Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

Bridging Fashion and Marketing

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Examining the effects of brand love and brand

image on customer engagement: An empirical
study of fashion apparel brands

Jamid Ul Islam & Zillur Rahman

To cite this article: Jamid Ul Islam & Zillur Rahman (2016) Examining the effects of brand love and
brand image on customer engagement: An empirical study of fashion apparel brands, Journal of
Global Fashion Marketing, 7:1, 45-59, DOI: 10.1080/20932685.2015.1110041

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Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 2016
VOL. 7, NO. 1, 45–59
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2015.1110041

Examining the effects of brand love and brand image on

customer engagement: An empirical study of fashion apparel
brands
Jamid Ul Islam  and Zillur Rahman 
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Organizations are making huge investments to embrace customer Received 1 July 2015
engagement. Customer engagement has become a central concept Revised 8 August 2015
in customer–brand relationships. The empirical investigation of Accepted 26 September 2015
customer engagement is covered in previous literature, yet none
KEYWORDS
of the studies so far have empirically examined the relationships Customer engagement;
between brand image and brand love simultaneously with regard to brand image; brand love;
customer engagement in the fashion apparel context. This study is customer loyalty; fashion
the first to investigate customer engagement in the context of fashion apparel brands
apparel. It examines the effects of brand image and brand love on
customer engagement. Customer loyalty as an outcome of customer 关键词
engagement is also studied. To collect data, self-administered 顾客契合; 品牌形象; 品牌
喜爱度; 客户忠诚度; 时尚
questionnaires were distributed to 430 students, of whom 403 students 服装品牌
returned the completed questionnaires. Structural equation modeling
(SEM) using AMOS 20.0 software was used to test the hypotheses.
Results reveal that brand image and brand love significantly influence
customer engagement. Brand love was also found to act as a mediator
between brand image and customer engagement. The results also
reveal that customer engagement influences customer loyalty. The
results can prove helpful to practitioners in engaging customers while
branding and marketing their fashion apparel brands so as to build a
loyal customer base. The development of the research model can also
provide a stage for scholars to undertake future research.

验证品牌喜爱度和品牌形象对顾客契合的影响: 时尚
服装品牌的实证研究
时尚主体的研究已经取得了印度和其他国家研究者的关注。外国
直接投资在印度多品牌零售业的出现,为全球奢侈品牌提供了巨
大的机会。收入增加,有利的人口统计数据,购物中心快速发展,以
及转变消费者对品牌产品的偏好,使这个行业极具吸引力。
企业在顾客契合上进行巨大的投资。顾客契合已成为顾
客与品牌关系中的核心概念。由于其对消费者行为和品
牌性能的存在潜在的积极影响,顾客契合已经受到了学
者以及营销从业者的关注。已有文献对顾客契合进行了
实证调查。但迄今为止,没有在时尚服装背景下,对品牌
形象和品牌喜爱度对顾客契合的关系的实证研究。本研
究首次探讨在服装背景下的顾客契合,并且对作为顾客契合的结

CORRESPONDENCE TO  Jamid Ul Islam  [email protected] 

© 2016 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science
46    J. U. Islam and Z. Rahman

果客户忠诚度进行了研究。由于其在消费者品牌关系领域的潜在
相关性,这些关系被验证。将自填式问卷分发给430名学生进行收
集数据,其中回收了403名学生完成的问卷。使用AMOS 20.0软件
进行结构方程建模(SEM)并测试假设。
结果表明,品牌形象和品牌喜爱度显著影响顾客契合。研究结果还
表明, 顾客契合显著影响顾客忠诚度。该研究为从业者提供了一些
有意义的见解。研究结果显示,品牌喜爱度和品牌形象影响顾客契
合,进而对顾客忠诚度有显著影响。此外,品牌喜爱度在品牌形象和
顾客契合之间有中介作用。因此,营销者应该为他们的时尚服装品
牌制定相应的品牌化策略和营销,去鼓励进行顾客契合,以此提高顾
客忠诚度。此外,在制定营销策略,通过顾客契合提升顾客忠诚度时,
营销人员应该考虑品牌形象和品牌喜爱度的影响。结果可以证明,
其有助于从业者在品牌化和营销他们的时尚服装品牌时吸引客户,
以便建立一个忠诚的客户基础。除此之外,该研究通过发展和实证
验证了一个通过品牌喜爱度和品牌形象解释了顾客契合度的研究
模型,。研究模型可以为学者的进一步研究提供平台。

