An Empirical Examination of Relationship Between Emotional Attachment and Attitudinal Brand Loyalty Towards Luxury Fashion Brands

Anand  Thakur,; Rupinderdeep  Kaur,

An Empirical Examination of Relationship Between Emotional Attachment and Attitudinal Brand Loyalty Towards Luxury Fashion Brands

Abstract:

The consumer feels more loyal to product he or she feels associated with, linked to, and loves. The emotional attachment has significant influence on attitudinal loyalty. Measuring attitudinal brand loyalty can recognize potential users who are susceptible in varying scenarios. The economic conditions of India are experiencing a positive change. The number of high net worth individuals (individuals with investable assets of $1 million or more) in India has shown a noticeable growth in past few years, according to the Asia-Pacific Wealth Report by Merril Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini. Asia-Pacific’s high net worth individuals’ population in 2010 has exceeded that of Europe, making it the second largest market after North America. The media has played a vital role in positioning luxury in the public eye. India is likely to become a US$4 billion luxury market industry by 2020, according to new estimates (2015) by Luxury Society. This study aims to examine the empirical relationship of emotional attachment and attitudinal brand loyalty in the perspective of female consumer towards luxury fashion brands. A cross sectional survey of 240 female customers of five global brands, namely, Zara, Armani, Guess, Versace, and Calvin-Klein from four major cities of Punjab (India) was conducted. Regression and Z-Test were used to analyze the data. The perceived significance of emotional attachment and attitudinal brand loyalty is high in luxury fashion purchase. The emotional attachment positively enhances female consumers’ attitudinal brand loyalty. Marketing strategy formulation needs special emphasis towards dimensions of emotional attachment, namely, referral influence, connect with brand, pleasure, and tenderness. Further, they need to strengthen brand reputation, performance and feature upgradation, purchase intention, and brand synchronization to win attitudinal loyalty in luxury fashion.