EMOTIONAL BRANDING – INDIAN SCENARIO

Authors:

Full Name: Dr.P.DAVID JAWAHAR

Affiliation: Reader, Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirapalli.

Address: Bharathidasan Institute of Management,

Post Box. No.12, BHEL Complex,
Tiruchirapalli-620 014.
Tamilnadu, India.

E-Mail: dj@bim.edu
davejawa@yahoo.co.in

Full Name: Mrs. R.MAHESWARI

Affiliation: Research Scholar, Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirapalli.

Address: Bharathidasan Institute of Management,

Post Box. No.12, BHEL Complex,
Tiruchirapalli-620 014.
Tamilnadu, India.

E-Mail: maheswari@bim.edu
mahe_balu@yahoo.com

Phone: +91- 94437-74921

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 About the Authors

Dr.P.DAVID JAWAHAR is the head of OB & HR Department at the Bharathidasan

Institute of Management, Tiruchirapalli, Tamilnadu, India. He has over 18 years of
experience in academics and industry. His current research interests include emotions in
branding and in the workplace. He is also an accomplished soft skills trainer.

Mrs.R.MAHESWARI is a full-time research scholar at Bharathidasan Institute of

Management, Tiruchirapalli, Tamilnadu, India. She has about 10 Years of experience in
academics. Her current research includes emotions in branding.

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 BUILDING EMOTIONAL BRANDS – INDIAN SCENARIO

ABSTRACT

The general notion is customer satisfaction along with service quality leads to service
loyalty. But today marketing gurus and experts are articulating the importance of building
emotional brands. It is being realized that emotions and emotional attachments towards
brands create long–term bonds between customers and the brands. So it is imperative for
companies to create strategies to build strong emotional brands.
Service encounter is an important facet of any service industry. The
service encounter may be positive or negative. The outcome has an emotional impact on
the situation. Service quality and now service performance are other important facets of
any service industry. Service encounter satisfaction and perception on service
performance lead to an emotional attachment on the service provider. There is always a
synergy between emotional attachment and brand loyalty. Emotional attachment acts as
a mediator in building strong brands which can turn into Emotional Brands. Research on
service loyalty has focused on service quality, service performance, emotional
connections with the customers, employee behaviour, etc. Eventhough the significance of
emotions in service industry is suggested, there is no solid research to measure the
emotional attachments of the customers. This research initiative is an attempt to build a
model which would facilitate the measurement of emotional attachment in developing
Emotional Brands. We envision the development and usage of this model could pave
way for companies to build Emotional Brands. A service provider with appropriate
strategies can create an emotional brand using this simple model.
This research would open-up new avenues for further research on
Emotional Branding which is at a very nascent stage in India.

Key Words: Emotional attachment, Emotional Brands, Service performance,

Service encounter.

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 EMOTIONAL BRANDING – INDIAN SCENARIO

Branding is a dynamic concept which has assumed various dimensions over

these years. A lot of research has been done on various lines of branding. Today products

from similar categories are available in the market as different brands. Product

differentiation and positioning is becoming increasingly difficult for most companies.

Moreover, financial options, hitherto unavailable to consumers make it easier for them to

purchase brands they prefer.

Companies have adopted various branding strategies over the years to survive

and withstand competition. Gradually, companies have realized that strong emotional

associations can create long-term and everlasting relationships between brands and

customers. This has emerged as the concept of “Emotional Branding.” Brands now prefer

to enter new markets with emotional promises rather than with assurances of

trustworthiness. Customers also wish to have economic contracts with brands based on

emotions or faith.

Consumers identify a good brand based on the product quality or general

affirmations of brand reliability, trust, reputation, etc. Emotional and self-expressive base

value propositions build up strong bonds between customers and brands. Buying

decisions are made on promises that transcend products, and promises are rooted in

human emotions. Emotions are experienced as “feelings”. The whole world is driven by

emotions. Companies have started realizing that rational thought leads consumers to be

interested in brands, but it is emotion that sells. Branding strategies are moving towards

this “emotional anchoring”.

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1. What is Emotional Branding?

