When love matters. Experience and brand love as antecedents of loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in streaming services

Mauricio Santos (University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain)
Walesska Schlesinger (University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain)

Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC

ISSN: 2444-9695

Article publication date: 8 November 2021

Issue publication date: 14 December 2021

12113

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to test the effects of brand experience and brand love on brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in streaming television services.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modelling was used to assess the proposed theoretical model drawing on data from 220 subscribers of a well-known TV streaming brand services (Netflix).

Findings

The results revealed that brand experience and brand love have a significant direct impact on brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in streaming TV services. Also, the impact brand experience has on brand loyalty and on willingness to pay a premium price is partially mediated by brand love.

Practical implications

In the streaming television industry, brand managers can create more meaningful experiences that create strong and emotional bonds with users, thereby increasing loyalty levels and intention to pay a premium price. Also, brand managers should consider focusing their efforts to young consumers, as they have a stronger attachment to technology than older generational groups.

Originality/value

This paper enriches the existing literature on brand experience in the entertainment television industry and provides evidence of the role of experience and brand love on brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in services.

Propósito

Este estudio prueba el efecto que tiene la experiencia de marca y el amor a la marca en la lealtad a la marca y la disposición a pagar un precio más elevado en las plataformas de servicios de streaming.

Diseño/metodología/enfoque

Un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) ha sido utilizado para contrastar el modelo teórico propuesto basándose en datos de 220 suscriptores de una conocida marca de servicios de streaming (Netflix).

Hallazgos

Los resultados revelan que la experiencia de marca y el amor a la marca tienen un impacto significativo y directo en la lealtad a la marca y la disposición a pagar un precio más elevado en el contexto de televisión por streaming. También, el impacto que tiene la experiencia de marca en la lealtad a la marca y en la disposición para pagar un precio más elevado es parcialmente mediado por el amor a la marca.

Implicaciones prácticas

En el contexto de la industria de entretenimiento (televisión por streaming), los gerentes de marca pueden diseñar significativas experiencias que sean capaces de crear fuertes lazos emocionales con sus usuarios, incrementando sus niveles de lealtad y disposición a pagar más. Además, los gerentes de marca deben considerar enfocarse al segmento de consumidores jóvenes, pues ellos tienen más apego a la tecnología que las personas mayores.

Originalidad/valor

Este estudio enriquece la literatura existente sobre experiencia de marca en el sector del entretenimiento televisivo aportando evidencia del rol de la experiencia y del amor hacia la marca en la lealtad y la disposición a pagar un precio elevado.

目的:

本研究检验了品牌体验和品牌喜爱对流媒体电视服务的品牌忠诚度和高价支付意愿的影响。

设计/方法/途径:

结构方程模型(SEM)被用来评估本文所提出的理论模型, 该模型的数据来自于一个知名电视流媒体品牌服务方(Netflix)的220名订阅用户。

结果:

本文的结果显示, 品牌体验和品牌喜爱对流媒体电视服务的品牌忠诚度和高价支付意愿有显著的直接影响。同时, 部分品牌体验对品牌忠诚度和高价支付意愿的影响会被品牌喜爱所调节。

实践意义:

在流媒体电视行业中, 品牌经理可以创造更多有意义的体验, 与用户建立强大的情感联系, 从而提高忠诚度和高价支付意愿。同时, 品牌经理应该考虑将他们的工作重点放在年轻消费者身上, 因为他们比老一辈群体对科技有更强的依恋。

原创性/价值:

本文丰富了关于娱乐电视行业品牌体验的现有文献, 并提供证据证明了体验和品牌喜爱对品牌忠诚度和高价支付意愿的作用。

Keywords

Citation

Santos, M. and Schlesinger, W. (2021), "When love matters. Experience and brand love as antecedents of loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in streaming services", Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 374-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJME-11-2020-0201

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Mauricio Santos and Walesska Schlesinger.

License

Published in Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence maybe seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode


1. Introduction

The study of the effect of emotions on post-consumption behaviours is a core stream of marketing research (Huang, 2017). Regarding the generation of distinctive, hedonic and memorable experiences, the notion of experience and love related to the concept of brand has begun getting the attention of academics and practitioners (Hegner et al., 2017; Huaman-Ramirez and Merunka, 2019).

