1.1 Background of the Study
Branding management is the process of identifying the core value of a particular brand reflecting the core value among the targeted customers. The origin of branding can be traced to pre-historic time. The practice may have first begun with the branding of farms animals in the Middle East in the neoteric (outdated) period. In Stone Age and Bronze Age, cave paintings depict images of branding cattle.
Companies all over the world whether the service or manufacturing firms, recognize the essential role branding plays in the course of business. In the present day marketing practice, branding has become an active weapon marketers use to strengthen their competitive advantage and thus improve the accomplishment of their prearranged objectives. According to Evans and Barman (2010), product branding is an important part of products planning, it is the procedure a firm follows in researching, and implementing its brands when concealing, developing and managing its products or services, a firm needs to make and enact a variety of decision regarding its brands and packages to be used with each product. The hospitality industry has seen a steady growth over the years, of which most of the major industry players compete with their global partners.
One of a firm’s essential assets is a well-established brand name that provides competitive advantages, both tangibles and intangibles, on its performance. Effective management of a brand creates an identity for products and services and differentiates them from its core competitors. For that reason, building and managing strong brands have been considered a key driver of success in the hospitality industry. This has increased the competition in the industry. Branding is considered a key factor when companies strive to improve business performance and customer service.
It is significant to note that hospitality industry, in this day and era, are flooded with products and services which show no significant physical or tangible difference. Therefore, creating an appropriate characteristic through brand will draw a great distinction between products and services of different hotels. Brands reduce safety and social and financial risks of customers in buying products. These risks are considered as effective factors in evaluating the product before buying it (Robat, 2011). As a result, the company will succeed in the market and competitive advantage will be gained (Lee, 2010). Today, organizations attempt to live on with the help of customer satisfaction and more sale and profit through market researches and identification of customers’ needs in the current world of competition.
Therefore, one of the ways of achieving the mentioned objectives is to analyse the concept of marketing mix in any kind of business. Any sort of marketing has impact on brand loyalty and marketing mix elements are a set of controllable marketing variables in the hands of managers and decision-makers of the company. If the relationships between these elements and brand loyalty and especially its aspects are determined, the decision-makers of the company will easily decide upon how to employ marketing mix elements to gain the highest brand value and stable profit.
Due to the intangible features of products in the hospitality industry, the importance of brand loyalty in these products is extremely high and the product or service choice of this industry is made through its brand. Thus, owing to the starring role of branding in the country’s industry and the importance of brand loyalty on firms’ product, the necessity for studying the effective factors in brand loyalty in markets especially that of hotels which its products and services involve more complexity, similarities and require special support services cannot be ignored. The hotel industry in Nigeria is characterized with intense competition and as a result product and service differentiation through proper branding strategies is the only way to stay connected to customers and increased marketing performance.
Brands have become the focal link in consumer markets due to their ability to offer value for both the customers and the companies (Keller, 2013). However, more attention must be paid to develop a systematic view of products and brands as it determined how pricing decisions, promotion, services, and distribution are combined with the product so that brand loyalty is created, maintained and sustained.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In view of the challenges of today’s business, organizations attempt to attract new customers and have adopted the strategy of keeping the current customers and inspiring their loyalty. Therefore, the customer satisfaction is not sufficient and marketers must attempt to improve and promote their loyalty more and more. Branding has become one of the most important aspects of business strategy. Yet it is also one of the most misunderstood.
Branding is sometimes considered to be merely an advertising function. And many managers and business writers hold the view that branding is about the management of product image, a supplementary task that can be isolated from the main business of product management communications. This has however leads to a complete neglect on the importance of branding. Poor branding has also resulted in poor differentiation of firms’ products leading to low patronage of these products. It is therefore imminent to bring to afore the importance of branding on organizational performance. The afore mentioned problems and other related problems motivated the study.
LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 3.1: Sample Distribution – – – – 30
Table 4.1.1: Responses to Research Question One – – 33
Table 4.1.2: Responses to Research Question Two – – 34
Table 4.1.3: Responses to Research Question Three – – 36
Table 4.2.1A: Observed Frequency Table for Hypothesis One – 39
Table 4.2.1B: Expected Frequency Table for Hypothesis One – 40
Table 4.2.1C: Comparison of Observed Frequency with Expected
Frequency for Hypothesis One – – – 40
Table 4.2.2A: Observed Frequency Table for Hypothesis Two – – 42
Table 4.2.2B: Expected Frequency Table for Hypothesis Two – 43
Table 4.2.2C: Comparison of Observed Frequency with Expected
Frequency for Hypothesis Two – – – 43
Table 4.2.3A: Observed Frequency Table for Hypothesis Three – 45
Table 4.2.3B: Expected Frequency Table for Hypothesis Three- – – 46
Table 4.2.3C: Comparison of Observed Frequency with Expected
Frequency for Hypothesis Three – – – 46
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Title Page – – – – – – – – i
Approval Page – – – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgments – – – – – – – – v
Abstract – – – – – – – – vi
List of Tables – – – – – – – – – vii-viii
Table of Contents – – – – – – – -ix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study – – – – – 4
1.4 Research Questions – – – – – – – 4
1.5 Statement of Hypotheses – – – – – – 5
1.6 Significance of the Study – – – – – – 6
1.7 Scope of the Study – – – – – – – 6
1.8 Limitations of the Study – – – – – – 6
1.9 Organization of the Study – – – – – – 7
1.10 Definition of Terms – – – – – – 7
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
- Conceptual framework – – – – – – 9
2.1.1 Meaning and Concept of Brand Management – – – 9
- Brand Elements impact on Service Delivery – – – – 11
- The Problems of Product Brand Management – – – 31
- Possible solutions to the problems of product Branding – – 32
- Theoretical Framework – – – – – – 33
2.2.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) – – – – 33
2.2.2 Brand Personality Theory – – – – – – 35
- Empirical Framework – – – – – – – 35
2.3.1 Product Brand management as a Strategy for Effective Marketing in Business Organization – – – – – 35
2.3.2 The Influence of Hotel Restaurant Walk-In Customer Brand Personality on Their Post Behaviour Intention – – – 36
2.3.3 The Influence of Brand Personality on Customer Loyalty in Fast Food Restaurants in Kisumu City – – – – – – 37
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design – – – – – – – 39
3.2 Population of the Study – – – – – – 39
3.3 Sampling Technique – – – – – – – 40
3.4 Sample Size – – – – – – – – 40
3.4 Instrumentation – – – – – – 41
3.5 Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – 42
3.6 Problems of Data Collection – – – – – – 44
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 Analysis of Research Questions – – – – – 45
4.1.1 Research Question One – – – – – – 45
4.1.2 Research Question Two – – – – – – 46
4.1.3 Research Question Three – – – – – – 47
4.2 Test of Hypotheses – – – – – – 48
4.2.1 Test of Hypothesis One – – – – – – 48
4.2.2 Test of Hypothesis Two – – – – – – 51
4.2.3 Test of Hypothesis Three – – – – – – 54
4.3 Discussion of Findings – – – – – 57
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of Findings – – – – – – – 59
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – – 60
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – – – 60
References
Appendix I
Appendix II