Title: The impact of touchpoints on customer engagement: the mediating role of relationship quality and brand attachment

Authors: Surasak Suthongwan; Chanongkorn Kuntonbutr

Addresses: Faculty of Business Administration, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Pathum Thani, 12110, Thailand ' Faculty of Business Administration, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Pathum Thani, 12110, Thailand

Abstract: We examine the impact of traditional and digital touchpoints on customer engagement, with relationship quality and brand attachment as mediators. Data from 603 current automobile users in Thailand were collected using a survey and analysed using structural equation modelling. The fit indexes indicated that the data had an acceptable fit to the model. Only digital touchpoint was found to have a direct effect on customer engagement. Relationship quality was found to mediate the relationship between both traditional and digital touchpoints on customer engagement. Moreover, brand attachment mediated only the relationship between traditional touchpoints and customer engagement. Traditional and digital touchpoints seemed to have a differential effect on customer engagement. These findings provided marketing practitioners with some insight into how to craft a marketing strategy with better results.

Keywords: customer engagement; traditional touchpoint; digital touchpoint; relationship quality; brand attachment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2023.129871

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2023 Vol.14 No.2, pp.156 - 170

Received: 05 Jun 2021
Accepted: 30 Aug 2021
Published online: 03 Apr 2023 *

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