Role of Brand Associations on Market Brand Performance of Service Brands: Evidential View of Kenya’s Banking Industry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of brand associations on market brand performance in the services sector within the context of a developing economy, in particular the banking industry in Kenya.The study adopted apositivist, quantitative research design, with cross-sectional field survey data collection method. Data were collected from stratifies, randomly selected sample of 347 consumers of financial services of 35 commercial banks in Kenya and 35 senior managers of these banks.Correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of brand associations variables on market brand performance. The study finds that both organizational associations and service associations significantly and positively predict market brand performance, with service associations have a stronger predictive power than organizational associations. Overall, brand associations significantly and positively impact on market brand performance. Keywords: Brand associations; Organizational associations; Service Associations; Market Brand; Brand Performance