The Role of Brand Recall, Brand Recognition and Price Consciousness in Understanding Actual Purchase

Abstract

For making actual purchase in any category, the literature suggests that brand awareness plays a vital role. Whereas in existing literature the conceptual properties of brand awareness were less tapped in finding their impact on actual purchase. Therefore, the current study examined the impact of the two properties of brand awareness, i.e., brand recall and brand recognition on actual purchase of the consumers also testing the moderating effect of price consciousness in the relationship between brand recognition and actual purchase. Majority of the respondents for the study were female shoppers at the retail stores as they are the consumers as well as they play an active role in home budgets. Two separate studies were conducted, i.e., for brand recognition and brand recall, and the survey used 175 responses (125 for brand recognition and 50 for brand recall). The results revealed that brand recall and brand recognition have a positive relation to actual purchase. No moderating effect of price consciousness was found. The paper not only adds to the knowledge but is also important for managers in developing their strategies for the right fit between the brand recall and brand recognition being equally important for the actual purchase.

Headnote

Abstract

For making actual purchase in any category, the literature suggests that brand awareness plays a vital role. Whereas in existing literature the conceptual properties of brand awareness were less tapped in finding their impact on actual purchase. Therefore, the current study examined the impact of the two properties of brand awareness, i.e., brand recall and brand recognition on actual purchase of the consumers also testing the moderating effect of price consciousness in the relationship between brand recognition and actual purchase. Majority of the respondents for the study were female shoppers at the retail stores as they are the consumers as well as they play an active role in home budgets. Two separate studies were conducted, i.e., for brand recognition and brand recall, and the survey used 175 responses (125 for brand recognition and 50 for brand recall). The results revealed that brand recall and brand recognition have a positive relation to actual purchase. No moderating effect of price consciousness was found. The paper not only adds to the knowledge but is also important for managers in developing their strategies for the right fit between the brand recall and brand recognition being equally important for the actual purchase.

Keywords: Brand Recall, Brand Recognition, Actual Purchase, Price Consciousness, Lawn Brands in Pakistan.

Introduction

The consumer today is aware and knowledgeable, thus it has become more complicated for the managers to understand the purchase behaviors of consumers. The goal of every business is to get consumer purchase their goods/services and develop long term profitable relations with the business. Marketers are trying to achieve this goal by communications, however, only by remembering any advertisement or any other communication does not necessarily lead to purchase (Srull, 1983). There are many other factors, such as brand awareness (Lin, Lin & Ryan, 2014), brand image and brand knowledge lead to actual purchase (Schiffman et al., 2010; Yazdanparast, Joseph, & Muniz, 2016). The purchase decision is a stepwise decision starting from initial awareness to information search, evaluation, selection and reaching ultimately to brand loyalty (Court et al., 2009; Powell et al., 2010).

In order to know position and importance of a brand in the minds of target consumers, it is imperative for managers to understand how well the consumer is aware of the brand. Brand awareness is the extent to which the consumer is aware of the brand and plays an important role in the decision-making process (Gustafson & Chabot, 2007; Lin et al., 2014). The more the consumer is aware of the brand, the more likely it is that the brand is purchased. This awareness has two conceptual properties embedded in it; brand recall and brand recognition (Rossiter, 2014; Rossiter & Percy, 1987). Marketers always focus to regularly evoke brand recall and embed brand recognition associations in consumer's mind.

Brand recall refers to how well a consumer recalls a brand when given a certain situation (Prashar et al., 2012). Brand recall is the reproduction of some targeted item/brand for which consumer has preknowledge or experience (Bagozzi & Sailk, 1983). Recall can be aided or unaided. When a consumer is given a brand name, and in the form of advertisement, it indicates to aided recall, when an unbranded advertisement is given to the consumer to know the name of the brand, it refers to unaided recall. The dual-process theory claims that brand recognition is a sub process of brand recall (Anderson & Bower, 1972).

