branding and consumer choice

THE EFFECT OF BRANDING ON CONSUMER CHOICE OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE IN ENUGU METROPOLIS.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

• Background to the study

People in our society are so conscious about their status and they prefer to use branded products to show off their status symbol. Brand is considered as implied device through which any business can attain the attraction of people and can enjoy the competitive edge. In our local scenario it also considered as a valuable asset for any business as it can change peoples’ buying behavior. It can play a vital role to expand any business.
Marketing valuable strategies and tools can develop the brand of any product. If brand is managed in effective ways, a business can enjoy maximum number of customers and can build long term profitable relations with customers. Refine quality of products and social responsibilities of any business can positively affect the behaviors of people regarding brand image, satisfaction and loyalty (World Applied Sciences Journal 23 (1):117-122, 2013)
In today’s business environment, companies must work harder than ever before to achieve some degree of differentiation in their products. Many companies have sought to achieve this differentiation by branding their products, simply putting the company’s name on product (Aaker, 1991).
The market is flooded with new and old brands and strength of brand war is increasing day by day. The popularity of a brand is an instrument for survival and success of company in the market. In this respect companies present different packages to customers with the use of different resource weapons in this rivalry war for raising awareness among the customers about the branded product.
In the past, most products went unbranded. Producers and middlemen sold their goods out of barrels, bins, and cases, without any supplier’s identity. The earliest sign of branding were in the efforts of medieval guilds to require crafts people to put trade marks on their products to protect themselves and consumers against inferior quality. Today, branding is such a strong force that hardly anything goes unbranded. A powerful name is said to have consumer franchise. (Adirika, E. O, Ebue, B. C, and Nnolim, D. A, 2001).
Moreover, a realization of the fact that branding as a marketing tool affects other product management decisions, confronts one with the fact that its impact on marketing activities and consumers cannot be overemphasized. Okafor (1995:100), captures the very essence of branding, when he opined that “apart from the herculean task that will be associated with trying to decide what manufacturers’ product to buy from all the unbranded products, other product management decisions based on market segmentation, promotion, product positioning, pricing etc, would have been practically impossible”.
A brand is the identity of a specific product, service, or business. The word brand began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp (Scott:2004)).
Powerful brands create meaningful images in the minds of consumers (Keller, K. L., (2001). Creating a strong brand identity builds mind share – one of the strongest competitive advantages imaginable. As a result, customers think of your business first when they think of product category. For example, when one thinks of milk, more likely than not, one thinks of Peak brand. Likewise, when a child wants noodles, the chances are often a choice of Indomie. The reason behind these strong brands – product association is that these companies have built rock solid brand identities.
Marketers consider branding as an integral aspect of the total marketing strategy as well as a vital factor in product planning and development. Sometimes, the way in which a product is perceived by the market by merely hearing the brand name is a good determinant of the product’s success or failure. e.g. Fayrous.
From the foregoing importance of branding, marketers and producers alike are developing increasing interest in this strategy. The Alcoholic Beverage  Industry in Nigeria is not an exception to this increasing adoption of branding as a strategy for winning the heart of consumers.
Alcoholic Beverage  have acquired a household recognition, such great awareness is further manifested in the fact that some people have problem of controlling their in-take of Alcoholic Beverage s on health ground, while others contend with their financial inability to have as many bottles as they really desire. This is attributed largely to the popularity, which Alcoholic Beverages like Star, Gulder, 33 and Stout have acquired in recent times.
Marketers are no longer in doubt as to whether consumers need the products in the marketplace, but are more interested in knowing why consumers prefer one brand of a product to the other. Thus, marketers usually design strategies that will facilitate the marketing or selling of their products.
However, one of the vital elements in the marketing of any product is branding.  Branding is one of the elements in the product planning activities of a firm. A brand is any word, letter, symbol, device, design, term or a combination of any of these that is used by a manufacturer or seller to identify his goods or services and to differentiate them from those of the competitors. (Olakunle K. Olakunori 1999).
The Alcoholic Beverages under study here, Star, Gulder, 33 and Stout are all brand names which are vocalized and also used to distinguish a particular Alcoholic Beverage  from the other.
Branding according to Okpara (2002:160), is the imaginative process of creating a unique, relevant and harmonious name, term, sign, symbol or its combination in order to identify a company’s product and to differentiate them from those of the competitors.
Branding is the activity used to establish Alcoholic Beverage  identity, which is also about providing a means of differentiation
Branding can stir feeling and make connections among consumers. Alcoholic Beverage branding is all about more than a brand, trademark or slogan. It is based on how the drink makes customers or consumers feel.
Today in a competitive market, the question is about the survival of the company in the market. But the answer depends on companies to survive by packaging, design, price, quality, distribution channel and other means. The proper strategic planning is needed to achieve revenue, sales, quality and market share. A good strategy differentiates company brand to other competitor’s brands. The intention to offer marketing package for consumer benefits by a marketer is to win the competition by creating new and decisive.
The competitive nature of the brewery industry has precipitated the need for these firms in the industry to introduce their product in the market through branding.
The importance of branding cannot be overemphasized, especially when one considers the several functions it performs on consumers’ decision and satisfaction. Firms in the Brewery industry, such as Nigerian Breweries Plc, Guinness Breweries Plc, Consolidated Breweries Plc, etc, seem to be typical examples where branding as a marketing device plays an important role.
The fact that all companies aspire to build brands that eventually get etched in the culture of the society and become cultural icon is a sure pointer to the importance of branding (Raj:2007).
While studying the literature, it was found out that there is not much research about branding and consumer choice. Most research is focused on more complicated knowledge structures such as attitude, awareness and brand image as Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Behaviour of Luxury Branded Goods (Khor eng tatt 2010) from University sains Malaysia and a study to indicate the importance of brand awareness in brand choice- A cultural perspective (Fred Posner, 2005) from Kristianstad university. Therefore, this research focuses on brand and how it affects consumer’s choice.

