How and when effective customer journeys drive brand loyalty: the role of consumer-brand identification

PurposeEffective customer journey design (ECJD) is considered a key variable in customer experience management and an essential source of brand meaning and pro-brand behavior. Although previous research has confirmed its importance for driving brand attitudes and loyalty, the role of consumer-brand...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of service industry management 2024-12, Vol.35 (6), p.109-135
Main Authors: Reitsamer, Bernd F., Stokburger-Sauer, Nicola E., Kuhnle, Janina S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Airlines
Brand identification
Brand loyalty
Brand management
Customer services
Design
Frequent flier programs
Literature reviews
Marketing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:PurposeEffective customer journey design (ECJD) is considered a key variable in customer experience management and an essential source of brand meaning and pro-brand behavior. Although previous research has confirmed its importance for driving brand attitudes and loyalty, the role of consumer-brand identification as a social identity-based influence in this relationship has not yet been discussed. Drawing on construal level and social identity theories, this paper aims to investigate whether effective journeys and the resulting overall journey experience are equally powerful in driving brand loyalty among customers with different levels of consumer-brand identification.Design/methodology/approachThe present article develops and tests a research model using data from the European and US service sectors (N = 1,454) to investigate how and when ECJD affects service brand loyalty.FindingsAcross two cultural contexts, four service industries and 33 service brands, the results reveal that ECJD is a crucial driver of service brand loyalty for customers with low consumer-brand identification. Moreover, the findings show that different aspects of journey effectiveness positively impact the valence of customers’ experience related to those journeys – a process that is ultimately decisive for their brand loyalty.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it generates theoretical and practical knowledge by combining the literature streams of customer journey design, customer experience and branding. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that consumer-brand identification is a critical boundary condition to be considered in the relationship between ECJD and brand loyalty in services.
ISSN:1757-5818
1757-5826
DOI:10.1108/JOSM-08-2023-0374