Factors influencing brand choice of supermarkets in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Consumer choice in retail markets is fundamental to competitive dynamics, firm sustainability, and efficient resource allocation, particularly in rapidly urbanizing economies. This study examined the determinants of brand choice among supermarket consumers in Nairobi City County, Kenya, focusing on brand quality, supermarket location, and promotional strategy within a retail landscape comprising approximately 135 supermarket branches. Anchored in the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model, and utility maximization theory, the study adopted a positivist research philosophy and a quantitative, descriptive cross sectional design. Primary data were collected from 232 respondents using structured questionnaires. Data processing involved cleaning, coding, and screening, followed by analysis in STATA 19. The analytical approach combined descriptive statistics with inferential techniques, including Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression. Model validity was ensured through diagnostic tests such as multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity tests, normality of residuals, and model specification tests. At the bivariate level, all three predictors were positively and significantly associated with brand choice. In the multiple regression, supermarket location and promotional strategy remained significant, while brand quality did not; the three predictors jointly explained a modest 10.5% of the variation in brand choice. Within this sample, supermarket location showed the strongest association with brand choice, consistent with the role of accessibility in converting preference into patronage, while promotional strategy exerted a smaller, secondary influence. Brand quality showed no independent association once the other factors were controlled, a result attributable largely to shared variance among the predictors and to limited quality differentiation across chains. Given the model's modest explanatory power and its cross sectional, non-probability design, the findings are interpreted as associations within the study context rather than as generalizable determinants of supermarket choice. The study nonetheless offers practical and policy-relevant insights for retail competitiveness in emerging urban markets and identifies the relative weight of structural and tactical retail attributes as a question for further, better-specified research.