The Influence of Brand Awareness and Brand Association on the Repurchase Intention of Dr. Martens's Shoes in Surabaya City

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
While the fashion industry in the global market is growing rapidly, the footwear industry does not want to lose the competition.In 2021, Indonesia became the fourth country with the most shoe consumers with 806 million pairs of shoes (World Footwear Yearbook, 2022).Many consumers are now willing to spend more money to be able to have the shoes they want.Now, shoes are not only seen in terms of their usefulness as footwear but they have become part of a person's lifestyle that may be able to reflect their social status and characteristics.Shoes are one of the secondary needs of a human being that is no less important than clothing.Although they are only worn on the lower part of the body, the durability and comfort of shoes must be maintained by taking care of them.Nowadays, many people combine the clothes they wear with the shoes they will wear.Therefore, many people have more than one type of shoe to mix and match with their clothes to make their appearance more harmonious.

Corresponding Author: Sugeng Purwanto *Cite this Article: Agam Syahreza Putra, Sugeng Purwanto (2024). The Influence of Brand Awareness and Brand Association on the Repurchase Intention of Dr. Martens's Shoes in Surabaya City. International Journal of Social Science and Education Research Studies, 4(1), 01-04
Shoes have an important role in terms of dressing, as a support for appearance, and personal identity.According to him, shoes can also improve performance.Various types of shoes are now on the market and make consumers have a wide selection of shoe types and brands.The development of the footwear industry has also been supported by technological advances so that the limitations to see and know the trends that occur throughout the world no longer exist.Consumers' limited information on the quality of products in the market makes them tend to use "brand" as a tool to distinguish and measure the quality of a product.Therefore, to enter this potential market, the role of marketing in the company is very important.One of the many marketing strategies that can be used is to use the company's assets, namely brands.According to Kotler et al. (2017: 250) in (M Mishael, 2021), a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or a combination of all of them that identifies the maker or seller of a product or service.With a brand, consumers can easily distinguish the quality, characteristics and benefits of each product that appears in the market.More and more types of shoes and shoe brands are now on the market.This allows consumers to have many choices to make the right decision about the design and type of shoes they want.
Public awareness of a brand is called brand awareness.Brand awareness is the ability of potential buyers to recognize and remember brands that are included in a product category (Kartajaya, 2010: 64).In general, consumers tend to purchase products with brands that they already know for convenience and safety.Brand is a product description, which is also a differentiator from other products.Brands can describe the quality of a product, so it is not surprising that many consumers decide to buy a product based on a particular brand.Brands have the power to bind potential buyers to buy the product.One of the functions of brand awareness is to help brands understand how brand awareness creates value.With this brand awareness, it is hoped that the brand will reappear from memory and become a consideration for various alternatives in making decisions.The existence of this brand awareness makes the brand quality high, and the value provided by the brand is good for customers.Brand awareness can also be interpreted as a brand or brand that has high awareness will help unite a good image of the brand itself because the ability to explore high brands in the minds of customers (Herdioko & Karisma, 2021).Meanwhile, according to Prihani & Manurung (2018), it is explained that brand awareness is the ability of a consumer to recognize a brand.The second level is brand recognition where a person can recognize and remember several brands with help such as a list of brands, a list of brand marks or logos.The third level is brand recall where a person can mention certain brands in a category without assistance.Finally, top of mind where at this level the brand is the first to be remembered by someone when asked about a product This association with the brand in other languages is brand association.According to Aaker (1991: 101) in (Pandiangan et al, 2021) brand association is everything that is related and connected to consumers' memories and thoughts about a brand.Similar to what was stated by Durianto et al. ( 2004) when an impression appears in the minds and memories of consumers about a brand, that is what is called a brand association.According to Astuti and Cahyadi (2007) a positive brand association encourages consumers to use the brand.When consumers have bought and used a product, the experience they get from the product with a certain brand can create a positive impression of the brand or product and result in consumers making repurchases (Hellier et al, 2003).According to Anoraga (2014: 207) this repurchase intention is a decision-making process carried out by consumers after making a purchase of a good or service.Brand awareness and brand association are one of the factors that can influence consumers in making repeat purchases.These two theories are dimensions of brand equity.This is in line with previous research conducted by Wahyudi (2018), his research shows that brand equity has a positive value which indicates that the dimensions of brand equity, namely brand awareness and brand association, have a positive relationship with the intention to repurchase Daniel Wellington watches so that the higher the level of brand equity owned by a brand, the higher the consumer's repurchase intention.Then a similar study conducted by Wahyuddin et al, (2019) states that the test results of the dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, and brand loyalty) have a positive and significant effect simultaneously on the repurchase intention of Converse All Star shoes.Then another reason consumers intend to make repeat purchases is that they feel that when wearing Dr. Martens brand shoes, they are more confident.This is a relationship that occurs with consumers thanks to a sense of consumer attachment to a brand.Then the confidence felt by consumers, if it is related to theory, refers to brand association theory because consumers directly feel a positive difference and feel satisfied from their experience wearing Dr. Martens shoes.Brand association is everything related to memories about a brand (Rangkuti, 2002).If a brand is communicated based on experience or visible appearance, the relationship between consumers and the brand will be stronger (Prayudi, 2020).Therefore, researchers want to find out further whether the theory of brand awareness and brand association affects the repurchase intention of Dr. Martens shoes either partially or simultaneously.Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the Analysis of the Effect of Brand Awareness and Brand Association on Repurchase intention of Dr. Martens Shoes in Surabaya City.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW Brand
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or combination thereof that is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiate the brand from competitors (Kotler & Keller, 2009).A brand is not only an identity of a product or service but also a promise of value given to potential customers.Branding is providing products and services with brand strength that distinguishes them from other brands.Branding creates a mental structure that helps customers organize knowledge about products and services in a way that explains decision making and in the process provides value to the company.For a branding strategy to be successful, customers must be convinced that there are meaningful differences between brands (Kotler & Keller, 2009).

