Mid- to low-end fashion brand personality affects consumers' perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty

Abstract

To gain insight into fashion brands that are newly entered in the market of a country with emerging economies, we compared Chinese versus Korean consumers' perception of Western (European) versus Eastern (Korean) mid- to low-end brands. We identified sincerity, competence, and excitement as brand personality dimensions, and used brand commitment and perceived quality as mediating variables, with the brand personality dimensions as independent variables, to predict affective loyalty. Results showed that competence and sincerity significantly predicted affective loyalty toward both Western and Eastern brands, and excitement played an essential role in loyalty to Eastern brands. Perceived quality mediated the impact of each brand personality dimension on affective loyalty, but for the Western brands the mediating effects of commitment were significant for sincerity and excitement only, and for the Eastern brands commitment was a significant mediator of the effects of competence and excitement only. These results increase understanding of how consumers perceive Western versus Eastern fashion brands, by providing empirical evidence of the critical role of brand personality in the formation of affective loyalty.