Assessing the Role of Advertising and Sales Promotion on Brand Equity

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INTRODUCTION
In today's business environment, most businesses consider the name of their goods and services to be one of their most important assets.The use of branding by organizations has soared significantly as each organization tries to differentiate its products/services from the other (Ofosu-Boateng & Agyei, 2020).Brand generates consumer and corporate value and justifies additional product costs for the customer.Brand money, technology and raw materials are essential to the development of an organization's added value.Today it's a necessity for any company to create a powerful brand and access a prestigious brand, because a powerful brand offers many advantages for businesses (Ofosu-Boateng & Agyei, 2020).
Brand equities are described by Aaker (2020) as a collection of brand-linked assets and liabilities.The names and symbols include the added or removed meaning given to an organization and/or its clients by the product or service.If the market brand share is taken into account, meanings are more unique to the consumer.Consumers view brand as an essential component of any product and can thus increase the value of each product by determining a brand Aaker (2020).Attempting to describe customer-brand relationships produced the idea of brand equity.After being implemented into the business world, the brand equity idea gained a lot of interest and was the basis for a lot of studies.Brand equity is regarded as a primary asset for businesses in modern marketing theories.
A myriad of research studies in various contexts have concentrated on the issue of brand equity Tasci, 2021;Wu et al., 2020).Some researchers have identified various factors in brand equity research as drivers of consumer brand equity.In addition, one of the major drivers of brand equity was the marketing mix factor.The components of such a marketing combination not only have a major effect on brand equities but they are subject to company regulation (Bae et al., 2020).
Print ISSN: 2053-4043(Print) Online ISSN: 2053-4051 (Online) Website: https://www.eajournals.org/Publication of the European Centre for Research Training and Development UK Brand equity focuses highly on brand studies as the usual outcome of management strategies is brand equity (Lim, 2023).Brand equity reveals a price differential where a good brand is more attractive than an average brand.Brand equity indirectly improves brand loyalty, price-and profit margins, brand growth and leverages competitive advantages by improved productivity and effectiveness of marketing programmes.The value of the business increases with brand equity [8].Despite the remarkable brand equity pattern, few conceptual advances and empirical investigations have been carried out to define marketing practices contributing to brand equity (Tasci, 2021).Overall, brand value has been illustrated in this sense and capital and production approaches have been neglected (Tasci, 2021).Ngoc & Tien (2021) indicated that a systemic approach to product and branding should be taken to evaluate how intangible characteristics derived from the pricing, development services and distribution choices of managers have an effect on the creation and impacts of brand equity on buyer decision-making.Planning and executing communicationmarketing programs, such as ads, sales promotion programs, sponsorships, etc to successfully promote goods and services for target markets and customers is one of the most critical components of marketing activities.Ofosu-Boateng & Agyei (2020) indicate that advertising can be regarded as a defense, i.e. advertising promotes loyal customer maintenance, whereas advertising and sponsorship can be considered an offensive tactic that draws loyal customers from rival brand names.Although appropriate advertising programmes, by means of sales, can yield desired results such as increased profit, the program is expensive.If advertising campaigns lead businesses towards their targets, businesses can control costs and revenues and this is an investment (Paydas Turan, 2021).LG Company is a renowned brand which has multiple customers because of its product range and spends huge amounts per year on marketing activities such as advertisement, donation, sports teams help, etc.This study, aims therefore to identify the effect of advertising, sales promotion programs on brand equity and their different brand dimension of brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty.

