The Relationship between Relationship Marketing and Brand Loyalty in Mobile Telecom Service Providers: Case of Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Relationship marketing remains a major predictor of brand loyalty in the telecommunication industry. Regardless of this, mobile telecommunication firms in Kenya are yet to achieve required brand loyalty levels. This is evident given high levels of switching freedom and churn rate levels which rose from 21.20% to 31.45% in Safaricom, while in Airtel, this rose from 4.9% to 6.0% in 2021. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of relationship marketing on brand loyalty in mobile telecommunication service providers in Kenya. The study was hinged relationship marketing theory and descriptive research design. Target population was 124,849 subscribers drawn from four telecoms; Safaricom, Airtel, Telecom and Equitel. Stratified sampling technique was used to select a representative sample of 443 respondents. The primary data for the study was collected using a closed ended survey instrument. The study adopted Cronbach’s metrics of alpha to determine the internal consistency of the instrument while its validity was assessed by supervisors. Quantitative data was analyzed using both descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Correlation and Regression). The findings indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between relationship marketing and brand loyalty, where relationship marketing explained 60.1% of the variance in mobile telecommunication service providers brand loyalty. The study concludes that relationship marketing has a significant effect on brand loyalty. The telecos management should put more effort on human interactions and activities, enhanced Collaborative Perspective, aligned and empowerment employee and value co-creation behaviors in order to advance relationship marketing Keywords: Relationship Marketing, Brand Loyalty