BUS631: Brand Management

Descriptive Statistics and Reliability of Scales

More males than females participated in this study. All mean values of the nine constructs were above 3.5 suggesting general importance of the variables in predicting sports footwear brands. The top five sports footwear brands popular among Generation Y university students are Nike, Adidas, Puma, Kappa and Asics. Cronbach alphas were calculated for each construct measuring antecedents of brand loyalty toward sports footwear brands. All values of Cronbach alphas were above 0,6 and ranged between 0.62 to 0.80 providing evidence of internal-consistency reliability of the scales used in the study.

Table 1: Descriptive statistics and reliability of scales

Correlation Analysis

As reported in the correlation matrix table (Table 2), a positive relationship between each pair of the variables tested in this study is observed providing support for the nomological validity of the measurement theory. The multicollinearity is absent as none of the coefficients was above the 0.90 thresholds.

Table 2: Correlation matrix

Multivariate Regression Analysis

The results of the multivariate regression analysis and collinearity statistics are reported in Table 4. The collinearity statistics reported in Table 4 indicate the absence of a collinearity issue as the tolerance values were above the cut-off level 0.10 and the variance inflation factor of the variables was below the cut-off level of 10.00. Having ascertained the absence of the collinearity issue, a multivariate regression analysis was conducted to determine and model the antecedents of brand loyalty to sports footwear brands in South Africa.

Nine predictors (factors) namely endorsement, comfort, price, brand name, style, colour, brand image, perceived quality and brand association were entered as independent variables and brand loyalty as the dependent variable. As reported in Table 3, the F-ratio (42.178) was significant at p < 0.01, inferring the suitability of the model in predicting Generation Y brand loyalty towards sports footwear. The six independent variables which were found to have a statistically significant influence explain approximately 50 per cent of the variance in Generation Y consumers' brand loyalty toward sports footwear, as indicated by the R² value.

Table 3: Regression model summary – Anova results

As reflected in Table 4, six of the nine factors, namely brand image, brand association, style, brand name, price and endorsement were found to have a statistically significant influence on brand loyalty and therefore H1, H2, H4, H7, H8 and H9 are supported. These results are in line with some empirical studies found in the literature. H1 formulated as brand image positively influences consumer brand loyalty toward sports footwear brands is in support of a previous study conducted by Ruixia and Chen, which claimed that brand image does influence brand loyalty. H2 stated as perceived quality positively influences consumer brand loyalty towards sports footwear brands corroborates the study of Iqbal ascertaining the positive effect of perceived quality on brand loyalty of sports footwear brands among consumers. H4 postulated as style positively influences consumer brand loyalty towards sports footwear brands is confirmed and supported by past studies.

H7 postulated as brand name positively influences consumer brand loyalty towards sports footwear brands is confirmed and finds support in literature, which confirmed the positive influence of the brand name on brand loyalty. Similarly, H8 stated as price positively influences consumer brand loyalty towards sports footwear brands is also supported and corroborates previous findings, which showed that price contributed to brand loyalty. Lastly, H9 formulated as endorsement positively influences consumer brand loyalty towards sports footwear brands is confirmed in this study, however it does contradict previous studies, which found that endorsement is not a predictor of brand loyalty.

As reported in Table 4, three of the nine factors – perceived quality, comfort and style – were not found to be statistically significant predictors of brand loyalty, and therefore H3, H5 and H6 are rejected. These results are opposing some literature studies. For example, H3: Brand association, has different results from the study by Sasmita and Suki, where brand association increases brand loyalty; H5: Comfort, is varying from the study by Sage, where comfort leads to brand loyalty; and H6: Colour, is opposing the study by Singh, who found that colour creates a strong relationship leading to brand loyalty.

Table 4: Beta coefficients, hypothesis testing and collinearity statistics