Role of ethical marketing in driving consumer brand relationships and brand loyalty: A sustainable marketing approach

Abstract

This research is focused on studying the impact of ethical marketing practices on value-adding product sustainability and customer brand relationship sustainability. It further investigates the consequent effects of value-adding product sustainability and customer brand relationship sustainability on brand loyalty. Data for this study were collected from a sample of 1500 customers having multiple interactions with goods and brands of retail organizations in Pakistan. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) using SPSS 24.0 to analyze our data. The findings of this paper provide empirical support to the proposed relationships. More specifically, ethical marketing practices were found to have a significant impact on value-adding product sustainability and customer-value brand relationship sustainability. The findings also support a positive impacts of value-adding product sustainability and customer-value brand relationship sustainability on brand loyalty. This study provides some valuable implications for the theory and practice in that it identifies and empirically validates key ethical marketing factors affecting loyalty in business-to-consumer interactions. Besides, this study advocates implications for firms regarding some key aspects of ethical marketing practices that should be strengthened to achieve sustained brand loyalty.