A Study of Brand Image towards Customer's Satisfaction in the Malaysian Hotel Industry

Branding is known to be important to an organization. Through effective and efficient branding research and development, it is believed that the attainment of proper organizational return on investment (ROI) can be viably achieved. Therefore, establishing a strong brand image is inevitable to ensure the overall organizational success. This research was conducted to study the importance of brand image towards customers’ satisfaction and to examine whether the brand image influences customers’ satisfaction. Citing from the past literature it was found that brand image was among the first constituents that customers will adhere to when selecting accommodation. In this study, a total of 300 questionnaires were deployed with a 75% response rate. The finding was found to be intriguing and revealed that brand image does influence customer satisfaction in the Malaysian hotel industry context. Thus, this study is valuable because it strengthens further the understanding of what customers really want when choosing a hotel. Therefore, this study has the capacity to offer hotel operators a way to plan, formulate, and decide to what extent they should improve their brand image to compete in the long run.