no Swedish sites available for those companies.

Data gathering

When starting the collection of data, a literature review was performed to gain familiarity with the subjects of industrial brands and branding. This was essentially done in order to gain increased understanding of the extent to which the areas were documented. Further, it was important to discover prominent authors, books and articles within the area.
Brands and branding proved to be massively researched areas covered by a vast amount of literature, however most commonly based on consumer market research. It became clear to us that only limited research had focused on branding of industrial firms, as stated among others by Webster JR and Keller (2004). Further, almost no research at all focused on what brand factors that were communicated in this market. Although functional factors were what was traditionally emphasised in industrial markets, there should be an increased focus on representational aspects due to the possible benefits they can bring (Lynch & De Cher-natony, 2004). As we started to focus on brand emphasis in industrial markets, with em-phasis on representational and functional factors, we started to search for more specific knowledge within this selected field. Relating the selected theories to each other, drawing conclusions from them, was relevant for us in order to facilitate the gathering of data.
The strategy of using a questionnaire was decided to be the most appropriate data-gathering approach to adopt. Using questionnaires is a beneficial way to collect large amounts of primary data, from rather large populations, in an economical way (Saunders et al, 2003; Zikmund, 2000; Bell, 1987). Since we decided to evaluate printer manufacturers’ web sites ourselves, the questionnaires served as an analytical tool for us to rely on.
Since we wanted to know where emphasis was put in industrial Internet brand communica-tion, and if the perception of the brand messages differed between consumer and business markets, a questionnaire strategy seemed suitable. According to Zikmund (2000), question-naires can be performed through different medias of communication, why it suited our purpose of examining the Internet. Furthermore, since the use of questionnaires is a method that generates primary data (Zikmund, 2000), the usage of this method will lead to an avoidance of the risks associated with using secondary data. These are for instance low quality data or inappropriate data, collected in a way that is not compatible to our study (Saunders et al, 2003). The major argument against the use of a questionnaire is that design-ing, testing, collecting, and analysing the questionnaires are time-consuming tasks. There is also a great risk related to questionnaires being designed poorly (Saunders et al, 2003), with risk for misinterpretation, thereby generating unreliable conclusions.
As in all research, the gathering of data is of crucial importance for the final result. A thor-ough collection of data usually pays off later on in the research process. Svenning (1997) argues for the importance of carefully developing a questionnaire, claiming the most diffi-cult task to be the translation of abstract theories into concrete questions. The difficulties of creating a reliable questionnaire were at least partly avoided since we developed it as a support to our web site examination. The risk of respondents misinterpreting the questions is thereby avoided. However, it may in our case be even more crucial to develop a precise questionnaire, since no defects in it can be detected through the answers of the respon-dents. Therefore, we decided that testing the questionnaire was still relevant, and it was re-quired before putting it to use. To ensure that the questions were correctly formulated and that we would obtain the information needed we performed a test run on three printer ma-nufacturer web sites. After the test-run we made some adjustments to our questionnaire in order to improve the data collection.
In our final questionnaire both open-end and closed-end questions were used. To best an-swer the formulated purpose of this thesis, we decided it to be crucial to incorporate open-end questions, which will allow us to gather more in-depth and in many cases original data. Since we chose to examine seventeen different web sites we also included close-end ques-tions to make the data easier to handle (Christensen, Andersson, Engdahl & Haglund, 2001). This allowed us to spot any differences and similarities between the selected compa-nies web communication, however, in almost all the cases the closed-end questions were followed up with a more thorough individual description.
For the examination of printer manufacturers’ web sites, a questionnaire was developed, which we filled in ourselves, adopting the roles of potential clients. The three key brand-areas on which we base this research, were naturally the foundation on which we based our questions, customer perception, brand-added-value and sustainability of brand-added-value.
The first key area, customer perception, was evaluated through a number of questions con-cerning what was exposed and communicated through the printer manufacturers’ web sites. These questions aimed at capturing what the web sites emphasised in their communication through some of the means that the Internet provides, colours, graphics, and text.
Secondly, added-value, is closely related to the first area since it consists of what is offered beyond the mere product (Riezebos, 2003), hence what is communicated on the web sites besides pure product facts. The questions in this section aimed at clarifying on what level of brand development the examined printer manufacturers turned out to be.
The third and final of the key areas is sustainability of added-value. However, the sustain-ability is depending on the level of representationality of the brand communication (Lynch & De Chernatony, 2004). Since the questions concerning customer perception already cov-ered the aspect of functional/representational emphasis in the communication, no addi-tional questions were needed in order to complete this part of the analysis. The gathered data concerning the first two key areas was considered sufficient.

