Survey of factors that influence consumers' choice of cigarette brands in Nairobi

Abstract

Consumer choice is very important in marketing of a given product and must be taken into account for any business to succeed. According to Aaker (1991), consumers are indifferent to a brand and they in fact, buy with respect to the features, price and convenience with little concern to the brand name. The aim of the study was to investigate the factors that influence consumers' choice of cigarette brands in Nairobi. In order to achieve this objective, random sampling was conducted in 10 selected estates, 2 estates from the low- income groups and 8 estates from middle and upper income groups. In each of the 10 selected estates, one bar was used as a source of locating respondents. In each bar, 10 respondents were studied giving a total of 100 respondents. JudgmentaJ sampling technique was used to identify respondents that qualified for the study. The respondents were screened to ensure that only smokers were interviewed. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the primary data. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part A was used to determine general information of the cigarette consumers. Part B was used to capture the information on the factors that influence consumers' choice of cigarettes brands and to generate information on factors considered as the most important in influencing consumers' choice. A response rate of 100% was achieved. The collected data was analyzed by use of frequencies and percentages to represent response rate on information collected. Major research findings indicate that of the respondents 82% were Male while the Female accounted for 18%, majority of the smokers were between the age of (31 - 35) years, 50% of the respondents had an average Monthly income of above Kshs. 50,000, 59% of the respondents were married and 36% were single, 95% had an educational level of Secondary School and above and 93% had smoked cigarettes for more than 2 years. The research findings showed that 75% of the respondents were loyal to one brand of cigarette because of affordable price, high satisfaction derived from smoking, high quality, adequate menthol, and taste, while the remaining 25% were switching off between different brands because of similar taste and Strength of the kick. The following factors were found to be very critical in brand choice: Design of the packaging, Appealing image, Strength of the Kick, Burning rate, Filter size, Flavor of the brand, Age of the brand in the market, Satisfaction derived from smoking it, Brand name, Reasonable prices, Information about the brand, Information of

product given by sales personnel, Association with a given class, Availability/ Accessibility, Reference groups, Belief held about the product, Alternative available to choose from and The Level of income. The study was conducted in Nairobi Region and therefore cannot be used to generalize the smokers' choices in other regions in Kenya. The study was broad in that it dealt with many different factors that influence smokers in making decision of the brands of cigarettes to smoke. Future studies should be carried out in all parts of the country, that is, both in urban and rural areas and the sample size increased as this would provide a better representation of the overall tobacco industry.