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INTRODUCTION
Customer-brand engagement is emerging as a highly influential concept in modern marketing, with growing emphasis on the concept in both practical (MSI (Marketing Science Institute), 2014) and academic (Brodie et al , 2011) domains. Yet, customer-brand engagement is at an early stage of understanding. The seminal works of Brodie et al (2011) and Hollebeek (2011a, 2011b) provide the conceptual foundations for understanding customer-brand engagement as the customer's brand-related psychological state and thus build a strong framework for model development.
Early conceptualisations of customer-brand engagement emphasise the relationship between the customer and the brand (Hollebeek, 2011b). Yet the role of brand management appears to be somewhat neglected in empirical development. Initial empirical investigations focus on the influence of the customer (De Vries and Carlson, 2014; Hollebeek et al , 2014; Dwivedi, 2015), while limited recent empirical development identifies the organisation's role in customer-brand engagement (Wong and Merrilees, 2015). Thus, an opportunity arises to integrate the customer and brand perspectives in a comprehensive customer-brand engagement model, and to empirically test such a model.
This article contributes to the domain by proposing and empirically testing a firm-led platform for customer-brand engagement, as part of an integrated model. The firm-led platform drives customer-brand engagement in conjunction with customer-centred influences. This highlights ways in which the brand can actively 'woo' their customers.
The model identifies the strategic firm-led antecedents of brand quality and brand interactivity. In addition, the model draws on the evolving literature to identify the customer-centred influences of brand involvement (Hollebeek et al , 2014) and brand self-congruity (Sprott et al , 2009) as influential. Moreover, the model considers the consequences of customer-brand engagement, finding increased levels of both brand value and brand loyalty. The research bolsters the domain by reliably measuring the customer-brand engagement concept and empirically testing the proposed model, allowing practical application in the strategic marketing environment.
The paper initially examines the current knowledge in customer-brand engagement, by reviewing leading conceptualisations and theoretical models. A proposed model of customer-brand engagement is then presented and tested using structural equation modelling. The results are discussed, highlighting the contributions to theory and practice. The paper concludes with exciting research opportunities.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Customer-brand engagement is relatively embryonic and is predominantly led by conceptual reasoning. While knowledge is...