Does gender matter? Exploring the brand personality–loyalty relationship in the Indian FMCG market

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In today’s competitive and emotionally driven FMCG market, understanding how brand personality shapes consumer loyalty is vital. This study explores the impact of five brand personality dimensions – sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness – on brand loyalty, with a particular focus on the moderating role of gender. Data were collected from 316 Indian FMCG consumers and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results reveal that sincerity, excitement, and ruggedness significantly influence brand loyalty, while competence and sophistication do not. Although gender did not have a direct effect on loyalty, it moderated the influence of excitement and ruggedness, with stronger relationships among male consumers. These findings extend existing brand personality theory by showing that emotional and symbolic brand traits are more influential than technical or aspirational ones in everyday consumer categories. They also highlight the importance of demographic segmentation, suggesting that brand managers should tailor communications to reflect gender-based preferences. The study further questions the universal applicability of established brand personality models across cultures and product categories, calling for more context-sensitive brand strategies.