The Antecedents of Consumer Brand Engagement: The Role of Relationship Quality

Date
2016
Authors
Cheri, Bella
Supervisor
Glynn, Mark
Item type
Thesis
Degree name
Master of Business
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Publisher
Auckland University of Technology
Abstract

The assessment of the effects on consumer brand engagement has been under recent investigation. Literature has continually mentioned a lack of knowledge regarding how consumers’ relationship quality with a brand affects consumer brand engagement. Further, the recent growth in social media and technology use and its direct influence on consumer brand engagement and relationship quality has also been highlighted as a topic for further investigation. This research aimed to address these gaps by examining variance in smartphone usage, application usage and demographics to determine how these factors mediate the effects of relationship quality on consumer brand engagement. 200 students were directly targeted through a survey questionnaire to gather empirical data. Analysis of the data indicated that the higher a consumer is cognitively, emotionally or behaviourally engaged with a brand, the more they feel the brand is fulfilling their goals, expectations, predictions and desires and performing in a way they deem acceptable in terms of creating satisfaction, trust and commitment towards the brand. Specifically, significant relationships were discovered between cognitive processing and trust. Activation had a positive relationship with satisfaction and trust. Affection had a positive relationship with all three relationship quality constructs of satisfaction, trust and commitment. The study also found that differences relating to type of brand, total phone usage and total frequency of application usage significantly affected the level of consumer engagement. Gender, type of brand, total phone usage and total frequency of application usage also significantly affected the quality of the brand relationship. Age and income did not have a significant effect on relationship quality or engagement. The implications of these findings mean that managers can assess the relationship quality construct they wish to strengthen with targeted consumers and use different engagement aspects to achieve positive relationship outcomes.

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Keywords
Consumer engagement , Customer engagement , Consumer brand engagement , Customer brand engagement , Relationship quality , Trust , Satisfaction , Commitment , Antececents , Consequences , Cognitive processing , Cognitive , Cognitively , Emotional , Affective , Affection , Behavioural , Behavioral , Activation , Loyalty , Relationship management , Marketing management , Drivers , Customer delight , Consumer delight , Repurchase , Repurchase behaviour , Affective commitment , Cumulative commitment , Love , Partnership , Brand loyalty , Service-dominance , Service-dominance logic , Co-creation , Brand experience , Consumer , Customer , Consumer identification , Self-schema , Self-concept , BESC , CBE , Brand engagement in self-concept , Calculative commitment , Goal pursuit , Brand personality , Brand management , Brand engagement , Engagement , Phone , Technology , Social media , Millennial , Generation C , Apple , Samsung , iPhone , Nokia , Phone usage , Application , Smartphone , Application usage
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