Building consumer–brand relationships in the channel-mix era. The role of self–brand connection and product involvement

Abstract

In the channel-mix era, the customer journey involves combining channels during all the stages of the decision-making process, such that creating and maintaining relationships with consumers poses a challenge to retailers. This work seeks to explore what role brands play in this issue by analyzing what impact the perceived benefits of brand channel-mix have on consumer self-brand connection (SBC) and what their effect is in enduring consumer-brand relationships (i.e., future channel-mix use and word of mouth (WOM)). This paper also explores the moderating role of product involvement in these relations.