Research process methodologies and applications

¶ … brand loyalty among the youth sportswear consumers in the United States and Kenya for the purpose of comparison. It is projected that there will be some culture-driven differences among the two groups, while other differential factors may also drive their preference, such as gender.

While there is very little literature that focuses on such a specific comparison, the investigation is informed by literature that provides some information about culture differences and brand loyalty as a phenomenon. One study, by Kinuthia, Mburugu, Muthomi, and Mwihaki (2012) consider brand loyalty in terms of swimwear in Kenya. This investigation focused on the youth in the country, which makes it applicable for information regarding the proposed work.

Other studies that have been identified focus on issues like social marketing, using celebrities in advertising, and demographic differences such as gender and age in consumer decision-making habits. Each of these studies contributes something fundamental to work being proposed. Although none of the studies focuses on my demographic area specifically, there is a large amount of information that can be used as a platform to position my work.

The way in which Americans and Kenyans view celebrities, for example, can be compared and differentiated, while the importance of social marketing probably also has a culturally driven basis. These pieces of information are important in terms of determining the specific components and nature of brand loyalty among the youthful consumer of sports apparel in the United States and Kenya. I believe that this research provides me with a strong basis of information that I can use to inform my work.

Literature Review

Kinuthia et al. (2012) focus on swimwear to discuss the concept of customer loyalty in the apparel industry. The investigation revolves around brand loyalty as a "key issue." The author acknowledges that the apparel market is vulnerable to fashion trends, but also by factors such as the effectiveness of the clothing for its purpose, which is particularly in the sports apparel market. The purpose of the study was therefore to determine the factors that affect brand loyalty and how precisely this loyalty is angled towards swimming gear brands. An understanding of these factors will lead to the ability of business people to create effective brand strategies towards the longevity of their products.

Several factors are, therefore, investigated for their impact on brand loyalty among customers. Satisfaction is one of these, since satisfied customers tend to return to the same brand when making additional purchases. To investigate this and other loyalty-inducing factors, the authors use Kenya as a location and Kenyans as the population of focus. Particularly, the population sample is drawn from sports swimwear users among University students in Kenya, which is relevant in terms of its applicability to the proposed study, where one part of the investigation will focus on the sports apparel market in Kenya. For Kinuthia et al.'s work, brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Umbro, Speedo, Reebok and Fila are investigated for the factors that affect their popularity among young swimwear users.

The authors note that there is a basic lack of information that relates to sportswear marketing in Kenya. According to Kinuthia et al., (2012), there was no known study focusing on the sports apparel market in Kenya at the time of the investigation; the issue of brand loyalty and the differences that appear in the Kenyan swimwear market have been underinvestigated. This is an important field of study from the marketing point-of-view. The study is, therefore, aimed at filling this gap in the research.

The purpose of the study was, therefore, articulated to determine the factors influencing brand loyalty among users of swimwear as well as the most preferred brand for swimming costumes (Kinuthia et al., 2012). As such, factors such as the familiarity of the brand among customers, brand personality, product quality, price, perceived value, and style particularly affect consumer loyalty among swimwear users at Kenyan universities.

The methodology the authors used to reach these conclusions was focused around an ex-post-facto design to study preexisting factors that might have created a sense of loyalty among respondents. The sample included 38 competitive swimmers taken from a population of university students who took part in inter-university sports events in 2009 at the University of Nairobi. This event was organized by the Kenya University Sports Association (KUSA).

The instruments used included a questionnaire, in which the first section focused on demographic information, with the second offering 18 five-point Likert scale items to determine the various factors involved in brand loyalty.

The data were analyzed by using an exploratory factor analysis. The variables were thus reduced to fewer factors, which were again submitted to factor analysis to find the variance and correlation among them. After another factor analysis, a score was assigned to each respondent and each factor to indicate the mean for the items within each factor. After drawing the conclusions above, the authors found that the factors of price and variety, attractiveness, and size and brand reputation were factors that created significant brand loyalty, specifically for Speedo, which was found to be the most preferred brand among the population included in the study. From this, the authors concluded that swimwear dealers needed to focus on factors such as prices, design variety, attractiveness and size, as well as brand reputation. In addition to Speedo, Nike, Addidas, Masuca and Diadara were also among popular sports brands in the country.

Balakrishnan and Kumar (2011) mention another important factor in marketing, which is celebrity endorsement in advertising. To investigate the influence of this factor on purchasing behavior, the authors focus particularly on the Indian city of Chennai. The authors begin by noting that celebrity endorsement is a common strategy in brand advertising for various purposes, including gaining attention, prolonged association, or recall. Celebrities could, for example, influence customers to purchase products they consider to be "right," appropriate, or acceptable in terms of the trends of the time. For large, nationally marketed products, brand endorsement is then used to create attention among the clutter created by a variety of products.

The authors also indicate that celebrities tend to be closely connected to cultural meaning, which makes their endorsement of products a highly individualized endeavor. The connected meaning is then transferred from the celebrity to the product and again from the product to the consumer, which will be an important factor to consider in the proposed study involving the comparison of purchasing behavior in the United States and Kenya. The selection of a celebrity to endorse a product is of primary importance to enhance the credibility of the product.

In this light, the research questions proposed by Balakrishnan and Kumar include.

1. What are the consumers? attitudes towards celebrity endorsed advertisements?

2. What effects does celebrity endorsed advertisements pertaining to durable products have on consumers? purchase attitude?

The objectives of the study were to identify and analyze factors that influence the purchase attitude and behavior of Chennai consumers and to assess the influence of celebrities when they endorse advertisements for durable products.

