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ABSTRACT
Nowadays, holding a strong brand is the key to success in any business. A powerful brand can lead to the increased market share and increased profitability of an economic institute. Therefore, the economic institutes manage to guarantee their long-term benefits by planning and taking the appropriate strategies for branding. The correlation between variables such as company image, brand preference, brand personality, etc. for the business success makes it necessary more deeply to investigate these variables. This study sought to design and explain a structural model consisting of the customer's image and the brand features of the company producing bottles for Aquafina Bottled Water. The research model used the previous domestic and foreign studies, an investigation of the industry, the experts' viewpoints, and the researcher's suggestions. Data was collected through a questionnaire and tested by using the structural equation modeling, SPSS 22, and AMOS 18 software. The population included all the customers of Aquafina Bottled Water in Shiraz, 2016. A total of 300 customers were selected as the sample of the study based on the purposive availability sampling to collect data. All of the researcher-suggested structures were assessed and confirmed after running the factor analysis. The results indicated that all hypotheses are confirmed regarding the effect of the congruence of the brand image on the brand preference and customer attitude, of the attitude on the brand preference and brand personality, of the brand awareness on brand preference and purchase intent, of the brand personality on brand preference, and finally of brand preference on purchase intent.
JEL Classifications: M30; M31; M39.
Keywords: Customer Image; Brand Preference; Brand Personality; Attitude; Aquafina Brand.
1.INTRODUCTION
The industry of the bottled water is the most dynamic market among all the food and drink industries. The term 'bottled water' does not refer to a single product. This term can be used for different terms dependent on the fact that in which country it is used. Three main groups of the bottled water are identified. The first group is the natural mineral water which is considered as a very special product with a precise criterion by the European Union. It is the healthy underground water or the aerated water which is protected against the dangers caused by pollution and is defined...