Industrial ingredient co-branding: a brand relationship approach

Existing research on industrial ingredient co-branding alliances has largely focused on the functional and transactional value that ingredient brands provide to ingredient buyers and sellers. The current research draws on the brand relationship perspective to investigate how the relational assets of ingredient brands generate value for both ingredient buyers and for the ingredient supplier itself. For the former, such value manifests in ingredient co-branding value, and for the latter, the value lies in brand equity. The results are derived from a survey of 107 ingredient buyers from a multinational ingredient manufacturer aiming to initiate ingredient co-branding agreements in the energy component industry. The results of the structural equation model reveal that ingredient brand trust directly affects both ingredient brand loyalty and ingredient co-branding value, but indicate no significant effect between brand loyalty and ingredient co-branding value. Moreover, ingredient co-branding value proved to be a driver of ingredient supplier brand equity.