Brand recognition is how quickly a consumer recognizes and discriminates the brand when any of its elements is shown, e.g., logo, slogan (Keller, 1993). Recognition is when the consumer is given a full concept of the actual advertisement to see if it is viewed before by the consumer. People choose mostly the things that are familiar to them (Behe, Huddleston, Hall, Khachatryan & Campbell, 2017; Coates et al., 2006; Hoyer & Brown, 1990; Mcdonald & Sharp, 2000). As per the recognition heuristic proposed by Goldstein and Gigerenzer (2002), while choosing an answer in a situation where the correct answer is not known, people choose the one which they recognize. Both are techniques to test the memory of the consumers for measuring the level of awareness he/she has for the brand or the product; where recall is indirect while recognition is a direct technique (Plessis, 2005).

Many consumers are price conscious today, and they go for comparisons whether they are getting good quality against price or not. Price consciousness is the degree to which a consumer gives attention to paying only a low price (Linchtensien et al., 1993). Marketers try to instill in consumer perception that certain brand has greater value for reasonable price or lower than competitors so that consumer's chances of purchase can be increased (Biswas & Blair, 1991; Campbell, Dipietro & Remar, 2014; Grewal et al., 1998; Urbany et al., 1988) and his brand recognition in different situations/occasions can be enhanced.

It is evident that brand purchase is influenced by how quickly the consumer recognizes the brand and how strong it is the part of his/her consideration set. Brand awareness has been mostly gauged by either brand recognition or brand recall (Dotson, Fan, Feit, Oldham & Yeh, 2017), which is unable to give a complete and comprehensive picture of the consumer mind (Barreda, Bilgihan, Nusair & Okumus, 2015). Further, it is also observed that consumer's purchase decision is influenced by his/her level or price consciousness. This is what Huang and Sarrigollu (2011) also mentioned that price promotions promote awareness. Therefore, it would be interesting to investigate whether price consciousness consumers make more purchase after they recall and recognize the brand matching with their preferences. This study attempts to fulfill the gap by investigating the individual impact of brand recognition and brand recall on actual purchase and also by measuring the moderation of price consciousness with respect to brand recognition. The conceptual framework of the study is shown in Figure 1. The subsequent sections, reveal the background knowledge, methodology, analysis, findings, and discussion.

Literature Review

Actual purchase is basically the purchasing of goods for personal consumption of the consumer - the final stage in the decision-making process and can be different from the purchase intention. Consumers make an actual purchase after going through the three-step purchase process: input, process, and output. This process is influenced by marketing efforts as well as the social and cultural environment of the consumer. Not only the awareness and the knowledge created by advertisement and other marketing efforts, but the image of the brand in the social environment also plays a significant role in this decision-making process, which ultimately leads to the product purchased (Schiffman et al., 2010). Per the consumer funnel (Court et al., 2009; Powell et al., 2011), actual purchase is a step in the consumer decision-making journey starting at initial awareness, information search, evaluation of the alternatives, actual purchase and lastly building loyalty for the brand. The customer's intention to buy the product depends on the value and benefits that the customer perceives to get from the product (Zeithaml, 1988). Many factors lead the consumers to the step where they actually purchase the product, and one of the factors is the satisfaction of the consumer with the product/brand from the previous purchase. The level of satisfaction will thus decide the position of the brand in the consideration set of the consumer for next buying decision.

Brand recall is the mental reproduction of some target item experienced or learned earlier (Bagozzi & Sailk 1983). It is defined by Prashar et al., (2012) as "the extent to which consumers remember advertising and other messages that have been sent about a brand. It is a type of brand awareness where the consumer recognizes or identifies a brand, using information from memory." Brand recall is the customer's ability to recall a brand when some cues related to the brand is given, requiring that consumers correctly generate the brand from memory (Baumann, Hamin & Chong, 2015; Keller, 1993). The importance of memory cannot be ignored when we think about recalling a brand as memory factors help in retrieving the brand and also the other competing brands and thus making a consideration set for the consumer to make the final purchase (Nedungadi, 1990). For well-known brands, Aaker (1996) proposed that brand recall and top-of-mind awareness can be more significant and meaningful. Operationally, when a cue is provided, and the respondent retrieves the target item from the memory that is a brand recall.

