Corporate brand equity and loyalty in B2B markets: A study among logistics service purchasers

• Published in: The journal of brand management Vol. 18; no. 4-5; pp. 300 - 311
• Main Authors: Juntunen, Mari, Juntunen, Jouni, Juga, Jari
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01-01-2011; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Brand equity; Brand image; Brand loyalty; Business and Management; Business to business commerce; Competition; Customer services; International; Literature reviews; Logistics; Management; Marketing; Original Article; Outsourcing; Studies; Supply chains; corporate brand equity; brand equity; structural equation modelling; loyalty
• ISSN: 1350-231X; 1479-1803
• DOI: 10.1057/bm.2010.43

Product brand equity has become one of the most discussed concepts among marketing scholars. It is suggested that brand equity impacts customers’ loyalty intentions. This article widens the traditional brand equity discussions into corporate level, namely into corporate brand equity, and examines whether corporate brand equity results in customer loyalty in a B2B service context. A model was created and tested by using empirical survey data collected from Finnish industrial logistics service buyers in 2008. The analysis showed that the model was unworkable, and therefore the data was further analysed in an explorative manner to determine how brand-related concepts affect customer loyalty. According to the results, loyalty is neither a component of nor an outcome of brand equity. Instead, brand image results in loyalty. In addition, it was noticed that the current brand equity measures developed from product brand perspective may not work so well for corporate brand equity purposes. Therefore, corporate brand equity measures should be further developed.