| dc.description.abstract | Consumer choice is very important in marketing of a given product and must be taken into
account for any business to succeed. According to Aaker (1991), consumers are indifferent to
a brand and they in fact, buy with respect to the features, price and convenience with little
concern to the brand name.
The aim of the study was to investigate the factors that influence consumers' choice of
cigarette brands in Nairobi.
In order to achieve this objective, random sampling was conducted in 10 selected estates, 2
estates from the low- income groups and 8 estates from middle and upper income groups. In
each of the 10 selected estates, one bar was used as a source of locating respondents. In each
bar, 10 respondents were studied giving a total of 100 respondents. JudgmentaJ sampling
technique was used to identify respondents that qualified for the study. The respondents were
screened to ensure that only smokers were interviewed. A semi-structured questionnaire was
used to collect the primary data. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part A was
used to determine general information of the cigarette consumers. Part B was used to capture
the information on the factors that influence consumers' choice of cigarettes brands and to
generate information on factors considered as the most important in influencing consumers'
choice.
A response rate of 100% was achieved. The collected data was analyzed by use of
frequencies and percentages to represent response rate on information collected.
Major research findings indicate that of the respondents 82% were Male while the Female
accounted for 18%, majority of the smokers were between the age of (31 - 35) years, 50% of
the respondents had an average Monthly income of above Kshs. 50,000, 59% of the
respondents were married and 36% were single, 95% had an educational level of Secondary
School and above and 93% had smoked cigarettes for more than 2 years. The research
findings showed that 75% of the respondents were loyal to one brand of cigarette because of
affordable price, high satisfaction derived from smoking, high quality, adequate menthol, and
taste, while the remaining 25% were switching off between different brands because of
similar taste and Strength of the kick. The following factors were found to be very critical in
brand choice: Design of the packaging, Appealing image, Strength of the Kick, Burning rate,
Filter size, Flavor of the brand, Age of the brand in the market, Satisfaction derived from
smoking it, Brand name, Reasonable prices, Information about the brand, Information of
product given by sales personnel, Association with a given class, Availability/ Accessibility,
Reference groups, Belief held about the product, Alternative available to choose from and
The Level of income.
The study was conducted in Nairobi Region and therefore cannot be used to generalize the
smokers' choices in other regions in Kenya. The study was broad in that it dealt with many
different factors that influence smokers in making decision of the brands of cigarettes to
smoke.
Future studies should be carried out in all parts of the country, that is, both in urban and rural
areas and the sample size increased as this would provide a better representation of the
overall tobacco industry. | en |
