Consumer's Personal Reciprocity and Future Purchase Intention: A Study on Short Brand-Model Lifecycle Product

Abstract

In brand-consumer research domain, brand trust and brand loyalty are considered as powerful assets to develop brand performance, by means of customer’s repeat purchase decision. The advancement of technology, however, led to a shorter brand-model lifecycle. Given the potential loss due to customer switching, it is important to understand how consumers relate their attitudes toward brand and product familiarity toward future purchase intention. The purpose of this paper was to explore consumers’ personal reciprocity - the willingness to have a reciprocal relationship with the firm - resulted from usage experience with a brand, and its impact toward future purchase intention in the context of short brand-model lifecycle product. An empirical study using survey was conducted toward young consumers in Indonesia, with smartphone as the product-line understudy. Findings from this study indicated that consumer’s personal reciprocity is contingent on brand trust and product familiarity, but not on brand loyalty. Further, customers who develop personal reciprocity behavior will likely to choose the same brand in their future purchase. This empirical evidence provided important insights for managers to emphasize their strategy toward developing consumer’s personal reciprocity in order to sustain brand performance.