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Introduction
Changes in retailing have made it more difficult for manufacturers to manage their brands. The challenge for manufacturers is to understand how changes such as retail and distribution consolidation, internet retailing and the creation of buying groups impact on their brands. Often a small number of retailers account for a large proportion of a brand's revenue which means that retailer brand decisions can influence both manufacturer performance and consumer purchasing ([22] Farris and Ailawadi, 1992). Furthermore, although manufacturers and retailers have the same end-customer they have different objectives, creating tension within the channel ([15] Choi, 1991). While manufacturers seek to maximise brand distribution intensity, retailers prefer less intensive manufacturer brand distribution and intra-brand competition ([59] Steiner, 1993). Retailers develop retailer equity ([7] Arnett et al. , 2003) by marketing their stores as brands ([32] Grewal et al. , 2004) and coordinating the manufacturer and store brands ([17] Dawson, 2006).
These tensions have led to a shift in the power balance from manufacturers to retailers ([36] Hingley, 2005). To counter this shift manufacturers emphasise key account management when dealing with retailers, as it is often assumed that they are less able to rely on their brand's "trade leverage" ([1] Aaker, 1991). Research shows that manufacturer brands are important to retailers for profitability ([2] Ailawadi, 2001), because they build store traffic and function as "ingredient brands" ([3] Ailawadi and Keller, 2004). However, research has focused on retailer judgements of the manufacturer, not the manufacturer's brand. Thus, there is little empirical evidence concerning the benefits of manufacturer brands for intermediaries ([46] Leone et al. , 2006).
This research tests a model of manufacturers' brand benefits to retailers that was developed by [31] Glynn et al. (2007) from qualitative interviews and a review of the literature. Unlike previous studies that measure manufacturer effects on retailer satisfaction (e.g. [54] Ruekert and Churchill, 1984; [11] Biong, 1993), we measure these effects from a manufacturer brand perspective. The discussion first examines how manufacturer brands benefit retailers. A conceptual framework is then presented together with hypotheses that show how the benefits of manufacturers' brands affect retailer attitudes towards the brand. The research approach is then explained, followed by the presentation of quantitative results. Finally, there is a discussion of the findings...