Introduction

In today’s competitive market, a company’s brand image, such as its goods or service offers, is critical. This is mostly used as a marketing benchmark for evaluating the success of the Sainsbury retail business. It is critical to demonstrate that if a client is happy with a company’s products and services, the customer will be loyal to that brand. Customers’ loyalty to a brand is demonstrated by their desire to pay more for it, spread the favorable word of mouth that displays the loyal attitudes and actions. As correctly stated by (Sakas and Konstantopoulos, 2010), an organization’s success is a direct result of its brand image, which can be mentioned as an important aspect of today’s marketing strategy. In this study, the fundamental underlying variables of brand image and its impacts on customer happiness and loyalty in the Apple Company are investigated. Customer happiness as well as, Customer loyalty is a well-recognized problem in the corporate world.

Background to the company

Apple Inc. is a global technology corporation based in the United States that specializes in consumer devices, online services, and software. Apple is a world’s most valuable corporation and it is the largest technology firm in the term of revenue since January 2021.
The important idea here is that consumer expectations are influenced by the company’s brand image. Customers demand the finest service quality from a firm with a renowned brand image, which leads to customer happiness and loyalty. In this regard, it can be stated that loyalty and customer satisfaction has been consistently increasing over time, indicating how customers feel about the company. According to NPS Benchmarks, the NPS score of the company in 2017 was 72 that was much higher in comparison to the average consumer electronics industry (NPS Benchmarks, 2018). Failure of the product or any technical issue causes anxiety in the customers. This is the main problem that affects the satisfaction and loyalty of the customers and also influences the brand image of the company. In this regard, Apply has given 14 days return policy to its customers that allows them to use the product see the performance of the products, and may get the return of their money if the performance of the products is not good or as per the expectations of the customers (Apple Inc, 2021). This return service attracts the customers to make sure that their buying decision would not be a bad deal for them. Samsung, HTC, and Xiaomi are just a few of the big mobile companies that are competing with the performance of Apple in the different marketplace. The quest for new ways to attract customers is becoming increasingly competitive. In the global marketplace, various organizations have their individuality in popular brands. Among them, Apple is considered as a leading company that intends to implement tactics for acquiring more market share and improving customer happiness. The impact of brand image on customer satisfaction can be easily understood with the help of few examples with the help of defining factors related to the brand image of a company.

Brand Image and Its Impacts

According to Nagel (2010), a good brand image helps customers to recognize and differentiate the brand from its closest rivals by allowing them to identify requirements that it primarily serves. This is a word, symbol, name, or any other attribute that is used to identify one company’s goods from another. Differentiation of one particular from applicable marketing techniques is the major focus of branding processes (Keller, Parameswaran, and Jacob, 2011). It is the unique set of relationships that exist in the minds of customers in connection to any brand’s location and implicit promises. For direct pricing of products and constant time, brand image is mostly established via advertising campaigns. Furthermore, Lang (2021) said that consumer wants in acquiring items from a supposedly well-known brand name and attracting attention to their behavior in specific situations. Brand loyalty is the most accurate indicator of an organization’s health. The revenue of Apple has grown by 13.5% from 2017 to 2019. As a result, revenue was reached $260 billion in 2019 in comparison to $229 in 2017 (Garg, 2020).

Brand Equity and Customer Satisfaction

This mostly pertains to the location of the property as well as the responsibility associated with the brand name and symbol. Brand fairness, according to Robben Media LLC (2021), refers to the unique cost of advertising imposed by a certain good. It refers to the positive impact on product equity that happens when customers are ready to spend more money because of the attractiveness of services or products of the company. One example of the brand as an equity kind addresses legal duties for intellectual property maintenance. In this regard, Apple uses International property rights that facilitate the company to ensure the safety and security of its products from the breach of product design, technology, innovation, and software (Apple Inc., 2021). Further, inappropriate management might potentially devastate brand equity. Poor customer service, for example, has a negative impact on brand image and leads to a drop in sales volume. In this context, it can be stated that Apple uses appropriate management of its legal duties and responsibilities such as the protection of the private information of the customers from the purchasing of products to during the use of the product. As per the statement of Larreche (2013), “Satisfaction is the fulfilling reaction of the consumer.” It is the evaluation of goods and characteristics with a satisfactory degree of consumption-based satisfaction and a low level of under-fulfillment. Correspondingly, Johansson and Carlson (2014) said that previous studies related to customer satisfaction focused on the impacts of prospect, performance, and possible disconfirmation. Customer expectations are primarily pre-trial views about the product operating through orientation position normal on the image of the product. As per the below presented figure 1, it is clear that the quality, performance, customization, and latest technology are some aspects that are used by the company to make its image in the market. This is because that these aspects are generally asked by the customers for feeling better experience about the products.

