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(A STUDY OF SELECTED BRAND OF TOOTHPASTE)
Abstract
The study investigates the relationship between loyalty and sales performance of consumer products. The main objectives of the study is to examined the extent to which brand image influences sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt, to examine the extent to which brand experience influences sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt and the extent to which customer satisfaction influences sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt. The descriptive survey was adopted. The judgmental sample technique was adopted. The primary and secondary source of information was used. A self design questionnaire was con structured on a five like scale. The sample size is 120, data were collected with the used of questionnaire. The research questions were analysed with mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were analysed with pearson product moment correlation co-efficient. The finding of the study shows that, there is a significant relationship between brand image, brands experience and sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt. Based on the finding, it is recommended that Researcher and marketer should understand the variable that determine loyalty to a company or product and to distinguished between brand and customer loyalty, although there is no much differences between the two concept, Customer brand loyalty should be seem as a sequential or chronological way to reinforce the sales performance of products in any organization and customer loyalty should become crucial. Because consumer behaviors is extremely complicated, and marketed need to better understand other moderators to the attitude behavior link.
Table of Contents
Cover Page i
Title Page ii
Declaration iii
Certification iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgements vi
Abstract vii
Table of Contents viii
List of Tables x
CHAPTER ONE 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study 4
1.4 Research Questions 4
1.5 Research Hypotheses 5
1.6 Significance of the Study 5
1.7 Scope of the Study 5
1.8 Limitations of the Study 6
1.9 Definition of Terms 6
CHAPTER TWO 8
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 Conceptual Framework 8
2.2.1 Customer Brand Loyalty 8
2.2.2 Dimensions of Customer Brand Loyalty 11
2.2.3 Concept of Sales Performance 15
2.2.4 Measures of Sales Performance 16
2.2.5 Customer Brand Loyalty and Sales Performance 19
2.3 Theoretical Framework 21
2.3.1 Commitment Trust Theory 21
2.4 Review of Related Empirical Studies 23
2.5 Summary of Review of Related Literature 24
CHAPTER THREE 26
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26
3.1 Research Design: 26
3.2 Population of the Study: 26
3.4 Sampling Techniques Used 26
3.5 Sample Size 27
3.6 Source of Data 27
3.6.1 Primary Source (s) of Data 27
3.6.2 Secondary Source of Data 27
3.7 Research Instrument for Data Collection 27
3.8 Validity and Reliability of Instrument 28
3.9 Techniques for Data Analysis/Test of hypotheses 28
CHAPTER FOUR 29
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS 29
4.1 Questionnaire Distribution and Retrieval: 29
4.2 Data Analysis and Presentation 30
4.3 Descriptive Statistical Analysis 31
4.4 Hypotheses testing 34
4.5 Discussion of Findings 36
CHAPTER FIVE 38
5.1 Introduction 38
5.2 Summary 38
5.3 Conclusion 38
5.4 Recommendations 39
REFERENCES 39
APPENDIX I 43
APPENDIX II 44
List of Tables
Table 4.1: Questionnaire Administration and Retrieval 29
Table 4.2: Table: Age of respondents 30
Table 4.3: Sex of respondents 30
Table 4.4: Academic qualification of Respondents 31
Table 4.5: Brand Image and Sales Performance 31
Table 4.6: Brand Experience And Sales Performance 32
Table 4.7: Customer Satisfaction and Sales Performance 33
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
One of the key issues of marketing theory and practice during the last decades, regard building, maintaining and developing brand loyalty in order to gain sustainable competitive advantages. Considering the dynamic marketing environment and fierce competition, brand loyalty as core dimension of brand equity is essential for any company that plans to maintain long term competitive advantages and financial performance. The role and importance of brand loyalty as fundamental parameter for establishing marketing strategies has been widely adopted by marketing experts in most organizations.
The concept of both brand loyalty and customer loyalty or equity has been viewed from a variety of perspective during the last decades. Aaker (1991) defines brand equity as a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm/or to that firms customers. Although the assets and liabilities on which brand equity is based will differ from context to context, they can be usefully grouped into brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and other proprietary brand assets. Among all, brand loyalty is the most important dimension and the core of a brand’s equity, being in some author’s views, the ultimate objective and meaning of brand equity (Tarvis, 2000).
However, research in both brand loyalty and customer loyalty uses the same multi-dimensional constructs of affective and behavioural approach. Keller (2008) considers brand equity from a customer based perspective as being the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. Brand knowledge is defined in terms of awareness and image, brand awareness being the consumers ability to identify the brand under different conditions (recognition, and/or recall), while brand image is being defined as a set of brand associations held in consumer’s memory.
Brands comprise the logo, the pictorial representation of the company or organization, the signature of the company. According to the American Marketing Association a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
Today a brand is also represented by a personality and a signature tune to capture the hearts of consumers and keep them loyal (Keller, 1998).
Strong brands have a number of benefits for a company, the retailer, the consumer and for society, as a whole. Strong brands help the consumer locate and identify products and evaluate their quality and makes it easier for them to develop attitudes and expectations (Pelsmacker, Genens, and Van den Bergh, 2001).