1. Introduction
Research in the fashion context has gained notable attention among researchers in India and
worldwide (Bakewell, Mitchell, & Rothwell, 2006; Handa & Khare, 2013; Ismail & Spinelli,
2012). In India, textiles and apparel is one of the largest industries, growing at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2% and expected to reach US$141 billion by 2021, from
US$67 billion in 2014 (Indian Brand Equity Foundation report, 2015). The advent of foreign
direct investment in Indian multi-brand retailing offers enormous opportunities to global lux-
ury brands. Rising incomes, favorable demographics, rapid development in shopping complexes
and a shift in consumer preference to branded products all make this industry highly attractive.
Previous research on the fashion context has studied concepts such as ‘self-congruity’ (Das,
2015), ‘co-branding’ (Wu & Chalip, 2014), ‘collective self-esteem’, ‘interpersonal influence’
(Handa & Khare, 2013), ‘brand personality’ and ‘word of mouth’ (Ismail & Spinelli, 2012), and
‘cosmopolitanism in fashion clothing involvement’ (Khare, 2014). None of the studies so far have
empirically examined the relationships between brand image and brand love simultaneously with
regard to customer engagement in the fashion apparel context. As apparel reflects one’s identity
and symbolizes one’s status and personality (Hansen & Jensen, 2009; Khare, 2014), people are
therefore likely to be more cautious about choosing the ‘right’ apparel brands, and to engage with
these brands so as to improve their appearance and identity. Youth are considered to be a major
segment open towards globalization trends and fashion, and this demographic has, therefore,
become the focus of attention among marketers (Khare & Rakesh, 2010).
Customer engagement has become a prominent construct in recent customer manage-
ment literature. Having the potential to positively affect consumer behavior (Gambetti &
Graffigna, 2010) and brand performance (Brodie, Hollebeek, Juric, & Ilic, 2011), customer
engagement has received considerable attention from academicians as well as marketing
practitioners (Dessart, Veloutsou, & Thomas, 2015; Vivek, Beatty, Dalela, & Morgan, 2014).
Customer engagement was a key research priority for the Marketing Science Institute (MSI)
from 2010 to 2012. Despite receiving immense scholarly attention, this construct remains
in an embryonic stage (Brodie et al., 2011; Vivek, Beatty, & Morgan, 2012). It is again one
of the MSI’s prime research priorities between 2014 and 2016. While providing an evolu-
tionary perspective regarding the future course of marketing, Kumar (2015) foresees that
customer engagement as an emerging area now needs to be explored.
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing   47

In the past few years, researchers have put effort into investigating the domain of cus-
tomer engagement (see Bowden, 2009; Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2013; Hollebeek,
Glynn, & Brodie, 2014), but the empirical investigation of this emerging construct remains
nebulous to date (Hollebeek, 2011a) and there is a need to empirically investigate the rela-
tionships between customer engagement and other relevant constructs in different contexts
(Bolton, 2011).
This study is a response to such calls for more empirical investigation of customer engage-
ment with different brands and industry contexts (Dessart et al., 2015; Hollebeek et al.,
2014; Vivek et al., 2014).

