Research Report about brand awareness and Image

By
Bevelyn Sarba
Yuewen Wu
Katrin Erdmann

Introduction
The report is about research conducted for the New Holland company, mapping the marketing
efforts of the company to in order to gain insight to the brand’s awareness and image. The results
will help New Holland to make marketing better decisions for 2017 and the results will reflect
New Holland’s level in the market.

Research Goal
The purpose is to provide an overview and determine the current brand awareness and image of
New Holland amongst farmers (customers of New Holland and non-customers).

● Consumers’ associations with New Holland (image)

● Aided / unaided knowledge of New Holland (awareness)
The research will allow for New Holland to have better understanding its current position in the
industry.

Problem Definition
The objectives are to gain insight to the brand awareness and image of New Holland amongst
farmers. Thus the research will focus on:

What is the current brand perception of New Holland products for the different target groups
before and after the start of the marketing campaign in 2016?
How much of consumer’s knowledge is based on marketing efforts and spontaneous
(aided/unaided)

Is New Holland currently in the elusive group for their target groups before and after the
marketing campaign in 2016?

Research Questions

Brand Perception

● Can the target group reproduce (aided/unaided) New Holland’s message of their
marketing campaign?
● What are New Holland’s most valuable characteristics to their target group?
● Why or why not would you purchase New Holland’s products?

Brand Awareness

● What is the spontaneous brand awareness of New Hollands products in their target
groups?
● What is New Holland’s assisted brand awareness of their products in their target groups?

Research Method
The research will be conducted by using quantitative method. The quantitative method will focus
on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across the target groups.

● Questionnaire
● By phone
Target group and sample

● Plant and crop Farmers of the BeNeLux countries

● Farmers economically depend on their farm
● Per country (BeNeLux) and sector (plant and crops) 150 respondents

Method: at random

Discussion of results

1. Which tractor brands are you familiar with?

From the first research question, the question is about which kind of brands respondents would
be familiar with. surprisingly, New Holland is known to 40%, other brands like John Deere and
Fendt only take 14% and 16%. From this result, New Holland is on top of respondent's mind,
respondents are spontaneous answer New Holland as their the first answer. However, this
information could be bias, because from the question 2, New Holland tractors is most owned by
36% of respondents. This information also creates biased results to a certain degree. However,
New Holland can recognize main competitors with this information. For instance, John Deere,
Fendt and Massey Fergusson are New Holland’s main competitors.

2. Which other brands do you know?

In question 2, all the respondents were asked about which other brands they know about, in total,
New Holland is named by 44%, the Second one is John Deere, Third one is Fendt. From this
result, New Holland can improve their brand reach to their potential consumers, there are few
ways can help its enhancing influence by attending fairs, do more advertisements and
sponsorships.
3. Are you familiar with New Holland?

4. Do you own a Tractor?

The question 3 and 4 also would be useful for New Holland’s further development. From the
question, New Holland can know there are around 90% of people already familiar with New
Holland. This mean New Holland's marketing campaigns are actually working really well and
they should be continued. From the question 4, 96.8% of respondents from the sample already
own a tractor, which is a good sign for New Holland, because they are already potential
customers, and they also could be the future customer too since they might need replacements.
Their already have certain knowledge, interest and need for tractors, Therefore, their opinions
and answers for further question have reason, their answers also could be valuable for New
Holland further development.

5. Which tractor brands do you own?

Question 5 indicates most respondent (36%) own New Holland tractor. This means the results
will be more influenced by New Holland customers than non customers. There is another
indication that will be useful to New Holland, the result indicates New Holland’s main
competitors (John Deere, Fendt, Massey Fergusson and Deutz Fahr).

6. Imagine you are going to purchase a new tractor, which 3 brands would you consider
buying?
The question 6 is about which 3 brands respondents would consider buying if they are going to
purchase a new tractor. From the result, New Holland named by 185 people which is 62.9% of
respondents first choice. And for the second choice and third choice, respondents did not have
clear idea of their choices. New Holland can gain more new customers since its lots of
respondent's first choice and from the previous question, 36% of respondents own New Holland
tractor, therefore, current customers still satisfied by their choice and New Holland keeps their
customers successfully.

