Edinburgh Napier University

  The concept of co-creation is inspired by the recognition of the changing role of customers from passive participation into active players. This recognition has led to the idea of involving customers in the various stages of the value creation process. The concept of value co-creation proposes that value is co-created between the company and its stakeholders when stakeholders are able to personalise the experience of interacting with the brand at the level that best suits them (Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2010a). By bringing a company and its stakeholders together in a meaningful and continuous engagement facilitated by the company, all stakeholders can become involved and share ideas about how value can be created, sustained and expanded. Thus, co-creation is currently viewed as a new and refreshing approach for delivering better value to customers and other stakeholders thus leading to the creation of a strong brand (Hatch & Schultz, 2010; Ind & Coates, 2013; Ind et al., 2012; Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2010a; Ballantyne & Varey, 2006). As one of the most recent concepts introduced within the branding literature, empirical research and discussion on brand co-creation is still encouraged (Ind & Coates, 2013; Payne et al., 2009).
This study aimed to investigate whether and how the concept of brand value co-creation can be adopted in a relationship between a UK based long-term savings and investments provider and Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs). Ramaswamy and Gouillart’s (2010a) principles of co-creation were used to evaluate the current engagement activities between IFAs and the collaborative company (and other providers) and to propose a more dynamic co-creation process. The uniqueness of the long-term savings and investments industry in the UK is that the majority of its sales to individual customers are generated through Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) (Datamonitor, 2012; Mintel, 2012). Almost 80 per cent of the collaborative company sales are generated through the IFAs.
Despite their importance, academic studies which investigate how to develop brand leadership in the IFA market are scarce. Most of the financial services branding studies to-date have been established in the context of banking in the end customer market. In addition, the implementation of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) on 1st January 2013 is likely to increase the complexity of the industry. In fact, it has been indicated that the IFAs has the strongest power in the triadic relationship between providers and customers (Tjandra et al., 2013a). In addition, it was also reported that in order to develop a strong brand equity, the provider must be able to fulfil IFAs’ functional and emotional needs (Tjandra et al., 2012b). Therefore, it was appropriate to investigate whether and how the concept of brand value co-creation can be adopted in developing brand leadership.