The investigation of the effect of brand equity dimensions on reference price formation on light commercial vehicle brands

Consumers' perceptions of brands form the basis of price. Indeed, when evaluating a product or service as worth the price or fit, some of the meanings carried by brand has a significant impact. Various researches conducted on building the structure expressed as brand equity, that offering the chance to review the consumer brand views by use of some sub-dimensions. However, the lack of studies about the effect of brand equity on mental price formation of consumers is known.Besides the contribution to explaining the relations between elements of the marketing mix more effectively, purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand awareness/ association dimensions forming brand equity on consumers' reference price formation. The implementation of the study was performed by the data obtained through face to face surveys with 396 light commercial vehicle owners living in Mersin. The findings of the research indicate the significant effect of perceived quality and brand loyalty in internal reference price and brand awareness/ association in external reference price. At the end of the study, results were discussed by providing suggestions for future research and businesses.