2.  Literature review and research hypotheses

2.1.  Customer engagement
Customer engagement has recently evolved as a concept in the marketing literature (Brodie
et al., 2011). A plethora of terms have been used to express engagement from a marketing
perspective, such as ‘Customer Engagement’ (Bolton, 2011; Brodie et al., 2013; Vivek et al.,
2012, 2014) ‘Consumer Engagement’ (Brodie et al., 2011; Dessart et al., 2015), ‘Customer
Engagement Behaviour’ (Doorn et al., 2010; Wei, Miao, & Huang, 2013) ‘Customer Brand
Engagement’ (Hollebeek, 2011b) ‘Consumer Brand Engagement’ (Hollebeek et al., 2014),
‘Brand Community Engagement’ (Kuo & Feng, 2013) and ‘Brand Engagement’ (Keller,
2013; Sprott, Czellar, & Spangenberg, 2009).
Building on different theoretical backgrounds, customer engagement has been defined
by various authors. Hollebeek (2011b) has defined it as “the level of customer’s cognitive,
emotional and behavioral investment in specific brand interactions” (Hollebeek, 2011b,
p. 565). Alternatively, Brodie et al. (2011), focusing on existing customers, have defined
this construct as “a psychological state that occurs by virtue of interactive, co-advocative
customer experiences with a focal agent/object (e.g., a brand) in focal service relationships”
(Brodie et al., 2011, p. 260).
Thus, interaction and reciprocation become musts for customer engagement. The litera-
ture shows that some studies have seen engagement as a uni-dimensional construct as emo-
tional (Sprott et al., 2009) and behavioral (Verhoef, Reinartz, & Kraft, 2010), while others
see it as a multi-dimensional construct comprising of cognitive, emotional and behavioral
dimensions (Brodie et al., 2011; Hollebeek et al., 2011b; Hollebeek et al., 2014). Following
Brodie et al. (2011), the current study is focused on the existing user perspective of customer
engagement. Based on this perspective, the current study outlines brand image and brand
love as two antecedents of customer engagement. Moreover, customer loyalty is outlined
as an outcome of customer engagement.
Building on the literature above, the following section offers a development of the con-
cepts considered in the current study and presents a proposed framework (see Figure 1)
and related hypotheses.

2.2.  Brand love

In the recent marketing literature, brand love has been seen as an important construct
affecting customer–brand relationships (Fournier, 1998; Ismail & Spinelli, 2012; Thomson,
48    J. U. Islam and Z. Rahman

MacInnis, & Park, 2005). Derived from the notion of interpersonal love in psychology
(Carrol & Ahuvia, 2006; Shimp & Madden, 1988), the concept of brand love has gained
scholarly attention in the field of marketing (Batra, Ahuvia, & Bagozzi, 2012; Carroll &
Ahuvia, 2006). Studies about brand love have shown this construct to influence various
marketing variables (Carrol & Ahuvia, 2006). Rubin (1973) defines romantic love as “an atti-
tude held by a person toward a particular other person, involving predispositions to think,
feel, and behave in certain ways toward that other person” (Rubin, 1973, p. 256). Carroll
and Ahuvia (2006) define brand love as the “degree of passionate emotional attachment a
satisfied customer has for a particular trade name” (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006, p. 81). In her
study of consumer–brand relationships, Fournier (1998) found the concept of love was
pivotal for all brand relationships. A distinction has been made between brand love and
inter-personal love in that the former is uni-directional, whereas the latter is bidirectional
(Whang, Allen, Sahoury, & Zhang, 2004).
Consumers love brands because of the motive of ‘self-image’ (Albert, Merunka, & Vallette-
Florence, 2008). Ahuvia (2005) found that objects demanding a considerable investment
of time and energy are loved by consumers. As fashion apparel brands communicate one’s
personality and image (Khare, 2014), consumers are therefore more likely to invest due
time and energy to choose the right apparel brand. Research delineates a positive relation
between brand love and word-of-mouth – an expression of customer engagement (Carroll
& Ahuvia, 2006). Research also delineates brand love as an essential driver of engagement
(Bergkvist & Bech-Larsen, 2010).
Supported by the literature above, customers are likely to become engaged with the fash-
ion apparel brands that express both their self and their ideal self-image. To test whether an
increased level of brand love leads to customer engagement, we hypothesize:
H1: Brand love positively influences customer engagement.

