Samenvatting

Stocker Centrale Verwarming was founded in 1978. It is an established heating company in the region of Zevenaar; a city that lies on the border with Germany and the Netherlands. High quality and fast service are the vocal points of the organization. Because of changes in the industry, new competitors and not a lot of new projects available, Stocker had the feeling it was losing customers. The management of Stocker wanted to know whether it was possible and necessary to adjust their position in the brains of customers and thus their image and identity in order to increase their loyal
customer database.For the research it was important to use well-known respected models that could actually help to map out Stocker Centrale Verwarming B.V. Models such as those from Birkigt and Stadler (1986), Trompenaars (2003), Cornelissen (2009), Ries and Trout (2001),
Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) and Reichheld (1996, 2001) were used to map out Stocker's identity, positioning and loyalty.In order to get all the right results research was done with the help of mixed method
researching through questionnaires, observations and interviews. This created triangulation what according to Descombe (2007, pg. 334) helps with checking if the results are consistent and reliable.
Results of the research were shown through the analyzing the models used and creating a gap analysis that showed that Stocker could still improve its communications,symbolism and that it could innovate itself.Stocker already had a clear identity, but there were still some improvement in some areas of Stocker, that will help to improve the position of Stocker in the brains of customers and in the end Stocker's customer loyalty.