The Effect of Brand Equity on Consumer Purchase Decision: The Case of Cell Phone in Ethiopia

The primary objectives of the study were to investigate the effect of brand equity on consumers purchase decision of cell phone in Addis Ababa by utilizing Aaker’s customer-based brand equity model. Four dimensions of brand equity model posited by David Aaker were used in order to conduct the investigation via quantitative research Approach, where descriptive and explanatory research design was applied. Samples of 404 respondents from Addis Ababa were selected by a convenience sampling method and 355 valid data was collected through a structured questionnaire with 88% response rate. Statistical analysis has been conducted using statistical process for social science. Descriptive analysis such as frequency, mean and standard deviation has been used to interpret the result. Furthermore, correlation and regression analysis has been performed. While performing the research, the reliability and validity of the instrument has been verified. Apart from that, the fulfillment of basic assumption for correlation and regression analysis has been conducted. The results of multiple regression analysis also revealed that the four dimensions have a positive influence on consumers purchase decision of cell phone. Among those dimensions, brand Awareness and perceived quality had the strongest positive significant influence on consumers purchase decision of cell phone respectively.


INTRODUCTION
The Ethiopia Telecom industry is entering a new era. Ethiopia was one of the last countries in Africa to allow its national telecom a monopoly on all telecom services including fixed, mobile, internet and data communications. For many years Ethio Telecom's monopolistic control stifled innovation, restricted network expansion and limited the scope of services on offer. However, in June 2019 the government approved legislation which will open the market to competition and provide much needed foreign investment. The process to part-privatize Ethio Telecom advanced in September 2019 when the company was audited, while two licenses are expected to be offered to two international operators by the end of the year (Ethio telecom 2019). This indicates that following the privatization different cell phone companies will enter to the market and these needs of building, measuring, and sustaining brand equity of cell phone brands to withstand the completion, to earn superior profit, perform as well at exporting. To do so, the positive or negative value of the existing cell phone brands has to be measured scientifically in the context of consumers so that appropriate marketing intervention could be developed.
Prominent marketing authors like Kotler and Keller (2012) described that the short-term financial benefit versus the long-term brand building exercise will be evaluated based on a perpetual measurement of brands. Obviously, marketers thus, due to these and other facts consider not only building and sustaining of brand equity as strategic concern of marketing intangibles but also the measurement of brand equity as strategic concern in their marketing endeavors. There is no research conducted in this area and hence creating a research gap.
Thus, this study will shed light and narrow literature gap by empirically measuring the dimensions of brand equity of cell phone markets of Ethiopia (in case of Addis Ababa) to determine the effect of the most popularly adopted brand equity dimensions on purchase decision.

Statement of The Problem
According CIA world fact book 2019 ranked Countries in the number of Mobile phone users and Ethiopia is ranked 24 in the world by having 62.6 million subscribers. The report of Digital in 2018 released also shows there are 16.4 million Internet users in Ethiopia with Internet penetration at 15 percent. According to the report, much of this year's growth in Internet users has been driven by more affordable smart phones and mobile data plans. Currently, the Ethiopia telecom industry entering in new era due to partial privatization of the sector following this competition in the market will become fierce and thus, the need for marketers to differentiate their cell phone brands has become increasingly significant. Companies are in the race for attracting their customer's attention, and one of the vital means to achieve this goal is distinction through branding. Brands play a significant role in 5 Journal of Marketing andConsumer Research www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8451 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.78, 2021 2 purchase decision and also define a customer, its social status and way of living. This can be seen when customer is purchasing a cell phone, he or she has many alternatives. All offering almost with the same features and benefits but there are many underlying reasons which make the consumer to prefer one brand over the other (Terence Shimp, 2013). Several studies have been conducted to underlying the reason why consumer prefer one brand over the other and the source of brand equity for purchase intention. A study conducted in Turkey by (Gokhan and Burc 2015) indicates that brand Awareness and Association are the most significant factors which influence consumers purchase intension. On the other hand, the study conducted in paksitan by (Mohammed and Sameen 2016) indicate that brand Awareness and brand quality are not the most significant factors for consumer purchase intension rather drivers like brand loyalty and Association are significant factors for purchase intension. In Our case, cell phone industry is growing and due to partial privatization of the telecom sector companies will enter to the market and these needs of building, measuring, and sustaining brand equity of cell phone brands to withstand the completion, to earn superior profit, perform well. To do so, the positive or negative value of the existing cell phone brands has to be measured scientifically in the context of consumers so that appropriate marketing intervention could be developed and acted up on. However, there is a lack of research publication on the source of brand equity in the case of cell phone in Ethiopia. Thus, this research has been attempting the effect of brand equity components on customer purchase decision or to what extent Brand equity affects purchase decision and to fill the gaps in marketing efforts of marketing professionals and companies while presenting their offering to the consumers. in knowing, distinguishing, and differentiating brands that consists of mental assets and liabilities. This model incorporates five dimensions that form the consumer-based brand equity namely; "brand loyalty," "brand awareness," "perceived quality," "brand associations," and "other brand assets." Scholars such as Keller (1993), Motameni and Shahrokhi (1998), Prasad and Dev (2000), Yoo and Donthu (2001), Pappu et al. (2005), and Buil et al. (2008) adopted this approach in their studies to clearly incorporate the consumers idea and the psychological factors underlying brand equity.
Aaker's four basic brand equity dimensions: brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality and brand loyalty have been used to prepare the main framework of this research, and are discussed in the following parts of the article.