The application of “Emotional Branding” emerged in the late 1990s. It is a new

paradigm in brand management. Emotional Branding is a consumer-centric, relational,

story-driven approach to forging deep and enduring effective bonds between customers

and brands (Roberts, 2004).

In the words of Marc Gobe (2001), “Emotional Branding is the conduit by

which people connect subliminally with companies and their products in an emotionally

profound way”. He further asserts that branding strategies should be about mindshare and

“Emotions Share” rather than market share. It is a means of creating personal dialogue

with consumers. It brings a new layer of credibility by connecting powerfully with people

on a personal and holistic level. A unique trust is established with the audience. He

further adds, “Commitment to product or institution, the pride we feel upon receiving a

wonderful gift of a brand we love, having a positive shopping experience in an inspiring

environment where someone knows our name or brings an unexpected cup of coffee-

these feelings are at the core of emotional branding.”

Travis (2000) says, “A brand is like a bridge between you and the

customers. How your customers feel about your brand isn’t a casual question. It is a

crucial question. A brand is not a brand to you until it develops an emotional connection

with you”. Some brands create emotional connections with the customers, while others

leave them cold.

These concepts are well understood by successful global companies

abroad. The Indian market is a high potential market but with innumerable complexities.

India is a country of diverse in culture, language and geographical divisions. Building

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effective brand strategies and being successful in the Indian market is really a challenging

task for companies. How far have the Indian companies really been successful?

2. Emotional Branding in India

In the Indian scenario, a number of Indian companies have built very strong

national brands with very high brand equity. Jet Airways, Titan, Infosys, Reliance,

Raymond, Asian Paints are some of the well-known brands (Martin Roll, 2006).

Here are some dimensions of an “emotional brand”.

2.1. How does the brand make the customer feel?

Tata Corporate is loved, respected and admired for never compromising on

their ethics and values, irrespective of success or failure.

Surprisingly, a brand which is loved in India for its heritage is Colgate. It is a

reliable brand for many years and now has reach in rural parts of the country (Great

Asian Brands survey, 2002).

2.2. Striking an Emotional Chord

Airtel has a music track which has a force to be a “brand property”. The music

has created an emotional presence. It is the second most valued brand as it has a compact

customer focus and has always managed to strike an emotional chord with its patrons.

(4Ps Business and Marketing - Cover story, 2006)

2.3. Emotional experience

The Amaron PitStops, the retail outlets of Amaraja batteries reaches out to its

customers to give them a complete experience of the brand through its ambience, modern

technology and attention to customers' needs. Service through these exclusive outlets is

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one of Amaron’s strengths. Breaking tradition, Amaron has identified all automotive

retail outlets as potential points of selling for their batteries. (Ravikumar, 2006).

2.4 Brand responsibility

Amaron Pitstops also serve as authorized collection centres for used batteries.

This initiative helps to control environmental hazard caused by unauthorized backyard

smelting. (Ravikumar, 2006). This again appeals to the green at heart.

2.5. Brand Personality

Hamam soap's portrayal of its pure ingredients with the child and mother

imagery builds trust. Ruf and Tuf's campaign using a personality-oriented concept to

create a belief in products is another example. (RameshKumar and Sharma, 2005).

2.6. See beyond the existing brands

Reliance, Nirma, Infosys, Bharathi, ITC, and CavinKare are all market

managing companies. They are all able to see beyond their existing brands. They are able

to see where their brand management ends and market management takes over (Murari,

2005).

2.7. Emotional hook

The communication style developed by the companies should stand out of the

clutter. It should be more of sharing the life-style and aspirations of the consumers. The

advertisements of Dettol, Saffola Gold, Parachute, Reynolds, Kohinoor basmati rice,

Himalaya have developed an emotional hook and are therefore successful brands

(Ramesh Kumar 2005).

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 2.8. Brand promises

“Brand promise is like a kind of liquid cement that fills in a small crevice in the

brain. When well focused, it stakes out a position in the brain, so that even the toughest

competitor will find it difficult to dislodge” (Travis, 2000). HDFC's current message is

"We understand your world." It kept up its brand promise and earned the customers’

trust. Infosys is India's most admired software company. Transparency and ethics in their

business have gained them trust.