Keller (1993) defines brand recognition as consumer's ability to discriminate the brand as having seen or heard before. Brand recognition is to confirm prior exposure to the brand when the brand is given a cue. According to the "strength theory" or "threshold theory" (Kintsch, 1970), the recognition requires a lower level of strength of memory than it does for the recall. Different studies have shown that people usually choose things that are familiar to them (Coates et al., 2006; Hoyer & Brown, 1990; Mcdonald & Sharp, 2000) also in the cases where they have only seen the things but are not aware of them (Bornstein, 1989 & Zajonic, 1968). As per the recognition heuristic (Goldstein & Gigerenzer, 2002), choosing an answer in a situation where the correct answer is not known people will choose the option that they recognize from a previous experience over the unrecognized option (Barreda, Bilgihan, Nusair & Okumus, 2015). The people believe that the recognized option is more secure. Brand image, an equally important component of building brand equity, is explained by Lin (2009) as the consumer's perception of the brand through the prior product experience plus the information, i.e., through recognition of the brand. According to Aaker (1996) recognition is believed to be more important for the new or niche brands.

Price consciousness is "the degree to which the consumer focuses exclusively on paying a low price" (Linchtensien et al., 1993, p. 235). Price can be viewed in two different ways; positively (eagerness to spend) and negatively (reluctant to spend). When price plays a positive role, the consumer spends more to get high quality or to give the impression of high status to others (Lichtenstein et al., 1988, 1993; McGowan & Sternquist, 1998). The experienced shoppers do not consider price as a quality cue as they can judge the quality by directly experiencing the product (Rao & Monroe, 1988). On the other hand, an inexperienced shopper relies more on high reference prices and purchase discounts (Grewal et al., 1998; Yadav & Seiders, 1998). Price is not only used to judge the quality of the product but also to know the monetary sacrifice associated with the purchase of products (Leszinski & Marn, 1997; Monroe, 1990). Due to recent economic times, customers have become more price conscious and are likely to get best deals for themselves (Grewal et al., 2012). Price conscious consumers tend to engage in price comparisons more than the less price conscious consumers (Alford & Biswas, 2002).

Brand Recall and Actual Purchase

Brand recall is based on the information that is stored in the memory of the consumer that the consumer can retrieve when the cue is given. The brand that can create image and personality rightly in the minds of the consumer has a better chance of revoking recall, and for various categories, brand recall is enough for generating sales. It has been long before confirmed a study by Wilson (1981) that higher the brand in the memory of the consumer there is a greater chance of it being considered for purchase and then actually purchased. In the modern world, customers highly depend on their recall ability when making a purchase decision due to the lack of time available to absorb the other marketing efforts (e.g., advertising on television, etc.) of the marketer (Prashar et al., 2012). When the choice for purchase has to be made at home, then recall the level of learning is important as the choices are not physically present (Bettman, 1979). According to Nedugandi (1990) brand consideration is very important for brand retrieval. The brand retrieval refers to the ability of the consumer to recall the brand from the memory to be included in the consideration set for making a purchase decision. The brands that are recalled easily are favorably evaluated by the consumer (Labroo & Lee, 2006), and therefore have a high chance of being purchased. The increase in the brand awareness leads to better recall of the brand at the point of purchase, so the companies should concentrate on increasing their brand awareness (Shabbir et al., 2009). When the consumer can recall the brand while making a purchase decision, it is called brand recall without priming (Huang & Sarigollu, 2011). Similarly, consumers prefer to purchase those brands, which portray higher recall due to the sponsorship of the events (Biscaia, Correia, Rosado, Ross & Maroco, 2013; Biscaia, Correia, Ross & Rosado, 2014). The consumers with high brand recall are more inclined to purchase the brand (Lu, Chang & Chang, 2014; Ndlela & Chuchu, 2016). It is assumed that under brand recall, consumers go through the purchase decision process before they make the purchase. Thus, it leads to the hypothesis:

H1: High brand recall positively affects the actual purchase.

