Effects of Service Brand Personality on Brand Performance in the Context of Kenya's Insurance Sector

Abstract

Authors in the brand management research have emphasized on the need for branding research across a variety of cultures, industries and product/service categories to guide marketing practitioners on brand personification activities, yet the empirical relationship between brand personality and brand performance remains largely under-researched especially in developing economies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of marketers on their companies' brand personalities and examine the effect of the brand personalities on brand performance in the insurance services sector in Kenya. Through a quantitative social survey on a sample of 214 insurance entities, the study reports that service brand personality has a positive and significant effect on customer-based and financially-based brand performance measures as well as composite/overall brand performance despite having a non-significant effect on employee-based performance measures. These results affirm the proposition that service brand personality differentiates competing brands, implying that the strongest brands have well-defined personalities which enables them to cultivate a competitive advantage over their competitors. Thus, marketing managers must focus on the sources of service brand personality that develops a positive brand personality, creating a distinction in customer’s mind relative to other brands and influence brand performance dimensions.

Keywords: Brand; Brand Performance; Customer-based Measures; Employee-based Measures; Insurance Sector; Financially-based measures; Service Brand Personality;