The Influence of Selected Marketing Strategies on the Brand Favorability: A Special Reference to the Yemeni Market

The objective of this study is to determine the role of marketing strategies in brand favorability. It is a primary data research where data was collected through questionnaire. For analyzing purpose, AMOS and SPSS software have been used. A convenient sampling method was applied to select the respondents. The EFA is applied to construct the study dimensions. The validity and reliability were testing using the CFA outcomes. To test the hypotheses, the Structural Equation Modeling was used. The study found that, there is a positive and direct impact between distribution strategy, labeling strategy, advertising strategy, and brand favorability. Theoretically, the results can be used as a start point for making deep research in the same area. Practically, the results provide marketing managers with many suggestions for improving marketing strategies. The study results are limited only to the consumers in, small geographic area, Ibb town, Yemen.

2 Almugari, Fatehi Ali : The Influence of Selected Marketing Strategies on the Brand Favorability: A Special Reference to the Yemeni Market According to Juni and Gross (2008), the label plays a critical role in distinguishing one product from another at point of sale, especially with wide choices in branded products. In the same quest, Gialitakis and Chryssochoidis (2006) mentioned that manufacturers use many executions to differentiate their packs; these include colors, graphics, pictures, symbols, etc.
Still very few studies explore the relationship between marketing strategies and brand favorability in general and specifically in the Yemeni market. However, we found much literature about marketing strategies and consumer attitude but mostly are in developed countries' context. The authors of the present study are failed to find a study on overall marketing, affecting brand favorability among Yemeni consumers.
In contrast with previous studies, this study is an empirical study from the Yemeni consumers' perspective.
This paper aims at investigating the relation between selected marketing strategies and consumer attitude toward brand favorability. We investigated many marketing strategies that may affect Yemeni consumers toward brand favorability like Intensive Distribution, Product Innovation, Customer Value-Based Pricing, and Labeling. The study provides researchers, marketers, and managers with an important glance about factors affecting consumers' brand favorability in the Yemeni market. The research into consumer behavior is still in its infancy stage in the Yemeni market. Therefore, this paper entirely based on consumer behavior aspects.
This article is structured as follows. Section tow presents literature review. Section three provides the research hypotheses and model. Section four descripts the research methodology, section five discusses the results, and section six gives the implications of the study. Section seven concludes, section eight presents implications and section nine give the limitations of the research.

Brand Favorability
Fuchs and Diamantopoulos (2010) mentioned that successful brand positioning is standing on two pillars "differentiation and favorability". The differentiation is related to the product, where the favorability is related to consumer perception toward the brand (Mahajan & Wind, 2002). According to Dacin and Smith (1994)

Distribution
According to Yoo et al. (2000), distribution strategy is effective when products are distributed in large numbers in the market. For increasing favorability level, companies may distribute selectively or exclusively rather than intensively (Yoo et al., 2000). However, consumers may be more satisfied when products are available intensively because saving time and efforts (Ferris, Oliver & de Kluyver, 1989). According to Smith (1992), distribution strategy increases consumer satisfaction as a result of time-saving, place utility, and reduction of sacrifices. According to Burnett (2008), companies like Timex and Conca-Cola have achieved success depending on their distribution strategy. Moliner et al. (2007) confirmed that "customer perceive the high-quality products from high advertising spending, high price, good store image, and high intensive distribution". In contrast with selective distribution, intensive distribution is used to sell products in as many outlets as possible; such a strategy is fit for convenience goods (Tanner, 2012).
Studies in Economics and Business Relations 3 Saeed, et. al. (2013) mentioned, "Labeling influences the consumer buying behavior, but there are some other factors also, which influence the consumer buying behavior". Wright (2010) mentioned that " Faced with the arrays of product choices at the point of sale the effective use of labeling will help to support the advertised claims". Davies and Wright, (1994) confirmed that labeling plays an important role in differentiating one product from another, especially the consumers are faced many alternative branded processed products. In the same quest, Borin et al. (2010) confirmed that, more labeling information may lead to misleading the consumers, where he found that " From over 450 foods sampled survey, 79 per cent of labels and 79 per cent of advertisements were classified as unacceptable". Similarly, the Consumer's Association in 1988, as cited in (Borin et al., 2010),stated, consumers may be confused over brand claims.

Advertising
Belch and Belch (2013) stated, "Advertising creativity is both original and appropriate". Belch and Belch (2012) stated, "The manner in which an advertising message is planned and executed can often lead to the ultimate success or failure of a product/ brand". Many studies found that advertising strategy could affect positively of the success of a product or a brand. Miller (1991) found that, advertising strategy has a positive influence on the purchasing intentions, brand preference, and persuasiveness. In addition, Campbell (2011) concluded, "the world's most valuable brands receive positive financial impacts due to great advertising creativity". Similarly, Sheinin et al. (2011) found that advertising strategy had a positive influence on attitude toward both short and long-term recall as well as the brand differentiation. While a study by Anderson (2004) indicates, "creative advertising for the Apple IPod broke through the clutter and generated positive publicity for the product".

Study Hypotheses and Model
This study is exploratory. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to construct dimensions of this study. Based on the outcome of the EFA, the conceptual study framework was developed, as shown in figure 1.

