1. Introduction

With the growing abundance of material life and constant satisfaction of the spiritual world, persons’ desire to consume is getting higher and higher. Capital and funds are growing rapidly in brand consumption, which becoming the key to the consumer market. Therefore, all kinds of brands need to fully seize the opportunity to firmly grasp the consumers and strengthen their brand loyalty. People often think that brand satisfaction and brand value are the keys to brand loyalty. However, many different factors control the brand loyalty of consumers to a greater or lesser extent. Are these the only two aspects that matter? How to comprehensively understand the influence of various levels of factors on brand loyalty? The article explores in depth three different factors for the effect on brand loyalty via literature review method. Based on current research, the study examines the impact of emotional, social and cognitive factors on brand loyalty and attempt to elucidate their mechanisms. This research refines the three various respects. Firstly, explore the influence of emotional factors and look for different ways to affect brand loyalty directly and indirectly. Then, investigate diverse social and cognitive factors and attempt to figure out how they relate to brand loyalty. This study analyzes the factors that affect brand loyalty for the brand side, and hopes that brands can take full consideration to improve brand loyalty.

2. The Influencing of Emotional Factors on Brand Loyalty

In the beginning, the research tries to find the influence of emotional factors on brand loyalty. This research utilizes an approach to structural equation modeling, drawing upon data obtained from 300 post-graduate students in Iran through convenience sampling [1]. The research encompasses two product categories of smartphones and apparel brands [1]. The result demonstrates that consumers’ love for a brand plays the most important role in influencing their loyalty to the brand in the relational chain with brands [1]. The study suggests that brand love is the most antecedent of brand loyalty [1]. Besides, it also can indicate that the process of moving from contentment to loyalty depends heavily on emotional structures like brand love and emotional attachment [1]. This finding is considered by Thomson and Park in 2005 and notes that emotional brand loyalty is based on brand satisfaction [2]. Therefore, the customer loving a brand tends to become brand loyal to it [3]. Additionally, there is an advantageous and dramatically important influencing of brand emotional confidence on brand satisfaction. In consequence, great brand satisfaction often leads to higher brand loyalty. Therefore, brand love, emotional attachment, brand interaction, emotional assurance and brand contentment are crucial factors for brand loyalty. Then, the research would investigate the pertinent antecedent of the brand loyalty model employing a quantitative methodology with interviewees from different fields in the 190-company chemical emulsion market [4]. Every industry in the chemical sector adopts a multi-supplier policy with two to four vendors [4]. In the survey, it shows that brand loyalty is more affected by rational brand quality than by perceived value, which proves that the role of rational aspects is dominant in consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty [4]. As a result, customers’ decision journey is influenced stronger by function factors like product performance, service attitude and something else than by perceived factors like self-interest or other-induced. Emotional brand association is easier to utilize higher product quality to affect brand loyalty compared to the route of brand associations, quality, satisfaction and loyalty [4]. Overall, aside from emotional factors, rational brand quality is also vital to brand loyalty and the final purchase decision, while perceived value is less important [4].

From the above research, the author finds that brand satisfaction not only leads to brand loyalty directly but also, as an intermediary, lets various emotional factors influence brand loyalty indirectly. Emotional factors are divided into all kinds of categories, such as brand love, brand interaction, brand contentment, emotional assurance and emotional attachment. They all have an impact on brand loyalty to a greater or less extent. In addition, the author discovers another factor named “rational factor” play a crucial role in brand loyalty too, which represents that the product itself is also a reference except for emotional factors. It means rational factors and emotional factors complement each other, while perceived value seems to make less difference. If a brand wants to improve their customer loyalty, it need not just do a good job of customer emotional value and do a great job of the quality level of their own products. However, there are still some problems in these researches. Because of scope limitation, the researches need to establish generalizability with a broader range of customer groups. Therefore, the future research should evaluate the same categories of product in diverse areas and crowds or refer to more different product types to boost the persuasiveness of the overall research.