Brand Equity Dimension and Consumer Buying Behavior
A) Brand Awareness The major consumers brand equity drivers according to (Aaker, 1991;Agarwal & Rao 1996;Kapferer, 1991;Keller, 1993;Krishnan, 1996). Brand awareness is all about communication. Aaker (1991) explains the awareness and recall of a name: "A name is like a special file folder in the mind which can be filled with name-related facts and feelings. Without such a file readily accessible in memory, the facts and feelings become misfiled, and cannot be readily accessed when needed." This is measured by the ability of consumers to recall and recognize brands for a certain category.
The ability is determined by the strength of the brand nodes in memory. Brand recalls the ability to retrieve the brand from the memory when some cues are provided. Brand recognition is the consumers' ability to confirm prior exposure when a brand is given as cues (lovely professional's university)

B)
Brand Association Aaker state that brand association represents anything linked to the memory of a brand. When the associations become signification, it forms brand image which shows the consumers perception towards the brand from the associations gathered in their memory. Brand association can be an outcome of functional or symbolic characteristics of a brand. Usually, consumers are found to link a brand with features such as technological advancements, innovativeness, distinctiveness, status, and overall excellence in product or service performance.
Aaker (1991, 1992, and 1996) delineated brand associations as assets that can provide value for companies in several ways. First, brands association can provide an important basis for differentiation. Associating the brand name can provide a unique and distinguishable attribute that will stand the brand differently. Second, brand association can represent a basis for purchase decision and brand loyalty by providing product attributes or customer benefits that provides a specific reason to buy and use a brand. Third, it can also influence purchase decision by ascribing credibility & confidence to a brand by stimulating positive feeling that are transferred to a brand.
Fourth, brand association create value through creating a positive feeling during the use experience, serving to transform a product into something different than what it might otherwise be. Finally, it provides the basis for an extension and associations can serve to summarize a set of facts and specification that otherwise would be difficult for the customer to process and access, and expensive for the firm to communicate.

C)
Brand Loyalty Aaker (1992) labeled brand loyalty is prime enduring dimension of brand equity. Contrary to the brand awareness and brand association brand loyalty may resulted from a perpetual purchase of the brands by the same consumer over time. Brand loyalty is resistance to switch the brand, rather, consumers continue to buy the brand even in the face of competitors with superior features, and price, and convenience, substantial value exists in the brand and perhaps in its symbol and slogans. Brand loyalty is at the of heart brand equity. According to Aaker's brand equity model brand loyalty reduces marketing costs, boost trade leverage, attract new customers and offer time to respond to competitive threats.

D)
Perceived Quality As per Aaker (1991) perceived quality consumers expectation about particular product or company. In other side Swinker and Hines (2006) classified perceived quality into four categories: intrinsic, extrinsic, appearance and performance. Boulding (1993) argued that quality is directly influenced by perceptions.

