Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Substance Abuse And Alcohol Dependence Syndrome - 999 Words

Alcohol is a major controversial topic in the world for as far back as 3000 B.C. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Israelites used alcohol to extremes just as people of modern times currently use it. Conners (1992) references that in the ancient Greek world wine played a significant role. So much that it was reported that Dionysus, said to be the son of Zeus, shared the secret of making wine to the Greeks. Butcher, Hooley Mineka (2014) states â€Å"The World Health Organization no longer recommends the term alcoholism but prefers the term alcohol dependence syndrome.† Alcoholic and alcoholism are still terms consistently used in many publications and will be used in this paper. The abuse of alcohol baffles many and is the contribution to much dismay in society. Substance abuse is associated with dangerous behavior that is excessive even in the midst of social, psychological, occupational, or health related problems. People that abuse alcohol persistently become dependent on the substance and develop a need for increasing amounts to meet a physiological need. The abuse of alcohol usually leads to a need for increased amounts in order to gain the same effect. Tolerance to alcohol is common among those that suffer from alcohol dependence syndrome. Alcoholic dependence syndrome is described by the World Health Organization as â€Å"a state, psychic and usually also physical, resulting from taking alcohol, characterized by behavioral and other responses that always includeShow MoreRelatedDrug Addiction1081 Words   |  5 PagesDRUG ADDICTION DRUG: A chemical substance that alters the function of one or more body organs or the process of a disease. Drugs include prescribed medicines over the counter remedies and various other substances such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs of abuse that are used for non-medical purposes. Drugs are substances other than food that affect the way your mind and body works (Al Robertson et al). DRUG ABUSE Drug abuse is definable mainly in terms of societal disapproval. It may involveRead MoreThe Effects Of Alcoholism On American Indians And Alaska1429 Words   |  6 Pagesaddiction to consumption of alcohol to a point where individuals become unable to live a normal and healthy live. â€Å"Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading preventable cause of death in the United States and has a greater health impact on American Indians and Alaska Native than on other racial groups† (Landen, M., Roeber, J., Naimi, T., Nielsen, L., Sewell, M., 2014). American Indians and Alaska Natives have the â€Å"highest rate of binge drinking (30.2%) and heavy alcohol use (8.5%) of all racialRead MorePsychological And Psychological Effects Of Drug Addiction Essay841 Words   |  4 Pagesis associated with them having a feeling of well-being. Psychological Dependence relates to an emotional need for a drug or substance that has no underlying physical need. An example, of psychological dependen ce would a person who stops smoking, but recovers physically in a short time. For an example of psychological dependence, one would look at the emotional need for nicotine, which is much more difficult to overcome. In the psychological stage of drug addiction, the users continually think theyRead MoreThe Role Of Antisocial And Borderline Personality Disorder928 Words   |  4 Pagescare: The role of antisocial/borderline personality disorder co-morbidity, substance dependence and severe childhood conduct disorder by Howard ET all it examines the relationship with ANTI SOICAL PERSONLITY DISORDER and criminally reoffending g after being released. The study the article talks about aims to test the relationship between ANTI SOICAL PERSONLITY DISORDER and its common co morbid disorders such as substance abuse borderline personality disorder and their chance to offend and reoffend.Read More alcohol Essay1576 Words   |  7 Pagesalcohol Substance abuse and addiction are major problems in society today. Every segment of society, regardless of race, gender, or age is affected. Some of the substances that are used grow naturally, where as others are manufactured illicitly or even legitimately in laboratories. They may be smoked, inhaled, ingested, or injected and used for social, religious, or self-medicating purposes. The substance that are abused include caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, steroids, stimulants, depressantsRead MoreAlcohol Abuse Within Native American Societies Essay1303 Words   |  6 PagesSubstance abuse is a topic most prefer not to discuss; it destroys lives, relationships and families all over the world. Native Americans seem to have suffered immensely by it. Since the coming of the Englishmen and the introduction of new knowledge and tools Native people have been trying to hold on to their own culture and their own way of life. Unfortunately with them came new items for consumption, alcohol was o ne of the main ingredients to the internal downfall of Native populations. NativeRead MoreA Short Note On Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana, And Opioids1175 Words   |  5 Pages 2016 1. The four most commonly used substances as described from the course textbook are alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and opioids. Alcohol is a translucent liquid in appearance and has a bitter acquired taste which suppresses brain activity. The intake of alcohol effects the cerebral cortex by ceasing the inhibition of user and develops a relaxed and more social characteristic in the way the user interacts with others. As a depressant, the use of alcohol with its relaxing effect causes impairmentRead MoreSubstance Abuse During Pregnancy?952 Words   |  4 Pages Substance abuse during pregnancy can range in variation from prescription drugs to non-prescription drugs to even alcohol. Substance abuse is more common during pregnancy than most people realize. This type of abuse is more common amongst pregnant women. Most the time substance abuse is hard to find in women. Pregnant women who go through substance abuse usually don’t seek any medical help. If an expecting mother uses any kind of drug it can result in many complications. Some complications thatRead MoreSubstance Use Disorder Within Mental Health Patients1297 Words   |  6 PagesSubstance use disorder in mental health patients poses a major concern to clinicians in psychiatry. The disorder generally is associated with an underlying mental health condition(s), however, there are multiple theories suggesting psychological to neurological and probably multifactorial etiological profile. Substance abuse and substance dependence which are the former terms that were used to define one with the disorder has been grouped into a set category of substance use disorder by the 2013Read MoreEssay on Substance Abuse Effects on Children1052 Words   |  5 Pagesaffected by the effects of substance abuse/addiction. Additionally, it will seek to describe a comprehensive model for treating this population. The mission would be to eliminate the devastating impact of substance abuse on those affected: chemically dependent individuals, those with a history of substance abuse/misuse, families/children and communities. The goal is to achieve and sustain abstinence for those addicted to alcohol and other substances in order for them to develop

Monday, December 23, 2019

Sleep Is Essential For Survival - 1925 Words

What Is Sleep and Why Is It So Important In Our Lives Rene Compean II Scientist are starting to understand how sleep affects us in many ways, they include; our daily functioning, physical, and mental health. There are usually five stages of sleep. They are referred to stage 1, 2, 3, and 4. The last step is rapid eye movement or REM. There are certain neurotransmitters in the brain that affect sleep. Food and medicines are also things that can affect sleep. Sleep is essential for survival. For instance, a study showed that while rats usually live for two to three years, those deprived of REM sleep live only about 5 weeks on average, and rats deprived of all sleep stages live only about 3 weeks. Lack of sleep can raise levels of free fatty acids in the blood, accompanied by temporary pre-diabetic conditions in healthy young men. Studies have shown when people are tired that they may also find that they are most forgetful and unfocused. A study in the journal Sleep found men who got less than six hours of sleep a night were four times more likely to di e over a 14-year period. A number of nights of too little sleep can lead to more than 700 genetic changes that could significantly affect your health. Introduction Scientist are starting to understand how sleep affects us in many ways, they include; our daily functioning, physical, and mental health. (Stein 2005) A group of chemicals called neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake. They do this by acting onShow MoreRelatedIf This Is a Man by Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz Essay1118 Words   |  5 Pagescontained by the barbed wires of the concentration camps. Inside the camps, inmates were not dealt like human beings and thus abided by animal-like actions needed to subsist. In his autobiographical novel Se questo à ¨ un uomo (If This Is a Man or Survival in Auschwitz), the â€Å"ordinary moral world† (86), as Primo Levi calls it, stops to persist. The definition and usage of words such as â€Å"just,† â€Å"unjust,† â€Å"good,† and â€Å"evil† start out to merge and the disagreement between these opposites turn vague. ContinuedRead MorePutting the Insomniac to Sleep655 Words   |  3 Pa gesWe all need sleep to survive. We sleep to rest our weary bodies after a physical day of labor. We sleep to recover from a mentally challenged day. We sleep because it is necessary for our survival as human beings. Growing up I have always heard that we all need at least 8 hours of sleep to function properly the following morning. However, it has been researched that if your normal sleep habit falls between 5 to 7 and you wake refreshed and rested the following morning, this is perfectly fine. NormallyRead MoreJoekie Annemarie Henriet Kaemingk . Dr. Mangan. English1576 Words   |  7 PagesComradeship is the only thing for Paul and his comrades that help the men endure their unendurable conditions. In his World War I novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque focuses on the struggles vital to soldiers physical and mental survival through the use of characterization revealing strong fellowship and friendship among the main character and narrator, Paul and his com rades, as they struggle to survive the horrors of trench warfare. The struggles that the soldiers had to endureRead MoreHow Lack of Sleep Affects the Human Body Essay829 Words   |  4 PagesWritten Assignment #1 Sleep is as essential to the body as the food we eat, the air we breathe, and water we drink, it’s a vital necessity for human survival. Due to our spending 1/3 of our life sleeping, more than anything else, clearly indicates the importance of sleep to the human body. A good night’s sleep helps to restore energy you expend during the day, the brain is actively working while you sleep to create new pathways for areas such as learning, memories and new insights, helps yourRead MoreBowlbys Theory Of Attachment1378 Words   |  6 Pageschildren are biologically pre-programmed to form relationships and attachments with others before they are even born for survival and that the fear of strangers in babies and young children represents an important survival mechanism, built in by nature. Bowlby used part of Lorenz’s (1935) study that shows that attachment is innate in young ducklings and therefore has survival value. Bowlby therefore uses this to back up his own the ory about attachment in children and babies. The importance of attachmentRead MoreWhy Do We Need Sleep?1713 Words   |  7 PagesWhy Do We Need Sleep? Typed By: Miracle Taylor Regulating sleep is something our bodies do that is as natural as eating, drinking, and breathing. This implies that sleeping serves a similar role in our health and well being. Even though it is difficult to answer the question â€Å"Why do we need sleep?† scientists have developed several theories that may explain why we spend a third of our lives sleeping. Comprehending these theories can help expand our appreciation of the functionRead MoreWhat Is 6-03 A. Me Essay1418 Words   |  6 Pageshave to do. Survive and wait for help to come looking for me unless I manage to find my way out. My daypack only carried two items, waterproof matches and a small knife. On me, were a pair of waterproof boots, cargos, and a sweatshirt. My chances of survival were low, until I ran into a tent. A Bow with 5 durable arrows, a battery heated waterproof jacket, and a GRAYL water bottle were in plain sight. These six ideal items are all I need, nothing less and nothing more, to survive in Aokigahara. Read MoreSleep Is Essential For Human Health911 Words   |  4 Pageskingdom to humans. All of them need to sleep as a need for food, it is a necessity for life. Sleep is important and necessary for human health and its ability to engage in intellectual activity and mental fitness. Everyone needs to sleep, one of the basics of life. Humans spend almost half of lifetime sleeping and then have to know how to keep the body in a good sleeping time. Many of the physical problems can interfere with the ability to fall or stay asleep. Sleep is important; because it helps humanRead MoreWhy Is Sleeping Important?858 Words   |  4 Pagesto rest, starting from the animal kingdom to humans. Just like food, sleep is a necessity of life. Sleep is important and necessary for the body’s health and the mind’s ability to engage in intellectual activity and mental fitness. Since humans spend almost half of their lifetime sleeping, they should know how to sleep right. Many physical pro blems may interfere people’s ability to fall or stay asleep. It is important to sleep well because that helps to boost memory, be active, reduce chronic inflammationsRead MoreThe Purpose Of This Research Is To Prove The Usefulness1371 Words   |  6 Pagesinclude things like, food, water, sex, and sleep. Security in the workplace, within one’s family, health and property are all essential safety needs. Intimate relationships and friendships are all factors of love/belonging needs, and the Self-fulfilment tier is ignited by reaching one’s full potential. Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing that