Statement of Hypotheses i.
H1. Consumers' perceptions of a brand's advertising spend have a positive influence on: brand loyalty, perceived quality and brand associations ii.
H2: Individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements undertaken for a brand have a positive influence on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty iii.
H3. Consumers' perceptions of a brand's monetary promotions have a negative influence on perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand associations iv.
H4. Consumers' perceptions of a brand's non-monetary promotions have a positive influence on: perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand association and brand awareness

LITERATURE REVIEW Conceptual Review Brand Definition
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as, "a design, name, symbol, term, logo or symbol or combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors".The branding is, "endowing products and services with the power of a brand" (Bačevac et al., 2020).Then & Johan (2021) defines the branding as, "process of utilizing marketing strategies to enhance their products or service's image so that it is more readily recollected by the customer".A product or service is called brand only when its dimensions differentiate from others, but satisfy the same need.The point of difference can be related to products performance (functional, tangible and rational) or related to the image/abstract of brand (intangible, emotional or symbolic).

Brand Equity
The concept of brand equity comes into existence when a consumer makes a choice of a product or service (Çınar, 2020).Defined as "the differential impact of brand knowledge on consumers of the brand marketing," brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favourable, positive, strong and distinct associations in the memory.Then & Johan (2021) refers to brand equity as the value and strength of the brand that decides its worth.

Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to how aware customers and potential customers are of your business and its products (Akorede, 2023).It reflects the salience of the brand that is "anchored" in the customers mind (Akorede, 2023).Perceptions and attitudes of consumer can be affected by how aware he/she is to the brand.There are several level of awareness, which includes, recognition, recall, top-ofmind, brand dominance, brand knowledge and brand opinion.According to Aaker (1996), brand in different product life cycle requires different level of awareness.

Brand Associations
According to Akorede (2023), brand associations are the category of a brand's assets and liabilities that include anything ``linked'' in memory to a brand.Keller (2009) defines brand associations as informational nodes linked to the brand node in memory that contains the meaning of the brand for consumers.Brand associations are important to marketers and to consumers.Marketers use brand associations to differentiate, position, and extend brands, to create positive attitudes and feelings toward brands, and to suggest attributes or benefits of purchasing or using a specific brand

Perceived Quality
Quality perceived is defined as the subjective opinion of consumers about the overall superiority or excellence of a product (Eslami, 2020).Consequently, quality perceived in this study measures consumer subjective assessment of brand excellence or superiority and examines overall quality rather than individual quality elements (Sharif et al., 2023) Brand Loyalty Brand loyalty is the preference of the consumer to buy a particular brand in a specific product category (Giddens, 2022).'Brand loyalist has the following mindset: "I am committed to this brand', "I am willing to pay a higher price for this brand over other brands" and "I will recommend this brand to other" (Giddens, 2022).Greater loyalty leads to numerous benefits such as an improved market share, decline in marketing cost and improved opportunities for brand extension (Giddens, 2022).

Advertising
Nowadays the advertisement of the product is a significant part of any business to attract clients and extend the product's choice (Maihami et al., 2021).Kotler & Armstrong (2008) define advertisement as a method for non-private communication which is paid for.In general, an advertisement to influence individual attitudes to certain individuals, products, organizations, ideas or services is under the responsibility of a recognized sponsor (Belch & Belch, 2003).Advertising plays a key role in the competitive environment of today, when companies have both potential and current communication with their customers.Companies are assigned an important part of the sources to publicity (Ayada, & Shatela, 2024).It is essential to understand how to capture, maintain audience attention and effectively engage viewers with advertising in order to evaluate the best return on investment through advertising budgets (Akorede, 2023).

Concept of Sales Promotion
While widely used in the field of sales promotion in the management field, the academic field has been rarely explored (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2021;McColl, 2020).Consumer sales promotions have generated considerable debate about their efficiency in product management.Sales promotions are not effective because they make consumers more likely to promote, which in the long run will lead to market share losses.In the meantime, the term promotion means different things for many people according to their context and their discipline.In other words, the concept usually means a component of a marketing mix here.It refers in some respects to any technique for the sale of a product (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2021).

