Apr 23rd, 2012
Research Article Analysis
Research Article Analysis
Summary:
The article “Country image and consumer-based brand equity”, written by Ravi Pappu, Pascale G Quester and Ray W Cooksey, was published in the Journal of International Business Studies in 2007. The authors try to demonstrate, via this article, that the four brand equity dimensions, which are brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty, form the multidimensional construct of consumer-based brand equity. To display this relationship, they studied the linkages between the set of micro and macro country images, and the set of consumer-based brand equity dimensions. This article was written for an expert audience, which includes marketers, researchers, or any person who has marketing background. Indeed, the specific topic covered and the particular vocabulary used such as “micro country image”, “consumer-based brand equity”, and “brand loyalty” might be complex for the general public.
Organization:
Concerning the organization, the research article is composed of five parts. First, the authors summarize the study in a brief paragraph: the abstract. Then, they present the topic in a one-page introduction; they explain the purpose of the study, and why it is relevant. The third section, which is two pages long, clarifies some vocabulary words and expressions, explains the background of the study, and describes the authors’ hypotheses. Then, the fourth part is dedicated to the methods used to conduct this study. The authors give details on where the study took place, the number of people interviewed, the products included in the study, the measures used, and of course, the survey procedure. This is one of the main parts of the article: about 4 pages in length. The next section presents the results obtained thanks to this research. In this kind of article, results are the principal part because they are the whole point, so it is normal that it is the longest: 5 pages. In this section, the authors present the survey’s results and interpret them. Finally, the authors finish the article with a conclusion, which includes the implications, the future research directions and some limitations of the study. The article has an explicit thesis, which is: the consumer-based equity of brand is correlated with both micro and macro images of the brand’s country of origin.
Research:
The authors support their research in two parts. First, they run the secondary research that means they examine the former studies that can help them prove their thesis. Afterwards, they effectuate a survey through a distribution of questionnaires. To validate the survey, researchers have to make sure that participants represent a cross-section of the Australian population. The survey is based on two different products: TV and cars. In addition, this document uses APA documentation style, and it does not include any direct quote to support the topic but paraphrases instead.
Style Section:
In this article, different tenses are used. The past tense is used in almost the entire article: in the method, the results, and the conclusion. However, the present tense is used in the abstract and the introduction because the authors write about concepts of general truth. In addition, the active voice is mostly used in this article, except in the method and results sections where the passive voice is often present. The authors don’t take part in the article, so there is no “we” or “I”. They prefer employing the third person or the passive voice to avoid including themselves in the survey. Moreover, they wrote their article with an academic style, so there are no contractions. Concerning the articulation of the article, I think the ideas flow smoothly from one to the next. Each section has a title, which structures the article. Readers can, thanks to those, localize the main information quickly. Likewise, at the beginning of each paragraph we find a topic sentence, which introduces the main idea. With this method, the article can be understood more easily and that improves consistency. In addition, within the paragraphs, the authors often use linking words to connect the different ideas.
Conclusion:
Finally, this article is remarkable and useful for the company’s marketing department because it helps managers establish strategies. In fact, because of globalization, cultures are becoming more interconnected. Thus, managers have to learn how to handle the new market properties in order to run companies effectively. Knowing how micro and macro images of the brand’s country of origin can affect the consumer-based equity of brand can, in some cases, change all the strategies and be a determinant factor for the company’s success.
To conclude, this article can help me write high-quality papers because it gives me the structure of how it should be, how the ideas are organized and what style I should use.
References:
Pappu, R., Quester, P. G., & Cooksey, R. W. (2007). Country image and consumer-based brand equity. Journal of International Business Studies, 38, 726-745.