Brand Recognition and Actual Purchase

Knowledge about the brand refers to the ability of the consumers to recall the information from memory at the time of purchase. According to Portor and Claycomb (1997), "a well-recognized brand leads to repeat purchases." In case of consumer products, customers rely on recognition when making preferential decisions (Lin, 2013; Thomas and Williams, 2013). When the customers have to decide between the brands, they will prefer the brand that they have recognized rather than a brand that is unfamiliar to them. Bettman (1979) says that if the purchase decision is to be made at the time of purchase, then recognition level of learning is enough as the options are available for examination at the retail outlet this is mostly in the case of low-involvement products. Thomas and Williams (2013) found that recognition is more than just a cue that affects preferential choice; contrary to some previous studies like Newell and shanks (2004) showing that other cues can have a significant effect on inferential choice instead of recognition. Recognition is an emotional task and relates to the right hemisphere of the brain; the right hemisphere of the brain refers to the emotional thinking (Krugman, 1977). Neuroscience believes that human emotions are irrational for good decision making. However, Lehrer (2009) states that emotions are very important for the decision-making process. According to him, "a brain that can't feel can't make up its mind." Therefore, the importance of the events that make the consumers aware of the different brands and the situations around them play a critical role in the actual purchase decision made by the consumers. Hauser (2011) concluded that recognition is an important factor in making a decision, but it is usually one of the cues that are considered when the purchase decision is made. In some situations, when the customer does not know about the brand before going to the store, shelf-visibility of the brand may lead to purchasing behavior, i.e., brand recognition (Huang & Sarrigollu, 2011). The consumers who possess strong brand recognition hold strong tendency to purchase the brand (Biscaia et al., 2013, 2014; Lu et al., 2014) and purchase behavior (Ndlela & Chuchu, 2016). Based on above arguments following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: High brand recognition positively affects the actual purchase.

Price promotions are another way for creating awareness for the brand. Huang and Sarrigollu (2011) found that price promotion encourages the consumers to purchase the brand which they would not have purchased at full price. They found that price promotion creates awareness. Price promotion is a way to show consumers of greater value for lower prices, thus making them price conscious. More price consciousness of a consumer may interact with the brand recognition such that if the consumers are price conscious, it may affect the purchase decision when the brand is recognized, thus proposing the final hypothesis:

H3: The relationship between brand recognition and actual purchase is moderated by price consciousness.

Methodology

Two separate mall intercept surveys were carried out; one is brand recall study and the other is brand recognition study. Cross-sectional data is collected from the actual customers of the products in the shopping malls without manipulating the environment. Three large retail stores were randomly selected out of the 30 retail stores in Lahore. The sampled stores (research sites) have a significant high number of customers flow daily from every walk of life. The data was collected in about three weeks. The walk-in customers, willing to participate in the survey were briefed about the study. The questionnaire was handed over to them at the billing counter after they have paid their bill and were given appropriate time to fill it on their own. From the mall intercept survey techniques, 200 responses were collected out of which 175 responses were usable for the two studies. The actual sample for brand recall study is 50, and that for brand recognition study is 125.