Customers look for functional benefits but also focus on the experiences that are attached to the brand (Singh et al., 2020). The role of the brand in online services is gaining importance in terms of explaining user post-consumer behaviour. Streaming television is a profitable industry that is replacing traditional television and video rental, and it has opened business opportunities for younger generations of consumers (Soni and Puthawala, 2020).

In response to the growth of online and mobile services – and consumers’ preferences for nonlinear and streaming video – firms should gradually develop new offerings to compete and connect with the customer.

Brand experience and brand love are two factors that could play a role in the consumption of a well-known brand in the context of streaming television. After all, consumers tend to develop greater love in hedonic product categories rather than utilitarian product categories (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). Therefore, this study examines the brand experience and brand love as antecedents of brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in the context of streaming TV.

Regarding brand variables, studies find a relationship between customer brand engagement and brand experience in the context of online banking (Ashraf et al., 2018) and in social media (Hepola et al., 2017). In the social media context, Wallace et al. (2017) found that brand love affects brand loyalty and word of mouth. Baena (2018) identifies how activities in customer social responsibility have a positive impact on brand love. In a recent study on Netflix, Amoroso et al. (2021) identify several outcomes of brand experience, such as brand loyalty and brand trust.

Past studies have found that brand love and brand loyalty are outcomes of brand experience (Junaid et al., 2019). Furthermore, the research identifies financial benefits from such variables, such as the relationship between brand experience and purchase intentions (Bigne et al., 2020) and both brand love and brand loyalty in terms of willingness to pay a premium price (Bairrada et al., 2019). On the other hand, other studies remark the need to test the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty (Mathew and Thomas, 2018), brand love (Song et al., 2019) and willingness to pay a premium price (Dwivedi et al., 2018). In addition, studies emphasize the need to test the relationship between brand love, brand loyalty and financial performance (Bairrada et al., 2018). However, there is a lack of research on how brand experience and brand love behave in the context of streaming television.

The key question of this research is whether brand experience and brand love affect brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in the industry of streaming services. The research also attempts to reveal whether brand love has a mediating effect in the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty, as well as between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price.

This research study is a cogent effort to explore the significant relationship between brand experience and brand love in a relatively untouched and emerging industry – that of streaming services – in the Spanish context (Bairrada et al., 2018). Second, we examine whether brand love is a mediator in the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty and whether brand love is a mediator in the relationship between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price.

We propose a model to address these objectives, connecting brand experience, brand love and post-purchase behaviour (brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price). We test, in addition, the mediating effect of brand love in the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty, as well as the mediating effect of brand love in the relationship between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price.

2. Literature review and hypothesis development

2.1 Brand experience

The term “brand experience” is originated based on the concept of experiential marketing, Schmitt (1999, p. 53) mentioned that the objective of brand experience is “to create holistic experiences that integrate individual experiences into a holistic gestalt” through the dimensions of sense, feeling, thinking, relating and acting. Also, Brakus et al. (2009, p. 54), with the same approach, stated that brand experience involves “subjective, internal consumer responses (sensations, feelings and cognition) and behavioural responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments”. Brand experience affects brand love (Huang, 2017), brand loyalty (Westhuizen, 2018) and purchase intentions (Khan and Fatma, 2017).

In the digital context, authors Morgan-Thomas and Veloutsou (2013, p. 22) define digital brand experience as “the individual’s internal subjective response to the contact with an online brand”. These environments open up a real-time brand experience where customers are encouraged to engage with the brand.

The current paper views the brand experience as a holistic response and multidimensional construct comprising four dimensions proposed by Brakus et al. (2009) and related to the different types of experiences identified by Schimtt (1999): sensory experience (SENSE), affective experience (FEEL and RELATE), behavioural experience (ACT) and intellectual and cognitive experience (THINK). The scale is internally consistent and consistent across many samples and studies.

2.2 Brand love

Brand love is a new construct in marketing (Hegner et al., 2017; Bigne et al., 2020; Joshi and Garg, 2020) but has gained significant relevance in the literature since it was first discussed by Carroll and Ahuvia in 2006. According to Shimp and Madden (1988), we are capable of developing love-like feelings towards objects. Brand love is a long-term relationship with a brand whereas brand satisfaction is completely related to the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm (Joshi and Garg, 2020). Authors Carroll and Ahuvia (2006, p. 81) defined brand love as “the degree of passionate emotional attachment that a satisfied consumer has for a particular trade name”. Brand love has a positive influence on brand loyalty (Fortes et al., 2019), willingness to pay a premium price (Bairrada et al., 2019) and word of mouth (Rosita, 2019).

