The impact of culture on consumer’s perception of brand identity

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of culture on consumers’ perception of brands, specifically brand identity in Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar), and how brands entering new markets, launching new products or modifying existing brands can gain important insights from this to make the brand culturally acceptable. Design/methodology/approach This study includes both inductive and deductive approaches. The literature review has been conducted to identity the factors of brand identity and culture, followed by the blending of the factors through Delphi method. The relationship that was identified through qualitative approach was further tested through a quantitative survey (n=1,152). The analysis includes, hypotheses testing using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Findings The results of hypothesis testing proved that culture does play a significant role in shaping how consumers perceive brand identity. The Kruskal–Wallis test showed a significant difference across three cultures. Only two constructs that were not ranked significantly different across three cultures were brand as a stance and brand through place and time. Findings of this study supported the culture-specific branding, i.e. Islamic branding in the studied context. Practical implications Brand identity can be said to be the focal point of all branding activities. Brand identity creation starts with the starting of the product or services and is passed on through the process of brand communication and is manifested through the brand image formation by customer. Once the brand identity for a brand is created, it is very tough to change it; hence, from the very beginning, marketers have to take care of the brand identity. Thus, the findings of this study can be used by brand managers and marketers to create or modify brand identity according to the culture of the target consumers. These findings could also be incorporated for designing Islamic branding strategy for the studied context. Originality/value This research uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify the brand identity and culture variables and subsequently probes the relationship among them. This study would help the brand managers in designing the brand identity for the brand operating or planning to enter in the Gulf countries.