Exploring Africa's heterogenous middle class' brand behaviour in the new digital age : practical insights from a multiple country study

Tendai Chikweche, James Lappeman, Hossain Mohammed, Paul Egan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The article’s purpose is to critically examine the heterogeneous middle class in Africa’s evolving relationships with brands in the new digital age environment identifying drivers for brand purchase decision-making that brand managers can adopt for their strategies. The new environment is conceptualized from the impact of digitalization and the emergence of more discerning consumers, informed and empowered in their interaction with brands. The article contributes significantly to responses to calls by international marketing scholars for further research in global brand building and management in the new digital age. Our article provides insights into how the heterogeneity of the middle class in Africa influences the consumers’ relationship with brands considering the impact of digital connectivity and nuances of each middle-class segment. We identify the core drivers for brand selection that the heterogeneous middle-class segments consider and how this influences their attitudes toward brands. The study also highlights the complexities of the relationship between the middle class and counterfeit brands. Practical and theoretical implications to provide guidelines for improving practice and research on managing brands in the new international marketing environment are presented.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of International Consumer Marketing
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2024 the author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

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