An evaluation of brand equity in Zimbabwe seed industry: A case study of Agriseeds (Pvt) LTD (2009 - 2012)

Abstract

Brand equity has received tremendous attention from both academics and practitioners owing to the several advantages it brings to firms. Brand equity provides an opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors, and creation of barriers to entry and ultimately can be used to sustain competitive advantage. There are several ways to build brand equity and these include advertising, enhancing product portfolio, public relations, warranties, slogans, jingles. Despite Agriseeds adopting some of these strategies to build brand equity like re-branding in 2009, its market share did not improve instead it dropped significantly the same year. The main objective of the study was to assess the level of Agriseeds brand equity and check whether it explains the lack of growth experienced by the business.

A qualitative approach was adopted for the study as it gave the researcher an in-depth understanding of the Agriseeds brand equity. A total of eighteen buyers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The research found that customers were not aware of Agriseeds products but instead were aware of Seed Co, Pioneer and Pannar. The study also found that although customers continue to order seed from Agriseeds, they were not necessarily loyal to Agriseeds. The study also found that customers associated Agriseeds with inferior products and weak marketing activities. The study found that Agriseeds brand equity is very low and this could be the explanation for the poor growth in sales and revenue experienced by the business. The study recommended that Agriseeds revisits its product awareness strategy, pricing policy, deal with customer complaints effectively and treat its customers as special and valued customers in order to benefit from strong brand equity.