Interpretation of data

We have throughout this thesis discovered just how flexible a qualitative study is, especially when it comes to the interpretation of the gathered data. We found this to be in line with Saunders et al. (2003) arguing that the interpretation of data in qualitative studies occur both during and after the collection phase. Since the examination of the web sites was per-formed through a discussion, based on our questionnaire, new thoughts were constantly stirred up for each web site we examined. Again referring to the lack of research, we did not know what to expect for the web sites when formulating the draft for our question-naire. By using this approach we were however in no way hindered by a strict question-naire, but could constantly modify our analysis by adding data where we believed it to be beneficial.
When collecting data we relied on our questionnaire in order to gather comparable data from all the selected sites. At the same time, the first phase of the analysis took place. This implied that a concluding question for each web site element was posed concerning what was emphasised in terms of functional benefits and representational satisfaction. For ex-ample, when analysing colour, we noted our perception of the selected colours of the sites. Then we analysed whether colours were used in order to enhance product characteristics or if they also communicated feelings or emotional messages. Based on this we determined where emphasis was put in the colour message. This was done for each element of each firm.
The answers to the concluding questions, concerning functional or representational em-phasis, were summarised in tables in order to create an overview. In this way, we could de-termine which factor that was emphasised by each firm, as will be shown in the presenta-tion of our results (Tables 4.1-4.4). The use of tables also enabled conclusions concerning what most companies emphasise through a certain web site element. By adding a grey background to all elements emphasising functionality, reading the results will be facilitated further. Separate tables were created for the firms having different entries for business and consumer clients and firms with single sites. For these firms, the business sites will be re-ferred to by an added B after the company name, and the consumer sites will be indicated by a C. By separating the data in this way, the discovery of potential differences between these two segments was facilitated.
The data concerning added-value was collected in a similar way. Based on a combination of the added-value data and our overall perception of the sites, we determined each brand’s level of development according to Levitt’s four stage brand model. As for the third key area of our brand analysis we relied on the data collected through the questions concerning customer perception and added-value. As we had determined the emphasis of representa-tionality and functionality, and the level of added-value, we analysed the effect this might have on the brand. The analysis was performed through the use of the Brand box model.

Method assessment

Regardless of choice of method, or process of data-gathering, research procedures need to be critically examined. In relation to this, two concepts should be taken into consideration; validity and reliability. Due to the two concepts’ relation to measurements, their importance has been well established for quantitative research, whereas their role in qualitative research has been more questioned (Bryman & Bell, 2003). Still, we have chosen to apply both con-cepts to our selected method, adapting the analysis of them to the qualitative nature of our study.

Validity

According to Wiederheims-Paul and Eriksson (1989), existing definitions of the term valid-ity are quite vague why the authors have chosen to define it as the ability to measure that which was intended to be measured. If the gathered data does not answer to the purpose, even though the data might be reliable, it is not valid (Svenning, 1997). Repeating the pur-pose of this thesis, we want to investigate how printer manufacturers’ online brand mes-sages can be perceived regarding functional benefits and representational satisfaction, and how this may affect the brands.
Validity is commonly divided into internal and external validity (Wiederheims-Paul & Eriksson, 1989; Svenning, 1997). Internal validity is concerned with the targeting of the right sample and the usage of a proper measuring method. External validity is achieved when it is possible to draw general conclusions from a study, applying for the whole popu-lation or as common theory. In qualitative studies it is important to be careful when trying to create common laws since the sample many times is not representative for the whole population (Svenning, 1997).
In order for our study to obtain highest possible validity, we chose the method that in our opinion answered best to our purpose, implying the creation of a questionnaire, for us to fill in ourselves. Through our choice of method, common problems concerning the inter-nal validity such as dishonest information from the respondents (Svenning, 1997), were avoided. However, this means that we have had a subjective influence over both the col-lected data and the interpretation thereof. But, as mentioned above, subjectivity is an inevi-table problem for all research, not just for our study.
To increase internal validity we have chosen firms having separate entries for business and consumer buyers since we believe the differences in brand message between the two sites to be of great interest. Including these firms in our sample will display actual differences in companies’ brand messages in terms of representationality and functionality, rather than differences between organisations at large. However, relating the data from these firms to that of firms with single entry sites will allow for a deeper understanding for the area of study. Given our selection of a qualitative study we have no aspirations of this study gener-ating general, objective conclusions, why the external validity will not be elaborated further.

Reliability

While the validity is concerned with what is being measured, reliability focuses on how an investigation is performed. A research is commonly seen as having a high reliability if the results of an investigation can be replicated. Svenning (1997) states that in a qualitative study, the issue of reliability is not as important as in quantitative studies since qualitative research is more case specific. However, as stated by Cooper and Schindler (2001), even though a study is reliable, that does not automatically make it valid. Saunders et al. (2003) further state the four threats to reliability to be subject or participant error, subject or par-ticipant bias, observer error and observer bias.
Just like validity, reliability can be divided into internal and external reliability. External reli-ability represents the degree to which a study can be replicated, and internal reliability de-scribes, if there is more than one observer or author, the level to which these persons are consistent. It is difficult for a qualitative study to achieve external reliability since it is to a greater extent that quantitative research based on the subjective interpretation of research-ers, and since the analysed situations might not reoccur (Bryman & Bell, 2003).
In this thesis, the subjectivity is related to the analysis of printer brands. Given that the per-ception of a brand is based on your every interaction with it, our interpretation and analysis of data will be coloured by our previous interactions with some of the brands, and lack of interactions with others. Taking this risk of observer bias into consideration, our analysis might be most reliable for the companies we had not heard of before, since our only per-ception of them must be generated from the companies web pages. Nevertheless, our ex-periences of printers were quite limited, and the continuous comparisons between the sites are believed to reduce the effects of our previous brand perceptions. Further, brand aware-ness and emotional connection are two separate concepts not to be confused (Gobé, 2001). Hence just because we were aware of some of the brands prior to our study, that does not mean that we had emotional connections to them. Concerning the internal reliability, we performed all the evaluations and analyses of the web sites together in order to obtain good consistency of our results.

Table of Content
1 Introduction
1.1 Background and problem discussion
1.2 Purpose
2 Frame of reference
2.1 What is a brand?
2.2 What is branding?
2.3 Brands and the Internet
2.4 Research questions
3 Method
3.1 Research design
3.2 Sampling
3.3 Data gathering
3.4 Interpretation of data
3.5 Method assessment
4 Results and analysis
4.1 Key aspects
5 Final discussion
5.1 Conclusions
5.2 Further interpretation of the findings
5.3 Suggestions for future research
List of references
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