3. The Influencing of Social and Cognitive Factors on Brand Loyalty

Next, the research discusses how social and cognitive factors influence brand loyalty. Empirical analysis (SEM) and qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) are two methods used in research reports to illustrate the mechanisms and reasons behind consumer’s shifting brand loyalty [5]. Meanwhile, the empirical research uses an online survey consumers’ intentions to buy diverse brand of product [5]. Through the consequence of SEM, it indicates that the appeal of a competing brand would have a detrimental effect on the existing brand’s value and image recognition, which would cause detrimental emotions in original brand, leading to switch brand loyalty intention [5]. When a consumer has many different brand choices, brand loyalty seems to be more easily shaken by an alternative. Besides, brand recognition can affect on switching brand loyalty intention and it can produce an influence on switching intention indirectly through emotion [5]. From the result of the study, it finds that the reciprocal result of alternative attraction, detrimental brand image recognition, detrimental brand emotion, and website anxiety is the formation of switching brand loyalty intention [5]. With the increasing abundance of material life and the constant satisfaction of the spiritual world, consumers who has low or moderate consumption levels initially buy more product gradually, leading to become more loyal to the brand. Sometimes, consumers are easily attracted by advice from friends, families and all kinds of social media networks like TikTok and Instagram when selecting product or brand. Because different people or social media platforms give various subjective suggestions or brand choices for consumers, which will affect individual brand choices and results in the instability of brand loyalty. Customers always want to consult others to make sure that they make the right choice and choose the perfect answer, but these social factors would gradually change the brand loyalty of their customers. For example, according to a study that gathered information from a survey of one thousand customers at a Native American casino, brand community integration plays an important role in fostering consumer loyalty to the brand and it becomes a key driving factor of brand loyalty, exceeding brand satisfaction [6]. A good brand community integration tends to stand for a long-term brand loyalty. Through the other research which pays attention to the mobile phone preferences of university students, it demonstrates that customer contentment affects customer loyalty than client retention [7]. Moreover, consumer perceived value and quality are also the main elements influencing customers and brands [7]. By contrast, only the structural bond importantly enhances client loyalty for disgruntled customers by impacting utilitarian value and various categories of bonds have diverse effect on consumer utilitarian and hedonic value, resulting in boost customer loyalty in different customer groups [8]. However, for satisfied consumers, hedonic value is observably influence by the social bond, as well as utilitarian value is dramatically influenced by the structural bond, and they have an important impact on customer loyalty [8]. Consumer loyalty to the brand is impacted by many social responsibility elements like morality, the green environment, philanthropy and consumer centricity, to different degrees [9]. Based on a survey conducted in Malaysia’s retail banking sector, the research finds that customer-centricity has the greatest impact on brand loyalty, while philanthropic factors have the least impact [9]. Obviously, customers themselves are the key to maintaining brand loyalty, so brands need to pay more attention to customers in addition to the product itself or advertising. From another social factor-religiosity, a research utilizes a non-probability sampling method called purposive sampling in order to collect data from 100 interviewees who were sufficiently representative of the overall respondents and analyse data by the Structural Equation Model [10]. When consumers decide to buy the Muslim clothing, brand always think about improving customer loyalty, basing on religiosity, in order to let consumers continue buying Muslim clothing loyally [10]. Moreover, through sustaining marketing campaigns, brands make the products of the modern market particularly in Muslim fashion stores easy to be remembered by consumers so that it can adopt brand loyalty [10]. Finally, the city of Tehran carries out a survey by selecting 475 persons, using structural equation model and factor analysis [11]. It shows that a strong brand is conducive to building a sustained partnership between customers and businesses, leading to a greater brand loyalty [11]. It means a consumer’s identification with the brand affects different factors, such as perception value, customer satisfaction and brand trust, which all have indirect or direct impact on brand loyalty [11].

These various researches expound that many social and cognitive factors have different influences on brand loyalty. Friends, families, social media platforms, advertising, consumer themselves and all kinds of brand campaigns all have a strong correlation with brand loyalty. Improving customer loyalty and brand loyalty must take each element in account.

4. Conclusion

The study finds that good emotional, social and cognitive factors are all conducive to brand loyalty. They are the key elements in customers’ reliance on the brand. All kinds of different emotional factors are divided into brand love, brand interaction, brand satisfaction, emotional assurance and emotional attachment. Meanwhile, many social and cognitive factors including friends, families, social media platforms, advertising, consumer themselves and all kinds of brand campaigns are associated with brand loyalty. Therefore, good emotional, social and cognitive factors are the key elements to brand satisfaction and brand loyalty. Brands need to grasp every element and detail. Dealing with these three aspects is more likely to increase brand loyalty. This may be explained by the following facts. Firstly, emotional structures such as brand love or emotional attachment are significant in the formation of brand loyalty. This research demonstrates that good brand satisfaction as a key medium often leads to higher brand loyalty. Secondly, various social and cognitive factors like brand attraction, brand cognition, brand value and different external disturbance also affect brand loyalty. Social and cognitive factors as external factors are more controllable for the brand. Brands need to take each element in account. This research explains the influence of emotional, social and cognitive factors on brand loyalty. It can help brands attract consumers more easily and strengthen brand loyalty. Besides, other researchers can also carry out future empirical studies based on current research results. The contribution of this research is to dig out different influencing factors of brand loyalty, which is conducive to the development of brands. Finally, in this research, it needs to establish generalizability with a wider range of consumers because of scope limitation. Therefore, the future research needs to expand the scope of the study population and get more regional survey information in order to facilitate the perfection of this study.