2.3.  Brand image

Brand image has been an interesting topic of discussion in marketing since the 1950s (Cho,
Fiore, & Russell, 2015). Brand image is a fundamental component of brands, differentiating
them from their competitors (Aaker, 1996; Kapferer, 1997). It reflects the brand, enabling
relationship-building among consumers, and makes it easy for customers to judge the brand
(Wood, 2004). Therefore, creating a positive brand image remains a top priority for many
companies (Cho et al., 2015).
In the marketing literature, brand image has been defined by Dobni and Zinkhan (1990)
as the sum of the total perceptions (reasoned or emotional) attached by consumers to spe-
cific brands. Brand image consists of symbolic, functional, emotional and reasoned brand
beliefs (Low & Lamb, 2000).
Consumers want to be well groomed so as to communicate their self-image. Consumers
are more likely to create stronger emotional bonds with those brands whose image is congru-
ent with the consumer’s self-concept (Aaker, 1997; Malhotra, 1988), because brand image as
the personification of a brand expresses one’s self-image (Sirgy, 1985). Positive brand image
inspires the passion to love these brands among consumers. A positive connection between
brand image and brand love was observed by Ismail and Spinelli (2012). Brand-image litera-
ture also suggests that customers may assign human attributes to the brands they use (Aaker,
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing   49

1997; Fournier, 1998), leading them to love the brands as an emotional end result. Some of
the literature covers empirical investigation into the interrelationship between customer
engagement and brand image (Hollebeek, 2011b). Generation X consumers make their
purchases analytically, based on value, whereas young consumers rely more on the image
and feel of a brand (symbolic characteristics) than on the value (functional characteristics)
associated with the purchase (Heine, 2010; Park & Yang, 2010). Also, attributes like image
and identity are clearly more noticeable in fashion apparel than in other retailing formats
(Kim & Ma, 2014). Doorn et al. (2010) propose that brand characteristics act as antecedents
to customer engagement and suggest an empirical investigation of this relationship. When
brand image is seen to be appealing, as well as improving one’s self-image and self-identity
(Hansen & Jensen, 2009), it is likely that consumers will be engaged with the brand. Thus,
we hypothesize a positive influence of brand image on brand love as well as on customer
engagement:
H2: Brand image positively influences brand love.
H3: Brand image positively influences customer engagement.

2.4.  Customer loyalty as an outcome

Retaining existing customers rather than acquiring new customers is inherently viewed as a
cost-effective approach (Anderson & Mittal, 2000). The positive benefits of customer loyalty
for firms are well documented (Riechheld, 1993). Customer loyalty is defined as “a deeply
held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize preferred product/services consistently in the
future” (Oliver, 1999, p. 34). Companies consistently seek and initiate various activities to
build customer loyalty. A direct benefit is that loyal customers are supposed to act as brand
advocates, inviting relatives, friends and other (potential) customers to the brand/organi-
zation (Shoemaker & Lewis, 1999). Moreover, a consistently positive relationship has been
shown between customer loyalty and organizational performance (Pihl, 2013; Reichheld,
1993). Customer loyalty programs are seen as crucial sources of competitive advantage for
retailers in the competitive environment (Winters & Ha, 2012). Previous research shows
customer loyalty as an outcome of customer engagement (Dessart et al., 2015; Hollebeek,
2011a), but further empirical investigation of this relationship in different contexts has been
suggested (Bolton, 2011; Brodie et al., 2011, 2013).
Researchers are increasingly beginning to investigate the direct impact of various rela-
tional constructs on loyalty (Chae, Ko, & Han, 2015; Dwivedi, 2015; Gummerus, Liljander,
Weman, & Pihlström, 2012). This relationship process, due to its iterative nature, implies
that some relational constructs, as consequences of customer engagement, may also act
as customer engagement antecedents. Moreover, distinct customer engagement processes
may be observed for both existing and new customers, in addition to customer engagement
models for creating and maintaining loyalty for existing customers (Bowden, 2009). The
literature shows that customer engagement drives customer loyalty (see Brodie et al., 2011,
2013; Dessart et al., 2015; Vivek et al., 2012).
Following Brodie et al. (2011), this study also assumes that customer engagement will
significantly influence customer loyalty, because when customers are engaged with the
brand they undertake continuous interactions and establish strong emotional bonds with
the brand, engaging in loyalty behaviors such as repeat purchasing, spreading positive
50    J. U. Islam and Z. Rahman

