Perception of car brands with an emphasis on expected benefits and features as prerequisites for customer satisfaction

Brand management plays a crucial role in increasing the loyalty of current customers as well as in gaining new customers. The product brand significantly influences shopping behaviour of customers. Many customers prefer branded products to non-branded ones. Some of them prefer branded products in general; some of them prefer branded products only for selected products. This paper is focused on the analysis of the perception of ten favourite car brands by Slovak consumers with an emphasis on the quality, prestige, image and expected benefits and features. The aims of the paper are divided into three main parts: i) find out the selected car brand rank based on the influence on the purchasing behaviour of Slovak consumers; ii) assess the impact of selected socio-demographic characteristics on the expected benefits as well as on the features that the respondent´s chosen car brand should have; iii) identify the main reason why respondents focus on preferred car brands. The correlation of these factors was tested on a sample of 2002 respondents from the Slovak republic. The analysed data represent a partial result of an extensive survey. The chosen mathematical-statistical methods such as correlation analysis and testing of statistical hypotheses were applied to fulfil the purpose of the research. Based on a survey, the most influential car brands include Skoda and Volkswagen. Especially the Skoda brand has a significant position in Slovakia, given by tradition, history and place of production of these cars.