Purpose The purpose of this study is to create a new understanding of industrial business-to-business (B2B) relationships by connecting the theoretical streams of marketing communications and relationship marketing. This study tests how various marketing communication channels and communication quality increase the transformation of customer-perceived value into customer loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach The theoretical framework consists of links between customer-perceived value, marketing communication quality, channel effectiveness and customer loyalty. The age of the business relationship is also taken into consideration. Empirical testing is based on global survey data (N = 121) collected from customers of Finnish manufacturing companies operating in the paper, mineral and metal-processing industries.

Findings The effects of customer-perceived value on customer loyalty are both direct and indirect, as marketing communications partially mediate this relationship. The customer-perceived effectiveness of various marketing communication channels adds more to loyalty formation than the perceived quality of marketing communications.

Practical implications Of special interest for marketing practitioners is the channel-specific approach to the effectiveness of marketing communications. Results suggest that personalized channels would be the most important mediators of the effects of perceived value on loyalty but also bring up the possibility of combining personalized direct communication with new cost-effective digital channels.

Originality/value Relatively little research has examined the mediating role of marketing communications in the relationship between perceived value and loyalty in the business-to-business context.