THE IMPACT OF BRAND TRUST AND BRAND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY ON BRAND LOYALTY IN THE CONTEXT OF EMERGING MARKET LIKE PAKISTAN

Abstract

Purpose:

The concept of brand loyalty is of critical importance to the business as it plays a dominant role in providing competitive advantages for the companies and brands in devising their marketing strategies. With the advent of modern digital platforms of consumer interaction with the brands, the focus of marketing is shifting towards relationships from the traditional approach of marketing mix. So, the emphasis is made by researchers on the determinants and approaches of building relationships between consumer and brand that eventually foster brand loyalty.

Methodology:

Sample size for this study was 160 with a respondent response rate of 94.3 %. Survey method through questionnaire was adopted to collect data for this study. Constructs were adopted from relevant and established literature. It had 5 items related to demographic based on nominal scale. Additionally, it had 42 items related to the prime objectives of the study. It was based on 7 points grading scale. After preliminary analysis including normality, validity and reliability, an analysis of multiple regression was carried out to test the desired hypothesis. Findings:

The study found that brand trust was the strongest predictor of consumers’ brand loyalty towards a particular preferred brand, followed by brand relationship quality, perceived quality and brand identification. The study has taken a narrow perspective with limited number of variables. Further studies would incorporate higher number of variables. Additionally, other studies could incorporate the mediating and moderating roles of independent variables and demographic & other factors.

Conclusion:

The firm should focus to enhance the trust related to brand among customers to stabilize the consumers’ brand loyalty.