Customer equity management of industrial enterprises in Bulgaria

The application of the customer equity concept is among the main trends of the contemporary marketing management of the business. At the concept’s center are the customers and the value which they generate as a result of their relationships with the company. Customer equity based strategies, allow an organization to manage in a balance manner its activities related to the product, brand and relationships with customers. This relatively new business framework aims to increase the financial revenue of the customer in a long-term aspect by influencing the customer’s behavior with the help of the defined drivers: brand equity, value equity, relationship equity. The derived meaning of customer equity as a precondition for a long term success of the company is comprehensible, but the issues related to its raising and management are complex. This is also the reason for the increasing research interest related to the study of the customer equity and the opportunities for its management. The dissertation focuses on the study of the customer equity’s determinants and their constitutive components in a specific sector. Their disclosure allows long-term relationships with the customers to be established and market performance of the companies to be improved. The study object is the yoghurt market in Bulgaria. The purpose of this dissertation is on the basis of a study of the customer equity notion’s nature and concept to be identified key factors, influencing the customer equity of the yogurt producers in Bulgaria and on the basis of this consideration a model to be designed as well as tools for its analysis and management. The purpose of the study can be specified in the following research tasks: Study and analysis of the main theoretical formulations related to the nature of the notion – customer equity and the approaches towards its management. Clarifying the role and importance of the customer equity concept in relation with the successful market performance of the company. Identifying the main drivers, influencing the customer equity. Development of tools for examination of the impact of the identified factors on customer equity of the producers of yogurt in Bulgaria. Examination and evaluation of the impact of the main determinants on the customer equity. Derivation of well – grounded opportunities for management of customer equity, including set up of a model and methodology for study and management of the customer equity of the producers of yogurt in Bulgaria. On the basis of the research work performed, the following main contributions of the dissertation are deduced: Expanding the customer equity concept by enriching the definition of “customer equity” as well as the marketing determinants for its management, which makes it practicable also in the industrial enterprises. A conceptual model (including main factors, influencing the customer equity, and the relations between them) and complex methodical tools for study of the customer equity of the producers of yogurt in Bulgaria have been developed. The model has been tested and empirically it is proven that the customer equity of the industrial enterprises can be managed through targeted impact on customer behavior on the basis of key marketing determinants. A Model of customer equity management has been designed and tools have been developed for its practical application at industrial enterprise level. In summary it can be said that this dissertation suggests practicable guidelines for the development and maintenance of long-term relationships with the customers of the company and increasing of their value as a main precondition for successful market performance of the company. This monograph is based on a dissertation thesis, defended on 26.02.2016 at the University of Economics - Varna at a meeting of the Scientific Jury.