The Relationships of Marketing Mix Strategy and Product Innovation on Firm Reputation, Brand Equity & Competitive Advantage

The objectives of this study are to identify multiple paths to gaining a business’s competitive advantage from the customers’ perspective of marketing mix strategy implementation, product innovation, and firm reputation, as well as to examine the mediator the role of overall the brand equity in enhancing a firm’s competitive advantage. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data from 250 consumers of dairy product in Indonesia. This study shows marketing mix and product innovation have positive relationship with firm reputation. Marketing mix promotes overall brand equity through firm reputation. Marketing mix and product innovation perception as individual factor is not sufficient enough to come up into the consumers’ perception and highlighting competitive advantage. This study also clarifies that firms need to establish firm reputation and overall brand equity that can produce high barrier for the new entrants to create sustainable competitive advantage.