Impact of Brand Promotion Strategies towards Destination Brand Equity with Special Reference to After War Context in Sri Lankan Tourism

Abstract

Brand equity and promotion are significant concepts in Marketing. The purpose of promotion is to reach the targeted customers and persuade them to buy. Therefore the promotion is vital element of marketing mix. Developing and properly managing brand equity has been emphasized as an important issue in todays’ changing businesses. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate how brand promotional mix i.e. advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing effect on brand equity. Importantly, this study investigates the relationship between promotional mix on destination brand equity in Tourist Industry. Keller’ Model was used to build up the conceptual model. The methodology adopted in this study was quantitative. Data were gathered through face-to-face interviews from 200 respondents using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression. Findings of this study revealed that brand promotional mix have positive impact on brand equity. The results further show that advertising, public relations, sales promotion and direct marketing have significant positive impact on brand equity dimensions. Moreover, the results show that advertising/propaganda is the most influential factor for the destination brand equity. These results imply that managers should select appropriate promotional strategies for creating a high level of destination brand equity. More importantly, managers should pay more attention on advertising strategies, i.e. extensive investments on advertising, advertising diversity, direct marketing for building adequate level of destination brand equity.