INFLUENCE OF SENSORY MARKETING STRATEGIES ON BRAND LOYALTY AND THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF BRAND LOVE: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FRANCHISED FAST FOOD CHAINS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The effectiveness of sensory marketing strategies (SMS) has been researched in line with many theoretical and empirical foundations related to brand loyalty. In addition, the mediating impact of brand love is an empirically claimed research proposition found within the consumer research works across the industries including food and beverage sector. The theoretical association of sensory marketing has been appreciated in many empirical studies supported by industry specific issues and applications. Alongside, this study was focused to Sri Lankan context and international franchised fast food brands were examined to investigate how sensory marketing strategies result brand loyalty behavior whilst the role of brand love was tested as a mediator. The claimed research gaps were rationalized with theoretical and practice gaps supported by the empirical evidences. Resonance model and sensory marketing framework were used as theoretical models whilst theory of grounded cognition and arousal theory were considered as supporting theories for the study. A quantitative research strategy was opted and stratified random sampling method was used to collect the data from 500 respondents as initially planned. Finally, 379 questionnaires were used for the final analysis after the initial data screening process. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used by the researcher to test the hypotheses whilst descriptive statistical methods were also used. AMOS-23 software was used for the statistical analysis. Results proved that sensory marketing strategies significantly influence brand loyalty behavior whilst brand love impacts on brand loyalty as verified in empirical evidences. The impact of sensory branding strategies on brand love was also a supported. Analysis indicated brand love acts as a partial mediator on the impact made by sensory marketing strategies on brand loyalty. Conclusively, researcher explained the managerial implications in line with the key findings whilst future research directions were also suggested.