بررسی نقش تبلیغات و ترفیع فروش در خلق ارزش ویژه‌ی نام تجاری

This study explores the relationships between two central elements of marketing communication programs — advertising and sales promotions — and their impact on brand equity creation. In particular, the research focuses on advertising spend and individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements. The study also investigates the effects of two kinds of sales promotions, monetary and non-monetary promotions. Based on a survey of 302 UK consumers, findings show that the individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements play a key role influencing brand equity dimensions, whereas advertising spend for the brands under investigation improves brand awareness but is insufficient to positively influence brand associations and perceived quality. The paper also finds distinctive effects of monetary and non-monetary promotions on brand equity. In addition, the results show that companies can optimize the brand equity management process by considering the relationships existing between the different dimensions of brand equity.

Both practitioners and academics regard brand equity as an important concept (Keller and Lehmann, 2006). Elements of a brand's equity positively influence consumers' perceptions and subsequent brand buying behaviors (Reynolds and Phillips, 2005). Therefore, to increase the likelihood of such positive contributions and manage brands properly, companies need to develop strategies which encourage the growth of brand equity (Keller, 2007). In this context, the identification of factors that build brand equity represents a central priority for academics and marketing managers (Baldauf et al., 2009 and Valette-Florence et al., 2011). Previous research suggests that marketing mix elements are key variables in building brand equity (e.g., Yoo et al., 2000). As such, one of the major challenges marketers face is deciding on the optimum marketing budget to achieve both the highest impact on the target market (Soberman, 2009) and the brand (Ataman et al., 2010). Although considerable research examines the effectiveness of different elements of the marketing mix on brand equity, as Keller and Lehmann (2006, p. 747) state, these researchers “have not typically addressed the full breadth of brand equity dimensions”. Few studies include consumer-based brand equity measures (i.e., mindset measures) when analyzing marketing mix effectiveness. One of the exceptions is Yoo et al. (2000) who explore the relationships between selected marketing mix elements and consumer-based brand equity. While their research provides new insights into how marketing activities may influence brand equity, these authors advocate further exploration of the impact of the different marketing mix variables. Two marketing variables are of particular interest: advertising and sales promotions. Compared to other forms of marketing activity, expenditures on advertising and promotions are significant. For instance, these two variables account for approximately 1.5% of the UK's gross domestic product (West and Prendergast, 2009). Despite their importance, the individual contributions of advertising and sales promotions to brand equity remain unclear and scholars highlight the need to further examine the effect of these variables (Netemeyer et al., 2004 and Chu and Keh, 2006). Therefore, this study addresses this request. Another area for improving understanding about consumer-based brand equity is the interaction between brand equity dimensions. Generally, researchers propose associative relationships among the consumer-based brand equity dimensions (e.g., Yoo and Donthu, 2001, Pappu et al., 2005 and Tong and Hawley, 2009). However, several authors advocate that researchers focus on the ordering among the brand equity dimensions (Yoo and Donthu, 2001 and Keller and Lehmann, 2006). Within this context, the purpose of this article is twofold. First, to shed more light on two particular drivers of brand equity: advertising and sales promotions. In particular, the study focuses on advertising spend and individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements. Similarly, the research investigates the effects of two kinds of sales promotions, monetary and non-monetary promotions. Second, to explore the relationships among brand equity dimensions. Building on the framework proposed by Yoo et al. (2000), the current work goes beyond research on sources of brand equity in several ways. First, most brand equity studies have simply focused on the influence that advertising spend and frequency of monetary promotions have on brand equity (e.g., Yoo et al., 2000, Villarejo and Sánchez, 2005, Bravo et al., 2007 and Valette-Florence et al., 2011). By contrast, this study also analyzes individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements and non-monetary promotions. Despite several scholars recognizing that other advertising characteristics beyond just advertising spend, such as individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements, play an important role in growing brand equity (Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995, Keller and Lehmann, 2003, Keller and Lehmann, 2006, Bravo et al., 2007 and Sriram et al., 2007), research on brand equity has traditionally ignored these attitudes. Similarly, recent literature on sales promotions (e.g., Chandon et al., 2000) stresses the need to differentiate between two types of promotions, monetary and non-monetary promotions. Surprisingly, academic research into the effects of non-monetary promotions on brand equity is scarce. Second, this article analyzes the causal order among brand equity dimensions. Several studies suggest a hierarchy in terms of the importance of brand equity dimensions and potential causal order (Agarwal and Rao, 1996, Maio Mackay, 2001, Yoo and Donthu, 2001, Keller and Lehmann, 2003 and Keller and Lehmann, 2006). However, few studies have empirically examined how brand equity dimensions inter-relate. Analyzing all these aspects, this research advances knowledge by providing more insight about the evolving theory of brand equity. This paper opens with a brief, general discussion of brand equity and marketing mix elements followed by the hypotheses. Then, the fourth section explains the methodology to test the model. Next section presents the results of the study. Finally, the paper concludes by outlining the conclusions, implications and limitations of the research.