Repurchase Intention
Repurchase intention or repurchase interest is a customer's interest in purchasing a good / service repeatedly and is influenced by several existing factors.One of the factors that can cause repurchase interest is the brand because the brand that has been attached to the customer's heart will encourage customers to choose the brand again in the future (Nurhayati & Murti, 2012).According to Ferdinand (2002), there are 4 indicators to measure a person's repurchase interest.First, transactional interest, namely the urge from within a person to repurchase products that have been consumed.Second, referential interest is the urge to recommend products that have been purchased to others by referencing the experience gained.Third, preferential interest is the behavior of a person who makes a product the first choice compared to other products.In general, someone can leave their preferred choice if something happens to the product.Fourth, exploratory interest is a person's behavior to always seek information about a product or brand of interest.Usually looking for information to support the positive properties of the product or brand.

Brand Awareness
According to Aaker (2009), brand awareness can be measured based on several levels from lowest to highest.The lowest level is unaware of brand where someone is not aware of the existence of a brand.The second level is brand recognition where a person can recognize and remember several brands with help such as a brand list, stamp list or brand logo.Brand awareness is how consumers associate a brand with a particular product they want to own.To gain awareness and understanding of consumer purchasing decisions, companies invest heavy financial and time resources and study consumer behavior towards a brand (Akhtar et al., 2016: 809).According to Su and Chang (2017: 4), the concept of brand awareness consists of brand recognition and brand recall, while brand recognition is the basic and first step in brand communication; and brand recall refers to the ability of consumers to recall brands from memory, for example, when a product category or its needs are met by the mentioned category.H1.It is suspected that Brand Awareness has a positive effect on Repurchase Intention of Dr. Martens shoes in Surabaya.

Brand Association
Brand association is everything that is directly or indirectly related to the brand in the customer's memory of the brand (Aaker, 2013: 208).Brand associations are classified into three main categories: attributes, benefits, and attitudes (Su and Chang, 2017: 5).Product attributes and benefits for customers are associations that have a real relationship because they provide reasons to buy and create positive attitudes or feelings in consumers (Aaker, 2013: 208).In addition, in Brochado and Oliveira (2017: 6) it is stated that brand associations of any kind, can be what reflects product features in the minds of consumers including a set of images, ideas, facts, or any element that has created a strong relationship with brand knowledge.Therefore, these associations contain meaning connected to the brand and consist of several ideas, events and facts that build a strong network of brand knowledge.H2.It is suspected that Brand Association has a positive effect on Repurchase Intention of Dr. Martens shoes in Surabaya.
The research framework in this study can be described as follows: