Is Trust amongst the Main Brand Equity Dimension? The Telecom Project (Bulgaria)

Abstract

This article addresses brand equity and the ‘trust’ factor in it. The latter is perceived as highly crucial
in brand-consumer relationship, embracing positive image of given brand and high level of loyalty.
The study aims to clarify the ‘trust’ notion by demonstrating the brand equity status of the three
companies providing mobile services in Bulgaria. It included questionnaire based on David Aarker’s
brand equity model, with sample of 375 respondents. The data was processed by SPSS 2010 software.
Even the leader in the sector could suffer the lack of trust which would drive to negative market results
in the future. Relying on the study we could put consumer’s trust between ‘satisfaction’ and ‘loyalty’,
but ‘image’ demonstrates strong correlation with the latter. The Aaker’s model itself is not enough for
exhaustive conclusions about the multidimensional nature of brand equity and especially in the study
it was not applied in its entireness.