BRAND EQUITY AND SALES PERFORMANCE (A SURVEY OF SELECTED MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN PORT HARCOURT)

ABSTRACT: Companies desire earnestly to improve their performance in the market. All marketing decisions and programmes are thus triggered by this reason, because the market performance of a firm is essential to the corporate wellbeing of the business undertakings and also determines the continued existence of the firm in the business landscape. Brand equity as a measure of the health of the brand can be used for marketing decision making. Positive brand equity may create a desire for brand association in other product categories amidst stiff competition and better informed customers. There is a dearth of local empirical evidence supporting the fact that brand equity affects the market performance of food and beverage firms. Therefore, the present study seeks to extend the existing literature by studying the relationships between four dimensions of brand equity and market performance. Data were drawn through questionnaire from the management of food and beverage firms in Rivers State in Rivers State (236). The data instruments were validated using Cronbach alpha’s test, whereupon all variables surpassed the benchmark 0.7. Analyzing the data using the Pearson’s products moment correlation coefficient, ANOVA and regression technique. The study unveiled that through different levels of statistical interactions and directions of relationships, all the dimensions of brand equity studied were critical at P < (0.05) (one tailed) in determining the behaviour of customer acquisition. Specifically, brand awareness was found to have the most critical statistical interaction with market performance, followed by perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand association. Also, there is a significant difference between the opinions of food and beverage firms and end customers in the assessment of market performance. In conclusion, there exists sufficient evidence to show that brand equity significantly affects market performance. The study recommends amongst others that management of food and beverage firms should key in three dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness, perceived quality and brand loyalty) to customer acquisition, since the study reveals that there is a statistically significant relationship between them.