Abstract
Purpose: A huge investment launching the marketing program is made by the manufacturers to establish brand loyalty with retailers and other supply chain partners; however, what is the impact of these efforts on retailer-perceived brand equity is scarcely investigated in a B2B context. This research investigates the impact of Nu Green Tea’s marketing mix on retailer-perceived brand equity. Methods: Based on the positivist paradigm, we followed a survey based approach to collect data from 125 retailers of Nu Green Tea brand from Indonesia. The collected data was rigorously analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. Findings: The results reveal that elements of marketing efforts such as supplier image, distribution strategy, and push and pull promotions have a significant impact on the retailer-perceived brand equity of Nu Green Tea. Originality: This research extends our understanding of retail marketing in a Businessto-Business context by investigating the impact of marketing efforts on retailerperceived brand equity.
Discussion
The core aim of present study was to examine the impact of marketing efforts on dimensions of retailer-perceived brand equity and ultimately to brand profitability performance. In the following, the implication of our findings for managers and researchers as well as limitations and future research directions are highlighted.
Supplier image positively impacts retailer-perceived quality of a brand, retailer loyalty to a brand, and retailer’s awareness of and association with a brand have all been supported. These results are in line with similar research findings by Baldauf et al. (2009) which stated that supplier image has an important influence on RPBE. Supplier image generally can be a market signal of credibility for retailers and reduce risk and information cost which ultimately affect retailers’ perception of the product’s quality. The resulting study also supports previous research conducted by Yoo et al. (1993) which discussed about the profits of companies with a good reputation, including higher customer purchase intention. This is in line with Leek and Christodoulides (Leek & Christodoulides, 2011) who argued that establishing and sustaining a strong brand is an important and inherent element of marketing strategy for B2B companies. The better reputation of the company and the higher purchase intention of customers will lead retailers to be more loyal to the brand since the benefits would be larger and easier to achieve without as much efforts in offering these products to consumers.
