Customer brand engagement during service lockdown

Hollebeek, L., Smith, D., Kasabov, E., Hammedi, W., Warlow, A. and Clark, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7123-4248 (2021) Customer brand engagement during service lockdown. Journal of Services Marketing, 35 (2). JSM-05-2020-0199.R2. ISSN 0887-6045 doi: 10.1108/JSM-05-2020-0199

Abstract/Summary

While customer brand engagement (CBE) research has advanced important insight, most studies to-date explore CBE under regular, free-market conditions, yielding an important knowledge gap regarding its manifestation under less regular conditions, including disaster/pandemics. We therefore explore CBE with essential/non-essential service during COVID-19-prompted citizen lockdown. Based on a review, we develop a framework of lockdown-based CBE with essential/non-essential service interactions, which are conceptualized by their respective capacity to meet differing needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. We view lockdown-based essential/non-essential service interactions to differentially impact CBE, as summarized in a set of Propositions. The framework depicts lockdown-based essential/non-essential service interactions and their respective impact on CBE. We propose two essential service modes (i.e., socially distant/platform-mediated interactions) and two non-essential service modes (i.e., service closure/platform-mediated interactions), which we hypothesize to differently affect CBE. Moreover, we view the associations between our lockdown-based service modes and CBE to be moderated by customers’ regulatory focus (i.e., promotion/prevention), as formalized in our Propositions. Given our focus on lockdown-based CBE, this paper adds unique insight to the literature. It also raises ample opportunities for further study, as outlined. This research yields important managerial implications, including the suggested adoption of differing tactics/strategies to leverage promotion/prevention-focused customers’ brand engagement during lockdown. By exploring the effects of lockdown-based essential/non-essential service modes on promotion/prevention-focused customers’ brand engagement, this paper adds novel insight.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-pure-test.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/92868
Identification Number/DOI	10.1108/JSM-05-2020-0199
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Digitalisation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship
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