Brand Equity and Its Impact on Consumer Preferences in the Case of the Bulgarian Wine Industry

Brand equity has becoming one of the emerging topics in the resent literature. It plays important role to the companies\u92 success if it is managed and created with the necessary understanding and efforts exert by managers. If brand equity is build successfully it has the power to influence consumers\u92 perceptions and preferences towards specific products. This research observes brand equity in the Bulgarian wine industry as no previous research was undertaken before in this direction. This thesis describes the creation of brand equity through observing its main four constructs, which are brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations and perceived quality, from a consumer perspective. It also observes the key marketing communication tools that contribute to the creation of brand equity. The main objective of the study aims to explore how brand equity can be measured in relation to Bulgarian wine consumers\u92 preferences and in what way it affects them. And in addition to draw the most important managerial implications that result from the development of brand equity. In order to obtain the necessary information to answer this research\u92 objectives structured questionnaires were distributed to Bulgarian wine consumers to find more about their preferences and purchasing decisions. In general the findings found that consumers show loyalty and emotional connections with some Bulgarian wine brands, appreciate their quality, recall specific brands and favour the ones with longer and positive reputation. After the analysis of the results it was found that several Bulgarian brands exist as leaders among the four brand equity dimensions, and hence a positive connection between the dimensions and consumers\u92 brand preferences was established