Word of Mouth Impact on Brand Evangelism of Supermarket Own Brands

Abstract

When considering the supermarket's own brands, the profit percentage of those products are high without many promotions, the reason for that is the word of mouth impact. So the study aimed to investigate the word of mouth impact on the brand evangelism of supermarket own brands in Sri Lanka. The researcher used a quantitative study approach with 384 responses. The sample was selected based on the convenience sampling technique. To assess overall questionnaire validity, KMO value was used, and its reliability was measured through Cronbach's Alpha. Data analysis was made with the support of statistical package for social science software. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the impacts of independent variables on the dependent variable. The tested independent variables were brand identification, brand trust, brand satisfaction, brand salience & opinion leadership. All the hypotheses are accepted, and seems all independent variables are impacted on the dependent variable. The researcher found that opinion leadership plays a major role, while brand trust did not impact brand evangelism. The researcher suggested that industry focus more on the effect of brand evangelism on the service sector while considering customer behavior related concepts as independent variables. Further, it supports the industry to identify the weight towards each factor’s effect on word of mouth. The study supported filling the practice gap and theoretical gap related to the retail industry and contributed to academics, industry, and marketing.