word-of-mouth, resisting brand-switching, etc. As proposed by Oliver (1999), information

is first processed by consumers to form beliefs, which in turn are used to form attitudes and
subsequently are based on relative attitude strengths, leading to the formation of behavioral
decisions.
As customer engagement offers a rewarding experience to customers, encompassing cog-
nitive, emotional and behavioral aspects (Dwivedi, 2015), it results in the development of a
bond through which customers commit to preserving and carrying it on in future, making
them loyal to the focal object (brand/organization) (Khan & Rahman, 2015). Therefore,
we hypothesize:
H4: Customer engagement positively influences customer loyalty.
Based on the set hypotheses, the proposed model is shown in Figure 1 below.

3.  Research method

3.1.  Sample and data collection
This study was administered in India using a questionnaire-based survey. A convenience
sample of 430 students enrolled in various courses at the Indian Institute of Technology
Roorkee (IITR) was used for the study. Students were taken as the sample because this
young consumer group has been seen as significantly important by marketers in recent
years due to their rising purchasing power, easy access to credit cards (Chao & Schor, 1998)
and tendency to spend money on apparel. Besides this, because of their exposure to global
fashion brands, students in India are more conscious of brand and status (Khare & Rakesh,
2010). Furthermore, young consumers in India, as a result of their heightened sensitivity
toward the self, choose products that reinforce their self-image (Khare & Rakesh, 2010).
Purchasing global fashion apparel brands is viewed by Indian youth as an extension of
personality (Tian & Belk, 2005). Previous research on young Indian consumers’ involve-
ment with fashion apparel reveals that fashion clothing is considered to be an important
purchase that apparently improves the comprehensive image of the individual (Khare &
Rakesh, 2010).
All the respondents were Indian nationals. Fashion apparel brands were taken as the
context of this study because apparel reflects one’s identity, and the growing attitude of
Indian consumers towards branded apparel makes fashion a suitable context in which to
study customer engagement.
Before students participated in the survey, they were asked whether they used branded
apparel or not. Only those students who used branded fashion apparel were taken up for
the study. The participants were then asked to name one fashion apparel brand that they

Brand love
H1
H4
H3
Customer Customer loyalty
engagement

Brand image H2

Figure 1. The relation among the variables.

 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing   51

Table 1. Respondent demographic profile.

Variable Frequency Percentage
Gender
Male 240 59.56
Female 163 44.44
Transgender – –
Age (Years)
<18 – –
18–20 180 44.67
20–22 125 31.01
22–24 50 12.40
≥24 48 11.92
Marital status
Married 23 5.70
Unmarried 380 94.30
Education
Undergraduate 211 52.35
Master’s 138 34.25
Ph.D. 54 13.40
Total 403

loved and purchased repeatedly (Ismail & Spinelli, 2012). See Appendix I for the fashion
apparel brands frequently referred to by the respondents (male and female). We conducted
the survey on weekdays over a period of 4 weeks. Table 1 summarizes the respondent profile.
Out of 430 questionnaires distributed, a total of 403 completely filled-out questionnaires
were returned, leading to a response rate of 93.72%. The sample comprised 240 (59.55%)
male and 143 (44.44%) female respondents; 180 (44.66%) respondents were in the age group
of 18–20 years, 125 (31.01%) were between 20 and 22 years, 50 (12.40%) were between 22
and 24 years, and 48 (11.91%) were aged 24 or above.

