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ABSTRACT
This research was conducted to (i) identify brand personality dimensions of a laptop computer amongst computer science students; (ii) examine significant differences in the brand personality dimensions of the laptop according to the students' background of gender, brand owned, year of study and programs; and (iii) examine the relationship between perceived brand personality of the laptop and its quality rating. The measurement of brand personality was based on the Aaker's Brand Personality Scale. A total of 268 questionnaires were gathered from computer science students in a Malaysian public university using Stratified Random Sampling method. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to validate the measurement. The findings revealed that sincerity was 'the human characteristic' that users of the laptop associated themselves with the brand. Ruggedness was a brand personality that non-users associated themselves with the laptop. Significant means differences were observed in the brand personality dimensions of the laptop according to the students' gender, present year of study and academic program. For users of the laptop, sincerity and modern of the brand personality dimensions were positively correlated with the brand quality rating. For non-users, a positive correlation existed between ruggedness, diligent and modern of the brand personality with the brand quality rating. Several implications were drawn based on the results of the research to enhance branding strategies of the laptop and for future researches.
Keywords: Brand Personality, Brand Personality Scale, Laptop Computer
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A number of researchers have examined the success and failure of a brand. However, one area of branding strategy that has been largely overlooked by researchers is brand personality. When consumers view a brand as having human characteristics, the brand is said to have a personality. For instance, brands such as Harley Davidson (Ruggedness), Nike (Excitement), Hallmark (Sincerity), Wall Street Journal (Competence) and Tiffany (Sophistication) have all been found to have strong brand personalities. Yet, what kind of personality traits would a laptop computer brand have?
The laptop computer industry in Malaysia is facing competitive challenges among 30 different laptop computer brands from around the world such as Acer, Lenovo, Dell, HP, Compaq, Twin Head and such more. With the fast going researches and developments, this competition becomes trickier for laptop computer manufacturers where all of them try to create...