This document summarizes a research paper that examines the relationships between customer-brand identification, commitment, satisfaction, trust, and brand loyalty for luxury hotels. The study uses a social identity perspective and tests relationships between these variables using data from 346 hotel guests across India. Key findings include that customer-brand identification has the strongest indirect effect on hotel brand loyalty, followed by customer satisfaction. Commitment, trust and satisfaction were found to significantly mediate the relationship between customer-brand identification and brand loyalty.

1. The Customers’ Brand
Identification with Luxury Hotels:
A Social Identity Perspective
How to Cite: Rather, R.A. & Camilleri, M.A. (2019). The Customers’ Brand Identification with
Luxury Hotels: A Social Identity Perspective. In Harrison, T. & Brennan, M. (Eds.) 2019 AMS
World Marketing Congress. The University of Edinburgh, Scotland (9-12th July). Academy of
Marketing Science. Download this paper

2. Content
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Data Analysis
• Conclusions
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3. Introduction
• The customer-brand identification (CBI) concept describes the
relationships between the customers and their favourite brands, as
brands may relate to the individuals’ self-concept (Rather &
Hollebeek, 2019; So, King & Sparkes, 2014; Martinez & Rodriguez del
Bosque, 2013).
• Research Question: There is a gap in the extant literature as only a
few contributions have relied on the social identity perspective to
explore the consumers’ loyalty toward upscale hospitality brands.
• Therefore, this study examines the direct and indirect effects of CBI,
commitment, satisfaction and trust on brand loyalty.
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4. Consumer Trust
• The consumers’ trust has often been considered as the level of confidence in a brand
(or product). In this study, trust comprises two major components: (1) benevolence
trust and (2) credibility trust (Rather & Hollebeek, 2019).
Consumer Commitment
• Committed consumers may be genuinely willing to maintain a valued relationship
with a brand. Both trust and commitment are vital factors that can make or break
long-term consumer-brand relationships (Rather & Hollebeek, 2019).
Consumer Satisfaction
• Consumer satisfaction has often been related with the consumers’ overall evaluation
of the firms’ performance. Satisfaction is a strong predictor for the individuals’
behavioural intention to purchase a product (or to re-visit a business) (Song, Van der
Veen & Chen. 2011). It can also lead satisfied consumers to make positive
recommendations and referrals (i.e. positive WoM) (Su et al., 2016; Liat et al., 2017).
Literature review (i)
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5. Customer Brand Identification
• Consumers identify themselves with their favourite brands. They may usually
relate with certain brands (Keh & Xie, 2009; Choo et al., 2011).
• Brands satisfy one or more of the individual consumers’ self-definitional needs
(e.g., self-continuity, self-enhancement and self-distinctiveness). This
argumentation is consonant with the social identity theory.
Brand loyalty
• This construct may be defined as the consumers’ tendency to re-purchase from
one brand's products over another (Camilleri, 2018).
• Repeat consumers are loyal (and committed) toward trustworthy brands - as they
are satisfied by their offerings. Therefore, the consumers’ favourite brands will
usually reflect their personal attitudes and behaviours.
Literature review (ii)
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6. The hypotheses and the research model
• H1: Customer-brand identification is positively associated with commitment.
• H2: Customer-brand identification has a positive relationship with satisfaction
• H3: Customer-brand identification is positively associated with brand trust
• H4: Customer-brand identification positively impacts brand loyalty.
• H5: Customer satisfaction has a positive association with customer
commitment.
• H6: Trust would have a positive influence on customer commitment.
• H7: Customer satisfaction has been positively associated with brand trust.
• H8: Customer commitment has been positively related to brand loyalty.
• H9: Customer satisfaction has been positively related to hotel brand loyalty.
• H10: Brand trust has a positive relationship with brand loyalty.
• H11: Customer commitment, trust and satisfaction mediate the relationship
between CBI and hotel brand loyalty.
