Experiential Marketing and Brand Usage Intention: The Mediating Role of Brand Engagement and the Moderating Effect of Perceived Risk

Abstract

The brand usage intention represents a continues challenge for service companies. However, previous research efforts have not been sufficient to find out thepredictors,intervening and contingencies variables that effect brand usage intention particularly in the mobile taxi. Therefore, this study examined the impact of experiential marketing and brand usage intention through the brand engagement as mediator and perceived risk as moderator.Base onTheory of PlannedBehavior and Social Exchange Theory the study developed five main hypotheses. The study used positivism philosophy and the research enquired to be an explanatory where questionnaire was the main source of data collection. The data were collected base on non-probability (convenience sampling) among the customer of mobile taxi booking application companies in Khartoum state and 384 questionnaires were distributed, and the response rate was (86%). The study used Structural Equation Modeling and path analysis to analysis the data. The empirical results show a partial relationship between the dimensions of experiential marketing, brand engagement and brand usage intention. The results also found that some dimensions of brand engagement mediate the relationship between experiential marketing and brand usage intention. The findings reveal that perceived risk weakly moderate the relationship between experiential marketing and brand engagement. Besides these, several theoretical and practical implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.