تاثیرات تجارب نام تجاری بر وفاداری به نام تجاری :عوامل واسطه و میانجی علاقه و اعتماد به نام تجاری The impacts of brand experiences on brand loyalty: mediators of brand love and trust

۱٫ Introduction With the increased importance of customer experience, many products and services are designed to create their memorable experiences, such as Apple’s iPhone, Body Shop, Harley-Davidson, Disney theme parks and W Hotels (Pine II & Gilmore, 2011; Schmitt & Rogers, 2008). Companies’ customer acquisition, an important marketing strategy, tends to have its focus from customers’ functional benefits, to their experiences on brands. Prior research on customer experience also suggested this important shift from brand benefits to brand experience (Barnes et al., 2014; Dagger and David, 2012; Oliver, 2010; Olsen et al., 2013; Schmitt, 2009; 2013; Vlachos and Tsamakos, 2011). Moreover, customer loyalty, an important concept in marketing, has been demonstrated as an important source of firms’ comparative advantages (Auh et al., 2007; Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001; Johnson et al., 2006; Kandampully et al., 2015). Despite the importance of brand experience and customer loyalty, however, rare marketing literature has examined the intermediate mechanisms between the relationships of these two constructs. This study thus fills this gap, and demonstrates two important mediators of brand love and brand trust, on the relationships between brand experience and brand loyalty. This study thus presents a more detailed process model of how and what extent customers develop their brand loyalty, than prior studies (Payne et al., 2008). In addition, previous research tends to overlook the complexities of brand experience and brand loyalty, by treating them as a single construct (Barkus et al., 2009; Ding & Tseng, 2015; Olsen et al., 2013; Stokburger-Sauer et al., 2012). This might ignore their distinct, but significant dimensions. This study thus departs from prior works, and tests their specific dimensions, namely, three of brand experience, i.e., sensory, intellectual, behavioral, and two of brand loyalty, i.e., behavioral and attitudinal. Hence, this paper offers a more detailed examination on dimensions of both brand experience and brand loyalty, than prior studies. To address these important, but under-answered research questions, this study proposes a model, stimulated by brand experience, mediated by brand love and brand trust, and ended with an outcome of brand loyalty, i.e., behavioral and attitudinal. Specifically, this study examines three issues. (1). Do brand experience (i.e., sensory, intellectual, behavioral), and brand love and brand trust, vary in their effects on brand loyalty, i.e., behavioral and attitudinal? (2). Do both brand love and brand trust, exert mediating effects on the relationships between brand experience and brand loyalty? (3). Does brand identification act as a significant moderator on all the relationships of this model? The remaining of this paper is structured as follows. The underlying theory, i.e.,the brand resonance model (Keller, 2013; Keller and Richey, 2003), is first introduced, followed by a literature review on the major constructs. The research model and hypotheses are then presented, along with methodology, results, and discussion. Finally, the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, future research and a conclusion are presented. ۲٫ Literature review In the following section, the literature on the theory, i.e., the brand resonance model (Keller, 2013), as well as the major constructs, are reviewed. ۲٫۱٫ The brand resonance model The brand resonance model suggests that brand resonance, e.g., brand loyalty, can ultimately be achieved via. two routes, i.e., rational and emotional (Keller, 2013). The rational route includes important components, such as performance (e.g., price, efficiency, durability, reliability), judgment (e.g., quality, credibility), while emotional one includes those, such as imagery and feelings (e.g., fun, excitement) (Keller, 2013). Several reasons facilitate the selection of brand trust and brand love, at each route as the mediators to brand loyalty. Brand love, due to its high-order construct, including complex feelings, thus are appropriate, among emotional factors, as the mediator in this study; while brand trust is demonstrated in prior literature as the important mediator in the brand loyalty model, thus being selected in this study. These two mediators represent the rational and emotional components, respectively, in brand relationship quality (BRQ) (Fournier, 1998). The detailed brand resonance model is portrayed at Appendix 1.