"To know me is to love me!" : the effect of brand personality on the constructs of trust and commitment

Abstract

In both academic and practitioner domains there has been a prolific debate about relationship marketing drawing attention to the benefits of creating, maintaining and enhancing profitable relationships with customers. Morgan and Hunt's seminal work provided evidence for the key roles of consumer trust and commitment as mediating variables in relationship marketing. This study focuses on consumer-brand relationships and proposes a causal model with brand personality as an antecedent of consumer trust in, and commitment to, a brand. The model is tested via two quantitative studies amongst HSBC customers and Coca-Cola consumers. The findings of the study amongst both samples of consumers support the proposed model and suggest that brand personality is an antecedent variable to consumer trust and commitment amongst the two respondent samples under study. Given the favourable test results, implications for theory and management are given and suggestions for further research are made.