Two brand love scales currently are used to measure the love construct (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006 and Thomson et al., 2005), but they are subject to important conceptual and/or statistical limitations. Albert and Valette-Florence (2010) proposed a brand love scale that consists of interpersonal love items derived from four different scales. The proposed instrument contains two dimensions, passion and affection, and 12 items from a statistical point of view, the scale psychometric characteristics seem satisfactory. The results indicate that this scale achieves a greater influence on continuance brand commitment than do the two other scales.

2.3 Brand loyalty

Oliver (1999) defined brand loyalty as “a deeply held commitment to rebuy a preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour”. Brand loyalty influences buying intention and word of mouth (Civelek and Ertemel, 2019). In the digital context, studies found a positive relationship between brand loyalty and brand experience (Gavurova et al., 2018), and between brand loyalty and financial performance (Narteh, 2018).

2.4 Willingness to pay a premium price

Willingness to pay a premium price is, according to Homburg et al. (2005, p. 84), “the highest price level at which the consumer is willing to pay for the goods or services”. Certain motives lead the product into establishing a successful premium price in the market, such as brand equity (Dwivedi et al., 2018), country of origin of the product (Capelli et al., 2019) and brand love (Bairrada et al., 2019). As it was previously mentioned before, hedonic product categories, rather than utilitarian product categories, are more likely to develop brand love. Streaming technology is a service consumed for emotional gratification.

2.5 Hypothesis and research model

The affective component of the brand experience is identified with the states of mind and feelings of customers for the brand (Schmitt, 1999). It is an approach to adding affection and emotions to the brand (Schmitt, 1999; Singh et al., 2020). Customers’ brand interaction attaches to their internal sentiments and strengthens their feelings of belongingness with the brand (Song et al., 2019).

Previous research studies have highlighted that brand experience influences brand love (Junaid et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2020; Joshi and Garg, 2020). The study of Huang (2017) provides considerable insights into the role of brand love as an outcome of brand experience in the context of mobile phones. Many other studies find the previous relationship in the context of retail (Ferreira et al., 2019) and hypermarket (Singh et al., 2020). Brand experience influences brand love because there is an emotional side in the construct of brand experience. In addition, the use of online streaming services is primarily to satisfy a need for emotional gratification (Hepola et al., 2017) and hedonic emotions trigger brand love (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006). For previous contributions and considering the importance of confirming how the relation behaves in the model in this context, H1 establishes this relation.

H1.

Brand experience has a positive and direct effect on brand love for the online television streaming brand.

Studies show that brand experience has both a direct and an indirect effect on brand loyalty. Brand experience influences brand loyalty for emotional and functional reasons. On the one hand, brand loyalty requires triggering an impact level in the costumer, such as brand affection (Hou et al., 2019) and brand attachment (Japutra et al., 2018). Likewise, brand experience is capable of developing brand attachment (Huaman-Ramirez and Merunka, 2019). On the other hand, more functional variables play a role in developing brand loyalty, such as satisfaction (Chakraborty, 2019) and perceive quality (Ali et al., 2018). As mentioned previously, Westhuizen (2018) found that brand experience affects brand loyalty in the social media context. Similarly, many other studies establish the previous relationship in multi-brands analysis (Mathew and Thomas, 2018) and steaming television (Amoroso et al., 2021). For previous contributions and considering the importance of confirming how the relation behaves in the model in this context, H2 establishes this relationship.

H2.

Brand experience has a positive and direct effect on brand loyalty for the online tv streaming brand.

Bairrada et al. (2019) find that brand love affects willingness to pay a premium price in the context of fashion. Brand love influences willingness to pay a premium price because brand love plays a role in driving purchase intention (Pinto et al., 2016). In addition, love marks affect willingness to pay a premium price, there are functional factors of the brand that trigger a willingness to pay a premium price (Homburg et al., 2005); however, there are other intangible factors, such as brand engagement, that influence the costumer’s intention to pay a higher price (Dwivedi et al., 2016). For previous contributions and considering the importance to confirm how the relation behaves in the model in this context, H3 establishes this relation.

