The Influence of Socialization Agents and Demographic Profiles on Brand Consciousness.

Brand consciousness is more than simply an awareness or preferences for brand names. It is the understanding that brand names, in general, have personal relevance or value in that they serve as a signal of functional or symbolic value. In the United States, the importance of brand names is well established. However, there is little understanding of the importance brand names hold in other cultures. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate how socialization agents-media, parents,
and peers-influence on students' brand consciousness in apparel and influences differ according to students demographic characteristics. Participants were 230
students in second semester, who undertaking Bachelor of Business Administration in Universiti Utara Malaysia. Overall, peers exert the greatest influence. The results by
using Pearson correlation coefficients analyses suggested that, the students' brand
consciousness is, significantly correlated to each socialization factor. However, of the media related analysis, only movie viewing shows a significant correlation. The other two have significant correlation with parental influence and peer influence. Moreover,
gender and ethnicity differences were also analyzed on socialization agents and brand consciousness. As the results have indicated, media exposure analyses revealed the most significant differences: female students were more likely to watch TV, listen to music (radio, CDs), and spend time online than were males, while Malay students
were more likely to listen to music and spend time online than were Chinese, Indian, and other(Siamese, Singaporean, Indonesian, Other). For influence from parents and peers, only gender played a factor: female students were more likely to be influenced by parents and peers than males. Other significant differences were found for brand
consciousness across gender and ethnicity: female students were more likely to have higher brand-consciousness than males, while students of other ethnic groups were more likely to be highly brand-conscious than Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Family and consumer educators should consider findings of this study as a guide to give better education to students as consumers.