Customers and Employees Assessment of Corporate Branding Benefits

Abstract

Corporate branding has become an important tool employed by many industries in recent decades. It is described as the subliminal process by which industries use marketing strategies to attract customers to easily remember their products and services over competitors. A company’s ability to determine precisely the key elements that drives customers to their brand will help them to prioritize specific business operations. This study evaluated key branding elements and their impacts as perceived by customers and employees. A sample size of 300 respondents, comprising 50 employees and 250 customers of a local pharmaceutical firm was selected. Questionnaire was administered to the 300 respondents, which targeted three metrics (perception, behavior, and market trends) as means to evaluate branding effectiveness. The results showed that there was a relationship between corporate branding and customer’s pattern of purchase. Most of the employee respondents testified that the management of the company was fully committed to building the brand image of the company. In effect, all customer respondents believed that the company’s brand had some level of influence on them. Most of the customers felt they were emotionally attached to the company’s brand, which ultimately influenced the frequency in which they purchased from the company. The majority of customers switched to the company because of perceived loyalty and trust, but the customers that had the company as their first choice brand had no peculiar reasons. Moreover, employee’s perception of what drove customers (dominated by competitive pricing) to purchase their product was not consistent with the response of customers (dominated by product quality). In general, corporate branding is an important tool, eliciting customer’s loyalty and the frequency in which they purchase from a firm. However, the key branding elements were perceived differently by customers and employees.