Investigating the influences and effects on customers' perceptions of individual and multiple brands in a marketing alliance

Tsantoulis, Michael Alexander (2009). Investigating the influences and effects on customers' perceptions of individual and multiple brands in a marketing alliance. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000ed2c

Abstract

This thesis investigates the effects and influences of individual brands in a marketing alliance on consumers' perceptions. Specifically, it defines how consumer perceptions of service quality, trust, and loyalty toward one brand influence corresponding perceptions for the alliance of which this brand is a member. Although the relationships between perceived service quality, trust and loyalty are well established at a single brand level in the marketing literature, they have never been researched at a multi-brand alliance level. The purpose of this dissertation is to fill this gap in knowledge by researching the relationship among the three constructs in a multi-brand airline alliance context.

This thesis follows a two phase research design. It consists of a preliminary qualitative study and a main quantitative study. The main purpose of the qualitative study, actualized through a number of semi-structured expert interviews, was to shed light on the effects and influences one brand can convey to the brand alliance of which it is a member.

The purpose of the main quantitative study was to examine the validity of the model and hypotheses formed during the earlier phases (i.e. literature review and qualitative study) of the research. Self-administered questionnaires handed to respondents at the gate area of a major European airport aimed to capture the influences and effects of one or multiple brands within a brand alliance on customer perceptions.

In general, the research findings indicate that customer perceptions of individual brands, members of a brand alliance, have a significant effect on their perceptions of the brand alliance as a whole. In particular, consumer perceptions of single brand service quality, trust and loyalty all had an effect on perceptions of brand alliance service quality, trust and loyalty respectively. Moreover. the analysis confirmed that the relationship between loyalty and positive word-of-mouth works similarly in a single brand and in a multi-brand alliance context.