Relationship benefit in consumer markets and its role in brand image-brand loyalty chain

Relationship benefit is an increasingly important concept in relationship marketing area. Its theories and practical value have attracted greater attention from researchers and managers. This paper firstly explores the existence of relationship benefit from the consumer - brand relationship in consumer markets through depth interviews. We found that relationship benefit in this certain context was comprised of confidence benefit, choice benefit and honor benefit. We investigated the relationship among brand image, relationship benefit and brand loyalty by SEM. Findings indicate that brand function has positive impacts on confidence benefit and choice benefit while brand personality has positive impact on honor benefit. Confidence benefit has significant effect on attitude loyalty and behavior loyalty, while honor benefit only influence attitude loyalty positively. Implications for theory and management are discussed in the last section.