Impact of Branding on Undergraduate Students' Purchasing Behaviour in Enugu State, Nigeria

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of branding on undergraduate students’ purchasing behavior in Enugu State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to determine the impact of branding on undergraduate students loyalty, willingness to pay and attitude to specific brand of product. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The sample size was 397 (201 males and 196 females), and it was arrived at using the Taro Yamane sample size formula. The study used proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The instrument for the study was 24 item self-developed questionnaires having three dimensions titled “Impact of Branding on Students Buying Habit Questionnaire (IBSBHQ)” used for data collection. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained for IBSBHQ instrument which was administered to only 50 students outside the study area. All 397 questionnaires were used for the main analysis. Research questions were analysed using mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance using a t-test. The findings show that branding has impact on students` loyalty, willingness to pay premium prices and attitude towards a product. The findings show that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female students on the impact of branding on undergraduate students loyalty to a specific brand of product. Also, the findings show there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female students on the impact of branding on undergraduate students willingness to pay premium prices for a product. The study recommends that manufacturers should maintain their reputation so that customers in return will be more loyal to their brand. Finally, the study concluded that branding has impact on undergraduate students` loyalty to specific brand of product.