Abstract:
Branding plays a significant role in the hospitality organizations because strong brands enhances guests’ trust of the service that has been characterized as unseen. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish the influence of brand personality on customer loyalty in fast food restaurants in Kisumu City. In particular, the study sought to establish whether brand personality sincerity, excitement, sophistication, and competence influence customer loyalty among customers of fast food restaurants. A descriptive cross-sectional study of 100 customers through self-administered questionnaires was conducted. The study used convenience sampling technique to select customers dining in the restaurants for inclusion in the study sample. All variables were measured using constructs derived from literature. Content validity was used to assess the validity of the questionnaire whereas Chronbach’s Alpha was used to assess the reliability of the constructs. Descriptive statistics (means, mean rankings, percentages, and standard deviations) were used to summarize the quantitative data. Pearson correlation technique was used to establish interrelationships between the study variables and as a test for the study hypotheses. Correlation analysis revealed strong statistically significant relationship between brand personality sincerity and customer loyalty. Moreover, brand personality excitement, competence, and sophistication were found to have weak positive statistically significant relationships with customer loyalty. The study concludes that brand personality sincerity is the most influential factor on customer loyalty. Also, brand personality traits (sincerity, excitement, competence, and sophistication) are related with customer loyalty. The study recommends management of the fast food restaurants in Kisumu should focus on developing strategies directed towards ensuring that the promises to customers are delivered as this would ascertain sincerity of the services provided. Also, the Management of fast food restaurants in Kisumu city should focus on all aspects of brand personality investigated in the study (sincerity, excitement, competence, and sophistication) as all of them are crucial towards creating and maintaining good customer relationships, hence, loyalty.