The Relationship between Personal Selling and Building Consumer Based Brand Equity: A Case Study on the Cookie Time Christmas Cookies Brand

Abstract

Since the 1980’s the value of brands from the consumers’ perspective has been a key area of interest, as both companies and researchers have recognized the importance of ensuring brands are, and remain successful in the market. Brand equity is the value a consumer puts on a brand, and is formed around associations and experiences they have had with it. Thus, Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) is useful for marketers when understanding their consumer’s behaviour in order to improve their product’s positioning, promotional programs, and marketing activities. The focus of this study is from the managerial perspective, and is being conducted specifically for Cookie Time Ltd. This study is trying to gauge to what extent the customers value the Cookie Time Christmas Cookies brand, based on the four dimensions of CBBE, and if the personal sellers have any influence on their perceptions and value of the brand. This thesis acknowledges that there have been a few studies conducted around influences on the formation of brand equity, yet to the researcher’s knowledge no studies have investigated the influence personal sellers has on a brand.

This study analyses the four dimensions of CBBE; brand awareness, brand associations, perceived brand quality, and brand loyalty, with the aim of helping Cookie Time Ltd to improve their Christmas Cookies campaign and the service they are providing to customers. Specifically respondents will be asked what associations they have with the brand, reasons why they purchase the brand, if and why the personal selling aspect is important to them, and how satisfied they were with the experience with their Christmas Cookies seller. The overall importance of the personal selling distribution channel is examined, to ensure that Cookie Time Ltd are getting their product to market in the most effective way. The research hypotheses look to specifically examine the influence of personal selling on brand awareness and associations, perceived brand quality and brand loyalty.

An online question was distributed to 10,000 previous Christmas Cookies customers from the Christmas Cookies database and was sent from a Cookie Time Ltd email address, yielding a final sample of 800. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, qualitative analysis, and a structural equation model (SEM) to examine the hypothesised relationships in the conceptual model. The results indicate that the customers have high levels of awareness, positive associations with the brand, high perceptions of quality, and a relatively high level of loyalty towards the brand. The main themes that emerged from the open-ended questions showed that the customer value the importance of the personal selling primarily due to, convenience and interaction factors. The majority of customers were satisfied with their experience with the personal seller, where the main themes of; excellent customer service and ease of the purchasing process emerged. The findings of the study show that all four of the research hypotheses were supported with statistical significance. The key academic finding indicates that personal selling has a significant influence on customers’ brand awareness and associations, and perceived brand quality. Another finding indicates that these two dimensions of CBBE also precede brand loyalty, with these findings supporting the academic literature.

This study revealed that the personal sellers who visit workplaces around New Zealand in the weeks leading up to Christmas positively influence the CBBE of the Christmas Cookies brand. They positively influence customers’ decision to purchase, their associations and quality perceptions of the brand, and thus influencing their loyalty to the brand. Furthermore, this study found that personal selling is the most preferred distribution channel for the Christmas Cookies. Managerial recommendations include introducing a customer loyalty scheme to recognise those customers who are regular purchasers of the Christmas Cookies, implementing an online system where customers can place or change orders, and a function on the Cookie Time Christmas Cookies customer database which tracks which business sellers have visited, and business that still need to be visited. Academic contributions, limitations, and future research directions are discussed in the final chapter of this thesis.