Personal versus nonpersonal sources of brand information: An examination of their influence on brand equity in a business-to-business market.

摘要

Customer-based brand equity is a measure of the strength of customer perceptions of the relative value of a brand. Such perceptions are based on customers' brand knowledge and have been suggested to result from information received through the marketing activities conducted on behalf of brands. While most brand equity research to date has focused on consumer markets, it has been suggested that brand equity may be more important in industrial markets, given the close similarity of product alternatives available to organizational buyers (Aaker, 1991). Previous research has classified the means of conveying brand information as either personal or non-personal; personal sources consisting of salespeople and trade shows, and non-personal sources including advertising, direct mail promotions, websites, and e-mails.; Utilizing a customer-based measure of brand equity, this study tested propositions contained in the Kim, Reid, Plank, and Dahlstrom (1998) model of brand equity in business-to-business markets by examining the difference in the influence of personal and non-personal sources of brand information on brand equity. Nine hypotheses were developed and tested; seven were supported and two were not supported. The results indicate that personal sources of brand information have a greater influence on brand equity than most non-personal sources. While salespeople were found to have the greatest influence on brand equity, trade shows were found to have greater influence than all non-personal sources except supplier websites.