2.9. Social responsibility

Surf Excel’s save water campaign was socially responsible. Kingfisher,

Maricco, Infosys focus themselves as Employee brands. ITC’s e-choupal has taken

technology to rural India. (Chandrasekhar 2006)

2.10. Build confidence

Cadburys ran into a controversy three years ago, in which some of the

company's chocolates were reportedly found to be infested with worms. It recognized the

problem and addressed it in a transparent manner. Resultantly, Cadbury was able to

recover from the controversy in a short span of time (Koushik, 2006).

2.11. Trust and service reliability

During 1999 BPL was the No.1 company in India in consumer electronics. The

entry of Korean giants like LG and Samsung edged the company out of the race. The

company was soon considered a laggard in technology. Now the company is on its come

back trail as Sanyo- BPL. Having bolstered its image with the latest technology it hopes

to be successful once again. The positive factor is that BPL is still seen as a trusted brand

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with a very good service back-up. "Fortunately for us, we don't have to build the brand,"

says Rajiv Rastogi, Sanyo-BPL's head of brand management (Giriprakash, 2006).

2.12. Emotional Memory

A good experience will remain in the consumer’s emotional memory as

connection made on a level far beyond their needs. Taj group of hotels are one of the first

Indian hotel groups for more than 100 years known for matchless service and unmatched

hospitality. Jyoti Narang, Chief Operating Officer, Taj Business Hotels, says that in terms

of hospitality and comforts, Taj Business Hotels definitely score over many international

chains worldwide. The Taj Business Hotels are better value for money than many other

business hotel groups. He further adds, “Our product is affordable and is at the same time

contemporary with an Indian overtone” (Shashidhar, 2005).

Taj Holidays a sub-brand of the Taj groups is all set to strengthen brand property

around ‘experiences’. While launching the Taj Holidays brand, Jamshed Daboo, Chief

Operating Officer, Taj Leisure Hotels, said, "We look forward to meeting the needs of

every traveller, irrespective of their age and preference and offer them an opportunity to

rediscover the Taj experience every time they plan their leisure holidays"(Chatterjee,

2005).

2.13. Service transformed to Relationship

Service means selling. Relationship means acknowledgement. Companies

which have developed this strategy to retain their customers are successful. Maruti

Udyog is an Indian company which is highly successful. Maruti is the No.1, most valued

brand for its customer service. (4Ps Business and Marketing - Cover story, 2006)

The above companies or brands have created a bond with the customers in the lines of

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Emotional Branding in more than one way. The brands included both products and

services to a certain extent.

3.0. Service Evaluations

Unlike products, evaluation of services is complex and difficult. The three

characteristics of services namely intangibility, heterogeneity and inseparability make

service evaluations difficult. The major concepts often quoted and researched in services

are “service encounter” and “service quality”.

3.1. Service encounter

Service encounter is defined by Shostack (1985) as “a period of time during

which a consumer directly interacts with a service.” This definition includes all the

aspects of the service firm, personnel, physical facilities and other tangible elements with

which the consumer may interact. These encounters may be routine when a customer is

visiting the service firm each time. Each encounter subliminally creates an emotional

feeling in the customer. Consistent emotions determine the level of attachment.

Sometimes the encounters may become a critical incident. Eg. The customers may have

some difficulty during service delivery. The approach of the employee involved in that

particular critical incident will make the service encounter as positive or negative. This

would enhance or decrease the emotional bonding with the firm.

3.2. Service Quality

Perceived Service Quality is defined by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry

(1998) as “the consumer’s judgment about a firm’s overall excellence or superiority.”

Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a

consistent basis (Lewis and Booms 1983). Delivering superior quality of service has been

10
recognized as the most effective means of ensuring that a company’s offerings stand out

from a crowd of look-alike competitive offerings (Parasuraman et al., 1991).