Two separate questionnaires (duly translated in the national language of Pakistan, i.e., Urdu) are designed. In order to ensure understanding of the instrument, a pilot study was conducted from fifteen respondents at a local retail outlet, and there seemed no ambiguity in the items. Using product category as the cue, the brand recall questionnaire covers information about demographics and measures for brand recall, price consciousness, and actual purchase. Similarly, the brand recognition questionnaire includes a measure of brand recognition, and everything else was same. However, three identical questionnaires were prepared for three unique brands (Gul-Ahmed, Firdous Collection, and Al-Karam). Thus, respondents completed the survey keeping in mind the specific brand. We measured brand recall following Nicholls and Roslow (1999). The respondents were asked to name any four brands that come to their minds regarding the unstitched clothing brands in Pakistan. The score allocated to the first recalled brand was 4, and that of the last recalled brand was 1. For each of the brand, we calculated an accumulated score.

Brand recognition was measured using five items (Yoo & Donthu, 1999). The sample items are, 'I can recognize brand X among other competing brands', and 'I am aware of brand X'. All items are measured on six-point scale with 1=Never, 2 = Almost Never, 3=Sometimes, 4=Often, 5=Very Often and 6=Always. Actual purchase is operationalized by a single item, "List down the brands that you have purchased previously in the order of the amount spent (starting from highest to lowest).' The score allocated to the highest purchased brand was 3, and that of the last lowest purchased brand was 1. For each of the brand, we calculated an accumulated score. Price consciousness was measured through five items (Kinney et al., 2012). The same items are, 'I check the prices even for inexpensive items before buying' and 'low price is an important consideration in my purchases.' Like brand recognition, all items are measured on a six-point scale with 1=Never through 6=Always.

Analysis and Results

Of the 175 participants, 97% were female; about 44% were married. In the recognition study (n=125), about 44% were employed, about 37% are students, and the remaining were home makers. Whereas, in the recall study (n=50), about 63 % fall in the student category. Most of the respondents in both studies (about 54% for the recognition study and about 77% for the recall study) fall in the age bracket of 20-29 years.

The Recall Study-Results

Brand recall score and actual purchase score is calculated to convert the categorical variables in the numeric form. The recall of brand names is measured by asking the participants to list four brands by thinking of the unstitched, locally manufactured clothing. The data transformation enabled us to rank all brands on the basis of brand recall. We allotted 4 points for the first recalled brand, 3 points for the second, 2 points for the third and 1 point for the last recalled brands. The same procedure is followed for data transformation of the responses on the item pertaining to actual purchase. The brand recall and actual purchase scores are calculated by an independent judge to minimize the chance of any discrepancies.

After calculating the brand recall, the top four brands recalled are Gul-Ahmad, Nishat Linen, Sana Safinaz and Al-Karam. A list of the top ten brands recalled is given in Table 1. In the top ten brands recalled, the 80% of the recall is in the top three brands and 24% in the next six brands. It means that top three brands are recalled more than thrice the other brands combined. Table 4.1 also shows the top ten brands actually purchased. The top three brands actually purchased are same as the top three brands recalled in the same order and they represent 76% of the brands actually purchased. The next six brands are also the same, but there is a minor difference in order. They make up 26% of the brands actually purchased. The only difference is the last brand on the list.

If we compare the list of top ten expensive brands with the brands actually purchased, we can note that only three of the expensive brands (Gul-Ahmed, Nishat Linen, and Sana Safinaz) are actually being purchased. Just to mention here that other expensive brands recalled in order of recall score were: Al_Karam, Bareeze, Wardha, Kayseria, Firdous, Mausammery, Asim Jofa, and Khaadi. Even a brand recall for the expensive brands is not being translated into an actual purchase. This may be due to price consciousness of the occasional purchase of these brands on special events or may be the shares of expensive brands is relatively less in overall purchase or participants attempted to build impression.

The Recognition Study-Results

Bi-variate correlation (Table 2) show that there is a positive and significant correlation between brand recognition and actual purchase (coefficient = 0.332, p < 0.01), which is as per our hypothesized expectation and therefore leads to an initial support for H2. This may also be noted from the table that price consciousness also correlates with actual purchase (coefficient = 0.199, p < 0.05). The formal education (in years) does not significantly correlate with any of the study variables. Similarly, brand recognition is not associated with the price consciousness of the customers.