H3.

Brand love has a positive effect on the willingness to pay a premium price for online television streaming services.

Brand love influences brand loyalty considering the emotional and affective side of brand loyalty, positive emotions playing a role in developing brand love (Junaid et al., 2019). Therefore, loyal consumers, driven by emotion, are those who have a strong attachment to one particular brand, excluding other alternatives from their consideration sets (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Bairrada et al., 2019). Fortes et al. (2019) found that brand love affects brand loyalty in the context of beverages. In a recent study of brand love in the fashion context, brand love is shown as an antecedent of brand loyalty (Bairrada et al., 2019). Empirical evidence has demonstrated that brand love is stronger than brand satisfaction in predicting desirable emotional and loyal consequences (Bigne et al., 2020). It is worth noting that this positive and significant relationship between brand love and brand loyalty has already been evidenced empirically in previous studies (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Fortes et al., 2019). To the author`s knowledge, there is no empirical evidence that has established the influence of brand love on brand loyalty for television streaming brands. Accordingly, we suggest the following hypothesis.

H4.

Brand love has a positive impact on brand loyalty for the online television-streaming brand.

The literature has examined the contexts under which consumers are willing to pay more for their preferred brands (Homburg et al., 2005; Dwivedi et al., 2018). Consumers tend to value the opportunity to increase their enjoyment of the experience. Applied to our context, consumers might be willing to pay a price premium that commensurate with their brand experience.

As mentioned previously, Khan and Fatma (2017) find that brand experience affects purchase intentions in the context of restaurants. However, research finds that brand experience brings financial benefits in other contexts such as automobile (Dwivedi et al., 2016), food (Risitano et al., 2017) and retail (Khan and Rahman, 2016). Brand experience influences willingness to pay a premium price because brand experience affects the behavioural side of brand loyalty (Dwivedi et al., 2016). In consumer–brand relationship terms, one might anticipate that consumers may want to continue a favourable ongoing relationship with a brand, resulting in consumers becoming less price-sensitive towards that brand (Dwivedi et al., 2018). That is, when consumers develop individually fulfilling experiences with a brand, they will likely pay a price premium for that brand in the future. For previous contributions and considering the importance of confirming how the relationship behaves in the model in this context, H5 establishes this relationship.

H5.

Brand experience has a positive effect on the willingness to pay a premium price for the online television streaming services.

Narteh (2018) finds that brand loyalty affects financial performance in the context of banking. However, Brand loyalty also affects purchase intention in the context of social media (Ceyhan, 2019). Soedarto et al. (2019) find attitudinal loyalty affects willingness to pay a premium price in the content of smartphones. Brand loyalty influences willingness to pay a premium price because brand loyalty is highly related to purchasing intentions (Narteh, 2018). In this idea, consumers who are deeply emotionally attached to a brand feel that the brand is irreplaceable, thus displaying specific behaviours such as a willingness to make financial sacrifices, including to pay a higher price to obtain a specific brand (Thomson et al., 2005). In addition, a study by Soedarto et al. (2019) finds that loyalty affects willingness to pay a premium price consistently, it is predicted that when consumers feel loyalty for a certain brand, they will not switch to other competing brands even if the marketer charges a premium price. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:

H6.

Brand loyalty has a positive effect on the willingness to pay a premium price.

2.6 The mediating role of brand love

A study on the context of mobile phones (Huang, 2017) finds that brand experience affects brand loyalty indirectly through brand love. In addition, literature uncovers that other variables similar to brand love play a mediating effect in the relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty – for example, hedonic emotions (Ding and Tseng, 2015) and brand passion (Rohra and Sharma, 2016). For previous contributions and considering the importance of confirming how the relation behaves in the model in this context, H7 establishes this relation.

H7.

Brand love mediates the positive relationship between brand experience and brand loyalty.

A unique and memorable experience can be a valuable stage to establish a positive consumer–brand relationship. As previously mentioned, brand experience has an incidence on brand love (Huang, 2017) and brand love on financial performance (Bairrada et al., 2019). Although the mediating role of brand love in the relationship between brand experience and financial performance, Dwivedi et al. (2018) found a direct effect in the relationship between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price, and an indirect result through brand credibility and perceived uniqueness. Additionally, Risitano et al. (2017) found an indirect effect of brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price in the product category. For previous contributions and considering the importance of confirming how the relation behaves in the model in this context, H8 establishes this relation.