4.0. Purpose of the current Research

Much research has been done on Service Quality. A few researches have been

done on Service Encounter Satisfaction. It has now been identified that emotions play an

important role in services.

A close relationship does exist between Service Encounter Satisfaction and

Perceived Service Quality, but empirical research to substantiate this relationship is

lacking (Bitner Mary Jo 1990).

The role of service personnel in an organization has been identified as

crucial to the emotional connection and development of a long-term relationship with the

customer (Kandampully Jay 1998).

Emotions that customers experience during service encounters play crucial roles

and directly affect the success of service relationships. Because customer emotions

appear to be the key drivers of rapport with employees and ultimately customer

satisfaction and also loyalty intentions, service organizations may benefit from focusing

their attention on increasing positive customer emotions. (Thurau Hennig Thorsten, Groth

Marcus, Paul Michael & Gremier Dwayne D. 2006). This recommendation is consistent

with emerging literature on customer delight (Rust and Oliver 2000), which stresses the

emotional component of customer service evaluations.

As the number of purely online start – up businesses increases and

organizations complement their existing business by “going online”, it is important to

understand how the transactions between customers and service providers is affected on

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the web. By identifying the antecedents of customer satisfaction with electronic service

encounters, online service providers will be able to consistently satisfy their customers

inorder to establish and maintain enduring relationships (Massad Nelson, Crowston

Kevin 2003).

There is no empirical research to measure the extent to which emotional

attachment influence brand loyalty. Emotion attachment has not been measured using any

scale in service industries.

With the concept of Emotional Branding having gained a legitimate place in

marketing, the need for a model to better understand the functioning of emotional brands

in service industry is essential.

5.0. Emotional Brand Model

Emotional Branding

Service Evaluation Index

A
Service Encounter
Satisfaction
1. Employee response to
service delivery failures.
2. Employee response to C D
customer needs and
requests. Emotional attachment
3. Unprompted and 1. Affection Emotional
unsolicited employee 2. Connection Brand
actions. 3. Passion

B
SERVPERF
1. Tangibility
2. Reliability
3. Responsiveness
4. Assurance
5. Empathy

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5.1. Description of the model

The proposed model encompasses Service Encounter Satisfaction and Service

Quality as independent variables. It is clear from the definitions of Service Quality and

Service Encounter Satisfaction that consumers generally evaluate any service based on

these two factors. Theoretically it is understood that there is a close association between

these two factors. So it is proposed to combine both these variables and name it as

“Service Evaluation Index”. The association between these two variables would be

statistically tested in our research.

It is proposed that Emotional Attachment would act as a mediator.

Consistent satisfaction levels lead to Emotional Attachment. This makes the consumer to

connect themselves with the service firm on an emotional level. The firm by itself

becomes a Brand .This Brand Loyalty in the lines of Emotional Branding is named as

“Emotional Brand”.

The performance –based scale (SERVPERF) is used to measure Service

Quality in our model. The performance - based scale developed (SERVPERF) is efficient

in comparison with the SERVQUAL scale; it reduces by 50% the number of items that

must be measured (44 items to 22 items) (Cronin Joseph Jr.J and Taylor Steven .A 1992).

5.1. Constructs used in the model

Any theoretical model has to be tested and this model was also tested by

constructing a questionnaire. The batteries selected for the questionnaire are from pre-

existing research. The batteries are

A .Service Encounter Satisfaction which includes 12 items under three factors.

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 Employee Response to Service Delivery System Failures

1. Response to unavailable service

2. Response to unreasonably slow service

3. Response to other core service failures

Employee Response to Customer Needs and Requests

4. Response to “special needs” of customers

5. Response to customer preferences

6. Response to admitted customer error

7. Response to potentially disruptive others

Unprompted and Unsolicited Employee Actions

8. Attention paid to the customer

9. Truly – out – of - the - ordinary employee behavior

10. Employee behaviors in the context of cultural norms

11. Performance under adverse circumstances

12 Over- all banking experience

The classification system is abstract enough to generalize across several

industries (Bitner Mary Jo, Booms Bernard H., & Tetreault Stanfield Mary 1990)