3.2.  Instrument design

The questionnaire comprised two parts. The first part asked the participants to name a
fashion apparel brand that they loved and purchased repeatedly, and dealt with the measure-
ment of the variables considered for the current study. The second part contained questions
regarding the respondents’ biographical information. All of the constructs of the study were
measured based on measurements drawn from previous research. Brand love was measured
through the scale of Carrol & Ahuvia (2006). Brand image was captured using the measures
of Low & Lamb (2000). The measures of customer engagement were taken from Vivek et al.
(2014). The items used to capture customer loyalty were drawn from suggestions in Keller
(2013). The constructs were measured using multi-item 5-point Likert scales with responses
varying from 1 for strongly agree to 5 for strongly disagree.

3.2.  Data analysis

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS 20.0 software was used to empirically
test the relationships of brand image, brand love, customer engagement and customer
loyalty.
52    J. U. Islam and Z. Rahman

4. Findings
4.1.  Reliability and validity
This study employed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results are presented in Table
2. Results propounded the deletion of two items, “I have no particular feeling about this
brand”, “I have a natural feeling about this brand”; two items, “natural” and “useful”; three
items, “I am heavily into this brand”, “My days would not be the same without this brand”,
“I love sharing this brand with my friends”; and two items, “I feel this is the only brand of
this product I need”, “I would go out of my way to use this brand” from the scales measuring
brand love, brand image, customer engagement and customer loyalty constructs, respec-
tively, because of their weak factor loadings (<.50) after first CFA run.
Cronbach α was calculated to test the reliability of each of the constructs. The Cronbach
α values were >.7, signifying acceptable reliability (presented in Table 2). In the second CFA
run, item loadings were greater than the cut-off value of 0.5 (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, &
Tatham, 2006), indicating adequate validity. For all the factor loadings, the t-values (p < .01)
were significant. Furthermore, adequate convergent validity was achieved as all the load-
ings were >0.5 (Hair et al., 2006). The composite reliability and average variance extracted
(AVE) of each of the constructs were computed to access the convergent validity of the
measures. The composite reliability should be >.70 (Chin, 1998) and the average variance
extracted should be >.50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Higher than recommended cut-off levels
of composite reliability and AVE were indicated for all variables (presented in Table 2). The
level of common method bias was also examined by Harman’s single-factor test (Podsakoff,
Mackenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). The results indicated that common method bias was
not a major threat to this study.

Table 2. Scale factor loadings.

Construct Items Factor loadings Cronbach α Composite reliability AVE
Brand love BL1 0.71 0.84 0.90 0.61
BL2 0.70
BL3 0.73
BL4 0.76
BL5 0.74
BL6 0.72
BL7 0.73
BL8 0.70
Brand image BIMG1 0.79 0.85 0.88 0.60
BIMG2 0.82
BIMG3 0.75
BIMG4 0.71
BIMG5 0.81
Customer engagement CE1 0.83 0.89 0.90 0.57
CE2 0.77
CE3 0.62
CE4 0.68
CE5 0.77
CE6 0.85
CE7 0.75
Customer loyalty CL1 0.86 0.92 0.89 0.63
CL2 0.77
CL3 0.83
CL4 0.71
CL5 0.79
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing   53

Table 3. Descriptive statistics and Inter-construct correlations.

Construct Mean SD BL BI CE CL Sq R
Brand love (BL) 4.37 1.13 – 0.781
Brand image (BI) 3.92 1.03 0.72* – 0.774
Customer engagement (CE) 3.87 1.08 0.71* 0.74* – 0.754
Customer loyalty (CL) 4.10 1.11 0.72* 0.70* 0.73* – 0.793
Notes: *Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; N = 403.