Hypothesis Testing

We have observed in the recall study that the top three brands recalled (Table 1) are exactly the same brands that are being actually purchased. Even the rank order for the three brands is same concerning their scores. Similarly, the next six brands recalled are also the brands being actually purchased with some minor differences in the rank order. Overall, we may infer that there is a strong relationship between brand recall and actual purchase. The similarity in the rank orders of the brand names recalled and the brands actually purchased, and the highly significant and an extremely strong correlation coefficient (almost close to 1) provides strong support for H1.

The linear regression Model 1 for actual purchase (Table 3) demonstrates the significance of brand recognition for predicting actual purchase (coefficient = 0.332, p < 0.01). In Model 2, price consciousness is also added along with brand recognition to predict the actual purchase. The results show that brand recognition is still significantly predicting actual purchases (coefficient = 0.307, p < 0.01). Thus, H2 is supported.

The score of the actual purchase for the brands is an ordinal variable; therefore, the simple linear regression model may have distorted our results. In order to get a clear picture, the actual purchase variable is transformed into high and low categories. The brands ranked at number 1 and 2 may be considered as high purchase brands while the brands ranked 3 are considered as low purchase brand. Now, the dependent variable becomes a dichotomous categorical variable. In this situation, binary logistic regression is more suitable. In the Model 1 (Table 4) the standardized beta (coefficient = 0.578, p < 0.01) is even more high than standardized beta for the linear regression. Same is the case with the Model 2. Thus, there is strong support for H2.

Moderation of Price Consciousness

For testing the moderating effect of price consciousness, an interaction term (brand recognition X price consciousness) is also regressed linearly on actual purchase (Model 3, Table 3). The standardized coefficient of the interaction term is not significant. Therefore, there is no moderation of price consciousness in the relationship between brand recognition and actual purchase. Similar results are observed for testing the interaction term with binary regression analysis (Mode3, Table 4). Even though price consciousness has a direct impact (p = < 0.10) on actual purchase in both type of regression analysis (Model 2 in Table 3 and Table 4), it has no moderating role in the relationship between brand recognition and actual purchase. Overall, we conclude that our H3 is not supported.

Price Consciousness and Expensive Brands

The recall study shows that there exists a role of price consciousness in the recall of the brand names. Majority of the participants (64%) in the recall study belonged to the low price conscious category. All the expensive brands (10) that have been recalled during the study have been mentioned by the low price conscious consumers. On the other hand, the high price conscious consumers only mentioned a little less than onethird of the total expensive brands. In the low price, conscious category, about 26% of the consumers recalled the expensive brands while in the high price conscious category about 19% of the consumers could recall the expensive brands.

The results of the recall study and the recognition study can be summarized concerning the results of the proposed hypotheses. The study shows support for the relationship between brand recall and actual purchase, i.e., Hi is supported. Similar results are obtained for the H2. Conversely, there was no support for the H3. Although there was no hypothesis formulated for testing the role of price consciousness in the brand recall and actual purchase relationship; a positive impact of price consciousness on the actual purchase of the consumers has been observed.

Findings and Conclusions

We empirically tested the impact of brand recall and brand recognition on the actual purchase decision of the consumer. We also tested the moderating effect of price consciousness in the relation between brand recognition and actual purchase. The respondents were the buyers of the product, and primary data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Two separate studies, referred here as the recall study and the recognition study were carried out for apparel industry (the unstitched lawn category) of Pakistan, which represents low-involvement product category. The results of each of the study are discussed as under.

For the recall study, we found two main results. Firstly, the study finds that there exists a strong and positive relationship between brand awareness and actual purchase in consumers. These findings are consistent with the previous research, which states that there exists a strong relationship between the brand recall and the purchase intention of the brand. That is higher the brand in the memory of the consumer there is a greater chance of being considered and actually purchased (Wilson, 1981). The most recalled brands are also the most purchased brands. We also find support for the notion that brand awareness increases the market performance of the brand (Huang & Sarigollu, 2011).

