The Effect of Marketing Mix on Brand Profitability with an Emphasis on Khoshkpak Brand Equity in Retailers of Tehran

Introduction: The business environment in the world experiences many changes, including changes in the attitude of companies from tangible assets to intangible assets. Therefore, the process of valuing intangible assets is very important for companies. Brand is one of the most important intangible assets, and every marketing activity affects the brand equity. Marketing mix is ​​one of the areas that have a significant impact on brand performance. In order to increase brand performance, organizations look for strategies based on the marketing mix, depending on the situation. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of marketing mix on the profitability of Khoshkpak brand retail with the mediating role of brand equity.
Methodology: This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive and survey in terms of nature or method of data collection. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The content validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the opinions of experts and professors and the validity parameters of confirmatory factor analysis. Its reliability was estimated through Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Cronbach's reliability coefficients of all the variables were higher than 0.7, which indicated that the measures had high reliability. The statistical population of the study consisted of Khoshkpak brand retailers in Tehran. Sampling was done by a simple random method. The statistical population of the study was unlimited. According to the Cochran table, at the error level of 5%, the sample size was 384.
Results and Discussion: The results show that the marketing mix has a positive and significant effect on brand profitability. Also, brand equity as a mediating variable has a positive role in the relationship between marketing and brand profitability.
1. The main hypothesis of this research is confirmed in that marketing mix has a positive effect on the profitability of Khoshkpak brand
2. The supplier image has a positive effect on the perceived quality of the brand and the retailer's loyalty to the brand. However, the effect of the supplier image on the brand awareness and association of the retailer was not confirmed.
3. The positive effect of distribution on the perceived quality of the brand and brand loyalty was not confirmed. There are studies in which the location or environment of a brand has been assessed by consumers as essential.
4. The negative effect of price level on retailers' loyalty to the brand was not confirmed. Previous research has shown that retailers can adjust the price of their customers by lowering the price. If retailers can give a special price to their customers and make their customers loyal to them, eventually retailers will be loyal to the manufacturer. However, this effect was not confirmed in this study.
5. Improving the push strategy has a positive and significant effect on the perceived quality of retailers of a brand and the awareness of retailers and communication with a brand. Push enhancement strategies lead to the quality of perception of retailers due to their expertise in evaluating product quality. Product quality is also affected by consumer evaluation, advertising and product reliability. They also encounter many brands in the market, so they cannot remember the characteristics of the brands one by one. In addition, push promotion strategy has a positive effect on retailers' loyalty to a brand. Promotion of push strategy gives retailers more value or profit, thus encouraging retailers to sell more products and stay loyal to the brand.
6. Promoting the pull strategy did not increase the awareness and association of the retailer of the brand, and the loyalty of the retailer to the brand was not confirmed. Pull strategy mainly involves mass media activities aimed at consumers.
7. The quality of a brand perceived by the retailer and the retailer's loyalty to a brand do not affect the profitability of the brand. However, brand awareness and association have a significant impact on brand profitability. This result suggests that not all dimensions of brand equity perceived by the retailer affect the brand profitability.
Conclusion: 1. It is very important for the managers of Khoshkapak brand to pay special attention to mixed marketing strategies. Khoshkpak brand managers are advised to focus on marketing mix strategies to increase their brand equity because marketing mix strategy can improve the brand profitability. Among the mixed marketing strategies, reduction of profit margins reduces price levels and increases promotional activities.
2. Managers can use the supplier image to promote a public figure who has a positive image in the community as a brand ambassador. Therefore, it is suggested that advertising activities be done by creating the necessary advertising mechanisms and marketing research to identify appropriate markets and continuously evaluate the brand. The Khoshkpak brand can increase the retailer's awareness of the brand image by fulfilling its commitments to the brand.
3. It is suggested that the existing opportunities through distribution management increase the creativity in providing distribution services to retailers. They also improve distribution channels to provide services to distributors and to offer extensive support information.
4. It is suggested to pay more attention to components such as the amount of discounts in the price dimension.
5. To succeed in promoting a push strategy, Khoshkpak brand managers need to have a good relationship with the retailer so that they can get market information about competitors' plans and create more attractive plans for retailers.
6. The Khoshkpak brand is advised to choose a pull strategy to create a quality image and focus on the retail brand knowledge that is essential for success.
7. The managers of Khoshkpak brand need to educate their consumers and retailers through marketing advertising. In-store promotions, kiosks, commercials and promotional activities can bring retailers and companies together.