Effect of Cognitive Engagement on the Development of Brand Love in a Hotel Context

Abstract

With growing number of hotel brands in the market, the lodging industry is facing intense competition more than ever, and managers are realizing the importance of developing strong customer–brand relationship. As a result, the concept of brand love is gaining increased attention in hospitality literature and academics are examining various antecedents of this concept. However, among prior studies’ exploration of its antecedents, the relationship between engagement process and brand love has been relatively neglected. Hence, the present study explores the relationship among customer–brand engagement, cognitive brand loyalty, and brand love. Specifically, this study focuses on the role of cognitive engagement on the development of brand love, as the advent of online environment and social networking service has significantly changed customer’s pre- and post-purchase decision-making process. The conceptual model illustrates that cognitive engagement, which is operationalized as a second-order construct of attention and absorption, has a significant positive effect on brand love directly and indirectly via the mediation of cognitive brand loyalty. Consequently, the findings indicate that “how” customers process brand information (cognitive engagement) is equally important as “what” they process (content, e.g., quality) to evoke cognitive brand loyalty and ultimately brand love among hotel guests.

Consequences of Customer Value Co-creation in Restaurants

“…Contrarily, brand love or emotional attachment with restaurant brand did not affect customer satiation, yet it has contributed to reducing customer switching behavior. The latter finding agrees with Wang et al (2019) and Shin and Back (2020).…”

“…Brand love is defined as the emotional attachment developed by satisfied customers toward a particular brand name (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006;Shin & Back, 2020). Shin and Back (2020) explained that brand love is a construct that encompasses three dimensions: (1) intimacy-feelings of closeness, (2) passion and includes arousal and involvement, and (3) commitment which refers to maintain a relationship for a long term.…”

“…Brand love is defined as the emotional attachment developed by satisfied customers toward a particular brand name (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006;Shin & Back, 2020). Shin and Back (2020) explained that brand love is a construct that encompasses three dimensions: (1) intimacy-feelings of closeness, (2) passion and includes arousal and involvement, and (3) commitment which refers to maintain a relationship for a long term. Brand love has recently captured the attention of hospitality scholars due to its critical influence on several marketing outcomes such as positive word of mouth, repurchase intentions, and switching resistance ( Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006;Batra et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2019;Shin & Back, 2020).…”

“…Increased demand for personalized services and products has led many tourism and hospitality enterprises to involve their guests in the process of creating a service experience-a phenomenon known as value co-creation (Lei et al, 2020). Also, the strong rivalry and proliferation of hospitality brands forced many hospitality firms to adopt attachment-oriented strategies, such as brand love, to retain customers (Shin & Back, 2020). Maintaining current customers and mitigating switching behaviors is critical for reducing marketing costs and business success (Park & Jang, 2014).…”

Brand anthropomorphism, love and defense: does attitude towards social distancing matter?

“…Hotels like HUA-LUXE use cultural cues (textures and aromas) to develop brand intimacy (love) in order to garner repeat business from Chinese travelers (Wang et al, 2019). As per Shin and Back (2020), brand love as a construct holds significant relevance for the hospitality industry because of the industry's consistent challenge in retaining customers. While the existing hospitality literature has looked into the interplay between constructs such as self-brand connection, brand authenticity, and brand reputation, there are no studiesin hospitality as well as general branding literaturethat has to look into the interplay between brand love and other branding constructs that are beyond general behavioral intentions of consumers.…”