ABSTRACT
The broad objective of this study was to examine the determinants of brand evangelism in fashion clothing industry in Benin metropolis. The specific objectives were to ascertain the relationship among service failure recovery, brand trust, brand love, brand identification, opinion leadership, customers’ demographics and brand evangelism in the fashion clothing industry in Benin Metropolis.
The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study comprised customers of native clothes in Benin metropolis. Cochrane formular was used to determine the sample size as 385. The study mainly utilized primary source of data and the research instrument was questionnaire. Collected data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 20).
It was found that service failure recovery significantly determined positive brand referral. Brand trust, brand love, and brand identification significantly determine purchase intention. Also brand trust significantly determined oppositional brand referral. Opinion leadership was a significant determinant of purchase intentions, but was a non-significant determinant of positive brand referral, and oppositional brand referral. Based on this, it was concluded that customers of native clothes who become brand evangelist demonstrate brand trust, love, and identification towards the purchase of the clothes. It was further recommended among others that providers of native clothes who want to have brand evangelist as customers should consistently pursue service failure recovery, build trust, adhere to user specification, recognize brand evangelists and institute effective interactive platforms.
