This study aims to investigate how key brand-related factors – functional benefits, brand price, brand appearance, brand personality and self-congruity – shape consumers’ brand experience and brand preference and how these, in turn, influence repurchase intention. In today’s highly competitive market, understanding the experiential and emotional connections between brands and consumers is critical for fostering loyalty. The study particularly focuses on emerging market contexts, where empirical evidence remains limited. By exploring these interrelationships, the research seeks to provide deeper theoretical and practical insights into how brands can cultivate stronger consumer engagement and long-term loyalty through experience-driven strategies.
A quantitative research design was used using a structured questionnaire to collect data from consumers in a developing country context, i.e. Türkiye. The proposed conceptual model examines the relationships among five brand-related antecedents, brand experience, brand preference and repurchase intention. The data collection phase included 468 valid responses, and the data analysis was conducted using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), allowing for the assessment of both direct and indirect relationships among variables. The PLS-SEM approach was chosen for its robustness in handling complex, multivariate models and smaller sample sizes. Reliability, validity and mediation analyses were performed to ensure the robustness and explanatory power of the hypothesized relationships.
Results reveal that brand appearance, brand personality and self-congruity exert significant and positive influences on both brand experience and brand preference. Functional benefits positively affect brand experience but show no significant relationship with brand preference, while brand price demonstrates no significant impact on either construct. Moreover, both brand experience and brand preference significantly and positively affect repurchase intention, highlighting their central roles in fostering consumer loyalty. The findings suggest that emotional and symbolic aspects of branding outweigh purely functional or price-based factors in driving consumers’ experiential engagement and continued purchase behavior, particularly within emerging market settings.
The study’s focus on a single developing country limits the generalizability of its findings to other cultural or market contexts. Future research could incorporate cross-country comparisons or longitudinal designs to better capture variations in consumer perceptions and behaviors. Additionally, the study relies on self-reported data, which may be subject to common method bias. Despite these limitations, the results contribute to the growing literature on experiential branding by clarifying how emotional and symbolic brand attributes shape consumer loyalty. The study underscores the importance of expanding empirical research on brand experience and preference in underexplored emerging market environments.
For brand managers and marketers, the findings highlight the need to emphasize emotional and experiential brand dimensions – such as visual appeal, personality and consumer self-congruity – to strengthen brand preference and loyalty. Functional attributes and pricing alone are insufficient to build lasting consumer relationships. Managers should design brand strategies that create authentic, self-expressive experiences that resonate with consumers’ identities. By leveraging storytelling, personalized communication and consistent brand imagery, firms can foster stronger brand–consumer bonds, leading to higher repurchase intentions. These insights are particularly valuable for companies operating in emerging markets, where emotional differentiation can drive sustainable competitive advantage.
This study underscores the social importance of brands as vehicles for identity expression, emotional connection and community belonging. By demonstrating that self-congruity and experiential factors significantly influence brand loyalty, the findings suggest that brands can foster stronger social ties and cultural resonance among consumers. In emerging markets, where consumer identity and aspirations are rapidly evolving, experience-based branding can promote inclusivity and empowerment through meaningful engagement. Furthermore, by focusing on emotional and symbolic connections rather than price competition, firms can contribute to more sustainable consumption patterns and enhance consumer well-being through authentic, trust-based brand–consumer relationships.
This study advances brand management literature by empirically examining how multiple brand-related factors collectively shape brand experience, preference and repurchase intention in an emerging market context – an area with limited prior research. By integrating functional, emotional and self-congruity dimensions into a unified framework, it offers a more holistic understanding of brand–consumer relationships. The results reveal that symbolic and experiential factors play a more crucial role than price or functionality in driving loyalty. This provides valuable theoretical insight for researchers and actionable guidance for practitioners seeking to build emotionally engaging, experience-based brand strategies that enhance long-term consumer retention.