Types of Sales Promotion
In reality, sales promotions are used both monetarily and non-monetarily.There are significant differences: monetary promotions aim to provide customers with reasonably immediate benefits, are transactional in nature; non-monetary promotions are typically delayed and have a greater relationship.The different forms of sales promotion need to be looked at in determining the efficacy of sales promotions.
Coupons; A sales promotion method which has a certificate entitling the bearer to specified discounts off the regular price of a product is called as a couponing in a promotional mix.It is argued that it can be used to inspire consumers to try out new products, draw customers from rivals or lead existing customers to purchase more products (Duan et al., 2022).
Premium: This is a way to promote sales in which certain items are offered either for purchase of a specified LG product free of charge or at a bargain price.Therefore, this technique offers a product to customers for free or at a lower cost.Effective premiums are mainly closely linked with the product or brand sold (Khan & Warraich, 2021).
Point-of-purchase-display: Many company companies use the POP technology to attract the attention of many consumers to a specific product brand.This is an advocacy style where the product show is so positioned in the retail store that customers are motivated to purchase the product (Duan et al., 2022).This implies that at the point in which it is available, POP displays and demonstrates goods (LG).
Trade Shows and Sponsorship: Trade shows are a variant in the promotion of sales and companies regularly sponsor trade shows for members and consumers (Griffin et al, 2004).Consequently, they promote goods for intermediaries.More significantly, trade fairs are fair-relatively cost-efficient and effective as the buyer comes to the seller already interested in a certain product category, resulting in increasingly large international trade fairs (Duan et al., 2022).affects brand awareness of food products in wholesale shops, using questionnaires containing closed questions, and a sample of 500 daily wholesale customers.The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was preliminary checked using a group of 50 clients.Test was based on a five-point Likert-type scale with an empirical interpretation of the sample using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis.The results showed that the awareness of the brand was influenced by two main factors, the most significant being the promotion of ads and sales

METHODOLOGY
The study adopted the quantitate design because of its scientific nature.The target population comprises the customers of LG Angola.The simple random technique was adopted to gather data from 938 respondents.According to Krejcie & Morgan, (1970), this will be representative enough to make an informed decision about the phenomenon.The Primary data involves the use of questionnaires and interviews.The questionnaires consist of various questions geared towards achieving the objectives of the study.The questionnaires employed close ended questions..The questionnaire was constructed on a Likert scale of five points (5) ranging from (1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree), respondents were asked to tick the variables.With the aim to intensify the reliability and validity of the results of the study, a pilot testing of a small sample was carried out, so as to decide the accuracy, validity, conciseness, significance, appropriateness and duration of the survey tools used for the research study.This was meant to pre-test the viability of the study tool used for the research and also the degree to how dependable the responses will be for similarly evaluation.Questionnaires to the respondents was left at their offices and notified with reminders of the questionnaires by telephone calls and visits to their respective offices and collected within the week.Cronbach's Alpha, which measures the internal consistency, was used to assess the reliability of the questionnaires.The Cronbach's Alpha will be calculated using SPSS version 25 for reliability analysis.The value of the alpha coefficient ranges from 0.1 and may be used to describe the reliability of factors extracted at a 5% level of significance from dichotomous and or multi-point formatted questionnaires or scales.Muijs, (2015) noted that a higher value shows a more reliable generated scale but 0.7 normally offers reasonable reliability for study purposes.The questionnaires were administered, and the raw data collected were organized in a manner that facilitated analysis.All data collected was checked for consistency of responses and cleaned before entry into the software.The data was analysed using statistical methods and the results, displayed using tables, charts and graphs.Descriptive statistics mainly frequencies, percentages, and mean were used to summarize the responses.Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) V25.To achieve the objectives, an inferential analysis using Structural equation modelling (SEM) has been used to test the measurement and structural models.SEM is a group of statistical models that try to explain the relationships among multiple variables.It estimates a series of separate but interdependent multiple regression equations simultaneously.The advantage of SEM over other comparative tools is that while multiple regression, factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, each can examine only a single relationship at a time, SEM can examine a series of dependence relationships simultaneously.avoiding bias, using appropriate research methodology, correct reporting, and appropriate use of information received from respondents.The respondents were made to understand in port of the research topic which was purely academic exercise and voluntary.Any respondent who did not wish to take part was.They were also made to understand that their confidentiality and anonymity are assured and all responses were highly respected

