THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRAND LOYALTY AND MARKET PERFORMANCE: A STUDY OF RIVERS STATE'S FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

Brand loyalty is the degree to which a customer consistently buys the same brand within a product category. Brand loyalty as a key component of brand equity acts as a means of launching and introducing additional products that are aimed at same customers at reduced expenditure. Thebroad aim of the study was to examine the relationships between brand loyalty and market performance of food and beverage firms in Rivers State. In the course of achieving thispurpose, the study, extensively dealt with the conceptualization of brand loyalty in impacting market performance extensively.The study adopted the stratified sampling technique to appropriately plan and develops a good framework for the study. Data gotten through this means were analyzed using the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and the Regression Analysis techniques. More so, the study established that there is a link between brand loyalty and market performance. Based on the findings, the study concluded that, given the knowledge of the importance that firms and customers attach to brand loyalty, it would be fairly possible to predict that an increase in brand loyalty will motivate companies to introduce additional products, search for potential customers, and enhance her market performance. The study therefore, recommends amongst others that management of food and beveragefirms should key inbrand loyalty to market performance, because it was reveals that there is a statistically significant relationship between them