The Role of Trust on Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity

This study aims to identify the mediating effect of trust on brand loyalty and brand equity. Three antecedents including cognitive and experiential factors are evaluated to identify their direct effects on brand loyalty and brand equity. Their indirect effects through trust are also evaluated. This study conducted a survey through both paper-based and online based survey. The respondents were 292 cosmetics users in Taiwan. The results indicate that all three sets of antecedent variables have significant influence on brand loyalty and brand equity. Brand trust can also serve as a mediator that bridging the influences of these antecedents on brand loyalty and brand equity. As a result, brand trust is regarded as a partial mediator for brand loyalty and brand equity. Although a plenty of previous studies have tried to identify the roles of trust on brand equity, rare of them have integrated the influences of the three aspects of antecedents (i.e., experiential factors, cognitive factors, and marketing factors) and the roles of brand trust toward brand loyalty and brand equity. The results could be very helpful for academia to conduct, more validations and for marketers to design appropriate marketing strategies to promote brand loyalty and brand equity. This study examined relationships between the antecedents and brand loyalty and brand equity, and the mediating roles of brand trust in these relationships.