Reliability Test
A reliability test for the main constructs of the study as shown in Table 4.2 below suggested that each scale adopted had strong internal consistency given that alpha values for the main construct were greater than the recommended threshold of 0.70 as suggested by Bagozzi and Yi (2012).Table 1 presents the results of the reliability Test Demographic Profile of Respondents Demographic characteristics of respondents with respect to gender showed that LG Angola has preponderance female customers than male customers.Also, the age bracket 21-30 (61.7) was the majority patronizing LG Angola's products.This was followed by age group31-40 and the age group less than 20 years.These findings were anticipated prior to the study considering the youth interest in electronic gadgets.The findings are, also in consistent with prior studies (gg, 2023).Again, on the educational level of respondents, majority of the respondents were bachelor degree holders, followed by GCE/O'Level/WASSCE holders and primary school certificate holders respectively.The findings showed that the respondents have attained varied level of education with the highest being bachelor's degree.98(36.4%) of the respondents have known the LG brand for over 10years, followed by 67(24.9%) of the respondents knowing the LG brand for 1-3 years.57(21.2%) of the respondents also have known the brand for 3-6years.The least group have known the LG brand for 6-10 years.The study confirms that all respondents are knowledgeable and familiar with the LG brand.

Correlation Analysis
Correlation coefficient varies from -1 to +1.A positive (1) coefficient is an indication of a perfect correlation while a negative one (1) shows a perfect negative correlation.The calculation of the correlation coefficient (R) contains details on the proximity of two variables.Explicitly, the objective of a correlation study is much the same in quantitative scientific research, rendering it useful to investigate the relationship between independent and dependent variables.The correlation matrix of the various items and their significance are presented as follows; Table 3

Discussions and Results
The study generally set out to assess the role of advertising and sales promotions in brand equity.
The study sought to specifically examine; The effect of consumers' perceptions of a brand's advertising spend on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.The effect of individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.The effect of consumers' perceptions of a brand's monetary promotions on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.The effect of consumers' perceptions of a brand's non-monetary promotions on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a structured questionnaire was designed to address the specific objectives and same was administered to customers of LG in Angola The Effect of consumers Perception of a brand advertising spend on perceived quality, brand awareness, brand association and brand loyalty From the results above, the advertising spends show a positive effect on brand loyalty and perceived quality with regression coefficient of 0.181, and 0.004 with their corresponding p-values of 0.001, 0.000 which are significant at 5% levels.More so, the advertising spends showed a positive effect on band association, but insignificant with a coefficient of 0.99 and a p-value of 0.409 which is greater than the acceptable levels of 0.05.on the contrary, the advertising spends showed a negative effect on the perceived quality.This finding is in line with that of Mendez et al. (2015) who identify the effect of various forms of monetary and non-monetary incentives on brand loyalty and its relationship to product engagement.The results indicate that both monetary and non-monetary promotions can improve brand loyalty, in contrast to the findings of previous studies.Also, Attar & Niavand (2020) who examine the effect of ads on the Shabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone (CFZ) brand equity of Iran as a tourist destination.It has been shown in this study that advertisement has a major influence on brand equity.In addition, the results illustrated the relevance of advertising to the development of brand equity and suggested that the value of brand equity could be increased by concentrating on advertising