In terms of methodology, the authors confined their study to Chennai city, from where the sample has been drawn as well. To determine purchasing behavior and the impact of celebrity endorsements, questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 600 consumers. Primary and secondary data were collected, with the primary data referring to questionnaire results and the secondary data from the literature review.

The authors found that, depending upon the appropriateness of the celebrity chosen to market a particular product; this strategy did significantly influence buying behavior and product perception. The limitations of the study included the fact that the population sample was drawn from only one Indian city. A gap is identified in terms of the cultural connections of the celebrities involved in sportswear marketing. The relatively small population sample was also a constraining factor, as they could not be sufficiently representative to make an assessment of the entire country. The study nevertheless provides important information relating to the purchase and promotion of durable products in the city of Chennai, which can offer significant grounds for future studies to focus on wider and different locations.

Pharr and Lough (2012) focus their attention on cause-related sport marketing, which is abbreviated as CRM, and social marketing in sports. The authors begin their assessment by noting that the latter has not had a large amount of research attention. The purpose of the study was to show how both CRM and social marketing in sport are used to achieve and enhance corporate social responsibility in this area.

As such, the study design is a qualitative content analysis in order to determine the extent of corporate social responsibility within NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB. The programs were categorized as CRM, social marketing, or another community outreach by means of a directed content analysis. Five variables were used for the purpose of evaluating 43 programs. Of these, 22 were categorized as social marketing, eight as CRM, and 13 as other community outreach programs. From these results, the authors concluded that the major leagues have a preference for social marketing when it comes to demonstrating that their corporate social responsibility.

Lam et al. (2014) focus their attention on the Chinese sporting goods market, which, according to their report, brought in 91 billion RMB (14.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008. They also note that this market in China has grown almost exponentially, which warrants research attention. Particularly, it has been found that the Chinese sporting goods market has significant potential for growth, since it accounted for only 0.4% of GDP, which is very low in comparison to other developed countries. In the United States, for example, this market accounts for 2% of GDP. For this reason, the purpose of the study was to determine the decision-making styles the Chinese consumer utilizes when purchasing sports products. To investigate this, 490 respondents were asked to rate their purchase style based on seven factors, which included Quality, Brand, Fashion, Price, Confusion, Habit, and Endorsement.

A 30-day period was given for the survey period, during which 490 members responded to an online survey. To analyze the data, the PAWS Statistics 18 software was used. The effects of gender and age were measured using the factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). While no interaction was found between gender and age, it is significant that the majority of participants were male. It is, therefore, concluded that more males than females tend to buy sporting goods in the Chinese market. No gender differences were found, however, in the factors Brand, Fashion, and Price. Gender differences were found in Quality, Confusion, Habit, and Endorsement.

In terms of demographics, most of the study participants were young adults up to 25 years old. This group has a greater tendency to buy sporting goods online than their older counterparts. Their overrepresentation in the study is, therefore, accounted for by the fact that, as online purchaser's, they were more interested in responding to the survey.

The results, therefore, suggest that different marketing strategies should be devised for different age groups as well as for males and females. While age group is not an issue in the proposed study comparing the U.S.A. And Kenya, gender differences may well play a significant role in the sports apparel market. The authors used data from the Chinese Academy of Industry Economy Research to offer a thorough overview of the demographics associated with various sports product entering the country and the revenues generated from each specific demographic group.

Discussion

Developed and Developing Country; Swimwear

Kinuthia et al. (2010) mention that there is a specific lack of literature to compare the third -- and first-world views of experiences relating to sports apparel. This reveals the need for more studies like the proposed one, in terms of offering insight into the way in which young people from the third world experience customer loyalty. Comparing data from Kenya and United States will necessarily reveal interesting information regarding the basic psychological differences created by the environments within which the young people from the respective countries learn and grow.

The intention is to obtain the data revealing these differences by means of instruments such as interviews and questionnaires. The proposal is that there are likely differences between the way in which customer loyalty to specific brands is encouraged among young people in the United States (a developed country) and those in Kenya (a developing country). Such data will be important to marketers and manufacturers.

Balakrishnan and Kumar's (2011) study reveals a gap in terms of celebrity endorsement in developing countries. While there are many studies that consider the impact of celebrities on the mind of the developed world citizen, such as the young American, relatively little attention has been given to those in the developing world, and specifically in African states. Questions that might be addressed include:

How do young people from developing countries regard celebrities?

What kinds of celebrities are most popular?

Would these celebrities have an impact on the purchasing behavior of young individuals?

While studies like the one by Balakrishnan and Kumar (2011) provide a good starting point for the situation in India, it is not entirely clear if this situation would correlate with the collective consumer consciousness in an African country such as Kenya. Interesting comparative information could be obtained by practical study.

The same is true of Pharr and Lough (2012), who focus on cause-related marketing and corporate responsibility. While their focus is on United States entities such as the NFL and NBA, it would be useful to apply the same data, comparatively, to the developing world represented by Kenya. Questions that might be asked in this regard include:

What major league sports are being played in Kenya?

Which are the most popular of these sports?

What is the significance of corporate responsibility?

How do cause-related sports marketing and social marketing in sport play a part in the country's reverence for sports and individuals' drive to buy branded products?

The study by Lam et al. (2014) provides interesting information regarding the Chinese sporting goods market and particularly in terms of demographic differences such as gender and age. This study provides a valuable sense of what could remain to be studied regarding gender and age when it comes to the purchase of sports apparel. Since young people are assumed to take part in sports more than their older counterparts, this age group can be the first to be investigated among the population.