Secondly, the previous research has found that sometimes consumers rate high price as a sign of better quality, thus forming a positive relationship with the price (Kinney et al., 2012). Our results are congruent with the previous results because the low price conscious consumers have recalled the expensive brands and purchased them also. Low price conscious consumers are not supposed to be worried about the price of a brand. Whereas, high price conscious consumer may have the feeling that some of the brands are beyond his/her reach. Therefore, high price conscious people stop storing expensive brands in their minds and thus could not recall these expensive brands accordingly. The difference in social class and their social influences may be a reason.

For the brand recognition study, there are two main results. Firstly, there is a strong and positive relationship between brand recognition and the actual purchase. Three different questionnaires were administered to test the impact of brand recognition on actual purchase for the three leading Lawn brands in the Pakistan's Apparel industry. The results for all the three brands were similar and revealed that high brand recognition resulted in more purchase of the product. The results were in support of the previous findings that in case of consumer goods, customers tend to rely on recognition (Thomas & Williams, 2013). The results revealed that out of three most popular Lawn brands, one brand, i.e., Gul-Ahmad was the most purchased brand although the level of recognition was also high for the other two brands.

Secondly, price consciousness has no moderating effect on the relationship between brand recognition and actual purchase of the consumer. We found a direct impact of price consciousness on actual price exist, however, this is relatively less in value and significance than brand recognition. None the less both brand recognition and price consciousness can predict actual purchases directly. Yet the interaction term of the two is not significant in predicting actual purchases. These results are in support to the findings that, the information generated from the price ranges does not interfere with the effects of brand recognition (Thomas & Williams, 2011).

The current study contributes in several ways. Firstly, to the best of our knowledge, the current study tests both the components of brand awareness, that is, brand recall and brand recognition, separately which has been non-existent in the previous literature. Secondly, this is a pioneer study conducted in Pakistan on measuring the impact of brand recall and brand recognition on the actual purchase of the consumers and the moderating role of price consciousness in the apparel industry (unstitched Lawn brands). Thirdly, the study has helped us in deriving the list of most recalled lawn brand in Pakistan. Also, top ten expensive lawn brands in the market were recognized from the results. Fourthly, the two different questionnaires were designed to measure the brand recall and recognition separately, and three separate questionnaires were used to measure the recognition for each brand separately. Furthermore, the translation of the questionnaire in the local language (Urdu) was done for the convenience of the consumer and better understanding of the questions asked. Finally, the study has helped in gaining insights on the role of brand awareness on the purchase decisions of the consumer in the developing country like Pakistan.

Limitations and Future Directions

The respondents are mostly females falling in the age-group of 2030, and may not be very price conscious. The responses may have been affected by social desirability biases and the impression management motives, thereby not providing the real picture. The data was collected from only one city and therefore lack generalization for the whole country. Future study can include a more diversified sample in term of gender, age grouping and respondents from multiple cities. Brand equity plays a strong role in actual purchase decisions and it's gauging actual purchase must also be checked. The moderation of only price consciousness is checked, whereas, many other variables such as social class, brand loyalty may be playing a moderating role and offers an area for further research.

Conclusion

The focus of the marketer in today's world is not just selling the product but to make a long-term relationship with the customer. The organizations aim to make the customer knowledgeable about the products and services provided by them and convincing the consumer to buy their product. The importance of promotion efforts of the marketers cannot be ignored in this context. The main purpose of promotion and advertising is to make the customer recognize their brand/product immediately and give it top position in their consideration set by having a strong recall ultimately leading them towards the product purchase. The awareness of the brands reflected through brand recall and recognition have a strong positive impact on the actual purchase made by the consumer.

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