Online Brand Perception : Functionality and Representationality in the Printer Manufacturing Industry

Abstract: Background and problem: As Internet usage has become increasingly common and important in our society it is crucial for companies to acknowledge the impact of online branding. As differences between products are decreasing it is no longer sufficient to compete solely on price or quality. Thus the importance of brands and branding is increasing. Even though branding is a heavily research topic, almost all research has been performed with consumer markets in mind, more or less ignoring industrial markets. This is done in spite of most markets being predominated by industrial firms. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how printer manufac-turers’ online brand messages can be perceived regarding functional benefits and representational satisfaction, and how this may affect the examined brands. Method: To fulfil our purpose we chose to conduct a qualitative method, since this would provide us with in-depth answers. To structure our study we created a questionnaire to use as an analysical tool for our examination of the selected companies. Conclusions: The conclusions drawn from this study are that printer manufacturers mainly emphasise the functional factors of their products to a large extent. Further, almost all brands of our sample can be perceived to be augmented ones. Of the few companies with highly developed brands, those with separate web sites for business and consumer buyers were in majority. Finally, since most printer manufacturers stress functionality the added-value of their brands is not as sustainable as it could be.