The effect of customer education on brand associations and brand preference in businessto-business relationships

Purpose - Previous marketing research has shown that customer education, as a customer relationship management concept that aims to improve customers' usage and consumption skills of products, has beneficial effects on customer product expertise and firm satisfaction. However, little is known about the role of professional customer education and trainings in fostering favorable brand evaluations of industrial buyers. The purpose of the present research is thus to test the mediating effects of customer education between industrial buyer's product attitudes and favorable brand associations and brand preference. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on mixed research methods. First, this study uses a qualitative pre-study (n =15) with industrial buyers of a coffee brand to explore how customer education affects distributors' evaluations and relationships with the brand that organizes related trainings. Using survey data from industrial participants of customer education activities (n =255), this study then applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the qualitative findings with quantitative research methods. Findings - The qualitative findings show that customer education can be a strategic approach for developing customer-–brand relationships and positive brand evaluations. The quantitative part of the study demonstrates that customer education has a mediating effect in creating favorable brand associations and brand preference. Originality/value - There is a gap in the literature with regard to how customer education influences brand associations and brand preference, especially in business-to-business (B2B) markets. Deriving insights into these questions, this study does not only demonstrate the value of customer education in improving customers' usage skills of products but also the findings show that customer education can help companies develop positive brand perceptions. In addition, the findings suggest that customer education can act as a differentiator in the brand selection process, creating competitive advantage.