Abstract:
Many organizations in the global market have realized that branding is an important
initiative that they can put in place to ensure survival in the market. The sugar industry
especially in Kenya has increasingly become saturated, attracting new and retaining old
customers has not only become difficult but also costly in terms of marketing. The
purpose of the study was to establish the effect of branding strategies namely, brand name
and image on performance of public sugar manufacturing firms in Western Kenya. The
target populations of the study were members of the four (Muhoroni, Nzoia, South
Nyanza and Chemilil) public sugar manufacturing firms in Western Kenya. Purposive
sampling technique was used to select the 12 managers while simple random sampling was used to select the 43 supervisors and 119 clerks. The data was analyzed by using
descriptive and inferential statistics and the findings indicated that, Brand name and Image
had a positive and significant influence on the performance of public sugar firms, it was
recommended that the management of SMFs should invest more and ensure effective use
of these branding attributes by putting more emphasis on use of branding strategies in
order to enhance performance.
