Discriminant Analysis of Adopters and Non-Adopters of Global Brands: Empirical Evidence From India and Malaysia

The present research aims to evaluate the suggested framework in the adoption of global brands exhibited by the Indian and Malaysian consumers by integrating the concepts of brand equity and attitude. Based on the Aaker and Keller's conceptualization of brand equity and innovation diffusion theory, a list of potential facilitators of global brands adoption was derived and further used as a basis for data collection from the respondents. The data obtained was factor analyzed to determine the key dimensions that facilitate global brands adoption. Discriminant analysis was performed in order to identify the factors that are sufficient to discriminate between the respondents as adopters and non-adopters based on the resulting key dimensions. The results reveal that out of the brand equity dimensions, brand awareness is a key dimension that sufficiently discriminates between adopters and non-adopters of global brands irrespective of the level of involvement that the consumers assign to the product category in both the nations. Similarly, with regard to the attitude factors, result demonstrability is the key dimension that discriminates between adopters and non-adopters in high as well as low involvement product categories in India and Malaysia. The outcome of this research is beneficial for marketers in effective formulation of international marketing strategies. The research also underpins the importance that global brand managers need to assign various communication strategies for effective product positioning.