Effects of consumers Perception of a brand monetary promotion on perceived quality, brand awareness, brand association and brand loyalty
The results suggest that monetary promotions has a positive effect on Perceived quality and Brand loyalty with a regression coefficient of 0.478, 0.3 and significant at 1% levels.while the monetary promotions have a negative on brand association and brand awareness and significant at 5% levels.These findings support that of Salelaw & Singh (2020) who investigated the effect of Sales Promotion on Brand Equity: The Brewery Industry case.The study concluded that monetary promotion has a positive impact on the development of brand equity by influencing brand recognition, brand connections and perceived quality; and non-monetary sales promotion has a positive impact on the formation of brand equity by influencing brand awareness and negatively affecting perceived quality.Further, Walton (2021) who tried to investigate the effects of the sales campaign on the output of Guinness Ghana Brewery Ltd.The study found a positive and important association between the promotion of sales and profitability.However, there has been no substantial association between sales promotion and non-financial results

Effects of consumers Perception of a brand non-monetary promotion on perceived quality, brand awareness, brand association and brand loyalty
The results indicate a positive effect of non-monetary promotions on Brand associations and Brand awareness with regression coefficient of 0.688, 0.721 and significant at 5% levels.However, nonmonetary promotions on positively influence Perceived quality, Brand loyalty but not significant.This result is in line with that of Agyei (2022) who found that a strong relationship between advertising, monetary and non-monetary promotions and brand credibility, which would result in higher expected benefits for consumers by increasing perceptions of quality and decreasing perceived costs of risk and information.Similarly, Boateng (2017) who investigated whether the influence of selected marketing-mixing elements on brand equity differs for different types of brands found that frequent price promotions and intensive distribution of discount stores have a negative impact on brand equity.However, this effect differs from one brand to another: the higher the initial level of equity of the brand, the more harmful the impact of these marketing activities on brand equity.

Summary of Findings
The study generally set out to examine the role of advertising and sales promotions in brand equity.On the effect of consumers' perceptions of a brand's advertising spend on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.From the study revealed that, the advertising spends show a positive effect on brand loyalty and perceived quality and which are significant at 5% levels.More so, the advertising spends showed a positive effect on band association, but insignificant.On the contrary, the advertising spends showed a negative effect on the perceived quality.On the effect of individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.
On the effect of consumers' perceptions of a brand's monetary promotions on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.The results suggest that Monetary promotions has a positive effect on Perceived quality and Brand loyalty and significant at 1% levels.Also, monetary promotions have a negative on brand association and brand awareness and significant at 5% levels.
On the effect of consumers' perceptions of a brand's non-monetary promotions on: a) perceived quality; b) brand awareness c) brand associations and d) brand loyalty.The study discovered a positive effect of non-monetary promotions on Brand associations and Brand awareness and significant at 5% levels.However, non-monetary promotions on positively influence Perceived quality, Brand loyalty but not significant

CONCLUSION
Advertising spends has a positive effect brand loyalty and perceived quality and which are significant.More so, the advertising spends has a positive effect on band association, but insignificant.On the contrary, the advertising spends showed a negative effect on the perceived quality.
Monetary promotions have a positive effect on Perceived quality and Brand loyalty and significant.
Monetary promotions have a negative on brand association and brand awareness and significant.This is a positive effect of non-monetary promotions on Brand associations and Brand awareness and significant.However, non-monetary promotions on positively influence Perceived quality, Brand loyalty but not significant

Recommendation
Following the results and the findings of this study, the study makes the following recommendations; In the first place, businesses should pay special attention in this sense to the architecture and innovation of their promotional campaigns.
Secondly, campaign managers need to pay attention to the impact advertisement activities are having on the consumer's view of brand equity by using motivational non-monetary resources such as donations.
Finally, managers should create brand recognition as a way to incorporate the brand into multiple relationships, such as the perceived quality, personality or consistency of customers.

Future Studies
First, for a deeper understanding of the production process of brand equity, potential inquiries may explore additional backgrounds of customer brand equity.Also, these results may be extended further by taking into account low product types and labels Finally, the relevance of results in other developed countries and societies should be discussed in future studies.
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Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Author's Construct, 2024 ://www.eajournals.org/Publication of the European Centre for Research Training and Development UK 22

Table 4 : Structural Model Results
Source: Field Survey, 2024