ICAM-2017
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/17521
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Item DO BRANDS MATTER IN BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING? A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF B2B BRANDING PRACTICES.(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka., 2017) Mishra, S.S.; Sharma, P.For major part of 20th century, prevailing paradigm in B2B research considered branding as less relevant. Most researches adapted B2C brand equity models to explain B2B branding. Though post 2000 onwards the subject received significant academic interest, there is lack of consensus about the relevance of brand information in organizational buying decisions. To address this, the present study aims to explore: 1) whether “brand” is an important decision criteria in B2B buying, 2) sources of brand equity for B2B firms and 3) key differentiators in building B2B brands. We conducted indepth interviews among 56 distributors and 65 customers of B2B products across 13 industry sectors followed by content analysis of all interviews. The analysis shows a variance in organizational buyers’ sensitivity towards brands depending upon: 1) type of application (criticality) of purchased product/ technology and 2) relevance of ingredient branding. Accordingly, buyers can be categorized into high and low brand sensitive groups. Secondly, just like consumer brands, B2B brand equity has both functional and psychological components. Functional component includes product availability, reliability, credit facility (payment terms) and after sales service. Psychological component includes distributor’s brand value, manufacturer’s origin and market visibility. Lastly, product customization, focus on margins and role of channel partners helps to build B2B brands. Managerially, results encourage firms to adopt a multi-faceted strategy (logistics, contract/ payment terms, product customization and innovation in its offerings) to increase brand value. By systematically examining the key deliberations of B2B buyers, this study offers a basis for market segmentation and adds knowledge to the field of B2B brand research.Item AN INVESTIGATION OF CONSUMER SWITCHING INTENTION IN E-SERVICES.(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka, 2017) Sharma, A.; Mishra, S.S.Customer retention has been a preferred strategic choice among marketers owing to the higher cost of customer acquisition. As a consequence, marketers have widely deployed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to operationalize their intent and the subject has drawn significant academic attention. A dominant paradigm in academics prescribed customer satisfaction as a primary precursor to customer loyalty. But changes in business regulations across the globe and rapid technological advancement have lowered the switching barriers and thus fueling propensity to switch despite being satisfied with an existing service provider. Recent researches empirically confirm the changing reality of markets by empirically highlighting the inability of customer satisfaction as a construct to fully explain consumer switching behavior, particularly in the context of E-services wherein switching barriers are perceived to be even lower. The lack of any comprehensive study to explain the consumer switching intention in the context of E-services has been the primary motivation behind this study. The main aim of this study is to examine the role of consumer switching barrier in consumer switching behavior. This is an exploratory study and we have performed an extensive literature review followed by in-depth interviews among consumers to develop a conceptual framework. Our exploratory research indicates that besides satisfaction from core service offering, organizational antecedents such as service bundling, subscriber lock-in, asset specificity, and network value can lead to consumer switching barriers that in turn reduce switching intention. The study has important implications for theory and practice.