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Paper info: The signaling function of B2B brands for industrial retailers

Title


The signaling function of B2B brands for industrial retailers

Authors


HINTERHUBER,Andreas

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 26th IMP-conference in Budapest, Hungary in 2010.

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Abstract


Current research on branding in industrial markets is mostly directed at industrial
end customers. In doing so, current research overlooks one critical constituency–industrial
retailers: Since the relationship between industrial manufacturers and their retailers may
contain elements of both cooperation (e.g. joint promotions) and conflict (e.g. retailers
introducing own private labels), it is not clear whether industrial retailers value brands at all
or, as the literature assumes, whether retailers are mostly interested in category profit margins
and profitability (regardless of specific brands). Three studies are conducted to examine the
importance of brands vis-à-vis other purchase criteria for retailers and end users. We find that
brands are at least as important for industrial retailers as they are important for end users.