Factors influencing brand love: A case study of Apple in Saudi Arabia

Materialism has been given great attention in the consumer behavior literature. How materialistic tendencies are shaped by advertising has also been documented. Yet, the impact of consumers’ materialism on their perceptions of ads is not clearly understood. The goal of this research is to examine the relationship between an individual’s materialism and his/her perceptions of various kinds of advertising. Using four specific advertising appeals (i.e., interpersonal, prestige/status, achievement, and appearance-related), attitudes toward the ad, and thoughts elicited by the advertisement were measured and compared across high and low materialism groups. Significant differences were found between respondents from the two groups with respect to the evaluation of each type of appeal. When prestige/status, achievement, and appearance-related appeals were used in advertising, they were evaluated more favorably by consumers with high levels of materialism than by consumers with low levels of materialism. In contrast, advertising that used an interpersonal appeal was viewed more favorably by consumers with low levels of materialism. The results of this research provide implications for marketers on three perspectives: the furthering of our conceptualization of the materialism construct, the design of promotional communication for specific target markets, and the public policy dimension of targeting consumers more vulnerable to certain appeals.

Financial performance is the fundamental aspect to test the performance of the companies. The performance of insurance sector, like any other service industry, is supposed to depend significantly on customers. When it comes to customers, it is an established fact that customer satisfaction would be an important element. Customer satisfaction primarily depends on the quality of service it gets. It can be safely hypothesized that better service quality would lead to higher satisfaction, which would ultimately lead to higher profits for the company. Studies on this relationship in the insurance sector for Saudi Arabia are missing. Hence, this study aims at studying both the profitability of companies and quality of service and tries to relate it to customer satisfaction. The results are quite surprising, as the study establishes that although the qualities of services are found wanting in many areas, companies are earning good profits. A probable reason could be the statutory nature of the services. Nevertheless, this study recommends improving the quality of services and differentiating services between age groups for further improvement.

This research aims to assess direct and indirect influences of organizational culture on job performance, as well as to evaluate the impact of each sub-element of organizational culture on such performance. It is argued that employees performance derives, on the one hand, from a long-term perspective related to changes that organizations manage and implement during their process of growth. A second dimension of organizational culture can be given through organizational values, routines and distinctive aspects of culture that allow organizations to create solid competitive advantages. Since most studies in this field were held in Western work cultures, this paper will be devoted to the analysis of this relationship within an Arabic cultural environment and more specifically within a Saudi context. A quantitative study tool, based on a comprehensive research questionnaire, was used and the sample was selected from various government departments being operative in Alkharj. The findings indicate a positive relationship between organizational culture and job performance. Likewise, four organizational culture sub-elements, namely Managing Change, Achieving Goals, Coordinating Teamwork and Cultural Strength, were found affecting positively on job performance, but with varying and distinct intensity. Only Customer Orientation was found negatively associated with job performance.