Using Sales Promotions for Building Favorable Customer Perceptions of Electricity Retailers in Turkey

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which service provider switching oriented sales promotions provide information for building favorable customer perceptions of electricity retailers in a liberalizing market context, Turkey. Quantitative content analysis was conducted to analyze 311 sales promotions of 21 incumbent suppliers and 210 supply licensed retail electric provider companies. The results reveal that Turkish electricity retailers mainly provide information related to personal interaction dimension of service quality, reasonable service price, general policy change and policy choices in service provision as a part of sales promotion information shared on corporate websites. Therefore, it can be claimed that sales promotions are currently being used as a tool to improve customer perceptions of electricity retailers in the context of Turkish electricity market.