Effect of Branding Practices on Customer Loyalty in Large Beauty Salons in Nairobi County Kenya

Abstract

Branding has become a useful tool that is receiving increasing attention due to its perceived positive influence on consumer brands choice and consumer purchase decisions. Today the beauty industry offers gender –neutral beauty brands to attract male as their consumers with the aim of approaching masculinity differently than what the previous generation thought. The general objective of the study will be to investigate the branding influence of practicing practices on customer loyalty of large beauty salons in Nairobi County Kenya. This study was guided by three theories, brand equity model, commitment –trust model and lastly theory of consumer behaviour. Brand equity model explains how companies are adding value on a product or service in order to attract and retain customers through branding. The theory of consumer behavior explains how consumers make decisions depending on their behavior which is developed from attitude toward the brand. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey as it describes the data and the varied characteristics of the population being studied. The population for this study will be 20 large beauty salons in Nairobi County. Primary data was collected by use of a questionnaire which was semi-structured and was self-administered to the managers. From the results, most of the beauty salons in Nairobi County have less than 5 branches and they are under sole Proprietorship. Multiple regression analysis revealed that branding practices have significant influence on customer loyalty of large beauty salons in Nairobi County Kenya. It can be concluded that most of the companies invest enough money to retain the existing customers to gain a strong customer base and, in this study, researcher has investigated the influence of branding practices on customer loyalty. The study also recommends that to enhance brand loyalty, salon should ensure that the quality of their services and products is high so as to retaining existing customers regardless of their pricing policy as well as convenience and make good use of loyal repeat customers to attract new customers.