Abstract:
This study aims to know how effective Smart Communications' "Live More” campaign is in gaining customer patronage based on its brand management strategies, specifically advertising. Moreover, this study aims to determine if there is a relationship between brand management strategies and customer patronage. The researcher employed a self-constructed survey questionnaire designed to assess the awareness of the students of the different courses in the University of the Philippines Manila regarding the campaign, their perception of its branding, attitude toward the campaign and their purchasing behavior after being exposed to different marketing strategies and campaign tactics. The non-probability quota sampling technique was used in gathering data. Contrary to most research made on brand management and customer patronage, findings indicate that there is no significant relationship between brand management strategies and customer patronage. It was found, however, that there exists a significant and direct relationship between customer patronage and the physical attribute that the Smart "Live More” advertisements have. Results show that respondents generally use the Internet in getting information about a product. Moreover, they perceive the "Live More” advertisements as catchy, youthful, and colorful. It was also found that the respondents are favorable of the advertisements; thus, this favorableness contributes to the factors that the target market is convinced to avail Smart's services, that Smart would be on top of the list when switching to a new network, and that Smart's services would be worth availing. However, the Smart "Live More” brand management strategies in general are not enough to convince the nonSmart users to avail their services. Findings in this research also suggest that the marketing arm of Smart must continue its efforts on making the public aware of its new brand image by making advertisements more widespread and accessible to the target audience.
