This study aims to extend previous research studies investigating drivers of customer equity in a business-to-business environment. The study also aims to address the role of relationship benefits on customer equity in a business-tobusiness environment beyond psychological, functional and social benefits. Furthermore the study focuses on the importance of building relationships influencing customer equity in organisations operating in a business-to-business environment. The study is based on two phases. Phase one consisted of face-to-face interviews with experienced professional individuals from three different industries. These industries covered financial services, utility services and property development within a South African demographic. The data gathered from these interviews was combined with literature to understand the drivers of customer equity and the role that relationship benefits play on customer equity. Data was also gathered from a 146 questionnaires and statistically processed. Significant findings made in the study reflect the importance of customer equity within business-to-business environments. Further focusing on the importance for organisations to build long-term relationships with their customers. this will finally explain the significant impact that relationship benefits have on customer equity beyond psychological, functional and social benefits for organisations in business-to-business environments. The study recognises that the individual customers and the organisation on its own will both benefit from developed customer equity, highlighting the fact that not one driver of customer equity is exclusive to the next. Contributions made for academic purposes include hypothesised variable on customer equity, with the main aim on relationships. This study will be beneficial for various departments in organisations that interact with customers and want to improve their customer relations, specifically organisations operating in a business-to-bu

This book bridges the gap between strengthening the ‘employee brand’ and the building ‘external brand image’ by synthesizing the two approaches. The result is a blurring of the boundaries and assigning creative powers to both. A customer has a number of interactions with the company, and each of these interactions has an impact on the brand equity account – either positive or negative. Examples of interactions include: the product itself, the purchasing process, the consumption experience, the ‘face’ of the organization, the call center, media etc. The real issue for the company is how to translate the optimized ‘ideal’ customer journey into effective company programmes, how to track their progress and their actual impact on brand equity, customer satisfaction and loyalty. This book takes a holistic view to brand management and distills this complex system into palatable chunks, involving all functions of the company. The book demonstrates the effect of an organization that facilitates and rewards employee brand commitment on ‘external brand equity (eg: customer satisfaction and loyalty) and ‘internal brand equity’ (eg: product improvement and innovation potential resident in the organization). While the more obvious benefits of this approach include the usual suspects such as increased sales and revenues, less obvious benefits include employee stress reduction through the elimination of tensions and incongruity between external and internal value systems. The result is a significant contribution to creativity, brand commitment, overall employee satisfaction and, finally, a company’s ability to attract and retain talent. The above is achieved via a very practical, step-by-step guide, lavishly illustrated with case studies from over 100 fascinating brands (the authors have researched and surveyed companies such as: Aer Lingus, BMW, BP, Deutsche Bank, Ducati, Edun, Google, innocent drinks, Lacoste, Lego, Manner, Maggi, Orange, Old Mutual, Rabobank, Sony, SOS Childrens Villages, Siemens, Thomas Sabo, TED/United, TUI, UBS, Vauxhall, Wal-Mart, Wikimedia, any many more) the authors are able to paint a very real picture of the issues facing business and provide powerful solutions. Refreshingly, this book draws on examples from across the globe, giving the book cultural depth. Each case helps demonstrate the arguments put forward by the authors. After reading this book the audience should be able to answer the following questions: How can I build a strong brand? Where do I start? Which analyses do I have to conduct? Who needs to be involved? How can I make sure every part of the organisation lives the brand? How can I revive the brand ? How can I create a new and relevant connection between the brand and key target audiences? How can I develop and expand the brand? How can future orientation become part of the brand? How can I best structure the brand portfolio? Which role should each of the brands adapt in order to optimise results? How do I best manage the brand? How do I cultivate and empower brand enthusiasts in the organisation? How do I foster and leverage networked collaboration?

Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complimenting the Academy’s flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review. Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science. This volume includes the full proceedings from the 2013 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference held in Monterey, California, entitled Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old.

New techniques to refresh and recharge your brands How do you establish and maintain a strong long-term relationship between your brand and your consumers? Successful brand managers know that it is all about trust and keeping the consumers engaged. The success of recent "green" campaigns as a means of connecting with, satisfying, and attracting new consumers is just the tip of the iceberg. As the international playing field continues to be leveled, in order to sustain and expand their success, brand owners must interact with their customers more than ever before, forging new and stronger links, and increasing their stock of social capital. At last, there is a book that addresses the growing significance of social capital in the business world. Brand Valued explores how as the strength, depth, and quality of interactions between a brand and its customers improve, increased opportunities to demonstrate trustworthiness arise. This in turn creates a self-fulfilling cycle, wherein trust begets social capital, which begets more trust—and even shared thinking—not to mention better sales. Brand Valued will receive the full support of Havas, the fifth largest global communication and marketing services group in the world. In easy to understand terms, and using concrete examples, Brand Valued provides: The tools necessary to stimulate dialogue—and new ways of thinking—between a brand and its intended audience Methods for extending brand messaging to wider audiences Ideas on how to make brands the engines of social capital, getting rid of unsustainable practices to foster more sustainable patterns of consumer behaviour Suggestions for the development of a new brand strategy that reduces costs through innovative and lasting solutions to problems Unpublished data on the role of consumer trust in new products based on research carried out by the Havas Group across over 150 brands in nine different markets A wiki component to the book in an accompanying website. Designed to forge stronger channels of dialogue and communication with customers and consumers, the book is a must-read for anyone committed to keeping their brand relevant in the twenty-first century.

The most important assets of any business are intangible: its company name, brands, symbols, and slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships. These assets, which comprise brand equity, are a primary source of competitive advantage and future earnings, contends David Aaker, a national authority on branding. Yet, research shows that managers cannot identify with confidence their brand associations, levels of consumer awareness, or degree of customer loyalty. Moreover in the last decade, managers desperate for short-term financial results have often unwittingly damaged their brands through price promotions and unwise brand extensions, causing irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name. Although several companies, such as Canada Dry and Colgate-Palmolive, have recently created an equity management position to be guardian of the value of brand names, far too few managers, Aaker concludes, really understand the concept of brand equity and how it must be implemented. In a fascinating and insightful examination of the phenomenon of brand equity, Aaker provides a clear and well-defined structure of the relationship between a brand and its symbol and slogan, as well as each of the five underlying assets, which will clarify for managers exactly how brand equity does contribute value. The author opens each chapter with a historical analysis of either the success or failure of a particular company's attempt at building brand equity: the fascinating Ivory soap story; the transformation of Datsun to Nissan; the decline of Schlitz beer; the making of the Ford Taurus; and others. Finally, citing examples from many other companies, Aaker shows how to avoid the temptation to place short-term performance before the health of the brand and, instead, to manage brands strategically by creating, developing, and exploiting each of the five assets in turn