H8.

Brand love mediates the positive relationship between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price.

Figure 1 displays the conceptual model. The model shows the second-order variables and the first-order variables.

3. Methodology

3.1 Context, description of the sample and data

As mentioned before, the context of this study is streaming television. Streaming television is a profitable industry where Netflix is the leader worldwide. Netflix has 195 million subscribers globally (Amoroso et al., 2021), and Spain is one of the two largest pay TV platforms of streaming service, with 4.5 million subscribers in the country in 2020 (Statista, 2020). The study focused on young consumers for several reasons. The product category in this study (streaming television) is a relatively recent technology. It is known that millennials adopt and look for new technologies more easily than older age groups (Amoroso et al., 2021). In addition, authors Bairrada et al. (2018) find that brand intimacy affects perceived value only in young consumers.

The population margins of this study are current Netflix users who have been subscribers for at least six months, which is the minimal exposure to the brand experience (Hepola et al., 2017). CAWI (Computer Aided Web Interviewing) collected the data via Google Forms. The survey started with a filter to ensure that the interviewee was a subscriber. Each item used a five-point Linkert scale, where 5 is “in total agreement” and 1 is “in total disagreement”. We collected the data on a convenience sample of 240 surveys. The questionary had an initial filter question to determine if the subject had been a consumer of Netflix for at least 6 months to be eligible for the survey. From the 240 surveys, 20 were out of the study’s target age range, which leaves us with 220 surveys to analyse. The sample consisted of 64% women and 36% men, of an age range from 17 to 35 years old. The average age was 22 years old. The age range encompasses two age groups, Generation Z and Millennials. People who belong to Generation Z, born from the mid-1990s onwards (Bassiouni and Hackley, 2014), are part of the 17–26 age range. In addition, millennials were born from 1982 to the mid-1990s (Marsha, 2002), belong to the 27–39 age range.

From the sample, 48% watch Netflix up to two to three times per week, while up to 30% watch Netflix daily. The respondents are current users: 51% claim they have been subscribers for less than a year, and 43% claim they have been subscribers for 1 to 3 years. Up to 80% of the participants reported earnings of less than EUR600. This previous fact suggests that participants would not be willing to pay a premium price. However, affordability plays a minor role in terms of experiencing brand love (Hegner et al., 2017). Studies find that millennials are more emotional in their consumption than older generations and, despite having a lower income, they are still consumers of luxury items (Shin et al., 2017). Thus, those considerations might influence their consumption patterns.

3.2 Variable measures

This study uses the scale by Brakus et al. (2009) to measure brand experience, where brand experience is a second-order variable with four first-order dimensions: sensory experience, affective experience, behavioural experience and intellectual experience. The scale by Albert and Valette-Florence (2010) is used to measure brand love in this study. Fisher (2006) identified affection and passion as dimensions of feelings of interpersonal love. Similarly, the scale by Albert and Valette-Florence (2010) has affections and passion as dimensions. Albert and Valette-Florence (2010) consider that, as their scale of brand love has a greater focus on interpersonal love, it is better suited to achieve a significant effect on brand commitment, unlike other scales of brand love. Just like in the brand experience scale, brand love is a second-order variable. This study relies on the scale by Horppu et al. (2008) to measure brand loyalty, as this scale is used commonly among studies about retail on digital platforms. Lastly, to measure willingness to pay a premium price, this study uses the scale by Thompson et al. (2005).

3.3 Data analysis

This study used a structural equation model (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The process has two steps, the fit model and the structural model. The fit model evaluates how reliable and valid the theoretical model is the structural model evaluates the predictions of the construct. The structural model applies the two-step approach (Gerbing and Anderson, 1988) and the repeated indicators approach (Van Riel et al., 2017), it is one of the most accepted approaches when including first- and second-order constructs in a model. The methodology uses the Smart PLS software version 3.3.3 for several reasons: because it is a variance-based approach to SEM (O’Cass and Ngo, 2011), a multivariate technique (Coutinho et al., 2018), and effective for predictions on relationships (O’Cass and Ngo, 2011). This model is reflective-reflective. The indicators for the first-order constructs reflect the variable, while the relationship between the first-order constructs with the second-order constructs is reflective, as the lower-order constructs are the higher-order construct. According to Jarvis et al. (2003), a model is reflective when the items are interchangeable and correlated. All indicators are representative. The variables retain their meaning so that a variable can drop an indicator with no major impact on the object of study.

