The Influence of Brand Trust, Brand Familiarity and Brand Experience on Brand Attachment: A Case of Consumers in the Gauteng Province of South Africa

Abstract

In today’s post-modern era, brands significantly play an important role in consumer behaviour. This paper aimed at examining how brand trust, brand familiarity and brand experience have an influence on brand attachment using a sample of consumers within the Gauteng Province of South Africa. A quantitative method using Smart PLS was employed to test the relationships among the three hypotheses. A structured questionnaire consisting of validated scales for brand trust, brand familiarity, brand experience and brand attachment was administered to a sample of 181 consumers within the Gauteng province of South Africa. The results of this study showed that brand trust, brand familiarity and brand experience positively influences brand attachment in a significant and direct way. The results of this empirical study provided fruitful implications toacademicians, practitioners as well as policy makers from the perspective of academicians.This study makes a significant contribution to the brand management literature by systematically examiningthe influence of brand trust, brand familiarity and brand experience on brand attachment. On the practitioners’ side, this study therefore submits thatbrand managers for companies in the Gauteng province ought to concentrate on strategies that enhance brand experience because it is likely to yield the desired brand attachment when compared to other research constructs. The results which have been obtained from this study may also be used to generate new policies and revision of the existing policies. Precisely,policies or strategies which exist in numerous organizationsare there in order to make consumers remain attached to certain brands.Moreover, this study vastly add new knowledge to the present body of brand management literature in Africa - a context that is neglected by some academicians in developing countries.