Factors Influencing Brand Evangelism: Experience from Sri Lankan Toothpaste Market

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the antecedents of brand evangelism in the toothpaste market in Sri Lanka. Further, the study focuses on how brand heritage aids in creating brand evangelists and whether inter-generational influence contributes to a toothpaste brand. Though many studies have been conducted to measure brand evangelism, it will be the first time the concept will be used to measure brand evangelism towards a toothpaste brand, and this will be first time brand heritage and intergenerational influence are tested in Sri Lanka. The current study will be taking a mixed approach because the researchers will be studying the relationship between antecedents and brand evangelism and influence of brand heritage in a quantitative method. In addition to that, they will also be studying the intergenerational influence on toothpaste brands in a qualitative approach since it cannot be tested through a questionnaire due to its complex nature. So, it will take a convergent parallel research approach. Due to the resource and time restraints, the primary data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire to address the quantitative study and an interview was done to collect data to address the qualitative aspect of the research. These results showed that among the antecedents, only consumer brand identification and brand trust had significant influence towards brand evangelism. Furthermore, it showed that brand heritage acted as a moderator for the antecedents. Although the study helps to fill a gap in knowledge that still exists in the literature in the Sri Lankan FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) domain, limitations do exist. A limitation emerges from the representativeness of the sample. In fact, in this study, there is a prevalence of only selected districts, and therefore, this may limit the generalisability of the medium. Furthermore, only two antecedents of the framework that was developed deemed to be significant. Future research can focus on extending this model to encompass other theoretical constructs by inserting new antecedents over the variables considered in this study. Lastly, this study was conducted for the toothpaste brand, so the results of this study may not be applicable to other brands or even other markets.

Keywords: Brand Evangelism, Brand Heritage, Consumer Brand Identification, Brand Trust, Inter-generational Influence