EFFECT OF BRAND PERSONALITY ON BRAND （品牌个性对品牌的影响）.pdf

EFFECT OF BRAND PERSONALITY ON BRAND LOYALTY IN COMPANIES’ MICROBLOGS Kem Z.K. Zhang, School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, zzkkem@ Sasa Wang, School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, wssvera@ Sesia J. Zhao, Management School, Anhui University, Hefei, China, sesia@ Abstract Along with companies’ increasing engagement on microblogging sites, how to leverage the marketing potential of t his kind of social platform remains an important concern for many marketers. The purpose of this research is to address this gap by exploring the effect of brand personality on brand loyalty in companies’ microblogs. Building upon prior research on brand personality, consumer satisfaction, and brand loyalty, we propose and empirically test our research model with an online survey study on an existing microblogging site in China. Our findings show that the four dimensions of brand personality, including sincerity, competence, excitement, and sophistication, have positive impacts on consumer satisfaction, which further increases consumers’ loyalty toward brands. Consumer satisfaction is found to be a key mediator that connects brand personality and brand loyalty in companies’ microblogs. We believe that the findings of this research can bring noteworthy implications to both theory and practice. We provide new insight on how consumers’ brand loyalty develops from the perspective of brand personality. The managers of enterprises can also utilize our findings to strengthen their relationship marketing with consumers on microblogging sites. Keywords: Brand Personality, Social media, Consumer Satisfaction, Market performance, Brand Loyalty 1 INTRODUCTION Social media have received much attention in