The brand concept and Australian consumer behaviour texts: a review
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610429810244710 |
| Pages | 568-573 |
| Author | Margaret Craig‐Lees |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
The brand concept is topical in marketing. Issues such as brand perceptions,
the nature of brand loyalty and declining brand loyalty, brand differentiation
and equity and the relationship between how consumers view brands and
how managers do so are just some of the aspects being discussed. It is a
complex topic and marketing students should be provided with
comprehensive and clear instruction to enable them to deal effectively with
the concept. While this requirement applies to all units within marketing
courses it is especially pertinent to consumer behaviour units. Consumer
behaviour units within marketing courses occupy a “hybrid” position. They
can be taught from a resource perspective, a managerial perspective or both.
This can make it a difficult subject to teach. It is certainly difficult to write
texts for these units. To meet the demands of the subject matter, texts need to
describe and explain the factors that affect people as consumers (the
resource perspective), and provide applications (the managerial perspective).
To avoid confusion, writers need to signal to students when they are writing
from the resource perspective and when they are writing from a managerial
perspective. This is a difficult task, especially when dealing with topics
where these perspectives overlap – such as the brand concept.
Most of the consumer behaviour texts available in Australia are American in
origin and three of these have been adapted to the Australian Market. These are:
(1) Consumer Behaviour by Leon Schiffman et al. (1997).
(2) Consumer Behaviour in Australia and New Zealand by David Louden et
al. (1994).
(3) Consumer Behaviour: Implications for Marketing Strategy by Del
Hawkins et al. (1994).
These texts were popular before adaptation and are still widely used post-
adaptation. So how do these texts deal with the “brand” concept?
Scrutiny of the texts allows three general observations to be made:
(1) that the three texts show a high degree of similarity in their treatment of
the brand concept,
(2) that there is a tendency to use the terms “brand” and “product”
interchangeably,
(3) that their approach to the concept is simplistic.
The aspects of the brand concept that are discussed in all three texts are:
• brand attitude,
• brand awareness,
• brand positioning,
• brand image,
• brand loyalty,
• brand switching.
568 JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 7 NO. 6 1998, pp. 568-573 © MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1061-0421
The brand concept and
Australian consumer behaviour
texts: a review
Margaret Craig-Lees
School of Marketing, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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