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Animism Free Essays

The term â€Å"animism† is defined as the belief of a life-force existing within non-human forms. In other words, according the this idea, non-human forms such as thunder, rocks and trees are possessed by spirits and souls. The term, first developed as â€Å"animismus† by chemist/physicist Georg Ernst Stahl in 1832, defined as the â€Å"doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial soul†, was reintroduced in 1871 by English anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Taylor to be defined as the â€Å"theory of the universal animation of nature†. We will write a custom essay sample on Animism or any similar topic only for you Order Now The mass majority of animistic belief systems holds that the soul within the non-human form will be able to survive physical death. It is believed in some systems that the soul must journey to pass through to an easier world. In other systems, it is said that the soul would remain on earth as a ghost. There are also situations where it would return to earth in order to avenge its death. If murdered, the spirit would either assist in discovering the identity of its murderer or wreak vengeance for itself. A widespread belief of those who die a violent death is that the soul would become a dangerous spirit and endanger the lives of those who approach the haunted area of the its death. In literature, animism is most often used in mythology and folklore. The myths and folklore generally contain a magical or spiritual sense to the story. An example would be of the tale of the Pontianak. The Pontianak is a type of vampire in Malay folklore and Indonesian mythology. It is said that a woman who has died during childbirth becomes undead, seeking revenge and terrorizes villages. The use of animism is applied because the Pontianak is not human and has a spirit within. Many Urarina myths apply animism into their myths by portraying plants, inanimate objects, and animals as personal beings. An example would be of a Urarina deluge-myth, a myth of a great flood sent by a deity to destroy civilization as a punishment. It is said that a man had saved himself from the flood by climbing a tree. The man’s wife had transformed into a termites’ nest and was clinging onto the tree and their two sons had transformed into birds. Though the man’s wife and sons are not in their human bodies anymore, their souls are still intact within their new form. Therefore, this myth applies the use of animism. How to cite Animism, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Critical Thinking in Higher Education-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Compare the two articles. You should Compare and Contrast various ideas expressed in the articles and evaluate which article is more relevant or helpful to understanding the essay topic. Answer: The two chosen articles that are relevant to the topic and can be used in the essay are: Bahr, N. (2010). Thinking critically about critical thinking in higher education.International journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,4(2), The article states that the thinking about the concept of higher education is not properly understood as the perception of every student is different about higher education. They have different view about the classrooms of the university, environment, professors, students, faculties, education system and about the overall university life (digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu). This article studies the students insight of critical thinking in an Australian university and this article highlights the difference of thinking between the students and the staffs. The way of critical thinking of the students and the staffs changes the attribute of the student as a graduate and that of the staff as a guide. However, this article also says that the students to some extent share the similar definition about the critical thinking in spite of having different thoughts about critical thinking in higher education. The allusions about critical thinking is that this is the desire to try to find new thi ngs, the patience in spite of having doubts, the affection to meditate and the tardiness to assert things and the steadiness to consider the new environment and the carefulness of the students to set in the order of the university. This article also highlights the point that critical thinking is gaining attention in the universities and is a key element for almost every university. Critical thinking is important part of education for the schools and the definition of successful learners is partially related to the critical thinking. The definition of a successful learner is a student who has the power to think deeply, evaluate the evidences in organised manner because of learning in a disciplined way. Duron, R., Limbach, B., Waugh, W. (2006). Critical thinking framework for any discipline.International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education,17(2), 160-166. In the second article, thinking is marked to be a natural activity but it is often biased, partial or prejudiced. However, critical thinking is known as the ability by which a student analyses and evaluates information. The students who are critical thinkers often initiate various questions on higher education and pursue different point of view about the university and its related things. Critical thinking is very important as it is needed in the university and helps the students deal with the questions that arise in them and to understand people and avoid problems. Critical thinking of any student about higher education is dependent on the teachers, the environment and the practices of development. This article states that there are various stages, which initiate the critical thinking concept in the students. Those are to determine the objectives of learning, teaching by use of questions, practising of the students before the promoting the learning, monitoring of the review of the s tudents and improving them. After the improvement is done, providing the students to opportunity to have their own self assessment so that the students can be able to determine their own skills and critically think over it and finally target the students with critical thinking in higher education to determine the objectives. In the conclusion it can be said that, both the articles are based on the critical thinking about the matter of higher education. The feedback of the student is very important because the students have to think very critically to give a proper feedback. They have to think about the overall learning objectives and then provide the feedback and this will give them the idea of critical thinking and introduce in them various question which they will clarify themselves. The disciplined and organised learning that the students have also constructs critical thinking in the students and the students then needs to listen more than just to learn. So it can be said that the critical thinking is the process of preparing a concept, evaluating the information and then recasting the improved form of thinking.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Why Copying Your Competitions Content Marketing Doesnt Actually Work

What are my competitors writing about? Why did their new blog post get so many shares? What are they doing that we’re not? As a content marketer, it’s natural to be curious about your competition. However, copying their tactics in the hope of replicating their success is a common mistake among content marketers. Here, we’ll look at why imitation is a bad idea and explain what you should do instead. Free Actionable Bonus: Looking to elevate your content strategy? Get our our complete guide to creating a content strategy, plus a free content planning template and a list of 30+ places to distribute content Your Competitors Don’t Know What They’re Doing Okay, maybe not all the competition is totally clueless, but in terms of content marketing, many of them are as in the dark as you are. Some will also be copying their competitors, who are copying their competitors. So if you copy anyone, you could simply be copying an imitation of an imitation. According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, 63 percent of businesses don’t have a documented content marketing strategy. So if your competitors don’t have a real plan, how can their strategy have any relevance to your business? Tip: Don’t waste your limited resources on untested strategies. Instead, trust your own judgement. By developing your own ideas and analyzing the results of your own efforts, you’ll find out what actually works. And this approach is crucial to developing an authentic brand voice. Authenticity is the New Marketing Currency Modern consumers are tired of being lied to. To succeed as a business today, you need to be authentic. If you sound like every other brand, you’re unlikely to be remembered. In a Pardot report, 80 percent of people cite â€Å"authenticity of content† as the most influential factor in their decision to follow a brand. Tip: Whatever your niche, stay true to who you are; it’s the best way to stand out from the crowd. Think about what makes your brand unique. Tell personal stories and use testimonials to build trust. Be transparent and don’t be afraid to be different. Your Audience is Unique You may be in the same industry as a competitor, but your audience may prefer different types of content. Perhaps they respond more to short blog posts or love sharing visual content. Your competitors don’t know your audience like you do, so copying their style of content may not work. Tip: Deliver a variety of content formats and analyze the results. Get genuine feedback from your followers on social media. Ask your audience directly what content they prefer. Your Goals Are Unique Your competitors may be running a paid advertising campaign for a limited period. They may have gated content that’s only available to certain email subscribers. It’s virtually impossible to identify their content marketing successes, because you don’t have access to their analytics. Tip:Focus on what works for you.Start by defining your marketing goals. Do you want to build your email list, or drive website traffic? When you know your goals, you can measure the results and then form a content strategy that is built on past successes. You Don’t Have the Same Resources Even if a competitor’s content marketing tactics seem to be working for them, it’s probably because they have enough resources to make it work. Do you have the same amount of staff, the same access to software, and a vast marketing budget? According to Chris Von Wilpert, Sumo’s chief content strategist, they spend around $40,000 a month on writers, editing, and promotion. If you’re a small business, it’s unlikely you can replicate what they’re doing, even if you wanted to. Tip: You can only make the best use of the resources you have. However, building an effective content marketing team doesn’t have to break the bank. Hire quality writers that know your industry, and treat them well. When you offer competitive rates of pay, they’re more likely to produce high-quality content that can outshine the content of your biggest competitors. The Bottom Line: Don’t Imitate, Innovate It’s only natural to want to emulate the best, but copying your competition’s content marketing is ultimately a road to nowhere. Developing a content strategy to meet the needs of your own audience will be more effective in the long run and help to differentiate your business from the competition. In summary: Focus on what makes your brand unique. Find out what topics your audience cares about. Test different content formats. Hire the best writers and treat them well. Define your goals, define your target audience, and define what content success looks like. Track everything you do so you can discover what works and what doesn’t. Be consistent, and be patient. Successful content marketing is a long-term game. If you follow these suggestions, you can develop a content strategy that suits your unique business, doesn’t stretch your resources too far, and plays to the strengths of your team. This way, you’ll be more memorable and distinctive, and give your target audience a reason to believe in your brand. Do you need unique content for your business? Constant Content’s is a content creation service that connects you with thousands of talented freelance content writers.

