Consumer-brand relationships: The relationship between value congruity, consumer-brand identification, brand commitment and consumer behaviour - an empirical analysis of consumers’ relationship with Starbucks

This research aims to investigate some of the underlying processes of consumerbrand relationships, and, in particular, the relationship between self-congruity, consumer-brand identification, brand commitment, and consumer behaviour in the case of the Starbucks brand. Starbucks is the most successful coffee shop chain in the world and one of the leading chains in Germany. While Starbucks aims at building strong relationships with their customers, it is uncertain if the company can really capitalise on this relationship. The study adopted a deductive quantitative research method involving a survey questionnaire completed by customers of Starbucks. This research extends and complements a recent study by Tuskej, Golob and Podnar that was published in the Journal of Business Research in 2013 and investigates the relationship between value congruity, identification, affective and compliance brand commitment, and word-of-mouth intentions in relation to respondents’ favourite brand. Whereas this context implies high involvement, this master’s thesis was conducted in a context in which high involvement is not presupposed. Data was analysed using different techniques including factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings of the research provide support for the important role of consumer-brand identification in consumer-brand relationships and holds that customers of Starbucks do in fact identify with the brand. This can lead to supportive intentions and behaviours among customers, such as word-of-mouth and intention to repurchase. The results also show that consumers who are committed to Starbucks tend to generate positive word-of-mouth and repurchase the brand when they are satisfied with it and experience other opportunities to be unsatisfactory. These findings implicate that companies like Starbucks benefit from communicating their brand identities so that consumers can express their self-identity when purchasing and recommending the brand to others