3.4 Measurement model

The fit model tests the reliability and validity of the data. The PLS algorithm dropped the values. According to Henseler et al. (2015), an item is significant if its loadings are superior to 0.7, which means that the factor explains 50% of their variance. There is one indicator with a loading lower than 0.7 from the affective dimension of brand love and one from the dimension of attitudinal brand loyalty. We removed the indicators with a low loading value.

The Cronbach’s alpha measures the internal consistency, which requires a minimum of 0.7 to have acceptable reliability and a value over 0.8 to have good reliability. The composed reliability, which measures internal consistency between the indicator blocks, requires a value higher than 0.7 to be acceptable in confirmatory research (Henseler et al., 2015).

The AVE (average variance extracted) tests the divergent validity and requires a value higher than 0.5 to prove that the factors explain more than half of the variance from their factors (Henseler et al., 2015). Table 1 shows that every factor is independent and discriminant from other factors. This study tests the discriminant validity among the constructs using Fornell and Larcker’s criterion and the Hetero-Trait-Mono-Trait (HTMT) ratio. As the model in this research is a reflective-reflective model with higher-order constructs, Table 1 only reports the discriminant validity among the first-order constructs (Henseler et al., 2015). According to the table of discriminant values by the Fornell and Larcker’s criterion (Table 1), every factor is independent and discriminant, since the value of the average variance extracted (AVE) is higher for every factor within itself than the covariance from the factor with other different factors (Hair et al., 2011). In the HTMT ratio analysis (Table 1), the constructors have discriminant validity between each other when every construct’s intersection has a value lower than 0.85 (Voorhees et al., 2016)

4. Results

4.1 Structural model

Table 2 displays the relations of the structural variables. The analysis followed the bootstrapping method, 5,000 bootstrap samples ran at a 95% confidence interval, and deviation correction percentile bootstrap and percentile bootstrap to test brand experience, brand love, brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price. The higher T-value, which evidences the relationship between variables, is the highest between brand experience and brand love at 15.463. The lowest T-value is between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price at 2.473. Figure 2 displays the results from the SEM-PLS and shows, all the hypotheses are accepted. Brand experience has a direct and positive effect on brand love, brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price. Furthermore, brand love has a direct and positive effect on brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price; likewise, brand loyalty has a direct and positive effect on willingness to pay a premium price.

Table 2 display the mediation analysis.

Tenenhaus et al. (2005) recommend analyses the model using three tests – the R-squared, the predictive relevance Q2 and the goodness-of-fit – to corroborate the predictive ability of the structural model. First, the R-squared (R2) is a statistical measure that represents the proportion of the variance for a dependent variable that is explained by an independent variable or variables in a regression model. Table 3 shows that the independent variable explains at least half of the variance of the dependent variables. Second, predictive relevance Q2, also known as Stone–Geisser’s Q2, is a criterion of predictive accuracy and an indicator of the model’s predictive relevance (Stone, 1974). According to Chin et al. (2010), the test considers a Q2 value over 0.35 as having a high predictive relevance. Tenenhaus et al. (2005) suggest testing the model under the PLS goodness-of-fit index to prove the trustworthiness of the constructs in their results, and the values over 0.36 present goodness-of-fit; thus, the model is trustworthy.

This study focuses on a specific demographic profile; thus, results may present a bias. First, there are generational differences. Participants in this study are young consumers in the age range of 17–35, regarding the context of this study, Generation Z has a high-technology focus and is more likely to use interactive media (Amoroso et al., 2021). Regarding psychological differences, younger millennials tend to be more emotional in their consumption than older millennials (Shin et al., 2017), thus, more impulsive, materialistic, focus more on short-term objectives, and put more importance on the social aspect of consumption (Schade et al., 2016) than baby boomers. Second, most of the participants have a low-income level according to their age. Although Moore (2012) states that millennials are more likely to buy online than Generation X and baby boomers, Lissitsa and Kol (2016) state that Generation X buys more than millennials due to higher income. Similarly, Generation Z has a higher price sensitivity than older generations (Koksal, 2019). Third, there are gender differences. In total, 64% of the participants in this study are women. A study conducted by Baswan and Fatima (2019) for the online brand Amazon shows that women are more emotional than men in their consumption. Moreover, men tend to be more loyal to their brands than women (Braciníková and Matušinská, 2020). Fourth, there are differences in education level. Most of the participants in the study are undergraduate students. People with university studies, although equally driven by emotions, tend to be more careful in their consumption (Braciníková and Matušinská, 2020). The fifth difference is in terms of the length of time spent as a consumer. From the sample, 93% of participants have been subscribed to Netflix for no more than three years. There is a difference between a recent consumer and a former consumer in terms of brand love (Bairrada et al., 2018) and brand loyalty (Casteran et al., 2019).

