تاثیر تصویر ذهنی از برند و اعتبار شرکت در جایی که تولید کنندگان برای شرکت های کوچک بعنوان بازار محسوب می شوند

Branding research has largely focused on consumer goods markets and only recently has attention been given to business markets. In many business markets the company's reputation has a strong influence on buying decisions which may differ from the more specific product related influence of the brand's image. In this paper we investigate these differences by testing the hypotheses about the influences of brand image and company reputation on customers' perceptions of product and service quality, customer value, and customer loyalty in a business market where there are three manufacturers marketing their brands directly to a large number of small firms. The results indicate that the brand's image has a more specific influence on the customers' perceptions of product and service quality while the company's reputation has a broader influence on perceptions of customer value and customer loyalty.

The initial focus of branding research has been about consumers' associations and their beliefs about the attributes of the brand (e.g. Keller, 1993). However, when Berry (2000) examined branding in consumer service settings, what was found to be more important was the brand's “meaning” that the customers derived from the service experiences they have. In these situations the reputation of the company can have a major influence on the buyer process and consumption experience. Hence, Berry (2000, p. 128) suggests that “the company” becomes the primary brand rather than the product. In many business markets the company's service also plays a major role because there is a need for technical advice about the products. Hence, like consumer service markets, the company's reputation is likely to have an important influence on the buying processes that is different to the product specific influence of the brand's image. Given that there are substantial marketing investments in building brand image and building company reputation, this is an area requiring investigation. While there has been considerable research about branding and company (corporate)2 reputation, these two streams of research have been largely independent. Only recently there has been an attempt to understand the different influences of company reputation and brand image on buying processes (Balmer, 2001). In business markets it is common for the company's name to also be the brand name across a range of product groups. In these situations the reputation associated with the company's name acts as the umbrella brand for the range of product categories, while the brand images will be specific to the particular product category. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between the influences of the brand's image that are associated with a specific product category, and the broader influence of the company's reputation.

This study was motivated by the need for research that leads to a better understanding of the influences of branding and company reputation in business markets. It also responded to the broader need for research that provides a better understanding about how to create, measure, and deliver customer value in business markets. We have shown that the customer value and customer loyalty approach is a useful way to quantify and distinguish between the influences of the brand image and company reputation. By using this approach, we were able to extend the previous research by Mudambi (2002) and clearly distinguish between the different influences of these two factors. The research confirmed that the brand's image has a more specific influence on the customers' perceptions of the quality while the company's reputation has a broader influence on perceptions of customer value and customer loyalty. This study extends the customer value research by Gale (1994) and Rust et al. (1995) to include the influence of branding. What is particularly valuable is that the framework allows managers to distinguish between the different influences of brand image and company reputation. Thus the framework can be used to explore the financial implications and tradeoffs of investing in product and service quality, brand image and company reputation versus price discounting. However, the nature of these tradeoffs will differ from market to market, so the results from this study do not automatically carryover to other markets. In this study both prices and costs (i.e. β = 0.58) and company reputation (i.e. β = 0.22) had strong influences on perceptions of perceived customer value. Company reputation also had a direct influence on customer loyalty (i.e. β = 0.32). In contrast, brand image did not have such a strong impact (i.e. β = 0.10) but this does not necessarily mean the companies should not invest in building brand image because the financial analysis might show that at the margin the effect of brand image may be important.