Relationship between brand experience, brand personality, and brand loyalty of Indonesian SMEs traditional Kain Tenun; The mediating role of brand love

Indonesia's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for the economy, but with increasing competition and brand options, they face challenges in building strong brands and brand loyalty. To survive, SMEs must expand and generate customer loyalty to achieve marketing goals. This study has evaluated the competitiveness of SMEs in Indonesia that specialise in traditional kain tenun. The investigation focuses on assessing brand love and brand loyalty. This study presents a framework that breaks down brand experience and brand personality as factors and identifies brand love as a mediator, based on the theories of multidimensional brand loyalty and interpersonal love. This study involved a total of 384 customers who purchased the traditional kain tenun brand from SMEs. Data for all the study variables were collected through direct survey questionnaires. The primary statistical approach employed in this study was the partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM). The results suggested that all variables had a favourable and substantial impact on both, brand love and brand loyalty. The study examining brand personality qualities revealed that sincerity and competence had a notable and favourable impact on brand loyalty. However, the excitement and sophistication components did not have a favourable and substantial impact on brand love. The findings also confirmed the existence of a mediating impact of brand love between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Moreover, the mediating impact is absent in the excitement, sophistication, and ruggedness components of the brand personality. In summary, the findings suggested that the model effectively comprehended the development of brand loyalty in SMEs specialising in traditional kain tenun. The study presented and examined the theoretical and practical consequences, as well as the limits and suggestions for further research.