Perceived quality is the customer’s

Perceived quality is the customer’s judgment about a product’s overall excellence or superiority that
is different from objective quality (Zeithaml 1988, pp. 3 and 4). Objective quality refers to the
technical, measurable and verifiable nature of products/services, processes and quality controls. High
objective quality does not necessarily contribute to brand equity (Anselmsson et al. 2007). Since it’s
impossible for consumers to make complete and correct judgments of the objective quality, they use
quality attributes that they associate with quality (Olson and Jacoby 1972, Zeithaml 1988, Ophuis and
Van Trijp 1995, Richardson et al. 1994; Acebro´n and Dopico 2000). Perceived quality is hence
formed to judge the overall quality of a product/service. Boulding and other researchers (1993)
argued that quality is directly influenced by perceptions. Consumers use the quality attributes to
‘infer’ quality of an unfamiliar product. It is therefore important to understand the relevant quality
attributes are with regard to brand equity