Brand awareness in business markets: When is it related to firm performance?

Abstract

In Business-to-Business (B2B) environments, many firms focus their branding activities on the dissemination of their brand name and logo without developing a more comprehensive brand identity. Thus, the creation of brand awareness is an important goal in many B2B branding strategies. However, it is still unclear if the great investment necessary to build a high level of brand awareness really pays off in business markets. Therefore, drawing on information economics theory, this paper investigates under which conditions brand awareness is associated with market performance in a B2B context. Results from a cross-industry study of more than 300 B2B firms show that brand awareness significantly drives market performance. This link is moderated by market characteristics (product homogeneity and technological turbulence) and typical characteristics of organizational buyers (buying center heterogeneity and time pressure in the buying process).

Impact of brand equity on customer purchasing behavior: A study of clothing industry of Iran

“…Regarding the potential customers, it is necessary to know about products, thus it is one of the choices to purchase. Maybe there should be a certain level of awareness for a product before penetrating a set of considerations (Homburg et al, 2010) and rising the brand awareness could be conductive with high chance of entering to the second set (Nedungadi, 1990). Here, those brands which have more levels of awareness probably would be purchased more (Kim and Ko, 2012;Yasin et al, 2007).…”

The Ineffectiveness of Corporate Brand Investments in Creating Price Premiums

“…Common to these mechanisms is that they credibly commit the seller to be honest throughout transactions by rewarding honesty through enhanced revenues and punishing dishonesty through loss of money in post-purchase situations (Klein and Leffler 1981;Picard 1987;Rao and Monroe 1996). Corporate brand name investments commit sellers to provide high quality because repeat business recovers the investments (e.g., Homburg, Klarmann, and Schmitt 2010). Warranties commit sellers to provide high quality by avoiding future repair costs should they cheat on their quality promises.…”

“…Uncertainty about supplier quality characterizes a variety of goods and services in businessto-business and consumer markets (e.g., Biong 2013;Erdem, Swait, and Valenzuela 2006;Homburg, Klarmann, and Schmitt 2010;Mishra, Heide, and Cort 1998;Shapiro 1982). For example, buyers of B2B services, such as marketing research, may have difficulties in evaluating providers and the value of their services (Wuyts, Verhoef, and Prins 2009).…”

“…Therefore, when buyers cannot fully ascertain supplier quality before selection, supplier choice implies considerable risks (Homburg;Klarmann, and Schmitt 2010). First, buyers risk to choose unqualified suppliers (e.g., Akerlof 1970).…”

“…1 Examples of quality assuring mechanisms are brand investments (e.g., Erdem and Swait 1998;Homburg, Klarmann, and Schmitt 2010), price premiums (Klein and Leffler 1981), and warranties (Soberman 2003).…”