7. New Holland vs Fendt

Question 7 compares the two brands New Holland and Fend concerning pricing
(cheap/expensive) and quality of the products (bad/good/average)
It can be seen that nearly 50% of the respondents (189 people) think of New Holland as cheap
brand whereas 27,1% (105 people) think of New Holland tractors as average priced
products.19% think of New Holland as slightly less than average priced. In stark contrast to the
New Holland responses is Fendt seen by 87,9% (340 people) as expensive brand.
WHen asked about the quality Fendt is perceived as a good quality (59%, 226 people) or
average quality (33,2%, 126 people) supplying brand i the tractor sector. Concerning New
Holland were the responses more mixed: 48,8% (187 people) think the brand has an average
quality and only 6% (23 people) think of New Holland as a good quality brand. The second
biggest answer for New Holland was bad quality with 17% (65 people).

An important result from this question is, that from the 36% who own New Holland not all
customers think that the brand delivers good quality products as the majority said that New
Holland delivered average products.
Overall is New Holland perceived as cheaper brand with average quality and therefore seen as
lucrative and sufficient brand for price conscious Farmers who do not have the funds to buy
expensive and high quality brands such as Fendt which is perceived as luxury brand supplying
high quality tractors for Farmers who want to have high end equipment
Our conclusion is New Holland and Fendt do not have same customer spectrum however New
Holland can set Fendt as benchmark for quality perception. Taking Fendt as good example and
as idol New Holland would have the inspiration to increase their customer perception.

8. Can you describe New Holland using 3 keywords?

For this question it was chosen to categorize the given answers of the respondents into three
different categories: negative, neutral and positive. Answers like “good quality” were sorted as
positive, “bad handler” was sorted as negative and the answer “blue color” was sorted as
neutral keyword. The question is overall important for New Holland as the brand can see
through the responses whether their image is positive, negative or neutral as the first thing
which comes to a potentials consumers mind while thinking about new Holland is important. It
was decided to only analyze the first named keyword of the respondents as the first thought is
the most important on and is seen as representative for the overall opinion about the brand. It
can be seen that 74% of the respondents used a positive first keyword to describe New Holland.
It was a surprise after the comparison with Fendt in question 7 where New Holland was
perceived as low quality brand by 17% that only 8% of the respondents named a negative first
keyword. Through this question it can be seen that, although the brand New Holland is mostly
seen as inexpensive average quality brand, the overall brand image is positive and only a small
a group of respondents see the brand negatively.

9. To what extent would you recommend New Holland to a friend or colleague using a score
of 1 (not likely) to 10 (very likely)
This question can be used by New Holland to determine whether the recent marketing efforts
and overall image of Nw Holland are good enough to create word of mouth. The overall stance
of the brand can be determined through the question.
However did 33% of the respondent not answer the question. This means that the findings of
this question is not representative of the overall respondent group and should be only analyzed
and used as leverage by New Holland with carefulness. From the 67% who answered the
question the majority chose 7 and 8 and only minor amounts of people choose an answer
below 5. Around 31.7% (120 people) of the overall respondents choose 8 which means that
they are in favour of recommending New Holland products. Around 15,8% (60 people) chose 7
which means that they would rather recommend New Holland than not.
As stated before own around 36% of the respondents New Holland. These 36% are included in
the chosen options of 8, 9 and 10. As the most chosen answers (7 to 10) were chosen by more
than 36% it can be seen that even Farmers who do not own a New Holland Tractor at the
moment would more likely recommend the brand to somebody than not.
This is a positive result for New Holland, however should be kept in mind that only 67%
answered the question and that the findings may not be representative for the overall Farmer
population.

