The Impact of Brand Attachment on the Relationship between Brand Personality and Customer Engagement: A Field study on Car Users in Derna City

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the nature of the direct and indirect relationships among brand personality, brand attachment, and customer engagement among car users in the city of Derna. In addition to determining the level of each of these variables. The study adopted a descriptive inferential research design. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to a convenience non-random sampling of car users in Derna, and were analyzed using appropriate statistical techniques, including frequencies, arithmetic means, and path analysis.  The findings revealed that the level of brand personality was high across all its dimension’s sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness from the perspective of the respondents. Similarly, the level of brand attachment was found to be high. Customer engagement also recorded a high level across its cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dimensions.  Moreover, the results of the path analysis conducted to test the study hypotheses indicated that the dimensions of brand personality exerted a positive direct effect on brand attachment, with the exception of the excitement dimension, which did not show a statistically significant direct effect. The findings further demonstrated that brand attachment had a significant direct effect on customer engagement among car users in Derna. In addition, the relationship between brand personality and customer engagement was partially mediated by brand attachment, indicating the presence of partial mediation. Specifically, the excitement and competence dimensions did not exhibit any direct effect on customer engagement. The study concluded that strengthening the dimensions of brand personality, with a particular emphasis on fostering strong emotional and cognitive attachment, plays a crucial role in enhancing sustainable customer engagement with the brand.