**5. Empirical Study**

*5.1. Building the Hierarchical Structure of Brand Attachment Attributes and Conducting Importance Evaluation*

On the basis of a literature review and consultation plus discussion with experts, we developed the "basic criterion of convenience store brand attachment" and deliberated on all kinds of principles for the evaluating factors, including brand affection, brand passion, the brand-self connection, and brand prominence. Therefore, we established the evaluation criteria of convenience store brand attachment that consumers value the most, which is illustrated in Figure 3.

This study analyzed young and older groups of consumers of three brands of convenience stores (7-Eleven, Family Mart, and Hi-Life) by fuzzy linguistic calculation and performed calculations using a fuzzy pairwise comparison matrix questionnaire completed by the subjects. Subsequently, a fuzzy average formula was used to integrate the views of all subject groups (to calculate the average). This study also obtained the fuzzy average of the consumer brand attachment factors of the young and older consumer groups and established an explicit FLPR matrix of consumer brand attachment factors. In the same way, this study continued to use the same operating procedure used to obtain the consumer brand attachment factors (second level) for calculation, and it conducted an orderly numerical value evaluation of attributes under the consumer brand attachment factors (third level): brand affection, brand passion, brand-self connection, and brand prominence. Finally, using the method of defuzzification, this study built consumer preferences for each brand's attachment factors and attributes. Hence, the data on 7-Eleven are presented in Tables 5 and 6. Table 5 indicates the weight value and sequence of brand attachment dimensions, and Table 6 indicates the weight value of consumer brand attachment attributes.

**Figure 3.** Brand attachment hierarchical structure graph of convenience stores.



Table 5 shows that brand prominence was the most important for young consumers, followed by brand passion and brand affection. For older consumers, brand-self connection mattered the most, followed by brand affection and brand prominence. Brand–self connection was the factor that involved the greatest difference between the two groups.

Table 6 shows that for young consumers of 7-Eleven, the top three final weightings were brand delight (0.0904), brand friendliness (0.0895), and brand cognition (0.0887). The top three final weightings for older consumers were brand guarantee (0.0910), brand selfidentity (0.0886), and brand friendliness (0.0882). The two groups had different preferences for the brand attachment attributes, especially in the attachment degree of the brand assurance function; in this respect, the preference of young consumers was significantly different from that of the older group.


**Table 6.** Weight value of consumer brand attachment attributes of 7-Eleven's young/older consumers.

#### *5.2. Consumer's Cognitive Difference in Brand Attachment Demand Attributes*

Regarding the three main brands of convenience stores, we also evaluated the brand attachment performance of the young and older consumer groups. In order to understand the current and expected performance and its relative position in the market and identify priorities for further improvement, the young and older consumers were asked to rate the relative performance of some similar commodities and services of the three convenience stores in terms of the 12 attributes of brand attachment. The results of the consumer groups' assessments and calculations are shown in Table 7, columns 3 and 4. Taking 7-Eleven as an example, the consumers gave their current and expected performance on "brand passion" of 7-Eleven with a triangular fuzzy rating of (4, 5, 6) and (5, 6, 7), which implies that the consumers considered their performances on "brand passion" as "good" and between "fair" and "good". The fuzzy integrated average formula was used to calculate the performance values of brand attachment and convert them into crisp numbers through defuzzification. We see from the analysis in Table 7 that for young consumers, brand cognition (0.379), brand memory (0.37), and brand friendliness (0.358) had the top 3 performance values. Additionally, brand captivation (1.1), brand passion (1.086), and brand self-identity (1.079) had the top 3 improvement rates. Meanwhile, for older consumers, brand friendliness (0.358), brand social identity (0.351), and brand guarantee (0.348) had the top 3 performance values, and brand knowledge (1.069), brand guarantee (1.061), and brand delight (1.06) had the top 3 improvement rates.


**Table 7.** Brand attachment performance value and improvement rate of 7-Eleven's young and older consumer groups.

> This study compared the performance of brand attachment with the numerical analysis of improvement rates to determine whether brand attachment achieved the expected performance. The data analysis of improvement rates in Table 7 clearly shows that for the young consumer group, 7-Eleven's current performance almost meets the expected performance. However, for the older consumer group, 7-Eleven's improvement rates in brand captivation, brand delight, brand cognition, and brand knowledge were all greater than 1.07, and all failed to meet the expected performance. 7-Eleven can work on making improvements in these areas. The HOQ in Figure 4 shows the overall performance of the three convenience stores. The young consumers of Family Mart were familiar with 7-Eleven, and the older consumers of Family Mart were slightly lacking in brand cognition, but the current performance in brand knowledge was far above the expected performance. This is a grea<sup>t</sup> advantage that should be carefully maintained. The older consumers of Hi-Life had excellent performance in brand love and brand captivation, but there was a severe lack of brand passion, brand cognition, and brand knowledge. These are the areas that need to be improved.

