Contents
Title
The Brand Effect – Living the Brand in Negotiations
Author
Anne Maria Stefani,
Classification JEL
M31
Abstract
Prior studies in marketing could confirm that the humanization of the brand through the sales person is beneficial for the brand perception by the customer during the selling process. While this research could indicate a positive effect through the behavior of the sales representative on the overall brand success, these studies have not considered negotiations as an intense and complex part of personal selling. The purpose of this dissertation project is to close this research gap and to generate insights into brand effects within negotiations. In order to examine this research question, the dissertation will include conceptual, quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Furthermore, different techniques (e.g. experiments, management interviews, surveys with professional negotiators and observations of real negotiation behavior) will be applied. By researching the humanization of the brand through the negotiator within a negotiation, marketing science will gain significant insights. By understanding the sales person as an identifier of the brand within a negotiation setting, the brand will be the outcome variable as well as the predictor of the brand specific negotiation behavior. In addition, this dissertation will be helpful for marketing practice, since it will lead to important implications for the brand management, the training of negotiation teams and the strategic decision-making within negotiations. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to prove that a negotiator, who is a true personification of the brand, will have an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of a negotiation.
Keywords
negotiations, brand effects, brand strategy, brand personification, brand promise delivery.
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