Monday, November 25, 2019

SMS Quotes to Text to a Loved One

SMS Quotes to Text to a Loved One In todays hi-tech world, love has also gone hi-tech. While people still believe in expressing their love, they want to communicate their feelings instantly. The use of the internet and mobile technology has enabled instant communication. So if you are one of those tech-savvy individuals who want their feelings to be known right away, using the following SMS love quotes will serve your purpose. Short Love Quotes You Can Text W. E. HenleyOpen your heart and take us in,Love - love and me.Sarah BernhardtYour words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me.David ReedLove me and the world is mine.Herman HesseIf I know what love is, it is because of you.AnonymousWithin you, I lose myself, without you, I find myself, searching to be lost again.James J. WalkerWill you love me in December as you do in May,Will you love me in the good old-fashioned way?When my hair has all turned gray,Will you kiss me then and say,That you love me in December as you do in May?Erica JongLove is everything its cracked up to be. Thats why people are so cynical about it... It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you dont risk everything, you risk even more.AnonymousAs I gaze upon your beauty, I think to myself, never have I seen an angel fly so low...Elizabeth Barrett BrowningI love you not only for what you are but for what I am when I am with you.Shirley BasseyId like to run a wayFrom you,But if you didnt comeAnd find me... I would die.Ibn AbbadMy night has become a sunny dawn because of you.HobbesI think we dream so we dont have to be apart so long. If were in each others dreams, we can be together all the time.AnonymousOnly a person who has not felt true love can move on in life saying There are lots of other fish in the sea.Dick SutphenLove me without fearTrust me without questioningNeed me without demandingWant me without restrictionsAccept me without changeDesire me without inhibitionsFor a love so free...Will never fly away.Steve WinwoodThink about it, there must be higher loveDown in the heart or hidden in the stars aboveWithout it, life is a wasted timeLook inside your heart, Ill look inside mine.Antoine de Saint-ExuperyAnd now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.Henry David ThoreauI love you not as something private and personal, which is my own, but as something universal and worthy of love which I have found. AnonymousJust because somebody doesnt love you the way you want them to, doesnt mean they dont love you with all they have.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Analysis of all constitutes of successful service delivery Essay

Analysis of all constitutes of successful service delivery - Essay Example Thus, prior to direct interaction with the service, consumers form own expectations about experiences related to the service consumption. In such way, customers establish own standards against which in the future the quality of the service received will be compared in accordance with the disconfirmation model. In case if the expectations about the service consumption were greater then the actual quality of product received, the outcome is negative disconfirmation or, in the other words, dissatisfaction with the service received. Whereas, if the expectations were smaller then the quality of the services received, the outcome is positive disconfirmation or product satisfaction. (Lovelock, C., & Wirtz, J. 2004). The higher customer satisfaction is, the greater is the possibility of customer loyalty in the post consumption stage. Thus, customer satisfaction and loyalty are directly related. The concept of customer loyalty is of vital importance as repurchase of services gives significant advantages to the service producer: a continuous stream of profit, reduction of marketing costs, growth of per-customer revenue, decrease in operating costs, increase in referral, increase in price premium (Youjae, Y., Suna, L. 2004). In relation to the customer loyalty, the service recovery concept should be emphasized, as customer loyalty is often seen as a consequence of successful service recovery. ... Thus, service recovery significantly influences customer's attitudes alongside with behavioral intentions and results in a possibility of customer loyalty when successfully executed (Lovelock, C., Patterson, P.G., & Walker, R.H. 2001). Customer Expectations of Services: Formation As previously stated, customer expectations are formed during the first two stages of customer purchase decision and are closely related to knowledge about a service a customer already has. The expectations formation process is not only influenced by marketer's communications, but also is shaped by word of mouth communication, past experience, and personal need. While marketer's communication is a relatively simple concept, word of mouth communication and past experience should be further categorized. Scholars distinguish two sources of customer knowledge about a service: external research and internal research. While internal search is directly linked to previous experiences and influences both the level of desired and expected services, external search category unites implicit and explicit promises (marketer's communication) and word of mouth secondary information received from second sources. Consequently, the two major types of knowledge are distinguished: experience and familiar ity, knowledge received through direct involvement and second hand knowledge, respectively (Palmer, A. 2001). Customer service expectations can be categorized into 5 overall dimensions: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The formation process is affected by numerous factors; in general, price is considered to be the dominant one. In the article "Understanding Customer Expectations of Service" by Parasuraman, A., Berry, Leonard L., Zeithaml, Valarie (1991), authors

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Key Factors Dictating Stalins Attitudes And Policies Toward Essay

The Key Factors Dictating Stalins Attitudes And Policies Toward Religion - Essay Example There is no politician accused in so many uncommitted crimes. How to understand this ambiguous personality? The best way is to address the documents and the recollections of the people who were acquainted with him. Stalin’s regime is characterized by mass repressions of 1937-1939 and 1943. This period is also characterized by extermination of the outstanding figures in the field of science and art, church and religion persecution, forced by industrialization that turned that USSA in to the state with one of the strongest economies in the world. Stalin’s regime was also the period of collectivization that led to agriculture downfall, mass escape of peasants form villages and the famine of 1932-1933. There are many questions around Stalin’s personality, which can be addressed in this paper: if Stalin was despot in relation to his companions and subordinates, if he really was unskillful leader and impeded the process of the war, why Stalin’s contemporaries co nsidered him to be brainy. All these questions are very interesting to be answered, however, the given paper will investigate Stalin’s attitude towards religion: what it was and how it was formed. *** Stalin is one of the greatest oppressors. He was a master of destinies of millions of people. The Soviet Union was focused on eradication of religion. It is incredible, but Stalin thought that it was necessary to take away the most important trigger of human spirit, which is religion. Stalin positioned himself as God. He wanted to be the most powerful human being in the world. Physical features of Stalin and his middle height were hidden behind his artificial power. He was unattractive pygmy, who wanted to compensate his physical vices by his cruel intentions taken against other people. Therefore, the Communist regime was enriched at the expense of church resources. Religion was ridiculed and the believers and followers were prosecuted. Atheism was promoted at schools, but the C ommunists wanted to position their beliefs as the most important and the crucial for the society. Anti-religious campaigns of Stalin’s policies were focused against the Russian Orthodox Church. This religion had the largest number of followers. There were 50,000 churches, but in the result of this anti-religious policies only 500 remained open. Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. After that year Stalin was promoting patriotic feelings of his nation and restored the Russian Orthodox Church. By 1957 about 22,000 Russian Orthodox churches had become active. Other types of religion were also oppressed during the regime of Communists. Attacks on Judaism were dangerous in the Soviet period. Religious practices of Judaism were almost forbidden and the followers were prosecuted. â€Å"Nonetheless,  Davies  discovered  that  throughout  the  periodbelievers  could  be  found  among   all segments  of  society.  The  population  stubbornly  resisted  official  antireligious  propaganda.   Moreover,  the  church  held  special  attraction  for  it  continued  to  provide  a  type  of  entertainmentwhen  other  diversions  were  lacking†Ã‚  (Dunn 2004, p. 156). It was a kind of entertainment for people to go and take part in different forbidden rituals. Russians were positioned as those, who were prevented from following their own religious beliefs or any other triggers for their possible normal functioning in the society. In the majority of cases average Russians were positioned in opposition to other nations. At the same time, Russians were not totally prosecuted; they were put under a strong control and supervision of their almighty rulers. Communism was ever existent form of ruling and oppression in

