Reconceptualizing Digital Emotional Branding: Emotional Brand Attachment as a Core Relational Mechanism

Abstract

This study is to examine how emotional and experiential factors shape consumers’ attachment to brands, and how such attachment translates into loyalty, engagement, and brand equity in digital environments. This study used a quantitative, descriptive-correlational research design targeting Gen Z population. Data collection was conducted through online survey. Data analysis used descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling with partial least squares (SEM-PLS) to test the conceptual framework. Findings reveal that emotional branding is a fundamental driver of the consumer–brand relationship in digital settings. Emotional drivers like brand love, brand passion, brand affinity, and brand trust - as well as the elements of experience such as perceived quality, value and satisfaction, brand differentiation, and digital engagement played a significant role in the emotional attachment to a brand. In addition, emotional brand attachment fosters long-term brand loyalty, enhances consumer engagement, and safeguards brand equity, rendering it the crucial mediating core of emotional experience that adds value.  A key theoretical contribution of this study is that emotional brand attachment is predominantly experience-based rather than directly stimulated by non-composite emotional drivers. Implications of these results highlight the importance of integrating emotional branding strategies into digital marketing practices and providing a valuable foundation for future research.