The central role of consumer-brand engagement in product and service brand contexts

This paper examines key relational drivers and brand outcomes of consumer-brand engagement (CBE) in smartphone (product) and social media (service) brand contexts. The study utilised structural equation modelling to analyse data collected from 503 smartphone owners and 491 social media users through online surveys. The findings show that, in both brand contexts, brand trust, self-expressive brand, and brand interactivity influence CBE. Furthermore, CBE positively influences brand evangelism and consumer-based brand equity. The mediating role of CBE is also reported. The findings imply that developing consumer relationship management (CRM) initiatives that generate brand trust, self-expressive brand, and brand interactivity, will lead to consumers having mutually rewarding and interactive relationships with the brand, leading to favourable brand outcomes. The paper contributes theoretically and contextually by testing an S-D logic-informed conceptual model that explains the important role of CBE in interrelating with important relational concepts in two contexts.