Brand Equity and Customer Patronage of Electronic Products in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between brand equity and customer patronage of electronic products in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Brand equity was operationalized as perceived quality, perceived value and perceived price while customer patronage was measured by customer loyalty, referral and satisfaction. Using survey design, primary data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire which were administered to 500 respondents across two selected major electronic companies in Port Harcourt while simple linear regression was employed to test three hypotheses at a 5% level of significance. The findings revealed that a statistically significant relationship exist between perceived quality and customer loyalty and as well indicated a positive relationship between perceived value and customer referrals for electronic products in Rivers State. Additionally, the results showed that perceived price serves as a major determinant of customer satisfaction in electronic product purchases. The study concluded that brand equity plays a dominant role in explaining consumer satisfaction and serves as a strong mechanism for driving customer patronage. Based on these findings, it is recommended that Organizations should adopt or integrate quality, value and fair pricing strategies into their customer-retention strategies as this will help to promote loyalty, referrals, satisfaction and sustained customer patronage. Furthermore, firms should reward customer loyalty and referrals through special incentives such as trade discounts, while leveraging on social media to build and reinforce a strong brand image in the minds of consumers.