Building Customer Loyalty through Brand Equity in an Emerging Telecommunications Market

Evidence from Southwest Cameroon

Abstract

Purpose: Low switching costs, multi-SIM usage, and recurring service challenges make customer retention difficult in Cameroon’s mobile telecommunications market. This study examined how brand awareness, brand association, and perceived quality influence customer loyalty to telecommunications operators in Fako Division, Southwest Cameroon.

Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional survey used an online Google Forms questionnaire distributed through snowball sampling between April and May 2026. Of the 384 targeted respondents, 374 valid responses were analyzed, representing a usable-response rate of 97.4%. Binary logistic regression estimated the effects of the three brand-equity dimensions on customer loyalty while controlling for age, gender, and educational attainment.

Results: Brand awareness (B = 0.989, OR = 2.689, p < 0.001), brand association (B = 1.003, OR = 2.728, p = 0.004), and perceived quality (B = 0.760, OR = 2.138, p = 0.002) each had a positive and statistically significant effect on customer loyalty. Age had a significant joint effect, whereas gender and educational attainment were statistically insignificant.

Implications: Telecommunications operators should connect brand communication with dependable service delivery. Consistent brand visibility, favorable customer experiences, reliable networks, transparent service recovery, and targeted engagement can strengthen loyalty, while regulators can support these outcomes through effective quality-of-service monitoring and consumer-protection standards.

Originality: The study distinguishes the effects of three customer-based brand-equity dimensions within an under-researched emerging African telecommunications market and shows that brand association produced the largest estimated loyalty effect, marginally exceeding brand awareness.

Limitations: The cross-sectional design limits causal inference, while online snowball sampling and the focus on Fako may limit representativeness and broader generalizability. Longitudinal, probability-based, and multi-region studies are recommended.