Effects of Service Brand Identity Building on Brand Performance in the Insurance Sector of Kenya

Abstract

The increasingly competitive contemporary business environments demands that companies’ brand management teams create differentiation in the way they communicate to consumers to make their brands stand out of competition, while ensuring that the brand communications and the intended messages reach the right target group. While brand management theories have espoused the benefits of building strong brand identity there is still a paucity of empirical evidence to support theory. Thus, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of marketers on their companies' brand identity building activities and their effects on brand performance in the insurance services sector in Kenya. The study adopts the quantitative social survey research approaches and utilizes a sample of 214 insurance entities, the study validates a three-dimensional service brand identity measurement scale applicable to the Kenyan insurance sector and establishes that the three service brand identity constructs namely corporate visual identity, consistent communications and human resource initiatives have positive and significant effects on brand performance. The paper recommends that marketing managers should be strategic in the allocation of marketing resources so as to focus on brand identity building activities that have the highest likelihood of enhancing brand performance.

Keywords: Brand Performance; Corporate Visual Identity, Consistent Communications; Human Resource Initiatives; Service Brand Identity.