The Impact of Consumer-Company Relationships on Brand Loyalty

Abstract

Research Question: In this paper the effect of consumers’ relationship towards a company on brand loyalty is analysed. Motivation: The main goal is to determine if consumers’ relationship towards a company develops brand loyalty. In addition, consumer-brand relationships, consumer-product relationships, brand trust and brand relationship quality are observed. This is important for defining complex relationships between companies, consumers and brands. Brand loyalty is the result of marketing, management and public relations practices. This thorough research provides a substantial insight into this domain. The number of studies that address several marketing management constructs in this form is low. Therefore, this approach is innovative from that viewpoint. Idea: The main idea is to analyse the complex relationships between the above-mentioned constructs and to highlight key factors while taking into consideration the integrity of the analysed data. Data: For this research, the data was collected via structured survey. The sample size of 407 included male and female consumers, aged from 15 to 65, from the major cities in Serbia. Potential biases were taken into consideration when undertaking data analysis. Tools: Conclusions were drawn from the extensive data analysis that included OLS regression analysis, (with and without control parameters), correlation analysis, reliability test, and tests for multicollinearity, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. Findings: The results indicate that there is a strong link between consumers’ relationship towards a company and brand loyalty. In addition, the links between the mediating constructs shed light on the complexity of developing relationships with consumers. Contribution: This study contributes to the existing body of literature and expands the view on consumer-company relationships from the aspect of brand and marketing management and management overall.