Brand equity is a key indicator of brand success. Understanding the drivers that contribute to and detract from the strengthening of brand equity is therefore critical. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of advertising and sales promotions on brand equity. The research analyzed both advertising spend and individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements. Similarly, the study addressed promotions from both monetary and non-monetary perspectives. In addition, the study attempted to understand how the underpinning brand equity dimensions inter-relate. This study shows that individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements, which have received little research attention in the brand equity context, are important when building brand equity. Findings show that by using an original, creative and different advertising strategies, companies can develop higher brand awareness and positive perceptions of their brands. This research also reveals that perceived advertising spend has a positive effect on brand awareness. However, advertising investments do not necessarily enhance perceived quality and brand associations. Several factors can explain this noteworthy finding. First, advertising spend can reach a saturation point beyond which further spend does not significantly contribute to creating brand equity (Chu and Keh, 2006). In this sense, Wang et al. (2009) find negative effects of advertising spend in brand equity. The erosion of traditional advertising to the new media and over-advertising can explain this negative effect (Wang et al., 2009). Further, Keller and Lehmann (2003) posit that the amount of financial investment in marketing does not guarantee success in terms of growing brand equity. By contrast, these authors state that the key factor to increase brand equity lies in the qualitative aspects of the marketing program. That is, advertising strategies can be ineffective in terms of advertising quantity vs. quality (Eastlack and Rao, 1989). Thus, as this research shows, individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements play a key role influencing perceived quality, brand awareness and brand associations. As suggested in the literature, the effect of sales promotions on brand equity differs according to the type of promotional tool used. Monetary promotions (i.e., price discounts) have a negative influence on perceived quality whereas non-monetary promotions (i.e., gifts) have a positive effect on perceived quality and brand associations. Despite the fact that monetary promotions have a non-significant impact on brand associations, these results are interesting. Finally, findings indicate that brand equity dimensions inter-relate. Brand awareness has a positive influence on perceived quality and brand associations, which in turn influence brand loyalty. Contrary to predictions, perceived quality has a small but negative influence on brand loyalty. This finding indicates that, consistent with previous studies (e.g., Bravo et al., 2007), quality is not a guarantee of a successful brand. Several managerial implications arise from these results. First, advertising is an important marketing communication tool for companies influencing brand equity dimensions. The higher consumers perceive a brand's advertising spend, the more likely the brand is to have a higher awareness. However, investments in this variable are not sufficient to positively influence the associations related to the brand. In this context, companies should pay attention to the design of their advertising campaigns, ensuring they are original and creative. Second, marketing managers should be attentive to the effects that promotional actions have on consumers' perceptions of brand equity. While price promotions are common, the results of this study indicate that frequent use of monetary promotions dilutes some brand equity dimensions. Consequently, brand managers should be cautious about using this type of promotion. By contrast, using non-monetary promotional tools, such as gifts, seems wiser as they contribute to growing brand equity. Finally, findings imply that managers should pay attention to the causal order among brand equity dimensions. Managers should first build brand awareness as a means of anchoring the different associations consumers have of a brand, such as perceived value, personality or perceived quality. Later, and as a way of generating greater loyalty, managers should focus on brand associations. As with any research, several limitations exist. First, future research could examine additional antecedents of consumer-based brand equity to better understand the brand equity creation process. Second, future studies could combine actual measures of marketing mix elements with perceptual measures. Likewise, future research could include additional aspects related to individuals' attitudes toward the advertisements and different types of sales promotions. Third, the high involvement product categories, brands studied and their characteristics (e.g., country of origin) are likely to influence the results. Further research could extend these findings by considering low involvement product categories and different brands. Similarly, future studies could test the model employing product categories or brands as a unit of analysis. Such a study would require a large sample size for each unit of analysis to reach reliable results. Finally, future research should consider the applicability of findings in other countries and cultures. This study is a step toward a fuller understanding of the role of advertising and sales promotions in the brand equity creation process. Despite the limitations, the findings reported in this paper contribute to the literature and offer some new insights into how managers can manage this important intangible asset.