A framework to attain brand promise in an online setting

This study aims to investigate how price and other service brand attributes (such as website attractiveness, efficiency, privacy, fulfilment) determine e‐brand promise/reputation and the e‐loyalty of shoppers in an online setting.

Using the convenience sampling method, a survey research was carried out during a two‐day airline exhibition among experienced respondents who had purchased online tickets in the past. To identify what determines online brand reputation and its effect on e‐loyalty, structural equation modelling using the two‐step approach was performed.

Fulfilment and competitive price offers have the most significant impact on e‐loyalty, with a full mediation impact (via online brand reputation), whilst website attractiveness has a partial impact. These simultaneously confirm the role of e‐brand reputation as a mediator construct and its antecedents and its relationship with e‐loyalty.

The mediation impact further increases the strength of brand reputation as a construct when modelling consumer responses in an online setting. In particular, the full indirect impact (price and fulfilment) was able to explain how online brand reputation was formed and brand promise can be achieved.

The practical contribution of the study and its managerial implications can be seen in the context of defining strategy and positioning. By confirming that different brand enactments are found in different settings (for example, price, fulfilment, site's attractiveness), this study offers some insights into a company's site strategic brand positioning and differentiation. For example, appropriate enactments, such as price, fulfilment and the attractiveness of the site, could be addressed when designing and enhancing online brand reputation and e‐loyalty. Sample size limitation and generalisation is limited to within the internet airline setting.

While existing research mainly focuses on the effect of service quality and image attributes of e‐loyalty, the current research focuses on other aspects of brand differentiation – e‐brand reputation and the important influencing elements, such as price and website attractiveness – which hitherto have often been ignored in an online setting. In other words, this study highlights the most important attributes that will help to “meet” the online service brand promise through e‐brand reputation.