Figure 1: Brand Identity Prism for Apple Inc
(Source: NPS Benchmarks, 2018)

For example, the logo of the company reflects the concerns of the company towards the target customers. This symbol of the product is trusted for the customers that mean the customers purchases the products with the madness. The products of Apple give satisfaction to customers because of its microcomputer nature that is based on innovation and gives the best experience to the customers. Further, the products of Apple are sold by the company to the customer in an emotional manner. The brand positioning strategy of the company is based on the interconnectivity with the customers. As a result, the company ensures the success of every new product in the market and ensures the growth of the organization in the future. Further, the R&D process of the company is also based on the self-enhancement in that company uses the self-conducted analysis of the existing products. With the help of the company may easily know the performance of products and their impacts on the performance of the company in the market.

Brand Association and Customer Satisfaction

Brand Associations are another factor that relates to the brand image of a product and reflects towards the satisfaction of the customers. It is distinguished by a warm relationship between the brand and memory. It is a composite concept that consists mostly of links between one another, such as many incidents, facts, thoughts, and instances. Its goal is to increase brand network awareness (Frank, 2015). As per the example of Apple, it can be stated that each policy of the company relates to the customers’ needs and desires. For example, the feedback survey of the company is only implemented to know the association of the brand with the desires of the customers (Schultz et al., 2015). Only it is useful for the company to develop the only such products such as iPhone, and iPad that improves the brand association.

Perceived Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Perceived Quality is mainly related to the customer’s impression of an advantage based on product as well as service excellence. It is a physical product that contributes to brand awareness (Edgeman, 2019). The goal of a certain brand’s perceived quality is to create value by offering from purchasing, charging premium pricing, and enticing members to join distribution channels. In this regard, it can be stated that the management of Apple ensures the customer that they are purchasing not only a quality product but also premium product that is not easily available to others (Edgeman, 2019). For example, Apple iPhone comes with a premium price policy that only targets the creamy target customers in the market rather than general customers.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it concluded that the brand image of the product imposes positive impacts on the performance of the company in the competitive market.

References

Apple Inc. (2021). Intellectual Property. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/in/legal/intellectual-property/
Apple Inc. (2021). Returns & Refunds. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/shop/help/returns_refund
Edgeman, R. (2019). Complex Management Systems and the Shingo Model: Foundations of Operational Excellence and Supporting Tools. CRC Press.
Frank, M. (2015). Investigating and identifying reasons for brand loyalty of the Apple-iPhone brand in Germany. GRIN Verlag.
Garg, P. (2020). How has Apple gained a competitive edge over the years. Retrieved from https://medium.com/macoclock/how-has-apple-gained-competitive-edge-over-the-years-aff0a259de0d
Johansson, J. and Carlson, K. (2014). Contemporary Brand Management. SAGE Publications.
Keller, K., Parameswaran, M. and Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. Pearson Education India.
Lang, V. (2021). Brands and Branding. What makes a brand valuable, using Apple’s innovation strategy as example. GRIN Verlag.
Larreche, J. (2013). The Momentum Effect: The secrets of efficient growth. Pearson UK.
Nagel, S. (2010). Analysis of value, image and positioning of a brand: An analysis of the brand Apple in Regard to the VIP-Criteria. GRIN Verlag.
NPS Benchmarks (2018). The Reasons Behind Apple’s Customer Loyalty and High NPS. Retrieved from https://www.retently.com/blog/apple-nps/
Robben Media LLC. (2021). How to Measure Brand Equity Like apple. Retrieved from https://robbenmedia.com/measuring-brand-equity/
Sakas, D. and Konstantopoulos, N. (2010). Marketing and Management Sciences: Proceedings of the International Conference on ICMMS 2008. World Scientific.
Schultz et al. (2015). Building Customer-brand Relationships. Routledge.