Monday, November 18, 2019

The use of behaviourism theories on a social work case study Essay

The use of behaviourism theories on a social work case study - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the beginnings of social work are focused on the principle of providing aid to the people. There is minimal change in this perception, but it has shifted from the individual reformation to collective views. However, the central purpose remains to be the responsibility of helping the people, whether individually or collectively as one society. The vitality of social work practice has been never more emphasized with the prevalence of change and threats on each and every member of society. The most common concern of this discipline is the alterations of relationships and social institutions such as the family, which greatly affects the children. In response, theorists, psychologists, and social workers continue the study of human behavior and cognition to formulate methods and theories as a foundation for alleviating the effectiveness of social work. The use of the assumptions of behaviourism to empiricism is useful in examining the resul ts of the intervention. This demonstrates that social work practices grounded in this theory help provide better social work measures for both service provider and users. The case for this study is in Case Study No. 2 involving Gemma the 15-year-old daughter of Kitty and Tony and the sister of the nine-year-old Jake. Gemma is from a broken family with an absentee father, who left them after the discovery of Kitty’s extramarital activities with another woman. Gemma was once a promising child with good academic records.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Effect of Branding on the Consumer

Effect of Branding on the Consumer Branding: How It Inspires People To Purchase A Particular Brand Abstract This research is done with the suitable research methods to describe how the people attempt to match their characteristics with a particular brand. A firm or company’s primary target is to make and preserve customers. They use various plans which include several research methods in order to discover the best way to make profits. For the companies, the saying, consumer is god, is crucial for a successful their business. Observing the customer’s purchasing behaviour is the initial step in the direction of successful understanding of customers. Branding is a crucial marketing strategy which inspires customer’s viewpoint and purchasing behaviour every time. Understanding customer buying behaviours will give marketers a close look into how significance for the marketers is to know the basic association the consumer has with the brand. So, for this reason, the research splits these issues into number of dimensions to consider that there is any connection between consum er purchasing behaviour. In other words, it permits one to see if branding can actually inspire consumer purchasing process. The research concentrates on the individual purchasing behaviour and branding associations. The sample is collected from the United Kingdom to overlook the culture impact and moreover to get rid of racial, religion and geographic issue for suitable sampling. The importance of this research is to explain how branding have an effect on different buyers behaviours build upon four kinds of complicated purchasing behaviour, conflict-reducing purchasing behaviour, habitual purchasing behaviour, and variety-seeking purchasing behaviour that are further talked about in this paper. By assessing commodity products, investigation of different approaches from these different consumer purchasing behaviour groups towards brand effects is done. The findings showed in the end reveals a strong positive association that can guide companies to concentrate more on strategies of branding according to the customers purchasing attitude towards branding. Introduction Today, in this fast moving environment, marketing depends upon the consumer’s behaviour and response to the product, price, promotion, place, physical layout, process and people (Gronroos, 1997; Kotler and et al., 1999; Egan, 2002) because today marketing is more consumers oriented than never before and due to the increasing value of service sector. For the development and survival of a firm, it requires exact facts about customers like their approach of buying, what they purchase, from which place they purchase and most essentially quantity they buy. Marketing has accepted the behavioural sciences basically sociology and social psychology to study and understand the process of consumer behaviour and decision making. While doing this, marketers are able to get explanations and forecasts build on these disciplines to figure their market offerings. To the extent that marketers are investigating the consumers psychological background in order to their establish factors that affect consumer choice in terms of cognition, perception, learning and attitude – all of which affect his buyer behaviour. A current day market trend has been the increasing similarity of products with little real functional difference between competing products. This is primarily due to intensive competitive rivalry and the existence of efficient production, transport, communication and financial systems. Under such circumstances technological innovations are quite quickly imitated by competitors and can no longer offer previous levels of sustainable competitive advantage and product differentiation (Levitt, 1983; Gronroos, 1997; Kotler, 2000). Therefore a significant feature of contemporary marketing research and practice concerns the emergence of brands as key organisational assets and a major issue in product strategy (Kotler, 2000). Firms have pla ced a heavy emphasis on adding symbolic values associated with brand names as the basis for product differentiation. The winner will eventually be the one whose strategy entails a mix conducive to the customers purchase behaviour, while doing so more effectively than its competitors. Objective Of The Study The primary goal of this research is to display branding value, functions and most important thing, its part in the consumer buying decision. This research examines the process and attributes that direct towards the customers’ evaluation of brands. This research will concentrate on the assessment of questionnaires filled by the public. Other objectives are like explanation of how the present customers attempts to match the individual identity with the identity that they relate to the brand, to prove that is there any correlation between individual purchasing behaviour and branding, and to evaluate how branding have an effect on different purchaser behaviours. Literature Review This study provides a foundation for the value and uses of branding as a vital marketing activity having an important impact on the consumer purchase decision. This research relates to a basic theory which has yet to be verified which says that as the difference among similar available products in the market is reducing, the chances that customers will buy through extrinsic signals, i.e. brand name associations is rising (Murphy, 1992). So, as customers’ ability to distinguish same kind of product declines, it is likely that the awareness of familiarity of a particular brand will push them to buy their particular choice of brand. Branding Let us define a ‘product’ before defining a brand, according to Baker (2000) a product is like anything that meets the needs of consumers. He says that it is the ability of the product to meet these needs that gives it value. The needs or problems can be psychological, economic or functional. In a competitive environment there are several companies offering opponent products that meet the customer’s needs. It is important to consider the fact that the brand can also allow companies to overcome the need to compete at a functional level, and can be used to help a company to compete on any level it is by applying its main capabilities (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). It is the brand that distinguishes and identifies their offerings (Levitt, 1983). Like, most valuable possession is its brand name. They may be referred to as invisible assets of a lot of corporations around the world. Branding at present is increasingly concerned with bringing together and maintaining a mix of values, both tangible as well as intangible, which are relevant to the consumers and which properly differentiate one’s brand from that of another (Muehling and Laczniak, 1991; Hankinson and Cowking, 1993; Kapferer, 1995; Kotler et al., 1999). There are many tools other then the brand name to distinguish products and invest them with personality. Leading among them are advertising, promotion and packaging, other ways to differentiate from the competition may be product formulation, delivery systems, sizes, colour, smell, shape and so on. On the other hand, all these elements are put together with an appropriate and protected name with which the primary attributes of the product or service ultimately reside give the product its brand identity. This combination of messages within the structure of a brand name is a foundation to the development of brand personality (Graham, 2001; Holt, 2002). From the consumers point of view, brand names are as important as the product itsel f in the sense they make purchasing process easier, guarantee quality and at times form as a basis of self-expression. As said by Kotler (1997), any company can produce cold drinks, but only Pepsi Co. can produce 7UP. Talking about branding purpose and benefits, branding facilitates and makes the customers selection process more effective, people are loaded with lots of decisions in their day to day lives, and they are flooded with limitless products and messages contesting for attention. People look for shortcuts to make the decisions easier, a shorter way is to depend on habit, this shows of purchasing products that have shown good results in the past. This is in particular a case of less involvement purchases. This is further shown by a model of habitual buying behaviour (Assael, 1993), stating that reasonable past consumption behaviour leads to benefit association, which is a idea means the tendency of the consumer to relate the positive rewards to a particular brand, this relation between positive rewards towards a certain brand restricts the customers need for looking information and strengthen the likelihood that the identification of a need will lead the customer to straight buy a particul ar brand. And from the retailer’s point of view, branding can help differentiation. According to (Adcock. et al., 1998), differentiation is an action of modelling a set of meaningful differences to differentiate the companys offering from the opponent’s offerings. Competition with fast pace can follow development in technology and product formulation. An opponent will quickly able to make a replica, example, a cigarette brand, though they will not be able to copy the personality that use the brand name, like Marlboro. Porter (1980) says that differentiation is a source of competitive advantage. Using a differential advantage companies are in a position to distinguish their offer from competitors in the same segment. According to Porter (1980), the main need for gaining a competitive advantage is by creating such differentiation. Differentiation, in this case, refers to a company’s ability to be exclusive in its product sold and service offered. This individuality must be of a value to the consumer and can thus be sold at a premium over its competitor’s price. The more valuable this exclusivity is, the higher the differentiation, leading to the higher premium. Differentiation however comes with a cost, so for differentiation to have a competitive advantage, the cost of differentiating must be significantly lower than the premium earned. Therefore, in the perfect market with perfect competition, this premium allows the company to make a higher profit margin than its competitors. In a market segment with no differential advantage held by anyone, consumers might opt purely on the basis of price, and perfect competition which confirms that profits are pushed to zero (Porter, 1980; Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994; Baker, 2000). The differential advantage above can be gained by obtaining any element of the marketing mix. But studies have shown that the best possible plan is to focus on brand differentiation, rather than cost and price as a way of building profitability and growth (East, 1997; Diaz de Rada, 1998; Fankel, 2002). The Significance of Brand Loyalty According to (Meenaghan, 1995; Quester and Smart, 1998), branding can be related to the increasing value of brand loyalty. Loyalty can be termed as a total commitment towards a particular brand. Building loyalty depends on satisfying the needs of the consumers better than other opponents (Oliver, 1999) and the stage of loyalty that can be reached depends on the aimed consumers. According to (Quester and Smart, 1998), people all over the globe develop irrational connection with different products. Though (Levitt, 1983), came with the