Brand Attachment on Service Loyalty in Banking Sector

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of brand attachment on service loyalty to the services provided by financial sector. As one of the extremely valuable assets of every firm is its brand, attachment creates a deep emotional link between the consumers and the brand such that it contributes to the success of brand management process. To this end, the effects of two dimensions of the construct (brand-self connection and brand prominence) on each of the dimensions of service loyalty would be explored. The questionnaire is based on Park et al. (2010) and Sudhahar et al. (2006). The results of structural equations modeling indicated that brand attachment had a significant positive effect on service loyalty. Furthermore, the existed a positive effect on the dimensions of brand attachment-i.e., brand-self connection and brand prominence-and all dimensions of loyalty-i.e., behavioral, attitudinal, cognitive, conative, affective, commitment, and trust). Among them, brand-self connection had the highest effect on cognitive loyalty, trust-based loyalty, and commitment-based loyalty while brand prominence was most effective on affective loyalty, cognitive loyalty, and trust-based loyalty.Because of the increase in the number of institutions in banking sector and the diversity of services they offer, banking managers can take the advantage of using the results of brand attachment's effect on the study variables and enhance the loyalty to their services.

Loyal Customers are Attached to Brands. Is this True? What is the Role of Customer Equity and Customer Trust?

“…This approach to customer management can secure a competitive advantage for companies as against others who do not. This study's findings found support in prior empirical studies (Bahri-Ammari et al, 2016;Boateng et al, 2020;Li & Fang, 2019;Taghipourian & Bakhsh, 2016), which found brand attachment customer loyalty link to be positive and significant. More so, that the link is fully mediated by customer trust (Abdel et al, 2017;Bahadur et al, 2020;Frasquet et al, 2017;Hwang et al, 2019) and that customer trust had a significant effect on customer equity (Hamdani et al, 2019;Yu & Yuan, 2019).…”

“…Though the concept of customer loyalty has been widely researched, it remains a relevant topic in both the academic and management field. Taghipourian and Bakhsh (2016), in their study carried out within the banking sector, found that indicators of brand attachment (brand prominence and brand-self connection) have a significant positive effect on loyalty. Also focusing on the banking sector, Levy and Hino (2016) found a direct positive relationship between emotional attachment and loyalty.…”

“…Gaining customer loyalty is key to achieving repeated purchases which have a ripple effect on sale revenue, market penetration, and profitability (Bahri-Ammari, Haykel, & Chtioui, 2016;Taghipourian & Bakhsh, 2016). While studies have suggested firm-level competencies like innovation (Anning-Dorson, 2018), Customer relationship management (Itai & Onamusi, 2020), new product development (Akroush & Awwad, 2018), and marketing capabilities (Mu, Bao, Sekhon, Qi, & Love, 2018) as a way to address customer loyalty, this study proposed brand attachment mechanism as an approach to achieving long-lasting customer loyalty.…”

Brand experience and brand attachment as drivers of WOM in hospitality

“…However, both of the resulting scales have been commonly accepted and used in subsequent investigations. Consequently, the literature has established that brand attachment encompasses emotional links with brands (Park et al, 2006;Whan Park et al, 2010;Thomson et al, 2005), destinations (Gross and Brown, 2006;Scannell and Gifford, 2010;Tsai, 2012) and even institutions like banks (Levy and Hino, 2016;Taghipourian and Bakhsh, 2016). SJME 24,2 Thomson et al (2005, p. 78) defined attachment as "an emotion laden target-specific bond between a person and a specific object."…”

Linking Luxury Brand Perceived Value, Brand Attachment, and Purchase Intention: The Role of Consumer Vanity

“…Brand attachment is defined as an emotional connection between the consumer and a particular brand and reflects their feelings about the brand [39,40]. Many researchers [17,21,22,39,41,42] rely on Park et al's conceptual structure of brand attachment that consists of two components: brand prominence and brand-self connection [40]. However, different definitions of brand prominence can be found in the literature.…”