Impact of brand experience and brand relationship quality on customer engagement behaviors Indian restaurant context

Abstract

newline The importance of customer engagement as a basis of sustainable competitive advantage and brand equity has been accentuated in the recent marketing literature. In the current scenario, it is of utmost importance to identify the motivational drivers of customer engagement. Both researchers and managers have agreed that customers who encounter superior brand experience are likely to develop strong relationship quality with the firm and hence tend to stay with the firm during both the good as well as bad times. Therefore, brand experience and brand relationship quality can be posited as two motivational drivers of customer engagement behaviors, which in turn enhances the firm s brand equity. Prior studies have also cited active usage of technology platforms by customers who engage with their service provider by exhibiting voluntary, discretionary and helpful behaviors. These include helping other customers, giving feedback to the firm, and spreading positive word of mouth. Researchers have termed these behaviors as customer engagement behaviors. newlineThe relationship age of the customer with the service provider is posited to have an important effectiveness on their performance (Seiders et al., 2005). There is a possibility that the influence of brand relationship quality on customer engagement behavior rises alongside with the age of the relationship. It has been argued that (i) long-term customers develop superior awareness and knowledge regarding the firm s product offerings; (ii) long-term customers (compared to short term customers) are also conscious of the significance they have contributed over a period of time for the firm; (iii) Compared to short term customers, long term customers consider previous collective satisfaction more densely and new information (comparatively) less densely and are loyal to the service provider. Accordingly, it is presumed that long term customers are able to evaluate and be concerned with the equity of the relationship. newline