BINATIONAL STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF BRAND IMAGE, BRAND PERSONALITY AND BRAND LOVE ON WORD OF MOUTH: THE CASE OF FASHION BRANDS IN UK AND SWITZERLAND

This study seeks to test a research framework designed to explain the direct effects of brand love, image and personality upon word of mouth in different two contexts. Using data collected from two different countries (United Kingdom and Switzerland), the survey instrument was tested for reliability and validity using confirmatory factor analysis. Hypotheses are then developed related to the consumer-brand relationship across the two countries which are then tested using structural equation modeling. The findings showed that, there is a significant relationship between excitement and brand image, brand love and word of mouth. This is particularly true in both samples. The impact of brand image on word of mouth was not found significant in the two countries in the study. The primary limitation of the study is that the two sampled countries were European. The study explains the relationships among different branding constructs to maximize word of mouth in a wide range of market environments. Although aspects of consumer-brand relationships heavily studied in the US market, much less research exists across markets and in non-US context. This paper redresses this imbalance.