Brand Loyalty Formation in the Context of Relationship Marketing and A Model Proposal

This study aims to investigate the formation of brand loyalty within the context of relationship marketing. By proposing a brand loyalty model, this study examines the relationships between brand satisfaction, brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty. The proposed model of the study depends on the commitment trust theory of relationship marketing (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). This study examines both behavioral and attitudinal dimensions of brand loyalty which also represents commitment. In order to test the model and the suggested relationships between the constructs, data were collected from a sample of 450 undergraduate students and analized using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results indicate that both brand trust and brand affect directly and positively influence behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty. Besides, the results also indicate that, brand trust and brand affect mediate the relationship between brand satisfaction and brand loyalty.