THE RELATIONSHIP TO BRAND PREFERENCE AMONG CONSUMERS OF BEER IN UMUAHIA METROPOLIS

Beer is an alcoholic drink. Its wire consumption by people around the world dates back to prehistoric times. it is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world after water and tea (Meristem, 2014). People consume it for various reasons. It could be as a component of the standard diet for hygienic or medical reasons, for artistic inspiration as aphrodisiacs, for its relaxants and euphoric effects, for recreational purpose, and for other reasons. Some drinks have been inscribed with religious or symbolic significance showing the mystic use of alcohol.

       The 1980 marked a turning point in the conception of brands. Management came to realize that the principal asset of a company was in fact its brand names. Several; articles in both the American and European value of the brand.

According to Neol (1997) “the strength of a company like Heineken is not solely in knowing how to brew beer; it is the people all over the world want to drink Heineken. The same logic applies for IBM, sonny, Mc Donald, Barclays bank Dior.

By paying very high prices for companies with brands, buyers are actually purchasing positions in the minds of potential consumers. The brand is not the product but it gives the product meaning and defines its identity in both time companies are discovering that this brand equity has to be managed, nourished and controlled.

       According to Coney (1984), he noted “that it I not to anticipate and react to customers’ needs and desires without a complete understanding of consumers behavior”. Discovering customer’s current needs is a complete process.  But it can generally be accomplished by direct marketing research. An understanding of consumer behavior is the basis for marketing strategy determines the organization’s success or failure. However these reactions also determine the success of the consumers in meeting their needs and they have significant infants on the larger society in which they occur.  Consumer behavior involves more than just buying, although the manner in which consumers buy is extremely important to marketers, it is not the only thing of interest. Modern marking has attempted to synthesize rationality behind the choice of a particular brand of product in preference to rays of other brand by the consumers. Economics see the consumer as a rational man with limited resources. The consumer is therefore faced with the problem of allocating these resources in such a way as to equalize the extra satisfaction to be obtained from the unit of each product purchased.

        Adequate understanding of consumer’s preferences behavior over different brands of related products in the market has become necessary to actually place the brand on a comfortable position within the ambits of the market. Breweries have over the years adopted series of strategies to enhance the image of its beer, before the consumers with the sole aim of boosting sale.

Ability of the breweries industry to understand the preference behavior market like this would become not only expedient but also necessary to actually attract success.