Measuring brand equity for organising brand management in the energy sector - A research proposal and first empirical hi
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Klaus-Peter Wiedmann is a professor and chair of marketing and management at the University of Hanover, Germany. He is also the German representative at the Reputation Institute and chair of several institutions such as the Strategy & Marketing Institute, Centre for Energy Management and the Centre for Financial Services Marketing and Management. His main research and consulting interests include strategic and international marketing, controlling and market research, corporate identity and corporate communications, reputation management and brand management.
Abstract In the first part of this contribution the idea of measuring brand equity via brand associations was presented and elaborated for companies in the energy sector to organise their brand management in a promising way. Additionally, a causal model of brand associations was developed which could support the goal of customer retention in the energy market. In this part of the contribution an empirical study will be presented to give some first empirical hints to prove the derived model, its hypotheses and conjectures. The study deals with commercial enterprise customers (CECs) in the German energy market, but will be supported by some results from a study in the market of private household customers (PHCs). The results indicate that it might be possible to escape from the price pressure which emerged in the course of the liberalisation of the energy market, but only if a differentiated brand association network is implemented. In the case of German local utility companies, such a brand association network could especially centre on an integrated approach of local importance branding. Although a lot of research still will be necessary to verify the concept, and also for its broadening and deepening, this paper clearly shows that brand equity oriented planning of strategic brand management might make sense not only in the energy sector, but also in general. Dr Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Prof. Department of Marketing and Management, University of Hanover, Koenigsworther Platz 1, 30167 Hanover, Germany Tel: (⫹49) 511 762 4862 Fax: (⫹49) 511 762 3142 e-mail: [email protected]
INTRODUCTION The energy market seems to be a very interesting market for investigating the possibilities of a brand equity driven
strategy to escape from pure price competition in the B2B as well as in the B2C context. After the liberalisation of the energy market in Europe
䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1479-1803 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 12, NO. 3, 207–219 FEBRUARY 2005
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Production structure Structure 11%
9%
80% National Focus focus
< 9 ‘big „Bigplayers’ Players“
Regional Focus focus
ca. 70 regional energy suppliers ca. 900 municipal utilitiescompanies utility 31%
Local Focus focus 36%
33%
Structure of the distribution Distribution to the customers Customers Figure 1
Structure of the German energy market at the beginning of the liberalisation
the traditional energy suppliers in all countries faced serious competition. In Germany, for instance, there was only a s
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