The Influence of Brand Experience, Brand Image and Customer Support on Brand Loyalty Through Brand Trust Among Hotel Customers in Liaoning Province, China

Abstract

Now the Chinese hotel industry is paying more attention to the service field, in which competition is increasing; and customer loyalty is playing an important role to ensure higher stability, repeat business, positive word-of-mouth communication and sustainability of revenues. In this context, perceptions of a hotel brand may impact the customer's evaluation of the hotel services and trust in the hotel brand. Based on the brand experience and brand image, the present study seeks to explore the effect of brand experience and brand image on brand trust of hotel customers in Liaoning Province, China, with customer support as an intervening variable, and brand loyalty as the next step in the behavioural chain. The study is founded on the basis of relationship marketing theory and consumer-based brand theory, both of which indicate that the number of service encounters, memorable brand cues and responsive customer service have an important role in establishing the trust of the service provider. Based on this, the proposed model defines brand experience and brand image as the main antecedents of the creation of brand trust; while brand trust is seen as a mechanism that links between brand-related evaluations and brand loyalty. It is recommended to use a structured questionnaire to conduct survey on the hotels' customers in Liaoning Province, which is a quantitative research design. The instruments to measure the concepts are constructed on Likert scale of 5 points. For empirical testing, reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity and correlation analysis and structural equation modelling is recommended. A representative sample of 420 respondents is used as an example in the statistical tables for the proposed analytical procedure. These results indicate that there are positive correlations between brand experience and brand image and between brand experience and brand trust, however the latter has a stronger correlation. The proposed findings give a framework which can be used to distinguish how the hotel brands can enhance their Customer Relationship by providing the consistent Customer Experience, good Customer Associations, consistent Service Performance and Customer Support. This study introduces a province-specific model to analyse the hotel brand loyalty, and provides a basis for future research on the primary data collected in Liaoning Province.
The brand image, brand trust and brand loyalty will always be influential on the customer experience and customer impressions of the brand. Brand image, brand trust, and brand loyalty will always have an impact on the customer experience and their perception of the brand.