5. Conclusion

The results show us how brand experience and brand love can achieve important brand outcomes. Given that brand love plays a mediating role in the relationship with brand experience and both brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price, we can reflect how the brand experience should aim to evoke positive emotions. In addition, we can gather from this study that younger consumers, millennials and Generation z, are an attractive target in this context.

5.1 Theoretical contribution

The main contribution of this study is the testing of four brand variables in the same model within the novel context of streaming television and with a leading content-creating brand such as Netflix. Results from the PLS algorithm corroborate that one of the most important dimensions of brand experience is the sensory and affective dimensions, as stated in other studies on the mobile phone (Huang, 2017), fashion retail (Ferreira et al., 2019) and tourism (Barnes et al., 2014) sectors. Results from the structural model show that brand experience affects brand love, as has been noted in other contexts (Singh et al., 2020). Likewise, results from the structural model corroborate the effect of brand experience on brand loyalty (Amoroso et al., 2021) and on willingness to pay a premium price (Dwivedi et al., 2018). In addition, the structural model corroborate the effect of brand love on brand loyalty (Bigne et al., 2020; Bairrada et al., 2019) and on willingness to pay a premium price (Bairrada et al., 2018). Also, results confirm the effect of brand loyalty on willingness to pay a premium price (Narteh, 2018). Another contribution is the findings regarding the mediating role of brand love. Prior research found the indirect effect that brand experience has on brand loyalty via brand love in different contexts. However, the mediating role of brand love in the relationship between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price is a new finding.

There are two major contributions regarding the demographic profile of the participants in the study. A key discovery is that the outstanding brand outcomes of this study are present in young individuals with low-income levels, as prior studies found Generation Z has a higher price sensitivity (Koksal, 2019) and that millennials spend less (Moore, 2012) than older generational groups. This study agrees with Hegner et al. (2017), who state that affordability plays a minor role in brand love. Results may also suggest that affordability plays a minor role in brand experience, brand loyalty and willingness to pay a premium price in the context of this study. Another finding pertains to the education level. Braciníková and Matušinská (2020) stated that consumers with university studies tend to be more careful in their consumption than people with lower education levels. However, this study presents a new perspective, as its participants are university students.

5.2 Managerial implications

It is recommended for brand managers to focus their efforts on the brand experience of their service. According to the results, marketers should prioritize the sensory and affective experience over the intellectual and behavioural experiences. The sensory experience involves the design, aesthetics perceptions, and usages (Brakus et al., 2009). Marketers can adjust their services to have appealing visuals such as typography, an appropriate combination of colours and high-level definition. Additionally, they can focus on adding appealing sound effects and a controller that is pleasant to the touch. For the affective experience, managers can convey the emotions consumers feel while using the service. An example could be the current unofficial slogan “Netflix and chill”. For the intellectual experience, professionals can emphasize the creation of interesting content, good storytelling, and captivating slogans. They can also, for example, allow consumers to review the content or have an effective algorithm that functions according to consumers’ tastes. For the behavioural experience, marketers can be aware of consumer habits while using the service, such as consumers checking their phones or having appetizers. In addition, to build and maintain an emotional bond with consumers, brand managers should hold in their marketing strategies, the essence of the service that aims to satisfy the need for escapism and hedonism through brand identification, self-image and the enhancement of positive emotions.

In line with the results in this study, brand managers should consider young consumers in the generational group of Generation Z and millennials as an attractive market. Despite having lower incomes than older generational groups, important brand outcomes are present in young consumers. Following this approach, brand managers could increase the loyalty of their consumers and achieve higher financial performance. Brand managers should focus their efforts on brand experience and brand love to achieve important brand outcomes.

