The Role of Spiritual Marketing in Strengthening Millennials' Purchase Intention at Sharia Banks through Brand Positioning and Brand Personality

Abstract Purpose - This study focuses on analyzing the role of spiritual marketing in strengthening millennial’s purchase intention at Islamic banks through brand positioning and brand personality. There are several reasons to focus on spiritual marketing as an aspect of branding, such as marketing that prioritizes spiritual values makes the brand better. It is also able to improve the brand inner-side. Moreover, there is an opportunity and great hopes that the future market segmentation of Islamic banks is not only filled by Muslim market segments, but also filled by the non-Muslim market segment. Design / methodology / approach - This research is a quantitative study, using a sample of 150 respondents in Jakarta who represent the millennial generation as the population of the study. Data analysis uses the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique with the Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) program to test the role of spiritual marketing in strengthening millennial’s purchase intention at Islamic banks through brand positioning and brand personality. Findings - The statistical results show that brand positioning has no positive effect on purchase intention, while brand personality has a positive effect on purchase intention. This study also reveals the importance of the role of spiritual marketing as a valuable moderating dimension of brand positioning and brand personality in strengthening purchase intention. Other findings reveal that brand positioning and brand personality have mutual interventions on the purchase intention of millennials at Islamic banks. Limitations / research implications - Future research can develop a wider sample of millennials so that they can expand better results and concepts in implementing spiritual marketing as an important element in strengthening purchase intention. Originality / value - This study departs from the scarcity of research on the application of branding theory to the concept of spiritual marketing by using the dimensions of brand positioning and brand personality in influencing purchase intention