1.2     Statement of problem
Consumers have their attributes and forces behind before and during the process of purchasing branded goods/product. If customers trust a brand quality it makes a positive connection to the brand and customers will have a reason to become a loyal to the brand.
Loyalty and trust of the customers is very important for a company because it reduces the chance of attack from competitors (Aaker, 1996). In this increasable competitive market, companies are attempting to gain better position for them by becoming more customer-oriented (Hartmann, 2007). Companies are facing wider range of competitors who offer a similar product to same customers at different prices (Kotler, 2005). Usually most of products lack differentiation, competitors and potential competitors are also like to copy what the leading company does. Usually we get information and knowledge during our life. This depends on our judgment and beliefs.
In the contemporary marketing environment, it has always been a difficult task to say exactly which factors motivate the consumer to prefer a particular product to another. Most marketers have paid attention to factors which in their own estimation determine consumers’ preference for their products without giving due consideration to factors which in the consumers’ reckoning influence their buying decision. The result is that marketing plan designed for a particular product may fail to attain the desired and targeted result for reasons that consumers are unpredictable in their behaviours, especially with multiple brands such as those of Alcoholic Beverage s.
Consumers of Alcoholic Beverage , in most cases, evaluate the quality of a particular product by the alternatives of its brand name in relation to others. The fact that brand war among the breweries seemed to have moved on to the shape and size of Beer bottles, as is the case of 33 in their promotion recently including the brand name, the filtration and sugar contents, could be considered as a measure of the importance of branding of beer drink.
Branding is one of the elements in the product planning activities of a firm. It has to do with the efforts a firm makes in choosing, developing, projecting and establishing its own brand(s) of products Olakunle (1999).
Branding is used to meet needs, such as the description of products, easy identification of products and services, speeds shopping by assuring consistence quality, but its familiarity level leads to brand rejection, non-recognition, recognition, preference and insistence.
Often, when asked the non-price reason behind ones choice for a particular brand of product over another, most consumers will readily shout “quality”. However, one would accept this answer with a lot of ambivalence, given the fact that it is only on rare occasions that consumers would have what it takes to make an objective quality differentiation among alternative product brands. This category of consumers is highly informed and enlightened and their percentage is quite negligible.
Furthermore, quality status ascribed by consumers to certain product brands are not real but perceived. It is only a fragment of their perception. It therefore follows that those marketers who know how best to manipulate consumer perception and therefore better position their brands in the minds of the consumers will definitely emerge winners in the marketing warfare.
In consideration of these factors, the problems of determinants of brand patronages in consumers’ choice of Alcoholic Beverage s become very pertinent as to elicit the following specific problems:

1. What constitutes the secret behind consumers preference of a particular Alcoholic Beverage in favour of another type?
2. What factors influences consumer choice of a particular brand of Alcoholic Beverage?
3. Could branding be significantly associated with taste or aesthetic values such as bottle designs and colour of labels?