5.3 Limitations and future research lines

The study used a small convenience sample of users, and as such, cannot be assumed to represent the population. The small sample limits the applicability of the conclusions reached. Another limitation of this study was that the model focused on four brand variables. Thus, one future research line could be to explore the behaviour of the model while including other brand variables. It would be useful, as a future research line, to test the relationship between brand experience and willingness to pay a premium price, as, according to results in this study, there is no direct effect if brand love does not play a role in the model.

As this study focuses on a certain demographic profile, we encourage future studies comparing the behaviour of different demographic groups or comparing different groups using demographic traits as moderating variables. Future research can explore how brand variables behave in terms of other age ranges, purchasing power, gender, education level, generational group, whether customers are new consumers versus current consumers of the brand or product category, and comparing different geographical areas of consumers.

Future research can also explore the effect of other consumers in consumer behaviours and analyse other variables that can better explain the enhancement of brand experience and brand love as: sense of brand communities, customer involvement or community engagement. It would be interesting to conduct research in both the service and retail sectors, in which brand experiences are specifically designed to engage emotionally with consumers.

In addition, the study focused on users of a single known brand of TV streaming services. Thus, it may be difficult to generalize our findings and apply them to the entire service category. Therefore, future scholars may embark on a cross-cultural or comparative study of multiple TV streaming brands to provide a wider perspective.

Figures

The conceptual model

Figure 1.

The conceptual model

SEM PLS results

Figure 2.

SEM PLS results

Reliability, convergent and discriminant validity

Fornell and Larcker’s and HTMT criterion
Variables α CR AVE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 BE (Affective) 0.85 0.91 0.77 0.876 0.732 0.692 0.790 0.665 0.489 0.619 0.460
2 BE (Behavioural) 0.78 0.87 0.70 0.600 0.840 0.604 0.563 0.518 0.529 0.468 0.372
3 BE (Intellectual) 0.86 0.91 0.78 0.590 0.503 0.879 0.678 0.426 0.344 0.530 0.259
4 BE (Sensory) 0.89 0.93 0.82 0.687 0.472 0.595 0.904 0.581 0.462 0.584 0.385
5 BL (Affection) 0.87 0.90 0.64 0.572 0.433 0.361 0.512 0.799 0.575 0.521 0.611
6 BL (Passion) 0.82 0.88 0.66 0.414 0.428 0.291 0.396 0.503 0.821 0.344 0.499
7 BL (Loyalty) 0.92 0.93 0.62 0.551 0.407 0.474 0.530 0.476 0.311 0.781 0.682
8 Willingness to pay a premium price 0.71 0.87 0.77 0.356 0.277 0.197 0.305 0.481 0.383 0.550 0.879
Notes:

α = Cronbach’s α; CR = Composite reliability; AVE = Average Variance Extracted. BE = Brand Experience; BL = Brand Love.

The diagonal elements (in italics) are the square root of the AVE. Values below the diagonal elements are the inter-construct correlations (Fornell and Larcker’s test). Values above the diagonal indicate the HTMT ratio

Mediation analysis

Hypothesised relationship Total
effect
Direct
effect
(Path
coefficient)
Indirect effect Type of mediation
Estimate
β (Total
indirect
effect)
Estimate
β (Specific
indirect
effect)
Two tailed bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval (BBCI)
H7: Brand experience → Brand love → Brand loyalty 0.621 0.494 0.126 0.126 0.215 Partial mediation
H8: Brand experience → Brand love → Willingness to pay a premium price 0.346 −0.199 0.545 0.225 0.655 Partial mediation

Predictive ability of the structural model

Variables Variance accounted
for R2 value
The Stone-Geisser test of
predictive relevance
(Q2=1-SSE/SSO)
Overall goodness of fit
(R2*AVE)^0.5
Brand experience
sensory 0.884 0.851
affective 0.996 0.875
behavioural 0.779 0.738
intellectual 0.818 0.798
Brand love 0.469 0.376
affection 0.788 0.813
passion 0.898 0.769
Brand loyalty 0.482 0.401 0.546
Willingness to pay a premium price 0.639 0.394 0.701

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the suggestions made by the reviewers and the editor for the improvement of the paper.

Corresponding author

Mauricio Santos can be contacted at: mausan6@alumni.uv.es

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