Topics on Branding : Exploring the Brand Construct and its Linkages to Risk, Value and Trust in a Business-to-Business Context

Sammanfattning: In this thesis, the brand construct and its connections to risk, value and trust are explored in a Business-to-Business context. The different characteristics of B2B and B2C marketing is elaborated upon and coupled with brand management strategies viable in the respective markets. Contemporary academic theory on the explored constructs is discussed, and an attempt at conceptually visualizing their suggested linkages is presented. Based on the theoretical findings, a qualitative study is conducted by means of interviews with brand managers and marketing executives with the aim of establishing how Swedish industrial multinational companies employ brand strategies in their market communication, and to what extent the constructs explored are communicated as a part of their brand message. We find empirical evidence that risk, value and trust indeed are important in the brand communication of industrial companies. However, the relative importance of these constructs is found to be highly dependent on a multitude of both internal and external factors, such as the complexity of the offering, the degree of competition in the marketplace, and the amount of required customer interaction. Trust seems to be the construct most commonly incorporated in the branding activities, and value is not as actively stressed as conjectured. The corporate brand appears to be the most important in new tasks, where previous experiences of interaction with the seller is deemed more important in modified and straight re-buys. Similar to consumer marketing, the main merit of having a strong brand equity is the ability to charge price premiums, along with often making the short list of potential suppliers in the customers’ procurement processes. However, many industrial companies do not actively employ brand strategies and dedicated brand managers are not commonplace. Further, it cannot be decisively concluded that a strong brand focus is important for all industrial companies and in all markets. Again, external market characteristics, together with internal organizational conditions need to be taken into account.