A WEB OF EMOTIONS-THE EFFECT OF ONLINE BRAND EXPERIENCE ON BRAND LOYALTY

The article analyses how online brand experience can be measured and determines its impact on brand loyalty. Similar to offline brand experience, online brand experience is broken down into sensory, affective, cognitive, behavioral and relational elements of brand experience. This is based on the believe that - although online brand experience lacks physical presence such as a store - it has the possibility to create a virtual brand experience through visual, audible, gambling or community-based features. Therefore, the brand elements of offline brand experience are applied to online brand experience. Since online brand experience engages customers' feelings and emotions, it can lead to an improved brand image and to behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty. The present empirical research investigates the influence of the five different types of online brand experiences - sensory, affective, cognitive, behavioral, and relational - and the website usability on brand loyalty through an empirical study of the travel website qyer. com in China. Respondents (n=69), i.e. users of the qyer. com website, confirm through a standardized online survey, the positive impact of online brand experience on brand loyalty. Especially affective and behavioral brand experience impacts brand loyalty largely sensory, cognitive and relational brand experiences have a slightly lower but significant impact. Website usability shows the lowest impact. The study proves the significance of online brand experience to create brand loyalty and identifies the most important dimensions of brand experience.