From hedonic motivation to brand love: a serial moderated mediation model in premium pet branding

Purpose This study aims to examine how hedonic motivation (HM) is translated into sustainable relationship quality in premium pet markets by testing a serial, conditional mediation wherein brand engagement and brand trust convey effects to brand love, with pet-owner identity (POI) conditioning the pathway’s strength. Design/methodology/approach Cross-sectional data were analyzed using a two-stage plan, with confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based SEM validating the measurement structure and estimating direct effects, followed by bootstrapped conditional-process models testing serial and moderated serial mediation; robustness was assessed by contrasting alternative indirect routes and inspecting conditional indices across identity levels. Findings HM raises both engagement and trust and each exerts a direct, positive effect on brand love. Evidence also supports three indirect pathways – operating through engagement alone, through trust alone and through a sequential route in which engagement precedes trust – while the persistence of the direct effect is consistent with partial mediation. The translation from engagement to trust is stronger when POI is more salient, whereas the trust-only pathway is less stable at lower identity salience, indicating an ordered, identity-contingent mechanism. Research limitations/implications This cross-sectional, self-report design limits causal inference and may inflate associations despite remedies. Generalizability is bounded to identity-rich premium pet markets. POI was modeled unidimensionally and brand trust as a global construct. Future research should use longitudinal panels and field experiments to test sequence/order, pair surveys with behavioral and service-telemetry data, decompose trust facets, model multi-facet identity and run cross-country invariance tests to probe boundary conditions and portability of the HM? ENG? TRUST? BL pathway. Practical implications Managers should orchestrate consumer experiences as a single sequenced pathway that moves audiences from initial interest to engagement and then to trust, align paid, owned and earned/shared channels to that sequence and audit pathway health by identity segment to guide investment and governance. Social implications Identity-aware engagement can mobilize prosocial outcomes – responsible pet care, community support and transparency in claims – by converting enjoyment into trust before advocacy. Yet hedonic triggers risk over-consumption and exclusion if identity cues become status gates. Practitioners should pair engaging content with credible proof, privacy-respectful community design and clear after-sales standards; foreground sustainability (e.g. sourcing, waste) and access for lower-identity or resource-constrained groups. Ethical guidance: avoid exploitative nudges, disclose endorsements and make recovery outcomes visible to sustain trust and community well-being. Originality/value This study integrates motivation, engagement, trust and love within a single explanatory framework and identifies identity salience as the boundary condition that governs pathway strength. It advances an identity-aware process account of how hedonic motives are converted into enduring brand relationships in Asian premium pet markets.