**Figure 4.** Performance difference analysis of brands of convenience stores.

#### *5.3. Associative Analysis of Brand Attachment and Brand Experience Management Strategy*

We listed 12 consumer brand attachment attributes (Table 1) and 12 brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans (Table 2) and asked the brand manager subjects to evaluate the degree of correlation that they have with each other. We also integrated all subjects' incidence matrices (taking the average) and ultimately obtained the fuzzy incidence matrix

of brand attachment attributes and experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans. Then, through defuzzification and by multiplying the relevant overall brand attachment attribute weight value, we obtained the correlation value of the attachment attributes and the experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans using the brand experience concept. Hence, we present the data on 7-Eleven in Appendix A. The data in the upper left corner are the values after defuzzification, and the data in the bottom right corner are the correlation values of the attachment attributes and experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans based on the brand experience concept. Ultimately, we summed the values in the bottom right corner and acquired the initial weight value of the brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans. Through standardization, we obtained the critical relative weight value of each brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plan.

We compared all analyses of the three main brands of convenience stores mentioned above to understand how consumers connect brand attachment through brand experience and how enterprises maintain their advantage. Enterprises can increase their competitive advantages by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of rival brands, as shown in Figure 5.

**Figure 5.** Relative weight value of convenience store brand experience strategy managemen<sup>t</sup> plans.

Figure 5 shows that 7-Eleven was outstanding in knowledge, affection, and participation. The highest relative weight values of the convenience store brand experience strategy managemen<sup>t</sup> plans for Family Mart were brand identity, active involvement in activities, community belongingness, and friend sharing. For Hi-Life, the function experience was the most excellent, followed by active involvement in activities and passive involvement in activities.

#### *5.4. Performance Evaluation of the Brand Experience Strategic Management Plan of Each Brand*

We used scores of 1 to 5 as evaluation scores to measure the cognitive perception of professional managers of the subject convenience stores to understand the differences among the execution, expected performance, and current performance of the brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans. The higher the evaluation score was, the more highly the subjects rated the performance. Through the specific value calculation of expected

performance and current performance, we observed differences in the subjects' evaluation of overall performance and the improvement rate for all brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans. Appendix A shows that the best current performance of 7-Eleven was in friend sharing (4.62), the best expected performance was in brand identity (4.62), the best performance was in participation (3.49), and the highest improvement rate was for function experience (1.286). Hence, the performance evaluation of brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans is illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 6 shows that the best current performance of 7-Eleven was in friend sharing, followed by participation. The current performance of both already surpasses the original expected performance, which was outstanding. However, with regard to brand identity, function experience, and utility, there is still much room for improvement. For Family Mart, the current performance of participation and active involvement in activities was the closest to the expected performance, but with regard to friend sharing and function experience, there is still much room for improvement. Finally, we clearly observed that for Hi-Life, only utility performed well, and all the other brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans did not meet expectations, which was very different from 7-Eleven and Family Mart.

## *5.5. Discussion of Results*

This study performed a traditional AHP calculation of brand attachment attribute items to observe different attributes' order and differences in importance attachment in different evaluation models. We found that the value of brand attachment attributes showed greater variability and fluctuation amplitude in the calculation process of traditional AHP, especially for older consumers. As for consistency fuzzy preference relation analysis, the fluctuation amplitude of both young and older consumers was relatively smooth, which showed the consistency and stabilization of this method. In addition, in the consistency fuzzy preference relation analysis, both young and older consumers had higher attachment levels toward "brand cognition" and "brand memory"; however, in the traditional AHP, higher attachment levels for young consumers were found for "brand memory" and "brand friendliness", whereas higher levels were found for "brand friendliness" and "brand affection" for older consumers. Hence, this study found that the priority order of brand attachment attributes had a greater fluctuation amplitude in the traditional AHP.

In addition, this study found that brand experience could be driven by brand attachment to create consumer value, and according to the psychological characteristics of consumer attachment to services or products, it could be considered by business organizations as an important component of brand experience strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> plans. These results are consistent with Shamim and Butt's [66] study and Yu and Yuan's [67] study, which validated differences in the psychological constructs of brand experience strategies on consumer attachment. Following Shamim and Butt's study, this study further extends the results in the service industry. Furthermore, in line with the findings of Huang et al. [68], they suggested that brand attachment is a mutually reinforcing outcome of the brand experience strategies. On this basis, this study integrated the attributes of brand attachment with brand experience managemen<sup>t</sup> strategies to develop a framework for the analysis process of FQFD.

Finally, the FQFD analysis of this study revealed that brand attachment has a significant influence on the choice of brand experience strategy managemen<sup>t</sup> plans, both in the data sets analyzed and in different groups (young and older consumers) [69]. In other words, when consumers experience a brand, it evokes positive and multiple psychological attachments and has a favorable impact on the emotional bond between consumers and the brand [70]. This confirms the findings of Japutra et al.'s [71] exploratory study, which found that young consumers in the UK showed attachment to Fatface Clothing because of their enjoyment of the service experience offered by the retailer. The results of this study are also consistent with Dolbec and Chebat's [72] findings that young North American consumers develop more attachment to brands that offer an impressive fashion brand experience. This study thus provides a new perspective on brand experience managemen<sup>t</sup> strategies. In contrast to previous studies that focused on satisfaction, brand equity, or word-of-mouth as influential factors of brand experience, we considered more emotional bonds, i.e., brand attachment. This is the expression of emotion, passion, and connection that is associated with valuable behavioral consequences, such as improving brand cognition and creating favorable consumer reactions [73].

## **6. Conclusions and Implications**