Thus, brand loyalty is viewed as the reflection of brand strength, being the essential output of what brand awareness and brand image can generate.
Brand loyalty, in marketing consists of a consumer’s commitment to repurchase a particular brand or continue to use the brand. It can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product, service or other positive behaviours such as word of mouth advocacy. This concept of a brand displays imagery and symbolism for a product or range of products.
Brand loyalty is not limited to repeat purchase behaviour, as there is deeper psychological reasoning as to why an individual will continuously repurchase products from one brand. Brand loyalty can be defined as the behavioral willingness to consistently maintain relation with a particular brand. Brand loyalty is a good measure to use when managers are trying to predict brand performance.
Sales performance has been conceptualized to include both the outcome and behavioral dimensions. Sales outcomes have always been seen by performance oriented sales people as evidence to their behavioral performance and consequently a positive relationship has been found to exist between job involvement component of commitment and sales performance. In other words, committed sales people are expected to extend greater efforts on the job, having a direct effect on job performance (Silva, 2006). Richard (2009) defines performance measures as the vital signs of the organization, which “quantify how well the activities within a process or the outputs of a process achieve a specified goal”. The study seeks to examine the relationship between customer brand loyalty and sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
1.2 Statement of Problem
As studies have shown, increasing customer loyalty lead to increased company sales performance and exchanges, which is eventually followed by profitability. In fact, customer brand loyalty has positive special effects on company presentation. To create customer brand loyalty firms should attain customer pleasure. In fact customer fulfillment is equivalent to accomplished guarantee about performance of tooth paste produced by the organization with client expectations. Customer satisfaction is one of the most structural assessment concepts that followed in lots of businesses to generate loyalty. As customer loyalty is seen as the pre-requisite to business achievement, loyal customers are more gainful and create higher re-purchases, so amplifying the market share and enhancing performance. Most brands of toothpaste suffer poor patronage because of customer dissatisfaction, poor brand experience and bad brand image resulting from the quality of the toothpaste. Brand image, brand experience and customer satisfaction are key matters in creating brand loyalty in customers. From the foregoing therefore, the study is determined to examine the relationship between customer brand loyalty and sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study is to examine the relationship between customer brand loyalty and sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste. Specifically the study will determine the following:
1. The extent to which brand image influences sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
2. The extent to which brand experience influences sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
3. The extent to which customer satisfaction influences sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
1.4 Research Questions
In particular, this study will seek answers to the following questions.
1. To what extent does brand image influence sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt?
2. To what extent does brand experience influence sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt?
3. To what extent does customer satisfaction influence sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
In course of this study, the researcher made the following propositions.
Ho1: There is no significant relationship between brand image and sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
Ho2: There is no significant relationship between brands experience and sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
Ho3: There is no significant relationship between customer satisfaction and sales performance of selected brands of toothpaste in Port Harcourt.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The study is focused on gaining detail insight on the customer’s brand loyalty and sales performance of selected brand of toothpaste in Port Harcourt. The study will be beneficial to people in the society.
It will also serve as a framework for scholars and students who are researching on the customer’s brand loyalty and sales performance.
The study will also help future researchers in area of literature on the field of customer brand loyalty. This study will be meaningful in a lot of ways to the government, managers, businesses, academics and also to students and organizations since it will provide them with some vital data in the area of client/customer relations as well as help them to make policies and strategies that will be of help to businesses especially in the area of customer service or customer loyalty.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study is delimited under the following heading: content scope, geographical scope and unit of analysis.
Content Scope: the content scope of this study involves an investigation to ascertain the relationship between customer brand loyalty and sales performance of selected toothpaste brands such as Close-up toothpaste, Oral B, and Sensodine. The dependent variable is measured by sales volume, market share and profitability. While the independent variable is customer brand loyalty measured by brand image, brand experience and customer satisfaction.
Geographical Scope: This study is delimited to Port Harcourt with references to selected brands of toothpaste which include Close-up toothpaste, Oral B, and Sensodine.
Unit of Analysis: The unit of analysis in this research involves the marketers of selected toothpaste at the time of the study.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
In course of carrying out this research, the researcher met with a lot of constraints. Among these constraints are: The time frame which this research was expected to be completed which was too short.
Secondly, the cost in carrying out this research work act as a barrier as we were not financially buoyant to carry out all investigation.
Finally, assembling the relevant materials needed this work was a problem. It was difficult due to the fact that some of the respondents were not willing to give us the required coorperation.
1.9 Definition of Terms
The key terms used in the study and meaning are as follows.
Brand Loyalty: Can be defined as the behavioural willingness to consistently maintain relations with a particular brand.
Brand: Is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
Brand Equity: As a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm/or to that firms customers.
Brand Knowledge: Is defined in terms of awareness and images, brand awareness being the consumers ability to identify the brand under different conditions (recognition and/or recall).
Brand Image: Is being defined as a set of brand association held in consumer’s memory.
Customer Loyalty: As a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour.
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