Study On The Impact Of Brand Equity And Brand Relationship Upon Customer Repurchase Ehavior In Economy Hotels

Economy Hotel was a new type of limited-service-hotels, which emphasized on Bed and Breakfast (B&B) and peeled off other services and products provided by traditional hotels. In the end of1990s, the concept of economy hotel was transmitted to China from some developed countries in Europe and U.S. Ever since the appearance of first economy hotel in China, such type of hotel business had experienced the process from bud to boom. Due to the consistent preference of domestic and foreign capital market, the number of economy hotels had increased enormously in China. However, Chinese economy hotels appealed to customers only by dint of services and products; the power of brand was neglected more often than not. As a result, the homogenization of economy hotels had surfaced and deteriorated. As Chinese hospitality industry had walked into the era of brand competition, how to cultivate brand equity, to form brand relationship and to promote brand value had become an urgent task of economy hotels in both business and academic circles.Against this background, this paper focused on economy hotels and implemented empirical research on the impact of brand equity and brand relationship upon customer repurchase behavior, based on the framework of "consumer response process", exemplified by perception to feeling to behavior. As a little contribution to the sustainable and healthy development of economy hotels, this paper put forward some measures to advance the level of brand management in this field.Firstly, this paper reviewed the research achievements of economy hotel and three research variables, i.e., brand equity, brand relationship and customer repurchase behavior; and then it summarized the definitions and features of economy hotel and clarified the relationship among these variables, which led to a research model.Secondly, this paper developed a scale to measure above-mentioned variables, which used some verified scales as reference and absorbed the suggestions of experts in the field of economy hotel.Thirdly, after data analysis through SPSS20.0, this paper tested research hypotheses and then drew some conclusions:1) brand equity consisted of four dimensions (brand loyalty, brand image, perceived quality&brand awareness/association);2) brand loyalty and brand image posed positive effects on customer repurchase behavior both directly and indirectly (through brand relationship as a partial mediator);3) perceived quality and brand awareness/association exerted positive impacts upon customer repurchase behavior only through brand as a full mediator;4) the results of research varies according to the different demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, education and career.Finally, this paper proposed some management advices to guarantee customer repurchase behavior in line with the research conclusions:1) focused on core products and transformed the type of services;2) emphasized on market positioning and highlighted business features;3) innovated marketing strategy and moulded brand value.