The Influences of Brand Personality, Culture & Social Media Activity on Iconic Brands' Preferences

Despite the strong appeal of iconic brands, research on how consumers form attachments and loyalty to them has been limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this research is aimed at identifying factors that can determine consumers’ emotional attachment and ensuing loyalty toward iconic brands, focused on brand personality, cultural disposition, and social media activity as influencing factors. To accomplish this, a survey was implemented on Amazon Mechanical Turn (Mturk) (n=759). Empirical results from multi-level linear regression model indicate that brand personality, cultural disposition and social media activity influence both loyalty and attachment in iconic brands. Detailed findings are presented. Lastly, theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.