Building Brand Equity through Advertising

Abstract

The study examined the impact of advertising on building brand equity in Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Auction floors. In this study, 100 farmers were selected from 88 244 farmers registered in the four tobacco growing regions of country. A structured questionnaire was used as a tool to collect primary data. A pilot survey with 20 participants was initially conducted to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Results of the pilot study were analysed to test for reliability using SPSS.Results of the study found that advertising affects brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and perceived quality. 55% of the respondents agreed that advertising changed their perceived quality on auction floors. A linear regression analysis was performed to predict brand quality as a function of the type of farmer, source of information, competitive average pricing, loyalty, input assistance, service delivery, number of floors, advert mode, customer service, floor reputation and attitude. There was a strong relationship between brand quality and the independent variables as depicted by the regression coefficient of 0.885 and the model fit is perfect at 78.3%. From the ANOVA tables, a good fit was established between advertising and brand equity with p=0.001 which is less than the significance level of 0.05. While previous researches concentrated on the elements of brand equity as suggested by Keller’s brand equity model, this research has managed to extend the body of knowledge on brand equity by exploring the role of advertising. Future research should assess the relationship between advertising and a brand association.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2613