Hypothesis of The Study
To test the relationship between brand equity dimensions and Purchase decision the following hypothesis have been developed: Brand Awareness; -the major consumers brand equity drivers according to (Aaker, 1991;Agarwal & Rao 1996;Kapferer, 1991;Keller, 1993;Krishnan, 1996). Aaker (1991) explains the awareness and recall of a name: "A name is like a special file folder in the mind which can be filled with name-related facts and feelings.
Without such a file readily accessible in memory, the facts and feelings become misfiled, and cannot be readily accessed when needed." This is measured by the ability of consumers to recall and recognize brands for a certain category and brand awareness provides a foundation for brand equity. In the literature it is observed that brand awareness positively affecting purchase decision.
H1. Brand awareness has a significant positive effect on consumers purchase decision. Brand Association: -Aaker state that brand association represents anything linked to the memory of a brand. When the associations become signification, it forms brand image which shows the consumers perception towards the brand from the associations gathered in their memory. Brand Association keller (2003) are information in the form of nodes which contains meaning for consumers. In the literature it is observed that brand association positively affecting purchase decision.
H2. Brand association has a significant positive effect on consumers purchase decision. Perceived Quality: -it refers to the consumer's judgment (perception) about product's overall excellence or superiority with reference to substitutes (Aaker, 1991). In the literature it is observed that perceived quality of the brand positively affecting purchase decision.
H3. Perceived quality has a significant positive effect on consumers purchase decision. Brand Loyalty: -Aaker (1991, 1992) labeled brand loyalty is prime enduring dimension of brand equity. Brand loyalty is resistance to switch the brand, rather, consumers continue to buy the brand even in the face of competitors with superior features, and price, and convenience,30 Substantial value exists in the brand and perhaps in its symbol and slogans. Brand loyalty is at the of heart brand equity.
H4. Brand loyalty has a significant positive effect on consumers purchase decision. Consumer-based Brand Equity has been considered as a condition or prerequisite for the election or preference of a brand, which subsequently affects the purchase decision. Several studies point out the positive relationship between the components of Brand Equity and the purchase decision (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999;Myers, 2003). Brand Equity is the positive differential effect that knowing the brand name has on customer response to the product or service (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008). Brand equity can be evaluated through, Brand loyalty, Brand awareness, Perceived quality, Brand association. The implications of model help in managing brand equity and consider sensitive value to make informed decisions about brand-building activities. Brand equity is important at purchasing time as it influence customers and complete with the competitor's attraction.
H5. Brand Equity has a significant positive effect on consumers purchase decision.

METHODOLOGY
To analyses the impact brand equity elements may have on buying behavior, a five -point likert scale questionnaire was developed from the previous studies conducted by Yoo and Donthu. The likert scale ranged from "5" signifying "Strongly Agree" to "1" meaning "Strongly Disagree". With convenience sampling primary data were collected from 404 self-administered questionnaires, 355 were finalized as the rest were discarded mainly due to the incompletion of data.
Since the research focuses on the buying behavior of cell phone user, respondents. The questionnaire was constructed to have two sections. The first section is aimed to gather general information about the respondents as well as the smartphone brand(s) they use or prefer. On the other hand, the following section, which is specifically integral to the main purpose of the research, was designed using pre-determined variables related to brand equity dimensions (i.e., brand awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand association) and consumer buying behavior. The collected data was further analyzed using Statistical Package Software for Social Sciences (SPSS 24.0).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Current Cell Phone Brands of Respondents
From the table 1 below, when asked the brand of their current mobile phone respondents answered Samsung (54.9%), Techno (13.5%) and Huawei (8.2%) were the top three bands the respondents currently own. In addition, Itel (0.8%), Nokia (1.1%) and SMADL (2.8%) were found to be the least three favored brands owned by the respondents.

Pearson Correlation Result of The Variables
Results show the correlation between four factors i.e., Brand Awareness, brand Association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty with the decision to buy a cellphone. Accordingly, all factors have a positive and significant relationship with the purchase decision of cell phone. However, the degree of correlation among the factors is different with the highest correlation value of Brand Awareness (0.689) followed by brand loyalty (0.650), brand Association (0.55) and perceived quality (0.509) of the cell phone.

Descriptive Analysis of Independent and Dependent Variables 4.3.1 Descriptive Statistics of Brand Awareness
According to Keller (2003) brand awareness is "the customers" ability to recall and recognize the brand as reflected by their ability to identify the brand under different conditions and to link the brand name, logo, symbol, and so forth to certain associations in memory." Accordingly, the respondents were asked 6 questions related to brand awareness. The Table 3 below present's respondents result of brand awareness with mean and standard deviation values for each item.  As indicated in the above table the mean scores of brand awareness attributes for all the six items ranges from 3.84 to 4.08 which indicates that respondents the level of awareness influence when they buying decision of the cell phone. The overall mean score of brand awareness attributes was calculated to be 3.99

Descriptive Statistics of Brand Association
Brand association consists of "all brand related thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes and is anything linked in memory to a brand (Kotler and Keller 2006, p.188). Hence, 7 items related to brand association asked to the respondents. Table 8 shows the analysis about brand association mean and standard deviation. As indicated in the above table, the mean scores of brand association for all the seven items ranges from 3.62 to 3.76 which indicates that the cell phone they used were interesting got the highest mean score 3.76, where as they assist the type of life, they desire has got the least mean score value of 3.62. The overall mean score of brand association was calculated to be 3.70.

