بررسی انواع رابطه برای ایجاد ارزش برند برای نمایندگی فروش Investigating relationship types for creating brand value for resellers

1. Introduction Due to resource limitations, resellers are often employed by global brands to reach their intended customers located in international markets. However, when resellers fear that a brand may be underperforming and cannot satisfy the requirements of their business, they are likely to move away to competitors and spend less time on promoting the brand or its products (Saren & Tzokas, 1998). A reason for such movements of resellers in a distribution network is that resellers do not want to lose their own set of customers to other resellers (Ailawadi & Farris, 2017; Webster, 2000). Hence, they overlook their existing association with a brand and sell whichever brands are available in order to retain their customers and preserve their own revenue (Aaker & Day, 1986). In order to avoid such situations, business relationship literature recommends brands to develop good relationships with their resellers to better understand and fulfil these resellers’ business requirements and secure the brand competitive advantages within the distribution network (Gupta, Melewar, & Bourlakis, 2010a; Kotler, 1974). However, in reality the situations between brands and resellers are very dynamic and brand managers are unable to restrict their own distributors (through whom they sell to resellers) from offering rival products of their competitors (Beverland, Napoli, & Lindgreen, 2007). This pressing matter has led brand managers to consider employing different facets of their relationships with resellers as tools to strengthen the brand-reseller relationships. Relationships with resellers can help brand managers become more informed of the customers’ needs, and develop a unique and advantageous brand positioning, without the involvement of the distributors. Value created directly by a brand manager’s relationships with resellers can help improve the resellers’ business performance, and strengthens the brand’s positioning in competitive markets (Duncan & Moriarty, 1998; Shocker, Srivastava, & Ruekert, 1994). Nevertheless whilst existing literature reflects on the benefits of having good business relationships, it has not discussed how different types of relationships could be employed to effectively manage the brand-reseller relationships. Acknowledging this knowledge gap, this study thus proposes to investigate different types of business relationships and their effect on enhancing perceived brand values, in order to address the pressing need of businesses and brand managers who struggle to manage their brand-reseller relationships effectively in competitive markets. This study draws upon several streams of business relationships in the existing literature. Current literature fails to explain the structure of the distribution network and differences between different types of actors in a distribution channel such as business customers, distributor, wholesaler, stockist and retailers etc.