The mediating role of customer satisfaction in the impact of brand image on customer loyalty in the smartphone market

In the smartphone industry where the competition is increasing with new brands and models added every day, businesses are making an effort to develop new strategies to make their own consumers, rather than their competitors, get attached to themselves and make their commerce repetitive. When the factors that are required for businesses to bring consumers to a loyal customer position are examined, it is seen that brand image and customer satisfaction variables are highlighted. The aim of this study that was prepared accordingly, is to determine if the customer satisfaction has a mediating effect on brand image's influence on customer loyalty in the smartphone market. In this frame, the data obtained through online questionnaire from 385 smartphone users with using convenience sampling method were analysed. Within the scope of research, the four-stepped The Causal Inference Approach of Baron and Kenny (1986) was used to determine the mediating role of customer satisfaction on brand image's effect on customer loyalty. The Sobel Test was used to determine the statistical significance of the mediating model and the result was statistically significant. As a result of the study, it was determined that not only brand image has a direct effect on the customer loyalty and customer satisfaction but also customer satisfaction effects customer loyalty directly. The main aim of this study is brand image's effect on customer loyalty resulted in customer satisfaction's influence on customer loyalty is 'partial mediator' variable.