The Customer Engagement/Value Interface: An Exploratory Investigation

After generating significant interest among marketing practitioners, the customer engagement (CE) concept is rapidly gaining traction in the academic marketing literature. Although pioneering research has provided foundational insights in this emerging area, little is known regarding the ways in which CE may contribute to generating customer value (CV) and ensuing loyalty for utilitarian and hedonic brands. Addressing this research gap, this paper develops a conceptual model of the CE/CV interface for utilitarian and hedonic brands, which proposes: (i) The existence of a curvilinear relationship between CE/CV for utilitarian and hedonic brands; and (ii) Up to a focal brand-, category-, consumer-, and situation-specific optimum, growing CE generates greater CV increases for hedonic, than for utilitarian brands. By drawing on a sample of 14 consumers, depth-interviewing/focus group findings provided exploratory evidence for contentions (i) and (ii). The paper concludes with an overview of key research limitations and implications.