The Impact Of Consumers’ Perceptions Of Brand Positioning On Brand Choice In Ghana’s Bottled Water Industry: The Moderating Role Of Customer Brand Sensitivity

ABSTRACT This study investigates the moderating role of brand sensitivity on the relationship between brand positioning and brand choice. Explanatory in nature and design, the study is designed to predict the association between brand positioning and brand choice and further to assess the impact of brand sensitivity on this relationship, focusing on the bottled water industry of Ghana. Founded on choice theory, the study adopts a self-administered questionnaire to examine 400 consumers of bottled water. Covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyse and test the proposed hypotheses. The outcome of the study shows that corporate social responsibility, attributes and surrogate positioning strategies have significant positive relationships with brand choice in Ghana’s bottled water industry. Adding to this, brand sensitivity moderates the relationship, such that brand sensitivity dampens the positive relationship between surrogate positioning and brand choice in Ghana’s bottled water industry. With respects to contribution, the study improves theory by empirically examining choice theory alongside providing credibility to the perceived positive association between brand positioning and brand choice. The moderating impact of brand sensitivity on this association is a reasonably novel contribution to empirical works on brand positioning. The study also offers a commendation for policy-makers and management in the bottled water industry of Ghana to particularly consider customer brand sensitivity issues as they employ brand positioning strategies in their bid to differentiate their brands from that of competition. The study also affirms from the findings, the significance of brand positioning on brand choice, evidenced from consumers’ positive perceptions for corporate social responsibility, attributes, and surrogates as positioning strategies that resonated well in Ghana’s bottled water industry. The study recommends that it is imperative that future studies consider replicating the study in other jurisdictions to confirm the validity of the cross-sectional outcomes obtained from the Ghanaian context.