Brand trust in the context of consumer loyalty

TLDR

Brand loyalty research has traditionally emphasized perceived quality, reputation, and satisfaction, while recent relational marketing studies increasingly examine trust as a predictor of future intention. This study investigates how brand trust relates to satisfaction and loyalty within the brand‑consumer relationship. The authors employed regression and multivariable analyses on a sample of 173 buyers. Results show that brand trust drives customer commitment, particularly in high‑involvement contexts, and its effect exceeds that of overall satisfaction.

Abstract

The existing literature of brand loyalty has been essentially focused on the roles of perceived quality, brand reputation and especially satisfaction, due to the fact that they summarise consumers’ knowledge and experiences, guiding their subsequent actions. In this context, the shifting emphasis to relational marketing has devoted a lot of effort to analyse how other constructs such as trust predict future intention. The fact that there are conceptual connections of trust to the notion of satisfaction and loyalty, and thatthis effort is especially lacking in the brand‐consumer relationship, moves the authors to focus on analysing the relationships existing among these concepts. Research methodology consisted of regressions and multivariable analysis with a sample of 173 buyers. The results obtained suggest the key role of brand trust as a variable that generates customers’ commitment, especially in situations of high involvement, in which its effect is stronger in comparison to overall satisfaction.