B. Service Performance includes 22 items

Tangibility

1. Physical facilities in the bank are attractive.

2. Printed and visual materials are easy to understand.

3. Staff are dressed appropriately.

4. Up-to-date equipments are available in the bank.

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 Reliability

5. When the bank promises to do something in a certain time, they do it.

6. Exact specifications of client are followed.

7. Statements or reports are free of error.

8. Service is performed right for the first time.

9. All members of staff provide the same level of service at all times.

Responsiveness

10. Staff tell the customers exactly when services will be performed.

11. Staff provide prompt service to the customers.

12. Staff are always willing to help customers.

13. Staff are not acting busy or reply rudely when customers have

questions.

Assurance

14. Staff in the bank are trustworthy.

15. It is safe to have transactions with the bank.

16. Staff are consistently polite or courteous.

17. Staff have knowledge to answer the customer’s questions.

Empathy

18. Bank gives individual attention to customers.

19. Bank has convenient operating hours to all the customers.

20. Staff can explain clearly the various options available to a particular
query.
21. Staff give personal attention to customers.

22. Bank has the best interests of the customers.

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Performance based measure of Service Quality is an improved means of measuring

Service Quality construct. (Cronin Joseph Jr.J and Taylor Steven .A 1992).

C. Emotional Attachment includes 10 items

Affection

1. Affectionate

2. Friendly

3. Loved

4. Peaceful

Connection

5. Attached

6. Bonded

7. Connected

Passion

8. Passionate

9. Delighted

10. Captivated

Based on the premise that consumers are able to articulate the nature of their

emotional attachment to brands, emotion items thought to potentially indicate attachment

(Thomson Matthew, MacInnis Deborah.J and Park Whan.C 2005) were identified.

D. The evaluation of an Emotional Brand would require answering the following

questions.

1. How would you characterize your loyalty toward this bank?

2. How does this bank compare to your “ideal” bank?

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 3. How often have you recommended the bank to your friends?

4. How often have you said positive opinions about the bank?

5. How often have you thought of switching over to another bank?

6. Do you prefer to use all the services and products from this bank only?

The above metric is adopted from Sirgy, Johar, Samli and Clairborne (1991)

5.2. Testing the model

The following steps have been taken to test the reliability and applicability of

this model. A pilot survey was conducted. The sample size was 42 and the survey was

done within Trichirapalli city (a medium sized city in South India). The questionnaires

were framed to the test model and tested with respect to the Banking industry. The

following relationships have been tested in this research. Regression analysis and

reliability test have been done.

1. It is proposed that Service Encounter Satisfaction would be associated with

Emotional Attachment.

Service Encounter Satisfaction Emotional Attachment …….. (1)

The R square value for equation (1) is 0.315. Service Encounter Satisfaction

is accounted for 31.5% variance in Emotional Attachment. It indicates a large effect size

of 0.315. The Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.561 which accounts for the deviations

on the dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the variables. The

regression equation is

Emotional Attachment = 0.040+ 0.830 x Service Encounter Satisfaction

Thus it is proved that Service Encounter Evaluation and Emotional Attachment are

associated with each other.

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2. It is proposed that SERVPERF would be associated with Emotional Attachment.

SERVPERF Emotional Attachment ……… (2)

The R square value for equation (2) is 0.441. SERVPERF is accounted for

44.1% variance in Emotional Attachment. It indicates a large effect size of 0.441 and the

Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.664 which accounts for the deviations on the

dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the variables.

The regression equation is

Emotional Attachment = - 0.516 + 0.918 x SERVPERF

Thus it is proved that SERVPERF and Emotional Attachment are associated with each

other.

3. It is proposed that Service Encounter Satisfaction would be associated with

Emotional Brand.

Service Encounter Satisfaction Emotional Brand ……… (3)

The R square value for equation (3) is 0.288. Service Encounter

Satisfaction is accounted for 28.8% variance in Emotional Brand. It indicates a large

effect size of 0.288 and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.536 which accounts for the

deviations on the dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the

variables.

The regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 1.501 + 0.677 x Service Encounter Satisfaction

Thus it is proved that Service Encounter Satisfaction and Emotional Brand are

associated with each other.

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4. It is proposed that SERVPERF would be associated with Emotional Brand.

SERVPERF Emotional Brand ……… (4)

The R square value for equation (4) is 0.498. SERVPERF is

accounted for 49.8% variance in Emotional Brand. It indicates a large effect size of 0.498

and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.706 which accounts for the deviations on the

dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the variables. The

regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 0.641 + 0.832 x SERVPERF

Thus it is proved that SERVPERF and Emotional Brand are associated with each other.

5. It is proposed that Emotional Attachment would be acting as a mediator between

Service Encounter Satisfaction and Emotional Brand.

Service Encounter Satisfaction Emotional Attachment Emotional ….. (5)

Brand

The R square value for equation (5) is 0.452. Here both Service

Encounter satisfaction and Emotional Attachment account for 45.2% variance in

Emotional Brand. It indicates a large effect size of 0.452 and the Standardized Beta

Coefficient is 0.262 for Service Encounter Satisfaction and 0.489 for Emotional

Attachment which account for the respective deviations on the dependent variable.

The regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 1.484 + 0.331 x Service Encounter Satisfaction

+ 0.417 x Emotional Attachment

Comparing equations (3) and (5) we find that there is an increase in R square value

after the inclusion of Emotional Attachment. This shows a synergy and correlation

between the independent variable and the mediator.

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 Also the slope coefficient of Service Encounter Satisfaction has decreased from

0.677 to 0.331. As the slope of Service Encounter Satisfaction is not zero the mediation is

not total. The mediation is partial.

The amount of mediation is calculated as (0.677 – 0.331) =0.346

Thus it is proved that Emotional Attachment acts as a mediator between Service

Encounter Satisfaction and Emotional Brand.

6. It is proposed that Emotional Attachment would be acting as a mediator between

SERVPERF and Emotional Brand.

SERVPERF Emotional Attachment Emotional Brand ….. (6)

The R square value for equation (6) is 0.548. Here both SERVPERF and

Emotional Attachment account for 54.8% variance in Emotional Brand. It indicates a

large effect size of 0.548 and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.598 for SERVPERF

and 0.255 for Emotional Attachment which account for the respective deviations on the

dependent variable. The regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 0.772+ 0.598 x SERVPERF

+ 0.255 x Emotional Attachment

Comparing equations (4) and (6) we find that there is an increase in R square value

after the inclusion of Emotional Attachment. This shows a synergy and correlation

between the independent variable and the mediator.

Also the slope coefficient of SERVPERF has decreased from 0.832 to 0.598. As

the slope of SERVPERF is not zero the mediation is not total. The mediation is partial.

The amount of mediation is calculated as (0.832 – 0.598) =0.234

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Thus it is proved that Emotional Attachment acts as a mediator between SERVPERF and

Emotional Brand.

7. It is proposed that Emotional Attachment would be associated with Emotional

Brand.

Emotional Attachment Emotional Brand ……… (7)

The R square value for equation (7) is 0.404. Emotional Attachment is

accounted for 40.4% variance in Emotional Brand. It indicates a large effect size of 0.404

and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.636 which accounts for the deviations on the

dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the variables.

The regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 2.552+ 0.542 x Emotional Attachment

Thus it is proved that Emotional Attachment and Emotional Brand are associated with

each other

8. It is proposed that Service Evaluation Index (Service Encounter Satisfaction +

SERVPERF) would be associated with Emotional Attachment.

Service Evaluation Index

(Service Encounter Satisfaction + SERVPERF) Emotional Attachment …..(8)

The R square value for equation (8) is 0.430. Service Evaluation Index

is accounted for 43.0% variance in Emotional Attachment. It indicates a large effect size

of 0.430 and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.656 which accounts for the deviations

on the dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the variables.

The regression equation is

Emotional Attachment = - 0.768 + 0.981 x Service Evaluation Index

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Thus it is proved that Service Value index and Emotional Attachment are associated with

each other.

