From hedonic motivation to brand love: a serial moderated mediation model in premium pet branding
Worapoj Sirichareechai, Pashatai CharutawephonnukoonPurpose
This study aims to examine how hedonic motivation (HM) is translated into sustainable relationship quality in premium pet markets by testing a serial, conditional mediation wherein brand engagement and brand trust convey effects to brand love, with pet-owner identity (POI) conditioning the pathway’s strength.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional data were analyzed using a two-stage plan, with confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based SEM validating the measurement structure and estimating direct effects, followed by bootstrapped conditional-process models testing serial and moderated serial mediation; robustness was assessed by contrasting alternative indirect routes and inspecting conditional indices across identity levels.
Findings
HM raises both engagement and trust and each exerts a direct, positive effect on brand love. Evidence also supports three indirect pathways – operating through engagement alone, through trust alone and through a sequential route in which engagement precedes trust – while the persistence of the direct effect is consistent with partial mediation. The translation from engagement to trust is stronger when POI is more salient, whereas the trust-only pathway is less stable at lower identity salience, indicating an ordered, identity-contingent mechanism.
Research limitations/implications
This cross-sectional, self-report design limits causal inference and may inflate associations despite remedies. Generalizability is bounded to identity-rich premium pet markets. POI was modeled unidimensionally and brand trust as a global construct. Future research should use longitudinal panels and field experiments to test sequence/order, pair surveys with behavioral and service-telemetry data, decompose trust facets, model multi-facet identity and run cross-country invariance tests to probe boundary conditions and portability of the HM? ENG? TRUST? BL pathway.
Practical implications
Managers should orchestrate consumer experiences as a single sequenced pathway that moves audiences from initial interest to engagement and then to trust, align paid, owned and earned/shared channels to that sequence and audit pathway health by identity segment to guide investment and governance.
Social implications
Identity-aware engagement can mobilize prosocial outcomes – responsible pet care, community support and transparency in claims – by converting enjoyment into trust before advocacy. Yet hedonic triggers risk over-consumption and exclusion if identity cues become status gates. Practitioners should pair engaging content with credible proof, privacy-respectful community design and clear after-sales standards; foreground sustainability (e.g. sourcing, waste) and access for lower-identity or resource-constrained groups. Ethical guidance: avoid exploitative nudges, disclose endorsements and make recovery outcomes visible to sustain trust and community well-being.
Originality/value
This study integrates motivation, engagement, trust and love within a single explanatory framework and identifies identity salience as the boundary condition that governs pathway strength. It advances an identity-aware process account of how hedonic motives are converted into enduring brand relationships in Asian premium pet markets.