In the current study, discriminant validity of the measures is demonstrated. Discriminant

validity “assesses the degree to which measures of different concepts are distinct” (Bagozzi,
1994, p. 20). It is verified by comparing the AVE of each measure with the correlations cor-
responding with that measure (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). It is also demonstrated by having
the squared root of the AVE of each construct higher than its inter-construct correlations.
As presented in Table 3, the square root of the AVE of each construct (presented in bold
figures) is higher than its correlation estimates and all other inter-construct correlations,
thereby indicating a higher level of validity.

4.2.  Structural model results

The structural analysis was conducted using AMOS 20.0 software. The results of the analysis,
including the relationships among studied constructs, overall explanatory power (R2 value),
path coefficients and t-values are depicted in Figure 2. The model elicits a good fit with the
data (CMIN χ2 = 445.64, p <.05, df = 120, TLI = 0.91, CFI = 0.92, and RMSEA = 0.063).
The fit of our model was adequate as all indices were within the recommended ranges as
CFI > 0.9 and RMSEA < 0.08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999).
Moreover, the results revealed a direct as well as an indirect relationship between brand
image and customer engagement. In the indirect relationship, brand love acts as a medi-
ator between brand image and customer engagement. In order to test this relationship, a
model without the mediation of brand love (i.e., BI-CE) was run. The model obtained a
reasonable fit with the data (CMIN χ2=532.27, p < .05, df=130, TLI=0.87, CFI=0.88, and
RMSEA=0.079), but was worse than the mediated model. Therefore, the model with the
mediation of brand love exhibits a better fit than the one without the mediation of brand
love. Despite the fact, as depicted by the results, that brand image can directly create cus-
tomer engagement, the indirect relationship of brand image and customer engagement

R2=0.48

Brand love
0.67* (7.82**) R2=0.56
R2=0.63

0.45* (5.10**)
Customer 0.71* (8.53**) Customer loyalty
engagement

0.49* (5.57**)
Brand image

R2=0.41

Figure 2. Validated research model.

Note: * depicts the path estimates and ** depicts the t-values.
54    J. U. Islam and Z. Rahman

Table 4. Summary of hypotheses-testing results.

Hypotheses Path estimates t-values Test results
H1: Brand love customer engagement 0.67 7.82 Accepted
H2: Brand image brand love 0.45 5.10 Accepted
H3: Brand image customer engagement 0.49 5.57 Accepted
H4: Customer engagement customer loyalty 0.71 8.53 Accepted

mediated by brand love logically reinforces this effect. So, if the image of a brand is seen
as fascinating, customers are more likely to love that brand, which, in turn, may lead them
to engagement.
The results indicate that all the hypotheses presented in Figure 1 were supported. Brand
image significantly affects brand love, which, in turn, exhibits a strong influence on cus-
tomer engagement. Both brand love and brand image exhibit significant effects on customer
engagement having path coefficients of 0.67 and 0.49, respectively. Besides, brand love acts
as a mediator between brand image and customer engagement. Furthermore, customer
engagement has a strong effect (path coefficient = 0.71) on customer loyalty (see Table 4).

