Abstract:
Product branding has emerged as a valuable tool that is gaining attraction owing to its perceived
favorable impact on customer brand selection and purchase choices. According to empirical
literature, there are many obstacles that product branding must overcome in the marketplace, such as
a lack of commitment, disregarding the value of the brand-building process, a lack of creativity,
losing touch with your brand identity, skipping branding steps, and developing products without a
brand foundation. The goal of this study was to determine how product branding techniques affected
the performance of supermarket bakeries in Kisii town, Kenya. Assessing the impact of product
name, logo, color, and shape on bakery business unit performance in supermarkets in Kisii Town,
Kenya, was one of the study's primary objectives. The study's foundations were the social identity
theory of branding and the idea of headers balance. Descriptive research approach was used in the
study. 29 employees from the bakery processing facilities in the supermarkets and 795 regular bread
purchasers made up the population. A sample size of 294 was chosen using the Krejcie and Morgan
formula. For registered customers and staff members in the baking industry, a stratified random and
proportionate sampling approach was utilized. The validity of the research instruments was certified
by the researchers' supervisors, whereas the reliability of the instruments was established by a
piloting test utilizing Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient. Data were gathered using self-administered
structured questionnaires. There were employed descriptive statistics such as percentages, means,
and frequency distributions. The association between the performance of the bakery business unit
and the usage of product branding techniques was examined using Pearson's correlation coefficient
and multiple regression analysis. Frequency tables and graphs were used to present the study's
findings. Pie charts, bar graphs, and frequency tables were used to present the study's results. The
study discovered a substantial and positive correlation between the name and logo of the product and
the performance of bread enterprises in Kisii Town. Additionally, there was a little but positive
correlation between the color and shape of the goods and the success of the bread shops in Kisii
Town. Additionally, there was a small but favorable association between the success of the bread
businesses in Kisii Town and the color and shape of the products. The product branding methods
were found to be responsible for 73.9% of the performance variances of the bakeries in Kisii Town,
according to the R square of 0.739. P 0.05 determined the regression model's significance. The study
concluded that product logo, product color, product name and product shape, positively influence
performance of bakery enterprises and thus recommends that supermarkets should institute and
implement strategies that are geared towards these practices to enhance their performance.