An exploratory investigation of the elements of B2B brand image and its relationship to price premium

a r t i c l e i n f o Much of the extant work on brand equity in business markets has focused on predicting brand loyalty, as in what brand image elements that make buyers prefer to buy a brand. The question what drives buyers to pay more or less for brands has however been somewhat overlooked, despite price premium being a distinct and economically important outcome of a favourable brand image. In an attempt to answer this question, this paper suggests that the corporate brand image determinants of price premium can be conceptualised into six dimensions: brand familiarity-, product solution-, service-, distribution-, relationship-and company associations. Findings from a small-scale qualitative investigation, based on interviews with buyers of corrugated packaging, are used to illustrate this model as well as to explore its microelements and demonstrate why they can be assumed to be mentally related to buyers' willingness to pay. Brand image has been defined as the information linked to a brand in customer memory (Keller, 1993), a definition based on theories on psychology, and most importantly on the " associative network memory model " (see also Collins & Loftus, 1975). Basically any specific information that exists in the minds of customers with respect to a brand is relevant as an image element, regardless of whether it is related to tangible or intangible elements, or whether it is based on an actual experiences or expectations. In brand management literature, an underlying assumption has always been that a favourable, strong, and unique brand image constitutes a sustainable competitive advantage that will deliver attractive economic returns (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1998). As such, brand image is a highly interesting concept, both from a managerial and theoretical perceptive. To understand how brand image is assumed to deliver profits, it can be put in a broader brand equity context. The concept of brand equity has an explicit focus on extracting the tangible economic value from brands and is today a broad field that can be subdivided into a brand equity chain (see Fig. 1) with three components: brand image, brand strength and brand value (see similar chains in The visualised causal principle states that how target customers perceive a brand's specific attributes (brand image), will influence how they globally evaluate and behave towards the brand in the marketplace (constitutes the strength of a brand), which will influence the long-term economic value that the brand …