The impacts of brand experiences on brand loyalty: mediators of brand love and trust

Purpose - Prior studies on brand relationships tend to overlook the mediator(s) between the relationships between brand experience and brand loyalty. Hence, the main purpose of this paper is to examine these mediating roles of brand love and brand trust on the brand experience and brand loyalty relationships. While the literature does not examine the distinct dimensions of brand experience and brand loyalty, this study fills up this gap and examines their detailed dimensions and effects on brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 237 valid questionnaires on mobile phone brands were collected from respondents aged between 18 and 30, and analyzed using the partial least squares method. Findings - Sensory experience is the major driver of brand love. Sensory experience mainly drives customers' brand trust, while intellectual experience has no effects on brand trust. Brand love is the main mechanism in developing customers' behavioral loyalty, so does brand trust in shaping their attitudinal loyalty. Brand love and brand trust have the mediating effects on the relationships between brand experience and brand loyalty. Originality/value - It demonstrates two mediating roles of brand love and brand trust in the brand experience and brand loyalty relationships, and thus deepens the understanding of the processes in shaping customers' brand loyalty. It departs from the prior works and examines the distinct dimensions of brand experience and brand loyalty, and thus presents a more detailed examination on these two constructs and their effects, than prior studies. It demonstrates the validities of the brand resonance model, the C-A-B and A-C-B models, key mediating variable model, particularly in mobile phone industry.