Measuring consumer-based brand equity in the ethiopian brewery industry

Brand is one of the marketing tools used to overcome marketing challenges and helping the companies to strengthen their competitive advantage, and the added value of a brand is known as brand equity. The field of branding and brand equity is new area of research in Ethiopia. The study adapts an exploratory approach to measure consumer-based brand equity because there is no study conducted in the Ethiopia beer market. Accordingly, the study assumes brand equity dimensions affecting the creation of consumer-based brand equity and inter-relationship among brand equity dimensions. Hence, a conceptual model has been built and structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to verify the model. The brand equity dimensions (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality and brand loyalty) are the dimensions the study was conceptualized and used to measure consumer-based brand equity. A quantitative research was undertaken and a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design in nature was applied in the study. Furthermore, the operationalization of consumer-based brand equity can be divided into consumer perceptions that are, brand awareness, brand associations, and perceived quality; and customer attitude and behavior that is, brand loyalty. The study confirms except brand awarness, the other brand equity dimensions (brand asssociations, percived quality, and brand loylaty) affecting the creation of consumer-based brand equity; and brand loyalty is a holistic construct closer to brand equity and has a strong effect on the creation of consumer-based brand equity followed by perceived quality and brand associations. Moreover, the finding of the study showed causal inter-correlation among consumer-based brand equity dimensions.