9. It is proposed that Service Evaluation Index (Service Encounter Satisfaction +

SERVPERF) would be associated with Emotional Brand.

Service Evaluation Index

(Service Encounter Satisfaction + SERVPERF) Emotional Brand …….. (9)

The R square value for equation (9) is 0.445. Service Evaluation Index

is accounted for 44.5% variance in Emotional Brand. It indicates a large effect size of

0.445 and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.667 which accounts for the deviations

on the dependent variable. This proves a strong association between the variables.

The regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 0.598 + 0.851 x Service Evaluation Index

Thus it is proved that Service Value index and Emotional Brand are associated with each

other.

10. It is proposed that Emotional Attachment would be acting as a mediator

between Service Evaluation Index and Emotional Brand.

Service Evaluation Index Emotional Attachment Emotional

Brand ……(10)

The R square value for equation (10) is 0.514. Service Evaluation Index

is accounted for 51.4% variance in Emotional Brand. It indicates a large effect size of

0.445 and the Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.439 for Service Evaluation Index and

0.348 for Emotional Attachment which account for the respective deviations on the

dependent variable.

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The regression equation is

Emotional Brand = 0.826+ 0.5598 x Service Evaluation Index + 0.297 x Emotional

Attachment

Comparing equations (9) and (10) we find that there is an increase in R square

value after the inclusion of Emotional Attachment. This shows a synergy and correlation

between the independent variable and the mediator.

Also the slope coefficient of Service Evaluation Index has decreased from 0.851 to

0.559. As the slope of SERVPERF is not zero the mediation is not total. The mediation is

partial. The amount of mediation is calculated as (0.851 – 0.559) =0.292

The above regression results indicate that there is a synergy in the R square

values after inclusion of Emotional Attachment in the model.

Hence we conclude that Emotional Attachment acts as a partial mediator in

the model.

11. It is proposed that Service Encounter Satisfaction would be associated with

SERVPERF.

Service Encounter Satisfaction SERVPERF ………..(11)

12. It is proposed that SERVPERF would be associated with Service Encounter

Satisfaction.

SERVPERF Service Encounter Satisfaction ……….(12)

The R square value for equations (11) and (12) is 0.620.This indicates that

Service Encounter Satisfaction is accounted for 62.0% variance in SERVPERF and vice-

versa. The Standardized Beta Coefficient is 0.787 which accounts for 0.787 deviations on

each other. This proves a strong association between variables.

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 The regression equation for (1) is

SERVPERF = 0.898 + 0.843 x Service Encounter Satisfaction

The regression equation for (2) is

Service Encounter Satisfaction = 1.139 + 0.735 x SERVPERF

Both the results indicate that there is a strong association between Service

Encounter Satisfaction and Service Performance. It has been empirically proved in this

working paper that there is a close relationship between Service Encounter Satisfaction

and Perception of Service Quality.

5.3. Reliability Assessment

The reliability of the measures used was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha

coefficient.

Service Encounter Satisfaction Alpha = 0.7707

SERVPERF Alpha = 0.9202

Emotional Attachment Alpha = 0.9232

Emotional Brand Alpha = 0.8533

The above alpha coefficients indicate high internal consistency within each scale.

6.0. Conclusion

The proposed model attempts to prove the relationship between Service

Encounter Satisfaction and Service Quality. Combination of both these variables has been

termed as “Service Evaluation Index”. Emotional Attachment has been identified to be a

mediator in building Emotional Brands. This working paper clearly indicates that

Emotional Attachment acts as a partial mediator in building Emotional Brands. Service

Encounter Satisfaction and Service Performance are closely associated with each other.

24
The theoretical model on a trial run has thrown up results that are statistically significant.

The results of the reliability tests show that the constructs used in the questionnaire are fit

to be used. Further the theoretical association between the independent variables, the

mediator and the dependent variables used in the model has been found to be statistically

significant. It is proposed that this model can be used in any service industry in building

Emotional Brands.

However further testing and validation is recommended before drawing final

conclusions on this issue. Currently, such a research involving a large sample size is in

progress.

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