Descriptive Statistics of Perceived Quality
Perceived quality is the customer's judgment about a product's overall excellence or superiority that is different from objective quality (Aaker, 1996). Since it's impossible for consumers to make complete and correct judgments of the objective quality, they use quality attributes that they associate with quality (Zeithaml, 1988). With this idea, 6 items related to perceived quality were raised to the respondents and the results of the Mean score and the Standard deviation. As indicated in the above table, the mean scores of perceived qualities for all the six items ranges from 3.9 to 3.67 the cell phone brand they own is well made has got the highest mean score. The overall mean score of Journal of Marketing andConsumer Research www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8451 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.78, 2021 7 perceived quality was calculated to be 3.75.

Descriptive Statistics of Brand loyalty
Brand Loyalty is a core dimension of brand equity. Aaker (1991, p.39) defines brand loyalty as "the attachment that a customer has with a brand." Based on this definition 6 item related to brand loyalty was raised to the respondents to be answered. The result is presented in Table 4.8 below: As depicted in Table 6 above, the mean value of brand loyalty is 3.86 and the item state that "When decide buying cell phone the brand they own currently would be my first choice." scored the highest among the list of items related to brand loyalty with a mean score of 4.04 while the respondents gave the least score of 3.791 to the item "I am loyal to the cell phone brand."

Descriptive Statistics of Purchase Decision
In order to test the respondents' Purchase decision, 4 items were asked to the respondents to answer. It shows the Mean score and Standard deviation analysis regarding the purchase decision of the respondents. As indicated in the above table the mean scores of purchase decision for all the four items ranges from 3.93 to 3.87 which is the awareness regarding a mobile brand guides my purchase decision with mean value of 3.89, The decision depends up on how other think about the brand they use has got the least mean score value of 3.87. The overall mean score of purchase decision was calculated to be 3.89.

Multiple Regressions Analysis
In this study, there are four independent variables namely Brand Awareness, brand Association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty with the decision to buy a cellphone. To test the effects of these variables on the decision to buy a cell phone, the study used the multiple regression analysis. The table below shows the multiple regression result between four independent variables and the purchase decision to a cell phone device in Addis Ababa. It indicates that all the four independent variables (Brand Awareness, brand Association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty) combined significantly influence the consumers Purchase decision of cell phone devices. Awareness, Brand Association, Brand Perceived Quality and Brand Loyalty). The beta value on the coefficient table indicates level of effect each dimension has on the dependent variable which is purchase decision.
The regression coefficient explains the average amount of change in the dependent variable that is caused by a unit change in the independent variable. The larger value of Beta coefficient an independent variable has, brings the more support to the independent variable as the more important determinant in predicting the dependent variable.
The regression model from table 8 above result shows that keeping other variables constant, a one unit increase in Brand Awareness will bring a 0.329 unit increase in the purchase decision of cell phone In Addis Ababa, a one unit increase in Brand Association will bring a 0.219 unit increase impact on purchase decision of cell phone in A.A, a one unit increase in Brand Perceived Quality will bring a 0.242 unit increase in purchase decision of cell phone in Addis Ababa and a one unit increase of Brand Loyalty will cause a 0.124 unit increase in purchase decision of cell phone in Addis Ababa. It indicates that all the four independent drivers of brand equity significantly influence the consumer purchase decision cell phone. The leading factor is brand Awareness preceding with perceived quality.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
The objective of this research was to investigate the underlying factors that determine the purchase decision of cell phone devices. According to the study, majority of the consumers own Samsung mobile phones. According to Pearson correlation results, brand Awareness is the dominant factor affecting the decision of customer to buy cell phone. Secondly, the brand loyalty incorporated in a mobile hand set is the most important factor which is considered by the consumers while purchasing the mobile phone. However, all other influencing factors of mobile phone are not equally important. The other factors equally correlated and have moderate relationships with the decision to buy. This study used multiple regression analysis to test the effects of four independent variables on the purchase decision of cell phone device. All the four independent variables combined significantly influence the purchase decision of cell phone devices.
However, the study is not free of limitations, which could be taken into consideration to fully explore further scopes of research. More diverse range of respondents could be reached in order to enrich the data. In addition, more variables could help to analyze buying behavior of Consumer to obtain a wider view on the subject matter. If others researchers conduct on extended model of brand equity. As a result, the research may have geographical, technical and conceptual limitations. So, further and regress study in wider scope may provide a better outcome.