A brand communication model for micro and small enterprises in South African townships

Abstract

Small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) engage in branding as an afterthought or informally. Brand building and development are the foundations of successful businesses. Brand building establishes awareness about a business using strategies that are aimed at creating a unique image and therefore communicating and creating value for customers through brands. Brand development is important for businesses to create and distinguish establishments from their competitors. This study explored the brand communication practices and activities of micro and small enterprises in South African townships in the Gauteng and North-West Provinces. In addition, the study sought to determine the perceptions of consumers and clients of micro and small enterprises with regard to the brand communication practices and activities of the enterprises. The aim of the study was to develop a cohesive brand communication management model in which micro and small enterprises in townships could be used to manage and leverage the branding of businesses.

A sequential exploratory mixed-method research approach was used to advance an understanding of the brand communication practices and activities in building and developing micro and small enterprises as brands. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the owners of the micro and small enterprises, and self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the primary data from the consumers and clients of the enterprises during the qualitative and quantitative phases, respectively. The Atlas.ti Version 8 software programme was used in thematic analysis to analyse the qualitative data and to discover the practices and activities of brand building and development by the participants. The qualitative data analysis yielded eight themes that aligned the research questions and objectives. The process satisfied the validity of the qualitative strand of the study. The themes that emerged from the thematic analysis were employed in the development of a research measurement survey instrument in the second phase of the study. The statistical software package SPSS version 28 was used to analyse the quantitative data. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to analyse the quantitative data. The study used the SEM statistical technique with the aid of analysis of moment structures (AMOS) software package. The perceptions of the consumers and clients of the micro and small enterprises could be determined to develop a theoretical brand communication management model. The study empirically tested the causal relationships between the constructs through SEM.

Through the theories and model of ANT, brand building, RBT, SERVQUAL (customer service) and marketing communication mix, the findings indicated the importance of customer service in communicating the enterprises to the consumers and clients. The consumers and clients of the micro and small enterprises had positive perceptions about the practices and activities and, therefore, it confirmed that they influence how they perceive enterprises. Furthermore, the study found that consumers perceive customer service to comprise two core components, that is, customer experience and service reliability. The marketing communication mix was perceived to be inclusive of sales promotion and advertising, as sales promotion and personal branding were merged at the SEM analysis stage. Social media was perceived to encompass social media platforms and social media marketing that provides visibility and accessibility to the enterprise. Brand identity partially and fully explained the conceptual relationships between the practices and activities.

The brand communication management model developed in this study contributes to the body of knowledge in entrepreneurship, communication and management from an emerging market economy context. The model and measurement instrument could be subjected to a different context for future research.