Factors Affecting Electronic Service Brand Equity

Introduction

Electronic commerce has become critical with the increasing use of the Internet in recent years by companies which employ electronic commerce for marketing, advertising, and promotional activities. Through the Internet, consumers can choose between many alternatives and purchase cheaper and better products and services via price comparison. Businesses aware of recent developments in electronic commerce can implement different sales and marketing strategies via the Internet to be successful. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Friendfeed are widely used among consumers and have become an important source of information for them. Additionally, consumers may transmit positive and negative experiences via these sources to a wide network very quickly. In parallel with the development of electronic commerce consumers, firms can reach more consumers through new and innovative marketing strategies.

Increasing competition in electronic commerce requires the increased use of branding and brand equity concepts as businesses not only sell products and services, but also create quality brands to increase the value of their brands. In other words, businesses attempt to create a positive image for their brands in order to influence the purchasing intentions of consumers. Although studies have increased regarding the importance of brand value in electronic commerce, there exist very few studies in the extant literature discussing the brand equity concept in electronic commerce service brands. This situation played a major role in determining the subject of the present study which resulted in a research model after examining the related literature. A conceptual framework was created to ensure integrity and the findings from this study are explained in the Conclusion.