Assessment of Food Quality, Perceived Value, and Brand Image as Determinants of Brand Switching among Dinners in Food Service Establishments in Umuahia Metropolis, Abia State, Nigeria

This study sought to assess food quality, perceived value, and brand image as determinants of brand switching in food service establishments in Umuahia metropolis Abia State, Nigeria. It was a descriptive survey research in which three specific objectives and three research hypotheses guided the study. The researchers purposively used 300 dinners of six reputable food service establishments in the study area as sample size. The research instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire on a 4-point scale which was subjected to reliability test that produced a reliability co-efficient of 0.78 proving the usability of the instrument, and accessibility sampling technique was used in the administration of the instrument. Descriptive and inferential statistics on SPSS version 25 were used to analyze the data generated. Findings revealed that, the independent variables; food quality, perceived value, and brand image have negative relationships with brand switching as indicated below by their respective coefficient values: food quality (-0.05429), perceived value (-0.0098) and brand image (-0.0615). Based on the findings, it is concluded that the independent variables under study have negative relationships with the dependent variable- brand switching. It is recommended among others that operators of food service establishments are to ensure that the quality of their menu offerings meets the physiological needs of the consumers, ensure that there is continuous improvement in all facets of their operations and build an image that portrays their operations in good light and improves customer-brand relationship