structure to understand how booming brands are made and claimed that consumers are not irrational to select them. The core of all brands consists of key product attributes, which allow the consumers to distinguish the product, as an answer to their needs; the attributes describe the products performance and usefulness. Adjoining this main product there is a group of attributes that enable the consumer to distinguish the product from other products of different brands. These characteristics take the shape of the products appearance, design, packaging, and identification. If these attributes would not been there, the only differentiation would be based on its reasonable pricing. According to Doyle, the brand name permits for a sustainable differential advantage. In the end, it is the external shell of the product that has been described by Doyle as, whatever thing that possibly can be done to create customer inclination and loyalty (cited Baker, 2000). According to (Alreck and Settle, 1999,) marketer’s basic aim is to make good relationship with buyers, rather just selling. The core of a relationship is a powerful bond between the brand and the buyer. If successful there will be present a loyalty that keeps out the opponents. A strong brand name should have a consumer franchise that will develop when enough number of customers wants that brand and reject other alternatives, still if the price is less. A brand with a powerful consumer franchise is protected from competitors (Kotler and Cox, 1980; Cheratony, 1993; Cowley, 1996). The brand loyal customers, whether they purchase same brand every time which can be an act of trust, habit or outcome of less participation and product availability, the clear assumption is that they push high profits for the company. Thakor and Kohli (1996) says that it costs six times more to succeed over new buyers then to hold present ones, because of the fact that it results in more expenditure li nked to adverts, promotions and sales. So loyal consumers make brand equity the main asset underlying brand equity is buyers’ equity (Machleit, 1993; Kotler, 1999). It is vital to make loyalty and settled base of customers who are fixed and loyal purchasers of a brand, which negates change and churn from the company’s’ products. For every business it is costly to increase new customers and cheaper to keep present one. Therefore, a settled customer base has the customer acquisition investment mainly in its past (Gwinner and Eaton, 1999). Contemporary marketing recommends obtaining data about customers as much as possible, anywhere it is to widen the understanding of customer wants, standard of living, attitude and purchasing behaviour (Chisnall, 1995; Davis et al., 1996; Dun, 1997; Chevron, 1998). This allows a company to modify the brand offering, to shift from the usual to an unexpected level of service actually delighting the customer, make sure the future loyalty and commitment. Generally, a brand’s value to a company is mainly created by the customer loyalty it controls (Aaker, 1996). Brand Equity Brands might differ in terms of the amount of dominance they have in the market. Many brands are unfamiliar whereas others have great consumer awareness, and moreover some brands have a great amount of consumer brand inclination. A strong brand can be said to have great brand equity. This can be explained as a brand which enjoys great brand loyalty, awareness, powerful brand associations, perceive quality and other benefits like trademarks, exclusive rights and channel relationships (Chay, 1991). The idea behind brand equity relates to the importance of a brand, value to the marketer as well as the buyer. With the marketers’ viewpoint, brand equity is a big market share therefore better cash flows and profit. From the consumer viewpoint, brand equity relates to a powerful positive brand attitude through a promising assessment of the brand, which is build upon consistent meanings and values that are simply accessible in the buyers’ memory (Lewis, 1993; Keller, 1998). With substantial effort has been put in measuring and defining the concept of brand equity there has been limited empirical research aimed at understanding the importance of the brand name associations in product differentiation (Aaker, 1991). One of the main objectives of Marketing is to get the products offered in a particular category to be distinct. Muehling, Stoltman and Mishra (1989), have found consumers to be less brand loyal, more price sensitive and less receptive to marketplace information in the absence of perceived differences between the alternatives. Brand Image Marketers understand that brands summon up symbolic pictures which are more significant to success of a product than its real natural characteristics (Meenaghan, 1995; Feltham, 1998). For products which are recognized with a brand, Davis (1995) has performed a research by splitting the customer assessment in two factors. Assessment which is linked to product characteristics (tangible) and assessment linked to the brand name (intangible). The consumers power to assess the performance abilities of the product and view about its value for money, usage effectiveness, reliability and availability develops the inherent advantage of the product, matching to product’s characteristics. The external benefits are at the emotional stage where, the symbolic assessment of the brand is taken into account. Here consumers make use of their personal reasons normally matching the brand name related attributes. With the growing variety of standardized products, consumers give more importance to t he image of products to make the assessment of different options easier. Meenaghan (1995) tells that consumers display an inclination towards symbolic rather than purely functional features of products. Therefore, they usually ask for social reliability and loyalty from firms and, in general, symbolic associations have their origin mostly in brand name perception instead of product perception (Meenaghan, 1995). Marketers have tried to employ behavioural theories to clarify and recognize useful relations involving consumer’s personality and their buying behaviour. Kamakura and Russell (1993) have spotted such theory stating that individuals have a definite self-image build on who they believe they are ideal self-concept build on who they believe they would like to be. Howard and Sheth (1969) have explained self-image as an individual thoughts and feelings about their own selves in relation to other objects in a socially determined frame of reference. By self-concept or self-image model, individuals will perform in a way that sustain and improve thei r self-image. One way is through the products they buy and use. The Effect of Branding on Consumer Purchase Behaviour The function of brand values is highlighted in the literature above, and in particular the significance of the brand to get distinctive benefit has been documented in depth. The reason behind the study to understand the consumer purchasing behaviour in light of the literature discussed so far. In order to do this consumer decision-making models will be organized. The hypothesis will be assumed as the derivation of the tests that will be conducted in the primary research. Marketing and ecological stimuli penetrate the buyer’s perception, the definition of consumer buying behaviour can be comprehended as buyer’s purchasing decision process. Four types of consumer buying behaviours, based on the degree of buyer contribution and the degree of differences among brands (Kotler, 2000). These four types are complex buying behaviour, habitual buying behaviour, variety-seeking buying behaviour, and dissonance-reducing buying behaviour. In complex buying behaviour the consumer is aware of the brands and gets too involved in the buying by analysing the product thoroughly. The customer is highly involved in buying the product in dissonance-reducing behaviour but doesn’t get too involved in the brands. Some buying situations are characterised by low involvement but significant brand differences. Consumer’s often do a lot of brand switching for variety-seekers. They are only according to the information in advertisement and television. The buying process begins with brand beliefs in habitual buying behaviour. The brand plays most important role in consumers’ purchase decision to purchase a particular product from another. Various attributes that merge to make the consumer behaviour in particular fashion during his purchase decision but also inducing any pre-purchase and post purchase activities. As (Engle et al., 1995) has defined consumer behaviour as consisting all those acts of individuals which are directly involved in obtaining, using and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision process that precede and determine these acts. It is important factor to consider that influence the consumers’ buyer behaviour and study wishes to incorporate the Howard-sheth model of decision making. The theory of the model is that buyer behaviour is in general component firm by how consumer thinks and develops in order. (Howard and Sheth, 1969). It supports the fact that cognitive decision making which eventually determine the choice of brand and purchasing decision. The brand impact motivate the buyer and changes the behaviour , perception, learning and attitude are examined in terms of how each is affected by this impact on branding. Perception Here brand perception is based on individual personal experience of their own beliefs, needs and values. People receive and understand the sensory from their five senses they are sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste) in their own ways. Engel at el have defined perception as â€Å" the process whereby stimuli are received and interpreted by the individual and translated into a response† (Foxall, 1980,p.29). Primarily the social and psychological meaning of a product gets conveyed by two factors which determine the idea of stimuli, also known as stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalisation. Stimulus discrimination the question that hits in mind is whether the consumer can actually discriminate between differences in stimuli. Consumers become conscious of brands through packages, advertisements, promotions, and word of mouth they may be involved at some point in decision making process. Once customers became aware of brands through learning their purchase decision are then guided by their perceptions of their brands formed from the information they get about the brands characteristics (Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). The marketers will first provide the similar brands and provide same information about the product and they position better way and discriminate between characteristics of the brands. The marketing information which will discriminate based on the brand name information provided with and it will be derived from brand name or the perception of the brand. It has been concluded (kotler et al, 1999) that consumers depend on reputation of the brand name to believe t he quality of the product. Brand name is someone who creates the image and some cases provide perception of the quality in a product and that shows the involvement of low level buyers. The main part of brand impact where the customer experiences the service they provide and class they maintain it guide through the purchasing behaviour. Chernatony (1993) explained four factors that attract them to change a particular brand and to understand their provided framework of their successful brands . 1. Quality is the pre-eminent factor that through time can lead buyers to learn to trust a brand which leads to priority position in the evoked set and repeat purchasing activity. 2. Build superior service can not only endorse product quality, but also prove post purchase problem solving. For instance, digital camera consumers would select an international brand for its global service and technological support. 3. The most common means of building an outstanding brand is being the first into the mind consumer. It is much easier to build a strong brand in the consumer’s mind than in the market, characterised by the intense level of competition. 