Pages: 29-41

Abstract

It is the brand name and identity which build customer loyalty and place value on them, and ‎consolidates the position of company and product in the market. The purpose of this ‎research was to investigate “customer engagement with self-expressive brands, brand love ‎and word-of-mouth marketing”. The statistical population was all users of Telegram, ‎Facebook and the other social networks in Isfahan. A sample of 384 individuals completed a ‎‎24-item standard questionnaire adopted from the Wallace and Chernatony research (2014). ‎The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed and validated using ‎confirmatory factor analysis (construct validity) and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, ‎respectively. Structural equation modeling via LISREL was used for hypothesis testing. The ‎results of the research showed that the self-expressive brand (inner self) has a positive ‎direct effect on brand love and the effect size was 0.29; self-expressive brand (inner self) ‎has a positive direct effect on word-of-mouth marketing and the effect size was 0.40; brand ‎love has a positive direct effect on word-of-mouth marketing and the effect size was 0.31; ‎brand love has a positive direct effect on  brand admiration and the effect size was 0.66; and ‎self-expressive brand (inner self) has a positive direct effect on brand admiration ‎‎(acceptance) and the effect size was 0.16; however, self-expressive brand (social self) has ‎no positive direct effect on brand love, brand admiration, and word-of-mouth marketing‎.