Brand Gender in the Global Smartphone Market and Relationship with Customer Loyalty and Brand Equity in Iran

This research aims to investigate whether smartphone brands have gender from the perspective of Iranian users and examine the relationship between different genders of smartphones and brand equity with mediating role of customer loyalty. This is a quantitative study that uses inferential statistics to evaluate hypotheses. A standardized questionnaire with 26 questions was used as the research instrument. The statistical population consisted of users of the six most widely-used smartphone brands in Iran (Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Sony and Nokia), who could participate in the online survey through social networks (Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram). The simple random probability sampling method involved 472 samples. Smart PLS version 3 and SPSS version 26 were used to analyze the data. The research was carried out from June 2022 to February 2023. The results show that smartphones have gender from the perspective of Iranian users. Brand femininity and masculinity correlate significantly and positively with customer loyalty to smartphones. Customer loyalty has a significant and positive relationship with brand equity in smartphones. Both brand femininity and masculinity increase brand equity through customer loyalty, with brand femininity having a more significant impact on brand equity than brand masculinity. The biological gender of smartphone users has no relationship with customer loyalty and does not affect their perception of brand femininity and masculinity.