4. In building brands the principle is to invest in markets which are highly differential or where such differentiation can be created. Mostly, the differentiation is why the brand is different from others. Brand provides consumer with lower search costs for products internally and externally. Brand reduces the risk in product decisions and Keller (1998) identifies six types of risk in consumers view. 1. Functional risk- product expectations 2.physical risk- friendly user or not 3. Financial risk- product should fit in the budget and it should be worth 4. Psychological risk- the product affects the mental well-being of the user 6. Time risk- failure of the product leads to find the other product. Brands have a personally of their own which consumers want to associate with, would like to reflect their own behaviour or aspirations and want to have an experience with. A brand, therefore, adds value to a functional product providing it offers clear differentiation in the market in which it competes. â€Å"Branding is short, transforms the actual experience of using the product and thereby adds to its value (Chevron, 1998). Learning So far it has been highlighted how extrinsic cues of a product namely the brand name can affect the consumers perception. Learning refers to any change in behaviour that comes about as a result from past experience. Dodds (1991) refers to learning as changes in a consumer’s behaviour caused by information and experience. Consumers store information in their memory in the form of associations, which links the brand name of a product with a variety of other attributes of the brand, like its price, packaging, colour, size and benefits as well as how the consumer feels about it in terms of its quality and emotions it evokes. These associations are the ones that form the information base from where the consumer makes his ultimately decisions (Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). Most of this information consumers have stored in their memory comes from the process of learning that is what they think, feel or know about brands. Conoway (1994), claims that the subjective personal meanings of psycho-social consequences are represented by consumers’ cognitive systems. Since these consequences are experienced by consumers they are likely to trigger responses such as emotions, feelings and evaluations. Learning will be examined as a result of the marketing efforts, in terms of how information from the external communication environment is registered with the consumers long term memory from where it is extracted and used during his purchasing decision and also examine the way learning takes place in the form of changes in the consumers behaviour as a result of experience. At its simplest form learning occurs when consumers are repeatedly exposed to information such as brand names, slogans and jingles. Through this forms of learning consumers may form a weakly held belief that a particular brand is desirable due to an advertisement where the spokesperson repeats this claim over and over again. On the other hand, learning vicariously occurs when a consumer imitates the behaviours of others. Bandure (1977) stated that vicarious learning describes the way in which a consumer learns pattern of behaviour by watching other behave and applying the same lessons to his/her life. Brand images are created through advertisements, marketers use celebrities and famous sportsmen for this purpose, as it are the case with major retailing brands of Sainsburys and ASDA or Nike and Puma. Advertisements conjure upon a image for the brand through the use of models living a certain lifestyle that might be in tune with the consumers aspirations this will allow for favourable information about the brand to be processes by the consumers learning process. For marketers the learning theory is one of significance and of practical importance, as it allows them to build up demand for their brands by associating them to strong drives, motivation cues and thereby enabling positive reinforcements. Attitude A person’s overall evaluation of a concept may be defined as his or her attitude (Carpernter and Nakamopto, 1989). Consumers’ attitudes towards brands are reflected by their tendency to evaluate brands in a consistently favourable or unfavourable fashion. While behaviour and attitude are related and each may uinfluene each other, it si not necessary for them to be entirely consistent (Briggs and Cheek, 1986). General logic claims that if a consumer prefers or favours a brand there is greater likelihood of him to purchase it. thereby a positive trend in consumers attitude towards a particular brand may result in an increase in sales forecast. It is no wonder that testing or measuring attitude provides the bulk of marketing research work (Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). Researching consumer attitudes are functionally useful for the marketer in directing consumers toward brands they find useful in satisfying needs, wants and aspirations. Chay (1991) claims that advertisements influence attitudes towards the add, which is an importance predecessor of brand attitude. While Cheratony (1989) and Muehling (1987) go on saying that the influence of attitudes towards the ad on brand attitudes has been found to be even more significant under low-involvement conditions and emotionally based advertising. While in some cases even though the consumer has a favourable attitude towards a brand due to an advertisement he might have enjoyed, after having watched the advertisement if his purchase action is postponed the effect of the advertisement will wear off resulting in the favourable attitude towards the brand fading away. Furthermore even if the purchase action is not delayed there is the possibility of variables such as price that rule out the consistency between attitude and behaviour (Belk, 1975). Motivation is another mental factor that influences the underlying emotions and attitudes towards brands and the purchasing decision. Freud (Vecchio, 1992) claims that people are mostly unconscious of the real psychological forces shaping their behaviour. He suggests that a person does not fully understand his/her motivation. He states that as people grow up they repress many urges, and these urges are never really eliminated or under perfect control. An applied example could be in terms of Pepsi adverting campaign during 1989 to 1992, with slogan such as Pepsi the choice of a new generation and Pepsi Gotta Have It (Alison, 1992). David Novak, Pepsis vice president of marketing explains that the campaign represents the Pepsi attitude for people who think young and want to celebrate his life. The implication here would be for a young adult who purchases the Pepsi with the underlying motive to quench his thirst or purchase a beverage. At a deeper leave he might have purchase the Pepsi to feel or show that he is young and alive (Alison, 1992). There is a possibility for the brand to be a reflection of the consumers perception of his image or self-presentation. Carpernter and Nakamopto (1989) and Chisnall (1995) have defined image as a function of social interaction. Thereby consumption can be an act of self-presentation. The consumer tries to link himself with a desired image, or the ideal social self-image. Conclusion Through the literature reviewed the significance and importance of branding as a marketing tool has been highlighted, while providing sufficient evidence as to why a company should brand its products. Product differentiation has been made difficult due to immense competition and improvements in technology, allowing products to be quickly imitated. In this way firms have placed a heavy emphasis on adding symbolic values as the basis for product differentiation. Therefore, while evaluating products the consumer will tend to consider the image aspect of the product to simplify the evaluation of different alternatives. Additionally the review suggested that consumers have a self-concept that have a crucial effect on their purchase decisions. This means that consumer might evaluate brands on the basis of the congruence between the brands image and their own self-image. Moreover, when the consumer has little or no experience with the product or has a lack of information about the product, consumers will use brand names to evaluate products, some consumers even when provided with information will avoid spending time to investigate the products intrin Effect of Branding on the Consumer Effect of Branding on the Consumer Branding: How It Inspires People To Purchase A Particular Brand Abstract This research is done with the suitable research methods to describe how the people attempt to match their characteristics with a particular brand. A firm or company’s primary target is to make and preserve customers. They use various plans which include several research methods in order to discover the best way to make profits. For the companies, the saying, consumer is god, is crucial for a successful their business. Observing the customer’s purchasing behaviour is the initial step in the direction of successful understanding of customers. Branding is a crucial marketing strategy which inspires customer’s viewpoint and purchasing behaviour every time. Understanding customer buying behaviours will give marketers a close look into how significance for the marketers is to know the basic association the consumer has with the brand. So, for this reason, the research splits these issues into number of dimensions to consider that there is any connection between consum er purchasing behaviour. In other words, it permits one to see if branding can actually inspire consumer purchasing process. The research concentrates on the individual purchasing behaviour and branding associations. The sample is collected from the United Kingdom to overlook the culture impact and moreover to get rid of racial, religion and geographic issue for suitable sampling. The importance of this research is to explain how branding have an effect on different buyers behaviours build upon four kinds of complicated purchasing behaviour, conflict-reducing purchasing behaviour, habitual purchasing behaviour, and variety-seeking purchasing behaviour that are further talked about in this paper. By assessing commodity products, investigation of different approaches from these different consumer purchasing behaviour groups towards brand effects is done. The findings showed in the end reveals a strong positive association that can guide companies to concentrate more on strategies of branding according to the customers purchasing attitude towards branding. Introduction Today, in this fast moving environment, marketing depends upon the consumer’s behaviour and response to the product, price, promotion, place, physical layout, process and people (Gronroos, 1997; Kotler and et al., 1999; Egan, 2002) because today marketing is more consumers oriented than never before and due to the increasing value of service sector. For the development and survival of a firm, it requires exact facts about customers like their approach of buying, what they purchase, from which place they purchase and most essentially quantity they buy. Marketing has accepted the behavioural sciences basically sociology and social psychology to study and understand the process of consumer behaviour and decision making. While doing this, marketers are able to get explanations and forecasts build on these disciplines to figure their market offerings. To the extent that marketers are investigating the consumers psychological background in order to their establish factors that affect consumer choice in terms of cognition, perception, learning and attitude – all of which affect his buyer behaviour. A current day market trend has been the increasing similarity of products with little real functional difference between competing products. This is primarily due to intensive competitive rivalry and the existence of efficient production, transport, communication and financial systems. Under such circumstances technological innovations are quite quickly imitated by competitors and can no longer offer previous levels of sustainable competitive advantage and product differentiation (Levitt, 1983; Gronroos, 1997; Kotler, 2000). Therefore a significant feature of contemporary marketing research and practice concerns the emergence of brands as key organisational assets and a major issue in product strategy (Kotler, 2000). Firms have pla ced a heavy emphasis on adding symbolic values associated with brand names as the basis for product differentiation. The winner will eventually be the one whose strategy entails a mix conducive to the customers purchase behaviour, while doing so more effectively than its competitors. Objective Of The Study The primary goal of this research is to display branding value, functions and most important thing, its part in the consumer buying decision. This research examines the process and attributes that direct towards the customers’ evaluation of brands. This research will concentrate on the assessment of questionnaires filled by the public. Other objectives are like explanation of how the present customers attempts to match the individual identity with the identity that they relate to the brand, to prove that is there any correlation between individual purchasing behaviour and branding, and to evaluate how branding have an effect on different purchaser behaviours. Literature Review This study provides a foundation for the value and uses of branding as a vital marketing activity having an important impact on the consumer purchase decision. This research relates to a basic theory which has yet to be verified which says that as the difference among similar available products in the market is reducing, the chances that customers will buy through extrinsic signals, i.e. brand name associations is rising (Murphy, 1992). So, as customers’ ability to distinguish same kind of product declines, it is likely that the awareness of familiarity of a particular brand will push them to buy their particular choice of brand. Branding Let us define a ‘product’ before defining a brand, according to Baker (2000) a product