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7. Methodology
Measures
• The brand loyalty construct (Martinez & Rodriguez del Bosque, 2014) consisted of six items. The
other constructs, including; consumer-brand Identification (So et al., 2013); consumer
satisfaction (Martinez & Rodriguez del Bosque, 2013); consumer commitment (Su et al., 2016);
consumer trust (So et al., 2013) had 4 items each;
• Moreover, the participants were asked to disclose their age, gender and to indicate if they were
repeat or new customers (hotel guests) - in the latter part of the questionnaire;
Data Collection
• The participants were expected to indicate the extent of their agreement with the survey items
on a 7-point Likert scale. The responses ranged from 1= “strongly disagree” to 7= “strongly
agree” (4 signalled an indecision);
• The data was collected from hotel guests who resided in four or five-star accommodation
establishments in six Indian cities, namely; Srinagar, Gulmarg, Phalgam, Jammu, Katra and
Amritsar;
• N=346 (out of one thousand and sixty).
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8. Data Analysis
Table 1: The profile of respondents
• A descriptive analysis of the respondents indicated that 54% were males while 46% were
females.
• The majority of the respondents were between 31 and 50 years of age (n=221).
• Almost one third of the respondents (32%) were repeat (loyal) customers.
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9. Table 2: Descriptive statistics, the standard loadings and squared
multiple correlation
• Generally, the respondents
indicated that they agreed with the
survey items (M>4), except for two
CBI items.
• The standard deviations indicated
that there was a narrow spread in
the participants’ responses,
(ranging from 0.4 to 1.47).
• The standardised estimates were
well above the recommended 0.4.
• R2 (SMC) values were very high
(ranging from 0.53-0.96).
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10. Table 3: The discriminant validity, reliability and correlation
values
• The reliabilities for each
construct were above 0.70 (i.e.
the recommended threshold).
• To confirm the discriminant
validity the researchers
evaluated the correlations of the
constructs with the square root
of the average variance extracted
(AVE) for each of the constructs.
• AVE values were higher than 0.5,
suggesting convergent validity of
the scale or uni-dimensionality of
the constructs (Fornell & Larcker,
1981).
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11. Table 4: The structural equation model (H1-H10)
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12. Table 5: The standardised direct and indirect effects on the
endogenous constructs (H11)
• CBI had the strongest indirect
effect on hotel brand loyalty
(β = 0.516) followed by the
customer satisfaction (β =
0.276).
• Brand trust had a minimal
indirect effect on brand
loyalty (β = 0.023).
• Commitment, brand trust and
satisfaction significantly
mediated the relationship
between CBI and hotel brand
loyalty.
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13. Conclusions
• This study has built on the extant knowledge relating to the social identity
theory (Martinez & Rodriguez del Bosque, 2014; So et al., 2013).
• We empirically tested the relationships between consumer-brand identity
(CBI) and consumer commitment, trust and satisfaction. Our research
explains these constructs’ direct and indirect influences on hotel brand
loyalty.
• Our contribution puts forward important implications to academia and practitioners on
brand identification and brand loyalty literature.
• Future studies could replicate these findings across different sectors, or in
other countries. Further research can explore the emerging themes in
marketing science, including; consumer-brand engagement, consumer-based
brand equity, brand co-creation and brand love, among other topics.
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14. Acknowledgments
We express our gratitude to the hotels that allowed us to access their
organisations. The warmth and openness with which we were received
was a clear reflection of their hospitality ethos. We cannot name
specific hotels, but they all deserve our sincere thanks. We also thank
the research participants (hotel guests) who have voluntarily taken part
in this study.
Moreover, we are grateful to the AMS editor and her reviewers for their
constructive remarks and suggestions.
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17. Thanks for your attention.
I was very happy to share the findings of our research with you! Feel free to
cite this contribution:
How to Cite: Rather, R.A. & Camilleri, M.A. (2019). The Customers’ Brand
Identification with Luxury Hotels: A Social Identity Perspective. In Harrison, T. &
Brennan, M. (Eds.) 2019 AMS World Marketing Congress. The University of
Edinburgh, Scotland (9-12th July). Academy of Marketing Science.
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