5. Discussion
The growing literature on customer management stresses the pivotal role of customer
engagement in customer–brand relationships. This study explored the effects of brand love
and brand image on customer engagement. Furthermore, customer loyalty was studied
as an outcome of customer engagement. A research model was proposed in the study to
describe how customer engagement is developed through brand love and brand image in
the context of fashion apparel brands. The model was validated empirically.
The results of the study revealed that both brand love and brand image have a signifi-
cantly positive influence on customer engagement, which confirms the previous research
(Bergkvist & Bech-Larsen, 2010; Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006; Doorn et al., 2010) through empir-
ical validation. Brand love was also found to act as a mediator between brand image and
customer engagement. Customer engagement was also found to influence customer loyalty,
as proposed by previous studies (Brodie et al., 2011, 2013; Dessart et al., 2015; Vivek et al.,
2012).
This study adds to existing customer engagement literature in various ways. Firstly, many
researchers have proposed the conceptual frameworks of customer engagement, but there
is a lack of empirical validation for such (Doorn et al., 2010; Verhoef et al., 2010; Vivek et
al., 2012). The study contributes by developing and empirically validating a research model
explaining customer engagement through brand image and brand love in fashion apparel
brands. Secondly, based on the mediating effect of brand love, it can be argued that customer
engagement can be encouraged not only through the direct influence of brand image, but
also through the indirect effect of brand image on customer engagement. Therefore, by
examining the direct and indirect effects of brand image on customer engagement, this study
has found two antecedents of customer engagement – brand image and brand love – which
is a significant contribution to the existing literature of customer engagement. Many studies
on customer engagement have been conducted in an online context (Brodie et al., 2013),
making this construct underexplored in an offline context; however, consumers also engage
with product brands offline (Dwivedi, 2015; Sarkar & Sreejesh, 2014). Therefore, studying
 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing   55

customer engagement with product brands in an offline context is an added contribution

of the current study.
The study provides some meaningful insights for practitioners as well. The results of
the study reveal that brand love and brand image influence customer engagement, which
in turn has a significant influence on customer loyalty. Youth forms a large apparel market
segment in India, and their desire for western brands reveals a passion for global brands as
an expression for additional emotional value (Kumar, Lee, & Kim, 2009). Thus, the findings
suggest that marketers could develop strategies for branding and marketing their fashion
apparel brands that encourage customer engagement so as to enhance customer loyalty.
Marketers can work upon reinforcing their brand image, as the market for fashion apparel
in India is promising. Moreover, when communicating their brand messages, marketers
should focus on those that enable customers to associate with their fashion brands as an
expression of their lifestyle. Thus, advertising efforts should take into account the impres-
sions communicated through the brand image of this apparel. The positive influence of
customer engagement on loyalty demands that fashion apparel companies offer customers
various platforms, such as blogs and Facebook brand pages, to engage them, and keep
track of customers’ conversations so as to know more comprehensively what type of brands
customers love and the images that customers consider to be ideal. This will help marketers
create brands that enhance young customers’ self-image.

6.  Conclusion and future research directions

This study acknowledges certain limitations. The selection of respondents is limited to
students. Future research can be replicated with a non-student population, e.g. people
working in different organizations, to further generalize the findings. A convenience sam-
pling method was used to collect data. Future research can consider a larger sample size
using alternative sampling techniques to achieve generalizability. The respondents of this
study are only Indian nationals. Research related to the effect of country of origin on prod-
uct evaluation is ambiguous (Checchinato, Disegna, & Vescovi, 2013). Therefore, future
research may conduct a comparative study by extending to other regions and nationalities
to explore if any cultural bias exists. Examination of the given framework on different brand
categories could also be taken up in future research. The proposed relationships could be
examined using moderators such as income, gender or age. Lastly, future research could
explore the mediating effect of customer engagement between brand love and customer
loyalty, and between brand image and customer loyalty, to enhance the understanding of
the engagement construct.
Customer engagement has drawn increasing attention among academicians as well as
practitioners. This study was conducted to build and test a research model so as to enhance
our understanding by exploring how customer engagement is developed through brand love
and brand image in fashion apparel brands. This study is believed to yield some insights to
further investigate this emerging concept and its implications for customer engagement.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
56    J. U. Islam and Z. Rahman

ORCID
Jamid Ul Islam   http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2545-5162
Zillur Rahman   http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2785-0200

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Appendix 1. Fashion apparel brands frequently referred to by the respondents.

Brand referred to by male respondents Brand referred to by female respondents
Adidas Biba
Allen Solly Forever 21
Jack & Jones Gap
Levis H&M
Louis Philippe Lara Karen
Nike Madame
Puma Mango
Pepe Jeans Numero Uno
Tommy Hilfiger Only
United Colors of Benetton Vero Moda
Woodland Zara
Wrangler