is like anything that meets the needs of consumers. He says that it is the ability of the product to meet these needs that gives it value. The needs or problems can be psychological, economic or functional. In a competitive environment there are several companies offering opponent products that meet the customer’s needs. It is important to consider the fact that the brand can also allow companies to overcome the need to compete at a functional level, and can be used to help a company to compete on any level it is by applying its main capabilities (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). It is the brand that distinguishes and identifies their offerings (Levitt, 1983). Like, most valuable possession is its brand name. They may be referred to as invisible assets of a lot of corporations around the world. Branding at present is increasingly concerned with bringing together and maintaining a mix of values, both tangible as well as intangible, which are relevant to the consumers and which properly differentiate one’s brand from that of another (Muehling and Laczniak, 1991; Hankinson and Cowking, 1993; Kapferer, 1995; Kotler et al., 1999). There are many tools other then the brand name to distinguish products and invest them with personality. Leading among them are advertising, promotion and packaging, other ways to differentiate from the competition may be product formulation, delivery systems, sizes, colour, smell, shape and so on. On the other hand, all these elements are put together with an appropriate and protected name with which the primary attributes of the product or service ultimately reside give the product its brand identity. This combination of messages within the structure of a brand name is a foundation to the development of brand personality (Graham, 2001; Holt, 2002). From the consumers point of view, brand names are as important as the product itsel f in the sense they make purchasing process easier, guarantee quality and at times form as a basis of self-expression. As said by Kotler (1997), any company can produce cold drinks, but only Pepsi Co. can produce 7UP. Talking about branding purpose and benefits, branding facilitates and makes the customers selection process more effective, people are loaded with lots of decisions in their day to day lives, and they are flooded with limitless products and messages contesting for attention. People look for shortcuts to make the decisions easier, a shorter way is to depend on habit, this shows of purchasing products that have shown good results in the past. This is in particular a case of less involvement purchases. This is further shown by a model of habitual buying behaviour (Assael, 1993), stating that reasonable past consumption behaviour leads to benefit association, which is a idea means the tendency of the consumer to relate the positive rewards to a particular brand, this relation between positive rewards towards a certain brand restricts the customers need for looking information and strengthen the likelihood that the identification of a need will lead the customer to straight buy a particul ar brand. And from the retailer’s point of view, branding can help differentiation. According to (Adcock. et al., 1998), differentiation is an action of modelling a set of meaningful differences to differentiate the companys offering from the opponent’s offerings. Competition with fast pace can follow development in technology and product formulation. An opponent will quickly able to make a replica, example, a cigarette brand, though they will not be able to copy the personality that use the brand name, like Marlboro. Porter (1980) says that differentiation is a source of competitive advantage. Using a differential advantage companies are in a position to distinguish their offer from competitors in the same segment. According to Porter (1980), the main need for gaining a competitive advantage is by creating such differentiation. Differentiation, in this case, refers to a company’s ability to be exclusive in its product sold and service offered. This individuality must be of a value to the consumer and can thus be sold at a premium over its competitor’s price. The more valuable this exclusivity is, the higher the differentiation, leading to the higher premium. Differentiation however comes with a cost, so for differentiation to have a competitive advantage, the cost of differentiating must be significantly lower than the premium earned. Therefore, in the perfect market with perfect competition, this premium allows the company to make a higher profit margin than its competitors. In a market segment with no differential advantage held by anyone, consumers might opt purely on the basis of price, and perfect competition which confirms that profits are pushed to zero (Porter, 1980; Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994; Baker, 2000). The differential advantage above can be gained by obtaining any element of the marketing mix. But studies have shown that the best possible plan is to focus on brand differentiation, rather than cost and price as a way of building profitability and growth (East, 1997; Diaz de Rada, 1998; Fankel, 2002). The Significance of Brand Loyalty According to (Meenaghan, 1995; Quester and Smart, 1998), branding can be related to the increasing value of brand loyalty. Loyalty can be termed as a total commitment towards a particular brand. Building loyalty depends on satisfying the needs of the consumers better than other opponents (Oliver, 1999) and the stage of loyalty that can be reached depends on the aimed consumers. According to (Quester and Smart, 1998), people all over the globe develop irrational connection with different products. Though (Levitt, 1983), came with the structure to understand how booming brands are made and claimed that consumers are not irrational to select them. The core of all brands consists of key product attributes, which allow the consumers to distinguish the product, as an answer to their needs; the attributes describe the products performance and usefulness. Adjoining this main product there is a group of attributes that enable the consumer to distinguish the product from other products of different brands. These characteristics take the shape of the products appearance, design, packaging, and identification. If these attributes would not been there, the only differentiation would be based on its reasonable pricing. According to Doyle, the brand name permits for a sustainable differential advantage. In the end, it is the external shell of the product that has been described by Doyle as, whatever thing that possibly can be done to create customer inclination and loyalty (cited Baker, 2000). According to (Alreck and Settle, 1999,) marketer’s basic aim is to make good relationship with buyers, rather just selling. The core of a relationship is a powerful bond between the brand and the buyer. If successful there will be present a loyalty that keeps out the opponents. A strong brand name should have a consumer franchise that will develop when enough number of customers wants that brand and reject other alternatives, still if the price is less. A brand with a powerful consumer franchise is protected from competitors (Kotler and Cox, 1980; Cheratony, 1993; Cowley, 1996). The brand loyal customers, whether they purchase same brand every time which can be an act of trust, habit or outcome of less participation and product availability, the clear assumption is that they push high profits for the company. Thakor and Kohli (1996) says that it costs six times more to succeed over new buyers then to hold present ones, because of the fact that it results in more expenditure li nked to adverts, promotions and sales. So loyal consumers make brand equity the main asset underlying brand equity is buyers’ equity (Machleit, 1993; Kotler, 1999). It is vital to make loyalty and settled base of customers who are fixed and loyal purchasers of a brand, which negates change and churn from the company’s’ products. For every business it is costly to increase new customers and cheaper to keep present one. Therefore, a settled customer base has the customer acquisition investment mainly in its past (Gwinner and Eaton, 1999). Contemporary marketing recommends obtaining data about customers as much as possible, anywhere it is to widen the understanding of customer wants, standard of living, attitude and purchasing behaviour (Chisnall, 1995; Davis et al., 1996; Dun, 1997; Chevron, 1998). This allows a company to modify the brand offering, to shift from the usual to an unexpected level of service actually delighting the customer, make sure the future loyalty and commitment. Generally, a brand’s value to a company is mainly created by the customer loyalty it controls (Aaker, 1996). Brand Equity Brands might differ in terms of the amount of dominance they have in the market. Many brands are unfamiliar whereas others have great consumer awareness, and moreover some brands have a great amount of consumer brand inclination. A strong brand can be said to have great brand equity. This can be explained as a brand which enjoys great brand loyalty, awareness, powerful brand associations, perceive quality and other benefits like trademarks, exclusive rights and channel relationships (Chay, 1991). The idea behind brand equity relates to the importance of a brand, value to the marketer as well as the buyer. With the marketers’ viewpoint, brand equity is a big market share therefore better cash flows and profit. From the consumer viewpoint, brand equity relates to a powerful positive brand attitude through a promising assessment of the brand, which is build upon consistent meanings and values that are simply accessible in the buyers’ memory (Lewis, 1993; Keller, 1998). With substantial effort has been put in measuring and defining the concept of brand equity there has been limited empirical research aimed at understanding the importance of the brand name associations in product differentiation (Aaker, 1991). One of the main objectives of Marketing is to get the products offered in a particular category to be distinct. Muehling, Stoltman and Mishra (1989), have found consumers to be less brand loyal, more price sensitive and less receptive to marketplace information in the absence of perceived differences between the alternatives. Brand Image Marketers understand that brands summon up symbolic pictures which are more significant to success of a product than its real natural characteristics (Meenaghan, 1995; Feltham, 1998). For products which are recognized with a brand, Davis (1995) has performed a research by splitting the customer assessment in two factors. Assessment which is linked to product characteristics (tangible) and assessment linked to the brand name (intangible). The consumers power to assess the performance abilities of the product and view about its value for money, usage effectiveness, reliability and availability develops the inherent advantage of the product, matching to product’s characteristics. The external benefits are at the emotional stage where, the symbolic assessment of the brand is taken into account. Here consumers make use of their personal reasons normally matching the brand name related attributes. With the growing variety of standardized products, consumers give more importance to t he image of products to make the assessment of different options easier. Meenaghan (1995) tells that consumers display an inclination towards symbolic rather than purely functional features of products. Therefore, they usually ask for social reliability and loyalty from firms and, in general, symbolic associations have their origin mostly in brand name perception instead of product perception (Meenaghan, 1995). Marketers have tried to employ behavioural theories to clarify and recognize useful relations involving consumer’s personality and their buying behaviour. Kamakura and Russell (1993) have spotted such theory stating that individuals have a definite self-image build on who they believe they are ideal self-concept build on who they believe they would like to be. Howard and Sheth (1969) have explained self-image as an individual thoughts and feelings about their own selves in relation to other objects in a socially determined frame of reference. By self-concept or self-image model, individuals will perform in a way that sustain and improve thei r self-image. One way is through the products they buy and use. The Effect of Branding on Consumer Purchase Behaviour The function of brand values is highlighted in the literature above, and in particular the significance of the brand to get distinctive benefit has been documented in depth. The reason behind the study to understand the consumer purchasing behaviour in light of the literature discussed so far. In order to do this consumer decision-making models will be organized. The hypothesis will be assumed as the derivation of the tests that will be conducted in the primary research. Marketing and ecological stimuli penetrate the buyer’s perception, the definition of consumer buying behaviour can be comprehended as buyer’s purchasing decision process. Four types of consumer buying behaviours, based on the