1.

Analysis of Brand Awareness and Brand Association Section one of the questionnaire deals with brand awareness within the oil and gas recruitment industry and in particular the customers awareness about Bolashak. As an introduction the questionnaire included questions (1.1 and 1.2) to investigate how many recruitment agencies the applicants are registered with and if these agencies are based in the UK or overseas. The findings indicated that only 8 % of candidates were registered with one recruitment agency, 12% of candidates were registered with two, 19% of candidates with three and 61 % of candidates were registered with more than three agencies. |Number of Agencies Registered With |One |8% |Two |12% |Three |19% |More |61% |TOTAL |100% |Percentage |4 |6 |10 |32 |52 |Frequency | | | | | |

Table 4.1 Agency registration frequency Source: Fieldwork by the researcher (2009) Table 4.2 presents percentage and frequency of agencies that candidates are registered with by geographic locations. It must be noted that participants were allowed to select more than one answer in question 1.2. The results showed that candidates were registered with the UK based agencies which represented - 37 %, with Europe - 19%, with Middle East and Africa - 16%, with Asia - 15% and with the USA agencies - 13% subsequently(see Figure 4.1). The results also indicated that only 15% of candidates are registered with the agencies from Asia. Bolashak originally being from Central Asia, had the chance of increasing the number of interested candidates to register with the Asian agencies. The opening of an office in the UK will lead to direct access and attract professionals from the UK. This must be of particular importance for Bolashak to attract professional candidates from the UK in order to provide services to its Clients and meet their workforce demands. |Geographic Locations of Agencies |Percentage |UK |37% |38 |Europe |19% |20 |Asia |15% |15 |USA |13% |14 |Middle East & Africa |16% |16 |Frequency | | | | | |

|TOTAL

|100%

|103

Table 4.2 Geographic locations of agencies customers are registered with Source: Fieldwork by the researcher (2009) [pic] Figure 4.1 Locations and number of agencies customers are registered with Source: Google (2009) Note: Respondents were allowed to select more than one answer in this question Question 1.3 investigated the extent to which the applicants make choice when choosing the agency to register with in terms of familiar brand name versus an unknown agency from another country (Table 4.3). |Familiar Brand Name Preference |Yes |56% |No |44% |TOTAL |100% |Percentage |29 |23 |52 |Frequency | | | |

Table 4.3 Familiar brand name preference Source: Fieldwork by the researcher (2009) The results showed that 56% of respondents make their preference towards the company with the familiar brand name whereas 44% of respondents can choose to register with companies without a familiar brand name. It stresses the importance of building and managing the Bolashak brand awareness in the UK as the majority of applicants prefer the brand with a familiar name. Bolashak may need to market itself as the UK agency in the country. Questions 1.4 and 1.5 were directly linked to brand awareness of Bolashak. In particular, question 1.4 investigated how applicants became familiar with the brand name Bolashak (see Chart 4.1). The results indicated that 40% of applicants became familiar with the brand through recommendation of a friend/colleague. 23% of the UK respondents had past experience with the Bolashak brand, and 15 % of respondents became familiar with Bolashak via media advertising. Additionally, 10% of respondents have indicated they came to know Bolashak through its web site and the remaining 12% of respondents clarified they were introduced to Bolashak by its partner companies or by the client companies when they were given the chance to choose the agency to be employed by. As Aaker adds (2009), recognition as first stage of loyalty reflects the familiarity gained from the past experience.