Research Methodology
This study aims to test the relationship between distribution strategy, branding strategy, advertising strategy, and brand favorability, in the context of convenience goods, in the Yemeni market. The factor analysis was applied to construct the variables of this study (Malhotra, 2007). A convenient sampling method was applied to select the participants who located in Ibb town, Yemen. In total, 600 respondents, only 488 responses were selected for further analysis. The data was analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 software. The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The reliability and validity are tested using the outcomes of CFA.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a powerful statistical tool to combine a set of items to measure the same construct (Kerlinger and Lee, 2000). Since the items of this study are self-constructed, the factor analysis was used to construct the related factors. In addition, EFA with CFA were used to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaire.
Pre EFA, the sample size is taken into consideration as well as the relationship between the variables (Malhotra, 2007). Therefore, KMO and Bartlett's test (Table 1) is applied.

Reliability and Validity
Joppe (2000) defined reliability as "The extent to which results are consistent over time, and an accurate representation of the total population under study is referred to as reliability, and if the results of a study can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research instrument is considered to be reliable". Whereas, Golafshani (2003) defined validity as "whether the means of measurement are accurate and whether they measure what they are intended to measure". is the square of inter-correlation between two constructs (factors). If MSV is less than AVE, the discriminant validity is confirmed (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Hypotheses Testing and Interpretation
The hypotheses and structural model were evaluated after attaining a well-validated measurement model. The  The results show that all the hypotheses, suggested in this study, are supported. H01 shows a direct impact of distribution strategy on brand favorability (β = 0.467, t = 10.02, p = .000). The β value = 0.467 indicates that distribution strategy affects the dependent variable brand favorability by about 46 per cent. Therefore, a 1 per cent increase in distribution strategy will result in a 46 per cent improvement in brand favorability. The R 2 (0.487) indicates that, overall, the independent variables, distribution strategy, labeling strategy, and advertising strategy predicted the dependent variable brand favorability by 48.7 per cent (Table 6). Therefore, the error variance of brand favorability is approximately 52.3 per cent of the total variance.

Discussion
The study found a positive and significant relation between distribution strategy and brand favorability. This finding is in line with Ferris et al. (1989), Smith (2000), and Moliner et al. (2007) who found that effective distribution strategy led to enhancing consumers' favorability due to saving time, efforts, place utility, and reduction of sacrifices.
Furthermore, the study revealed a positive and significant relationship between labelling strategy and brand differentiation. In the same quest, Talebnejad et al. (2019) found that illustrate some color and shape attributes play a significant role in the perception of Iranian consumers toward selecting a brand. Furthermore, Gulzira and Han (2019) mentioned that labeling is a psychological factor that shapes consumer's behavior and their decision.
They found a positive and significant relation between labeling strategy and brand favorability.
Also, the study found that advertising strategy has a positive and direct impact on brand favorability. This

Conclusion
The study investigated many marketing strategies that may affect Yemeni consumers toward brand favorability like distribution strategy, labeling strategy, and advertising strategy. The study provides researchers, Studies in Economics and Business Relations 9 marketers, and managers with an important glance about factors affecting consumers' brand favorability in the Yemeni market. A convenient sampling method was applied to select the participants who located in Ibb town, Yemen. In total, 600 respondents, only 488 responses were selected for further analysis after the initial data cleaning and screening. The study found that distribution strategy, labeling strategy, and advertising strategy have a significant and positive impact on the brand favorability. Theatrically, this study supported by previous studies in the same field. In addition, the findings of this study will benefit the researchers in emerging markets like Yemeni market. Practically, this study provides marketers and manufactures of convenience goods, in Yemeni market, the essential factors affecting the consumers toward brand favorability.

Study Implications
Theoretically, the results will add to previous findings on the marketing strategies and its impact on brand favorability. This study is a start point for Yemeni researchers to do more investigation in the same field. In addition, the questionnaire of this study is valid and reliable; therefore, academicians can use it for the similar studies.
Practically, based on the findings, the researcher proposes the following contributions for marketers, manufacturer, and researchers. Manufactures should make more effort to promoting labelling and pricing strategies. We suggest crucial elements, for improving labelling strategy, like using appropriate images, symbols, clear instructions and information. In addition, the study model predicts only 48.7 percent of the variance of brand favorability; we suggest that researchers do more research on the factors affecting brand favorability. Also, the questionnaire of this study is valid and reliable, and it can be used for similar studies. The study provides an evidence from low-income country. Various studies pointed out that there is a need to examine different issues in emerging and low-income countries (e.g., Al Maqtari et al., 2020, Farhan et al., 2020; Hashed & Almaqtari, 2020). Accordingly the present study provides an insight that similar studies could be conducted in different other emerging and low-income countries contexts.

Limitations
The convenience sampling method was used for collecting data, which has many limitations like lack of findings generalization. Future studies can use other sampling methods like judgmental sampling and random simple sampling methods. The second limitation is that the study model interprets only about 48.7 % of the total variance of brand favorability; we consider this as a research gap for future studies. . In addition, future studies can expand the geographical area of respondents. Furthermore, future studies can investigate why consumer prefer some specific brands to other brands of the same product.