A relational insight of brand personification in business-to-business markets

Abstract

Customers find it difficult to differentiate between competing products based on their functional aspects. The shortening life cycle of products due to quick adoption of technological innovations by competitors makes it difficult for them to identify products based on specifications. The contemporary academic literature related to relationship marketing and brand management is passionate about customer and consumer psychology but little attention has been given to the brand selection criteria of resellers as business customers of the brand. This paper combines branding and relationship marketing as two broad functions of marketing. The paper argues upon the role of human representatives of the brand as brand personified in managing these two functions of marketing in business-to-business markets. The proposal of the paper is to use human representatives as a tool for the execution of relationship marketing and branding strategies. The objective behind using human representatives is to maximize the mindshare of resellers towards the brand and create value for them beyond products and services.

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