1.3     Objectives of Study
The study attempted to achieve the following objectives, which were to;

1. Ascertain the relationship if any, between branding and consumer patronage.
2. Ascertain the factors of branding that are likely to influence consumers’ choice of Alcoholic Beverages.
3. Ascertain if there is any significant variation in the packaging of different Alcoholic Beverage.
4. Determine if there is any difference among the different brands of Alcoholic Beverage.

1.4     Research Questions
In the light of this research work, the following questions guided us;

1. Does Alcoholic Beverage branding have any significant relationship with consumer patronage?
2. What is the significant effect of Alcoholic branding on the choice of Alcoholic Beverage?
3. Is there any significant variation in the packaging of different Alcoholic Beverage?
4. Is there any difference among the different brands of Alcoholic Beverage s?

1.5     Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses, stated in their null forms, were tested in the course of this study:
Ho1: The use of branding is not significant in the determinant of customers’ patronage of Alcoholic Beverages.
Ho2: Branding has no significant influence on consumer’s choice of Alcoholic Beverages.
Ho3: There is no significant variation in the packaging of different Alcoholic Beverages.
Ho4: There is no difference among the different brands of Alcoholic Beverages.

1.6     Significance of Study
This study will primarily be of benefit to producers and marketers of different brands of Alcoholic Beverage s. They can with the report of the findings of this research study be in a position to understand the role of branding in consumers’ preference for brands of Alcoholic Beverage . It also reveals some of the latent problems and possible solutions of branding in Nigeria presently. It will help the producers of Alcoholic Beverage  to formulate good brand names and packaging activities.
Also to benefit from this study are researchers who may wish to carry out a study on branding. This is because the study serves as a secondary data to them.
To the consumers, this study would help them understand other factors besides price that influence their purchase decisions.
1.7     Scope of the Study
The area of coverage of this study is the consumers of Alcoholic beverage drink in the Enugu, only consumers of the product under study.
1.8     Limitations of Study
The biggest challenges of this study were:-
Data availability, the ability of a user to access information or resources in a specified location and in the correct format. this is the main problem of using questionnaires as a method of data collection.

Confidentiality of Data, a property of data, usually resulting from legislative measures, which prevents it from unauthorized disclosure. The procedures in place to prevent disclosure of confidential data, including rules applying to staff, aggregation rules when disseminating data, provision of unit records some of the respondents were not providing their true opinions during the interviews because they regard some of the questions as sensitive. However, this group was small and the researcher assumed it did not affect the overall results and conclusions.

1.9     Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined as used in this research work;
Branding: Branding is everything intended to identify and distinguish a product from those of the competitors. It is about providing a means of differentiation and has to do with the efforts a firm makes in choosing, developing, projecting and establishing its own brand(s) of products. It has many designations such as brandname, brandmark, trademark, copyright etc. (Okafor:1995).
Marketing: is essentially concerned with the performance of the activities that helps identify the consumer needs and wants, making them to form the focal point of business. It sets the consumer at a pedestal “consumer the king”. It precedes production. It is pervasive and the life wire and major reason for the existence of the organization. (Keller:2001).
Market: People with ability and willingness to purchase economic goods and services.(Olakunori:1999).
Prospects: These are people who have a need and strong potential interest in a particular product. (Okpara:2002)
Alcoholic Drink: A drink made from Alcoholic without alcohol or a non alcoholic drink.
Consumers: The ultimate users of products (Jeffrey:2000).
Brands: These are names, terms, symbols, signs, design, other features or combination of these used by firms to identify and differentiate their products from that of competitors. It is a relationship in the market triggered by one’s trademarks. (Olakunori:1999).
Trademark: can be a name, word, phrase, logo or combination of these elements and a brand name that is given a legal protection. (Okpara:2002).
Product: Is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption, and which might satisfy a want or need. It is a bundle of customers’ expectations rather than of physical dimension. It is also every want or need-satisfying attribute a consumer receives in making an exchange, including psychological as well as physical benefit. (Okpara:2002).
Choice: Is the ability of an individual or consumer to make a selection among product mix (Anyanwu:2000).
Quality: The taste of a product that distinguishes it from another product.
Package: Is the part of a brand that performs both protection and communication functions and comes in various sizes and nature that may have its appeal to the consumer. (Anyanwu:2003)
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