Brand Relationship-Loyalty Link among Detergent Consumers in Nairobi City County, Kenya: The Mediatory Role of Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

A topical trend in marketing has been the development of long-term brand relationships in building loyalty, as opposed to transaction based relationships which are deemed superficial in nature, in the fast moving consumer goods market. Brand relationships are key in building lasting consumer-brand bonds that result in loyalty. However, empirical studies focussing on brand relationships and their effect on loyalty and the role of satisfaction in the development of these relationships are scarce especially in developing countries and more so in Kenya. Therefore, to fill this gap this study first sought to investigate the effect of brand relationship on loyalty and then establish the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between brand relationship and loyalty in the detergent industry. This research adopted the positivistic philosophy, the explanatory research design and was cross-sectional in nature. The target population was households, as detergent consumers, in 11 sub-counties in Nairobi City County, Kenya, from which a sample of 400 households consumers were selected using cluster and simple random sampling, and the Kish grid at the household level. A household was regarded as a single detergent purchase and consumption unit. Primary data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using SPSS 25. Based on the data analysis, brand relationship, as a composite value of brand trust, brand communication and emotional attachment, was found to have a positive effect on loyalty, while customer satisfaction was also found to have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between brand relationship and loyalty. The study thus concluded that customer satisfaction has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between brand relationship and loyalty. The study findings can be applied in the development of customer satisfaction programs to nurture brand relationships and consequently increase loyalty to laundry detergent brands.