degree of buyer contribution and the degree of differences among brands (Kotler, 2000). These four types are complex buying behaviour, habitual buying behaviour, variety-seeking buying behaviour, and dissonance-reducing buying behaviour. In complex buying behaviour the consumer is aware of the brands and gets too involved in the buying by analysing the product thoroughly. The customer is highly involved in buying the product in dissonance-reducing behaviour but doesn’t get too involved in the brands. Some buying situations are characterised by low involvement but significant brand differences. Consumer’s often do a lot of brand switching for variety-seekers. They are only according to the information in advertisement and television. The buying process begins with brand beliefs in habitual buying behaviour. The brand plays most important role in consumers’ purchase decision to purchase a particular product from another. Various attributes that merge to make the consumer behaviour in particular fashion during his purchase decision but also inducing any pre-purchase and post purchase activities. As (Engle et al., 1995) has defined consumer behaviour as consisting all those acts of individuals which are directly involved in obtaining, using and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision process that precede and determine these acts. It is important factor to consider that influence the consumers’ buyer behaviour and study wishes to incorporate the Howard-sheth model of decision making. The theory of the model is that buyer behaviour is in general component firm by how consumer thinks and develops in order. (Howard and Sheth, 1969). It supports the fact that cognitive decision making which eventually determine the choice of brand and purchasing decision. The brand impact motivate the buyer and changes the behaviour , perception, learning and attitude are examined in terms of how each is affected by this impact on branding. Perception Here brand perception is based on individual personal experience of their own beliefs, needs and values. People receive and understand the sensory from their five senses they are sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste) in their own ways. Engel at el have defined perception as â€Å" the process whereby stimuli are received and interpreted by the individual and translated into a response† (Foxall, 1980,p.29). Primarily the social and psychological meaning of a product gets conveyed by two factors which determine the idea of stimuli, also known as stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalisation. Stimulus discrimination the question that hits in mind is whether the consumer can actually discriminate between differences in stimuli. Consumers become conscious of brands through packages, advertisements, promotions, and word of mouth they may be involved at some point in decision making process. Once customers became aware of brands through learning their purchase decision are then guided by their perceptions of their brands formed from the information they get about the brands characteristics (Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). The marketers will first provide the similar brands and provide same information about the product and they position better way and discriminate between characteristics of the brands. The marketing information which will discriminate based on the brand name information provided with and it will be derived from brand name or the perception of the brand. It has been concluded (kotler et al, 1999) that consumers depend on reputation of the brand name to believe t he quality of the product. Brand name is someone who creates the image and some cases provide perception of the quality in a product and that shows the involvement of low level buyers. The main part of brand impact where the customer experiences the service they provide and class they maintain it guide through the purchasing behaviour. Chernatony (1993) explained four factors that attract them to change a particular brand and to understand their provided framework of their successful brands . 1. Quality is the pre-eminent factor that through time can lead buyers to learn to trust a brand which leads to priority position in the evoked set and repeat purchasing activity. 2. Build superior service can not only endorse product quality, but also prove post purchase problem solving. For instance, digital camera consumers would select an international brand for its global service and technological support. 3. The most common means of building an outstanding brand is being the first into the mind consumer. It is much easier to build a strong brand in the consumer’s mind than in the market, characterised by the intense level of competition. 4. In building brands the principle is to invest in markets which are highly differential or where such differentiation can be created. Mostly, the differentiation is why the brand is different from others. Brand provides consumer with lower search costs for products internally and externally. Brand reduces the risk in product decisions and Keller (1998) identifies six types of risk in consumers view. 1. Functional risk- product expectations 2.physical risk- friendly user or not 3. Financial risk- product should fit in the budget and it should be worth 4. Psychological risk- the product affects the mental well-being of the user 6. Time risk- failure of the product leads to find the other product. Brands have a personally of their own which consumers want to associate with, would like to reflect their own behaviour or aspirations and want to have an experience with. A brand, therefore, adds value to a functional product providing it offers clear differentiation in the market in which it competes. â€Å"Branding is short, transforms the actual experience of using the product and thereby adds to its value (Chevron, 1998). Learning So far it has been highlighted how extrinsic cues of a product namely the brand name can affect the consumers perception. Learning refers to any change in behaviour that comes about as a result from past experience. Dodds (1991) refers to learning as changes in a consumer’s behaviour caused by information and experience. Consumers store information in their memory in the form of associations, which links the brand name of a product with a variety of other attributes of the brand, like its price, packaging, colour, size and benefits as well as how the consumer feels about it in terms of its quality and emotions it evokes. These associations are the ones that form the information base from where the consumer makes his ultimately decisions (Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). Most of this information consumers have stored in their memory comes from the process of learning that is what they think, feel or know about brands. Conoway (1994), claims that the subjective personal meanings of psycho-social consequences are represented by consumers’ cognitive systems. Since these consequences are experienced by consumers they are likely to trigger responses such as emotions, feelings and evaluations. Learning will be examined as a result of the marketing efforts, in terms of how information from the external communication environment is registered with the consumers long term memory from where it is extracted and used during his purchasing decision and also examine the way learning takes place in the form of changes in the consumers behaviour as a result of experience. At its simplest form learning occurs when consumers are repeatedly exposed to information such as brand names, slogans and jingles. Through this forms of learning consumers may form a weakly held belief that a particular brand is desirable due to an advertisement where the spokesperson repeats this claim over and over again. On the other hand, learning vicariously occurs when a consumer imitates the behaviours of others. Bandure (1977) stated that vicarious learning describes the way in which a consumer learns pattern of behaviour by watching other behave and applying the same lessons to his/her life. Brand images are created through advertisements, marketers use celebrities and famous sportsmen for this purpose, as it are the case with major retailing brands of Sainsburys and ASDA or Nike and Puma. Advertisements conjure upon a image for the brand through the use of models living a certain lifestyle that might be in tune with the consumers aspirations this will allow for favourable information about the brand to be processes by the consumers learning process. For marketers the learning theory is one of significance and of practical importance, as it allows them to build up demand for their brands by associating them to strong drives, motivation cues and thereby enabling positive reinforcements. Attitude A person’s overall evaluation of a concept may be defined as his or her attitude (Carpernter and Nakamopto, 1989). Consumers’ attitudes towards brands are reflected by their tendency to evaluate brands in a consistently favourable or unfavourable fashion. While behaviour and attitude are related and each may uinfluene each other, it si not necessary for them to be entirely consistent (Briggs and Cheek, 1986). General logic claims that if a consumer prefers or favours a brand there is greater likelihood of him to purchase it. thereby a positive trend in consumers attitude towards a particular brand may result in an increase in sales forecast. It is no wonder that testing or measuring attitude provides the bulk of marketing research work (Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). Researching consumer attitudes are functionally useful for the marketer in directing consumers toward brands they find useful in satisfying needs, wants and aspirations. Chay (1991) claims that advertisements influence attitudes towards the add, which is an importance predecessor of brand attitude. While Cheratony (1989) and Muehling (1987) go on saying that the influence of attitudes towards the ad on brand attitudes has been found to be even more significant under low-involvement conditions and emotionally based advertising. While in some cases even though the consumer has a favourable attitude towards a brand due to an advertisement he might have enjoyed, after having watched the advertisement if his purchase action is postponed the effect of the advertisement will wear off resulting in the favourable attitude towards the brand fading away. Furthermore even if the purchase action is not delayed there is the possibility of variables such as price that rule out the consistency between attitude and behaviour (Belk, 1975). Motivation is another mental factor that influences the underlying emotions and attitudes towards brands and the purchasing decision. Freud (Vecchio, 1992) claims that people are mostly unconscious of the real psychological forces shaping their behaviour. He suggests that a person does not fully understand his/her motivation. He states that as people grow up they repress many urges, and these urges are never really eliminated or under perfect control. An applied example could be in terms of Pepsi adverting campaign during 1989 to 1992, with slogan such as Pepsi the choice of a new generation and Pepsi Gotta Have It (Alison, 1992). David Novak, Pepsis vice president of marketing explains that the campaign represents the Pepsi attitude for people who think young and want to celebrate his life. The implication here would be for a young adult who purchases the Pepsi with the underlying motive to quench his thirst or purchase a beverage. At a deeper leave he might have purchase the Pepsi to feel or show that he is young and alive (Alison, 1992). There is a possibility for the brand to be a reflection of the consumers perception of his image or self-presentation. Carpernter and Nakamopto (1989) and Chisnall (1995) have defined image as a function of social interaction. Thereby consumption can be an act of self-presentation. The consumer tries to link himself with a desired image, or the ideal social self-image. Conclusion Through the literature reviewed the significance and importance of branding as a marketing tool has been highlighted, while providing sufficient evidence as to why a company should brand its products. Product differentiation has been made difficult due to immense competition and improvements in technology, allowing products to be quickly imitated. In this way firms have placed a heavy emphasis on adding symbolic values as the basis for product differentiation. Therefore, while evaluating products the consumer will tend to consider the image aspect of the product to simplify the evaluation of different alternatives. Additionally the review suggested that consumers have a self-concept that have a crucial effect on their purchase decisions. This means that consumer might evaluate brands on the basis of the congruence between the brands image and their own self-image. Moreover, when the consumer has little or no experience with the product or has a lack of information about the product, consumers will use brand names to evaluate products, some consumers even when provided with information will avoid spending time to investigate the products intrin