Effects of brand personality, self-congruity and functional congruity on hotel brand loyalty

TLDR

The study examines how brand personality, self‑congruity, and functional congruity influence hotel brand loyalty among 732 Turkish tourists of 25 five‑star Bodrum hotels. Using questionnaire data, the authors assessed brand personality dimensions, applied structural equation modeling, and tested mediation via bootstrapping with the PROCESS macro. Results show hotel brand personality consists of excitement, sincerity, competence, and androgyny, with functional congruity exerting a stronger positive effect on loyalty than self‑congruity.

Abstract

In this study, 732 Turkish tourists from 25 five-star hotels serving in Bodrum (Turkey) were surveyed via questionnaires to investigate the effects of brand personality (BP), self-congruity and functional congruity on hotel brand loyalty. Before testing the research model, BP of five-star hotels was examined. Explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the personality of hotel brands consisted of "excitement, sincerity, competence and androgyny" dimensions. Structural Equation Modeling analysis revealed the positive relationships between the research variables, and mediating effects of self-congruity and functional congruity on BP and hotel brand loyalty relationship was explored. The statistical significance of these mediating effects was confirmed with bootstrapping analyses performed through PROCESS macro. The results also proved the greater effect of functional congruity than self-congruity on hotel brand loyalty. In the direction of these results, suggestions were made for future research and hotel managers.