Factors Influencing the Internet Brand Equity in E-Commerce

Today, research on branding and brand equity is one of the most important issues discussed in the field of marketing research. Despite the importance of this concept, there is a fundamental weakness in the marketing literature and that is the inability to provide a general definition of the brand equity. However, it seems there is a tacit agreement that the brand equity refers to the added value offered to a product or service. Nonexistent of ways to improve e-company brands is a problem to that should be paid special attention. Therefore, it is essential get enough information about the effective factors in success of internet brand so that internet business owners managed to determine the proper business strategies. In this paper, all factors influencing the brand equity are divided into four groups of brand associations; Brand awareness, Brand loyalty, and Brand perceived quality; and the effect of each of these factors on influencing factors on dimensions of brand equity which are divided in three categories of customer service, communication, and marketing communication are studied. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the brand equity of the internet in electronic commerce and in accordance with the relevant questions through questionnaire. Statistical population of this study consisted of students and instructors of Marketing Course in Islamic Azad University of Tehran, Science and Research Branch those have e-shopping at least once. Stratified sampling will be carried out. To do this, the verbal questionnaire was used. For the analysis of the observations and review to approve or reject hypotheses, regression techniques and Friedman ranking will be used. Cronbach's alpha measurement method was used to calculate the reliability coefficient that has confirmed the stability of the 24-question questionnaire with coefficient0/876.

Keywords:

brand equity , brand associations , brand quality , marketing communications , , e-commerce