Brand's Image, Love, and Loyalty: Is it Enough for Word of Mouth Marketing?

Abstract

Laptop products are no longer luxury products, and they are commodities commonly used by university students. However yet, every laptop brand has its brand image in the market. Also, Brand love and loyalty have become central concepts in brand and customer relationships. This paper investigates the effects of ‘brand image on brand love’ and ‘brand love on customer loyalty’ and ‘word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing’. Additionally, it investigates which phases of loyalty have priority in creating WOM. Questionnaires had distributed to 300 college students to collect data. Structural equation modeling (SEM) had used to analyze the hypothesis, and from Multi Criteria Decision Making methods, TOPSIS was used to rank the priority of the phases of loyalty. Analyses show that brand love and image remarkably effect on brand loyalty. In addition, it has been determined that brand love affects WOM. The TOPSİS results also reveal that affective loyalty has priority effective on WOM. Other predictors are cognitive, behavioral, and cognitive loyalty, respectively. The results can help practitioners engage customers while creating a brand image and marketing their laptop brands to construct loyal customer support. The ranking of the type of loyalty can also ensure a phase for marketers to develop future strategies.