Examining the influence of customer-brand relationship constructs and bandwagon effect on brand loyalty

Abstract

Purpose Organizations are being compelled to revamp their loyalty programs due to the increase in digital transactions, customer acquisition costs and competition in the loyalty market. Given the significance of consumer-brand relationships, businesses must quickly identify the relationships that best elicit brand loyalty. Thus, this study seeks to develop a comprehensive model about the consumer-brand relationship that encompasses the following constructs: brand trust, brand satisfaction, brand preference, brand affect, brand equity, brand image, commitment, variety seeking, and relationship length, and their influence on brand loyalty. The study also investigates the impact of the bandwagon effect, in tandem with the aforesaid antecedents.

Design/methodology/approach A data set comprising 248 consumers in India was used to validate the measures and test the hypotheses. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesis. The data analysis was carried out on R version 4.0.2.

Findings The study found that all the selected constructs exert influence on brand loyalty, although commitment, brand equity and brand preference exhibited the strongest impact. The bandwagon effect also demonstrated a strong effect.

Originality/value This study advances the field's understanding of information processing through a consolidated meta-view of various consumer-brand relationship constructs along with bandwagon effects. Perhaps the most important contribution is shedding light on the influence of bandwagon effects on brand loyalty.