The Impact of Relationship Marketing on Brand Equity with Special Reference to Cinnamon Red Hotel in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study is based on the impact of relationship marketing on brand equity with special reference to Cinnamon Red hotel in Sri Lanka. The exploratory research highlighted the link between relationship marketing and brand equity of Cinnamon Red hotel as the researcher determined that the front line staffs are really important in this context. The first two objectives were aimed to obtain a deeper theoretical understanding on the concepts of relationship marketing and brand equity. The third objective aimed to analyse the relationship between relationship marketing and brand equity. The mixed method was adopted as the research methodology to make better contradictions of the findings. The quantitative analysis was based on the questionnaire method, where the researcher has randomly distributed questionnaires to 60 consumers of Cinnamon Red Hotel within the hotel premises. Additionally, the qualitative analysis was conducted through interviews where 10 consumers of the hotel were interviewed. Firstly, the quantitative analysis explained that relationship marketing has a positive relationship with brand equity. Secondly, from the qualitative analysis it was found that the consumers feel more trust and committed towards the hotel due to relationship marketing. Thus, the consumers that trust and committed towards the hotel are motivated to spread the word of good mouth to others and also to come back to the hotel which will lead to strengthen the brand equity of Cinnamon Red Hotel. Ultimately, based on the data analysis, the research concluded that relationship marketing has a positive impact on brand equity. Furthermore, this study can be considered important in the hotel sector in order to prioritize the strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.