Purpose: The importance of branding in industrial contexts has increased, yet a comprehensive model of business-to-business (B2B) branding does not exist, nor has there been a thorough empirical study of the applicability of a full brand equity model in a B2Bcontext. This paper discusses the suitability and limitations of Keller's Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model and tests its applicability in a B2B market.
Methodology/approach:The study involved the use of semi-structured interviews with senior buyers of technology for electronic tracking of waste management.Findings: Findings suggest that amongst organisational buyers there is a much greater emphasis on the selling organisation, including its corporate brand, credibility and staff, than on individual brands and their associated dimensions.
Research limitations/implications:The study investigates real brands with real potential buyers, so there is a risk the results may represent industry-specific factors that are not representative of all B2B markets. Future research that validates the importance of the Keller elements in other industrial marketing contexts would be beneficial.
Practical implications:The findings are relevant for marketing practitioners, researchers and managers as a starting point for their B2B brand equity research. Originality/value: Detailed insights and key lessons from the field with regards to how B2B brand equity should be conceptualised and measured are offered. A revised brand equity model for B2B application is also presented.
Work-integrated learning in the form of internships is increasingly important for universities as they seek to compete for students and seek links with industry. Yet, there is surprisingly little empirical research on the details of internships: what they should accomplish, how they should be structured and how student performance should be assessed. There is also surprisingly little conceptual analysis of these key issues, either for business internships in general, or marketing internships in particular. Furthermore, the "answers" on these issues may differ depending upon the perspective of the three stakeholders: students, business managers and university academics. There is no study in the marketing literature that surveys all three groups on these important aspects of internships. To fill these gaps, this paper discusses and analyses internship goals, internship structure, and internship assessment for undergraduate marketing internships, and then reports on a survey of the views of all three stakeholder groups on these issues. There is considerable variety of approaches for internships, but generally there is consensus among the stakeholder groups, with some notable differences. Managerial implications include recognition of the importance of having an academic aspect in internships; mutual understanding concerning needs and constraints; and the requirement that companies, students, and academics take a long-term view of internship programs to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
The authors’ study provides the first survey-based approach for examining consumer cognitions, affect, and reported behavior toward pioneer brands. Prior consumer research on pioneers has largely focused on automatic learning effects that are based on order of exposure. An entirely different issue is whether it matters to consumers to know, years after the product's introduction when follower brands are also available, that a particular brand was the product pioneer. The authors test six hypotheses, focusing on this issue as well as on new consumer behavior explanations for pioneer brand advantage. They find consumers to have a positive attitude toward pioneer brands in general, which is partially explained by their favorable perceptions of pioneer brands. In addition, a similarity is found between pioneer brand image and individual ideal self-image, which suggests that an association or desire for consistency between the two may be another explanation for favorable attitude and positive purchase intentions toward pioneer brands. The authors’ findings support the idea that a potentially enduring, relatively inimitable competitive advantage may be created by the act of “pioneership.”
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