Marketing and Branding Research

The mobile phone industry is a very innovative segment within the ICT sector, and the smartphone is gradually becoming the standard configuration of mobile devices and currently represents the fastest growing market in the telecoms industry. Previous studies on brand equity tend to focus on telecommunications, banking, hospitality, banking, construction, fast-moving customer goods, etc., while ignoring the education sector. Therefore, the general objective of the study is to evaluate the brand equity of apple smartphones and customer behavior in Abuja. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. The study used primary data through a questionnaire using 341 samples. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to establish the extent to which brand awareness, brand association, and brand loyalty affect customer behaviour among students of Veritas University. The resutls revealed that brand awareness, brand association, and brand loyalty positively and significantly affect customer behaviour among Veritas University students. It was concluded that when consumers are attached and loyal to a brand, they are likely to make repeat purchases. This only happens when the relationship between the brand and the user is very in-depth and has an emotional connection with the mobile brand. The study recommended that firms interested in extending customer behaviour to repurchase their product categories should pay special attention to brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand association linked to the functions of guarantee, social identification, and status.