The Infleunce of Brand Value, Brand Trust and Brand Attitude on Brand Attachment
Being able to build a relationship with a customer through the brand is a vital necessity for marketing. Established relationships with customers carry benefits for companies such as increased profitability. Previous studies have acknowledged the role bra
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of what the consumer has experienced with the brand over time. Further on, trust empowers the brand to be a relational partner (Delgado-Ballester and Munuere-Aleman 2005) with ability, benevolence and integrity (Suh and Han 2002). Trust thus adds value to the exchange relationships. Since attachment is a relationship component, it can be argued that consumers will be more attached to brands they trust. H2: Brand trust has a positive influence on brand attachment Researchers have noted that when consumers have a belief that an object (in this case the object being the brand) will fulfill promises made, act ethically and do good to the consumer, the relationship between the two parties will be based on trust. It can therefore be expected that consumers will judge such an object positively and hence develop positive attitudes towards such an object (Suh and Han 2002). Since beliefs are one of the key characteristics of trust, it can be anticipated that trust in a brand will influence attitude towards the brand positively. H3: Brand trust has a positive influence on brand attitude Brand Value Brand value occurs when a consumer perceives that the benefits obtained from a brand are higher than the costs of acquiring such a brand. The experience gained from consuming the benefits of a brand will impact perceived costs of the brand (Chen and Tsai 2008). If customers perceive that such an experience provided them with good value, they can be expected to judge such a brand positively and hence develop a positive attitude towards the brand in concern. H4: Brand value has a positive influence on brand attitude If customers judge a service encounter positively because it gave them good value, it would mean that a trust requirement of fulfilling expectations and having good intentions for the other partner has been met. It can therefore be expected that brand value will have a positive influence on brand trust. H5: Brand value has a positive influence on brand trust Perceived value has been found to positively influence customer’s willingness to continue a relationship with the seller (Hyun 2009). This observation can be linked to the principle of attachment, in that in human attachment relationships, people gravitate towards those who value them. For example, in psychology it has been demonstrated that a baby will gravitate towards attaching with the mother because the mother cares for and values the baby (Bowlby 1982). Because of the similarities between interpersonal attachment and brand attachment, it can be expected that consumers will gravitate towards brands which value them. It is thus reasoned that when consumers are valued they will be more willing to attach to the brand. H6: Brand value has a positive influence on brand attachment METHOD Data Collection The target population consisted of 560 students from the University of the Free State who use cellphones and non-probability sampling was used. The first section of the questionnaire measured the demographic information, and the second section measured the constructs of
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