ABSTRACT
This study investigates three different types of brand-reseller business relationships, namely real-time relationship, collaborative relationship, and mutually beneficial relationship, and discusses how they drive brand value creation in a competitive market. Using data collected from Indian resellers, the findings show that brands that engage in real-time and collaborative relationships are regarded by resellers as having higher brand value in comparison to brands that only focus on mutually beneficial relationships. This paper extends previous understanding on relationship marketing by conceptually discussing and empirically examining different types of business relationships that could be used to enhance brand values perceived by resellers. Managerial implications are discussed for business-to-business marketing practitioners. Specifically brand managers are advised to incorporate these three different types of business relationships to create superior brand value for resellers, thus improving their brands' perceived competitiveness.
6. Summary, limitations and future research directions
This study fills the gap in our current understanding about relationship marketing. By arguing the need for marketers to integrate marketing with organisational functions of the brand and by identifying different types of relationships that have a critical effect on generating brand value for resellers, this research conceptually proposes and empirically validates the brand relationship and value creation framework. In theory the influence of marketing and organisational processes on the behaviour of customers has been recognised as a very important aspect of business relationships. The role of the brand-reseller relationship in developing stronger relationships with resellers which can lead to collaboration in marketing activities was theorised and tested empirically using the survey data.
While the results of our study provide some meaningful ideas for practitioners and academics focussing on business relationships, it also suffers from certain limitations. This study has used cross-sectional data and has not examined the differences in relationships between brand and resellers over a period of time. We recommend that business relationships between brands and resellers should be examined longitudinally, as a progressive change based on the dynamic nature of the business-to-business environment requires ongoing nurturing of the relationships with resellers by the brand.
