Is there a relationship between Aaker's Brand Equity Management model and repurchasing of commercial grade exercise equipment in the Australian fitness industry?

Brand equity is an important strategy-based concept that serves to improve marketing productivity. Brand equity has a number of important implications related to competitive advantage and profits but a number of gaps remain in the literature. Brand equity struggles to achieve credibility in the absence of a consistent definition and measurements. Current research into brand equity remains conceptual with the need to establish strong relationships between brand equity and profits. This thesis modifies Aaker’s model of brand equity management (BEM) to include three inner constructs of brand awareness (BA); brand quality (BQ); brand loyalty (BL). There are nine outer constructs that are related to the three inner constructs that include: BA= Product knowledge & brand knowledge: BQ= product quality + warranty and service: BL= personal service + pricing + value adds + finance + trust. This model is used to investigate the relationship between brand equity and a customer’s decision to repurchase. Measuring the relationship between repurchasing and the three inner and nine outer constructs of brand equity has both theoretical and practical implications. A 'repeat customer' bases their decision on a number of considerations which include the quality of the product (product quality); their knowledge of the brand and the product (brand awareness) and their relationship and trust in the supplier (brand loyalty). To test the relationship between brand equity and the decision to repurchase, data was collected from 177 owners and managers of Australian fitness clubs. To qualify, respondents were required to be involved in the decision making process for the selection of exercise equipment for their facility. Each of the twelve constructs of the brand equity model were tested independently and then together in a structured equation modelling technique using partial least square analysis. The findings supported the model and found strong relationships between all constructs, both independently and collectively. These findings have strong implications for marketing managers seeking to establish an operational plan to increase customer retention and repurchases. The limitations of the thesis and future research directions are also discussed.