Abstract. Though the concept of branding used to associate with the manufacturers, over the past decades, to survive the fierce competition in today’s business world, branding becomes indispensable for all business organizations including retail. Branding is important for the retail organization for delivering their brand promises and for increasing their brand equity. The growth of the internet and technological advancement has shaped the way the brand used to communicate. These technological advancements have opened new avenues and opportunities as well as created new challenges for the retail brands.
Besides, in recent years, customers became more concern about society and the environment due to the adverse effects of human and business activities. Most of the customers now want and expect products that have been sustainably procured, produced, transported, and fairly traded. This sustainability concern of the customers is creating pressure on the retailers to act in a responsible way towards society and the environment. But the brands are suffering in spite of trying hard to deliver products in a sustainable way to meet the customers’ expectation, as customers are reluctant to rely on brand’s promises and hesitate to buy due to the lack of availability of authentic and credible information about the products and services retailers offer and is resulting in poor brand loyalty and declined brand equity. The aim of this thesis is to understand customer’s perspective on identifying the implications of blockchain technology for solving these problems of trust on retail brands and explore the way for increasing brand loyalty and enhancing brand equity through elevating the customer experience with the retail brands and strengthening the relationships with the customers.
The conceptual framework is developed based on the theoretical analysis of existing literature on brand and blockchain technology. This thesis is conducted based on a qualitative research design to meet the purpose of the thesis. The thesis followed an abductive reasoning approach throughout the research process. A semi-structured interview was conducted for investigating and validating the developed conceptual framework and concluded with an empirically validated framework. The target population comprises both male and female from different nationalities and fall in the age group 26 to 40.
The empirically validated framework of the research findings reveals that the unique characteristics of blockchain technology have enough potentiality for adding value to the retailers’ branding effort through effective advertising and loyalty programs and efficient inventory management. The research finding further conclude the utilization of blockchain technology in uplifting customer experience and strengthening retail brand-customer relationship for achieving increased brand loyalty and enhanced brand equity
