Brand Orientation and WOM: Mediating Roles of Brand Love

This study has examined the association of the brand factors with the primary concentration on brand love and its impact on word of mouth (WOM) communication. Brand love is used as a mediator. The questionnaire for the study was adapted from earlier established scales and measures which were based on five points Likert Scale. The study was concentrated on the mall-going customers in the city of Karachi. The study used a sample size of 387 and data was collected non-randomly. The response rate was 86% which showed that mall customers have a high interest on the brand. Smart PLS was used for data analysis. After preliminary statistical analysis including descriptive, reliability and validity, the hypotheses results were generated through bootstrapping. The results suggest that consumes love those brands that have strong brand image, and with which they are satisfied. Contrary to earlier research, we found that brand image has an insignificant association with WOM. However, we found consumers in love with a brand become advocators of that brand. Furthermore, the results suggest that satisfied customers not only love the brand but they also become source of WOM. We also found that brand love failed to mediate brand experience and WOM. However, our results support brand love through brand image and brand satisfaction influence WOM.