Effectiveness of advertising message on brand performance: the case of Uganda Waragi

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the relationship between the advertising message and brand performance in the spirits industry in Uganda. Competition amongst consumer goods is on the increase in Uganda and companies are increasingly appreciating the need to advertise to keep ahead of the game. However, some brands are experiencing a loss of market share in spite of their advertising efforts. A case in point is Uganda Waragi, which is the subject of this study.

The researcher developed a conceptual framework, which illustrates the relationship between advertising message, cognitive processing, brand positioning and brand performance. A cross sectional survey design was adopted to take a snap shot of events as existed at that particular time. To investigate this problem, the instruments used to capture the constructs of the variables afore-mentioned were adopted from previous tested and tried scales. A sample size of 150 was randomly selected from Kampala and Mbarara. These two areas show a high incidence of spirits consumption. The response rate was 85%, which was considered satisfactory.

The results indicate strong significant positive correlations between advertising message, cognitive processing, brand positioning and brand performance. Testing the strength of the relationship indicated that the independent variable predicted 64.5% of the variance in brand performance. The study concludes that the two great predictors of brand performance are cognitive processing and brand positioning.

The study therefore recommends that creative advertisements should be employed in order to position a brand favourably in the minds of the consumer and also such that the consumer evaluates it favourable in order to attain a positive brand feeling. Brand managers should maintain consistency of their messages in order to evoke long term brand feelings and also to get a clear and concise positioning of their brand.