Consumer's Perception Of Corporate Rebranding Strategy By Kenya Airways

Abstract

Airlines are facing stiff competition as many players venture into the industry. To counter the effects, KQ has resorted to rebranding as a strategy of repositioning itself in the minds of the consumers. Since the introduction of the KQ new livery, no study has been done to determine the consumer perception towards the new image. Consumer perception would be a more effective way of determining the success of such a strategy. The objectives of the study were to establish the extent of consumer awareness of the corporate rebranding strategy adopted by Kenya Airways and to determine the consumer's perception of the Kenya Airways' corporate rebranding strategy. This was a descriptive research which targeted all the customers who travel on KQ and who buy their tickets from the KQ sales offices at Barclays Plaza, Jomo Kenyatta Airport and Yaya Center. A sample size of 200 customers was interviewed using convenient sampling. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire and a response rate of 89% was achieved. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize and analyze the data. Frequency distribution, percentages, mean score and standard deviation were used to determine the extent of awareness of the changes by the respondents and their perception towards the changes. The study findings indicated that most of the respondents were Male, Married, aged between (31 -35) years, had university and college education, were Kenyans, and were in charge of making the decision on the airline to fly. The findings further show that most respondents were aware of the change in colour design/style on the tail, engine, wings and main body of the aircraft, New KQ logo, change in style of presentation of the logo, the colour types/shades have changed i.e. green, black, red, that the tail-sign has been removed from the logo, while the least known changes were removal of the tail sign from the logo and removal of KQ website from the logo. The female respondents were more aware of the changes as compared to the male and Kenyans were more aware of the changes as compared to non - Kenyans. The main sources of awareness were television, newspapers, plane, billboards, Msafiri magazine, internet,