Satisfaction and Trust in Loyalty Programs: The Mediating Role of Program Loyalty in Building Brand Loyalty
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51137/wrp.ijrcr.1073Keywords:
Loyalty Programs, Brand Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Trust, MediationAbstract
Loyalty programs are among the most widely used marketing instruments in retail, yet their contribution to brand loyalty is still not fully understood. One important question is whether satisfaction and trust in a loyalty program influence brand loyalty directly or whether their effects first need to be translated into loyalty toward the program itself. This study addresses this question by distinguishing between program loyalty and brand loyalty, two concepts that have often been treated as a single construct in previous research.Using measurement scales adapted from Molinillo et al. (2020, 2022), data from 91 adult loyalty program users in Germany were analyzed using OLS regression, mediation analysis, and group comparisons. The findings show a clear pattern. Satisfaction influences brand loyalty only indirectly through program loyalty. Trust, in contrast, affects brand loyalty both indirectly through program loyalty and directly. These results suggest that program loyalty is the mechanism through which satisfaction translates into brand loyalty, whereas trust contributes to brand loyalty through two different pathways. From a research perspective, the findings demonstrate that combining program loyalty and brand loyalty into a single construct can hide important differences in how loyalty programs create value. From a managerial perspective, the results indicate that improving program quality primarily strengthens brand loyalty by increasing program loyalty, while building trust provides an additional way to strengthen customers’ attachment to the brand.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Annelie Burau, Paula Focke, Jonna Johannsen, Pascal Nissen (Author)
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