Brand Preference on the Edge of Customer Engagement, Mental Accounting, Attitude and Customers’ Biasness: An ISM Approach for Financial Products

In the present-day digital marketing landscape, financial products are aggressively promoted alongside traditional marketing strategies. So, the main purpose of this study is to examine the structural relationship between customer engagement, mental accounting, attitude, customers’ biases and brand preference among individual investors in the context of marketable financial products. Using a descriptive research design, this study employs interpretative structural modelling, a qualitative tool, to emphasize the structural relationships that influence individual investors’ brand preferences. Key findings refer to customer engagement serving as the main driver of all other elements. Consequently, mental accounting, attitude and bias play an increasing role in influencing individual investors’ brand preferences. This study offers the implications with important strategic inputs for marketing financial products like mutual funds and systematic investment plans. Further, this article clarifies the role of mental accounting within these relationships, which helps to better understand consumers’ behaviour towards financial products, as these products are perceived differently in different contexts. According to this study’s novelty, no prior study has examined the interplay of factors such as customer engagement, mental accounting, brand attitude, customers’ biases and brand preference. This study offers a new academic perspective as well as strategic implications for financial markets.