Author(s) : Elena Delgado-Ballester and Jose′ Luis Munuera-Alema′n
Does brand trust matter to brand equity?
Resume
Building a strong brand in the market is the goal of manyorganizations because it provides a host of benefits to a firm,including less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions,larger margins, greater intermediary co-operation and supportand brand extension opportunities.
Brand trust means that there is a high probability or expectancy that the brand will result in positive outcomes for the consumer. Considering brand trust as expectancy, it is based on the consumer’s belief that the brand has specific qualities that make it consistent, competent, honest, responsible and so on. From a managerial perspective, companies have also begun to consider the idea of wining consumers’ trust in order to
build a relationship. In the consumer market, there are too many anonymous consumers, making it unlikely that the company could develop personal relationships with each one.Thus, consumers develop a relationship with the brand, which becomes a substitute for human contact between the organization and its customers. Trust, therefore, can be developed through this relationship with the brand. Based on these ideas, brand trust will contribute to brand loyalty as the maximum
expression of a successful relationship between the consumer and the brand.
as a relational marketbased asset, the analysis of brand equity must also consider the relationships with other members of the value chainincluding employees (especially in service companies), investors or even suppliers. An interesting point is that a firm might build up strong brand equity based on the relationships developed with consumers that could be undermined by the firm neglecting its relationships with other stakeholders groups. research on branding industrial products has been
limited. The fact that, in today’s competitive business environment, industrial firms are increasingly using branding to differentiate their products and also develop relationships with their customers makes apparent the need of expanding the body of knowledge of the subject.
Therefore, companies must take care not to promise everything for all people. They have to consider their own capabilities and the desires of their target consumer segments before defining their promises of value. Once they are defined these promises have to be kept consistently, especially when things change quickly and buyers face great uncertainty. trust is built through experience, the more positive experiences the consumer has with the brand, the more trusting he or she is likely to become. history has proven that consumers will give second chances to brands they trust.
Conclusion
Brand equity sits in the mind of the consumer consisting of those associations, attitudes and behaviors linking to the brand. At the beginning of a brand’s life, it should sit in a neutral space – neither trusted nor mistrusted.
References
Aaker, D.A. (1991), Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name, Free Press, New York, NY.
Ambler, T. (1997), “How much of brand equity is explained
by trust?”, Management Decision, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 283-92.
Andaleeb, S.S. (1992), “The trust concept: research issues for
channels of distribution”, Research in Marketing, Vol. 11,
pp. 1-34.
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