10. What is the most important improvement that you could make to give New Holland a
higher rating?
This question can help New Holland to invest in the right compartments and to satisfy their
(potential) customers better. It can be seen that this question was answered by only few
respondents. 41% (155 people) did not answer the question, 14% (53 people) answered that no
improvements were needed and 26%( 98 people) had no idea what improvements they would
like to see from Nw Holland. The 72 people (19%) who did answer the question were combined
under the name “technical adjustments”. Answers which were given in this questions were very
broad and different however was one answer which was mentioned several times that the
technical features should be improved respectively new ones should be added. This response
can be linked to the response of question 7 where New Holland’s product quality was perceived
as (only) average. With improved technological features New Holland would in our conclusion
therefore increase their customer satisfaction and their perceived quality. Few respondents
want an improved design.

The next section will present a summary of the questionnaire prepared by the group.

Group questionnaire summary

The group prepared a research questionnaire regarding the current brand awareness and brand
image amongst farmers. The questionnaire was created to help New Holland measure the
effects of its marketing efforts to improve its decisions for the upcoming year. The questions
(See appendix) focused on brand awareness and brand perception amongst New Holland
customers and noncustomers. The biggest difference between the two questionnaires is, that
for the student questionnaire only spontaneous answers were wanted and d no answer options
were given to the respondents.
Conclusion
After the analyzation of the given data this are our conclusions:
- New Holland is a well known brand and named by slightly more people spontaneous as
first tractor brand (36% of respondents own New Holland and 40% named the brand
first) and perceived by the majority of respondents as positive and average brand
- The high percentage of New Holland owners who participated in the questionnaire
make some of the results biased (as they already are customers)
- Fendt (and John Deere) are awareness and image (perceived quality and price) wise
New Holland’s biggest competitors, however has New Holland not the same customer
spectrum as Fendt.
- Current New Holland customers are satisfied with the product and would consider
buying from the brand again
- The company as a hard time convincing people who are not yet customers to consider
buying from them (question 6) however would most people more likely recommend the
brand regardless of being or not being a customer
- Due to the not answering of questions are some results not representative for the
Farmers in total like the most appreciated improvements New Holland should
implement. Technical improvements were named most, which would when
implemented improve the perceived quality of New Holland

Recommendations
The following is recommended for New Holland based on the conclusions and the analyzation
part of this report:
- New Holland should keep up their marketing efforts but should invest more into the
sponsoring of events for example to increase and sustain the spontaneous brand
awareness further and expand it to non-customers
- Fendt (question 7) should be used by New Holland as benchmark and idol. New Holland
can learn from Fendt marketing campaigns
- As New Holland seems to have a difficult time to gain new customers (question 6) but
has an overall positive image and recommendation score is it greatly advised for the
company to invest not only more into the marketing and public relations but also into
their products, especially in the improvement and development of technical features
should be invested more resources. This would increase the perceived quality and
attract in the long run more customers.
 Appendix: Group Questionnaire

New Holland Questionnaire

Brand awareness: An ability to identify, recognize, or recall a brand in a certain category.
Overall brand strength, which reflects the level of the brand in the market
Brand image: A consumer‘s perceptions and feelings towards a brand shaped by direct/indirect
brand experiences, which captures cognitive, sensory, and emotional aspects. These are reflected
by the three dimensions of mystery, sensuality, and intimacy, respectively

1. Do you own a tractor

-yes 1
-no 2
- I share/lease 998
- I don’t know 999

2. Name the best 3 brands for agriculture tractors you can think of.

3. Do you remember having seen the brand New Holland before (yesterday/last month)?

4. Do you have any experience with the brand new Holland?

5. When you think of New Holland, what comes to your mind? What does New Holland mean to
you?

6. Who is the typical user of New Holland? (That is farm size, intensive or extensive farming,
industrial or private farms. -> New Holland Stereotype)

7. How does New Holland communicate with you?

8. In which ways does New Holland communicate best (e.g., commercials/ads, e-mailing, or a
website, fairs, direct contact, etc.)?

9. What are the most important characteristics of New Holland products, in your opinion? Name 3
Keywords:
10. Which Tractor brands are you currently using & why?

11. On a scale from 1-10 (1 --- ; 10 +++) how would you rate New Holland?

12. If you were to purchase an equipment at the moment, would you purchase from New Holland?

Thank you for your time!