Regulatory role of brand trust in the effect of customer experience and customer-focused brand value on brand loyalty in the airline industry

Today, the increase in competition, the rapid growth of the digital world, and the increase in consumer awareness have started to push businesses towards branding. Product and services that are increasing in number and similar to each other pose a threat to both product/service providers and consumers, so brands are also the most important factor protecting producers and consumers from these threats. Customer experience is an important factor affecting brand equity and brand loyalty. Customer experience has an important place in the performance of organizations. In the literatüre, it is stated that a positive customer experience is necessary for competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, differentiation, image, loyalty and word of mouth (WOMC). Brand is the sum of the feelings and experiences related to the product/service, and companies focus their efforts on experience and differentiate. Customer experience has an important place in the performance of organizations. When the studies in the literature on airline services are examined, it is seen that there are studies to measure customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, brand value and service quality. No study has been found on the effect of customer experience and brand value on customer loyalty in airline services. Therefore, the aim of the study is to measure the effect of customer experience and brand value on customer loyalty in airline services and to investigate the mediating effect of brand trust in this relationship. In the research, hypotheses were tested using primary data. With the online survey method, 820 people were reached and 800 surveys were included in the analysis. According to the result of the study, it is seen that the effect of customer-oriented brand value on customer loyalty is significant and it has been concluded that there will be an increase in customer loyalty as customer-oriented brand value increases. As a result of the analysis of whether brand trust plays a regulatory role in the relationship between customer-oriented brand value and brand loyalty, brand trust significantly affects customer loyalty, but it has been concluded that brand trust does not have a mediator role in the relationship between brand loyalty and brand equity.