What drives car buyers to accept a rejuvenated brand? the mediating effects of value and pricing in a consumer-brand relationship

ABSTRACT

This study aims to model the direct effects of brand equity elements (affective brand experience, brand personality, trust, and perceived quality) on consumers’ purchase intention, and the indirect effect of perceived value on the outcome, via perceived price fairness. A quantitative survey was conducted with potential buyers of a rejuvenating Malaysian national automotive brand, in which the market share and sales had substantially eroded over the past two decades. Data were collected in two different time phases, separated by the official market launch of a new mid-size SUV that would eventually become the brand’s flagship model. The findings indicate that almost all of the antecedents positively influence perceived value and price fairness. Furthermore, it is shown that perceived price fairness mediates the effect of perceived value on purchase intention. From a brand equity perspective, this research provides a unique outcome that depicts the consumers’ mindset of a struggling car brand.

KEYWORDS:

• Brand experience
• brand personality
• brand trust
• perceived quality
• perceived price fairness
• perceived value

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the Lestari Grant (600-IRMI 5/3/056/2018) managed by the Institute of Research Management and Innovation, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Malaysia. The author would like to thank Azuati Mahmud, Dinie Aida, Nazierul Hazwani, Azlina Rusli, Enawati Tiansin, Nursihah Azman, Rafiee Yatim, and Wan Penny Sunestri for their roles as enumerators during the field survey.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam [Lestari Grant (600-IRMI 5/3/ 056/2018)].