The Influence Of Hometown Attachment On Brand Loyalty Of Geographical Indication Agricultural Products

On 20 July 2020,the Council of the European Union formally signed the Agreement on Geographical Indications.100 agricultural products with Chinese geographical indications,including Yantai apples,Korla pear and Anji White tea,were included in the first batch of protected list.The agreement will enter into force on March 1,2021;On May30,2022,the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the Notice on Implementing the 2022 Protection Project for Geographical Indication Agricultural Products,proposing to support the development of another 200 geographical indication agricultural products in China every year.At the same time,with the rapid popularization of online shopping and social media,more and more geographical indication agricultural products come into people’s vision,bringing consumers more consumption choices.Due to the special naming method of geographical indication agricultural products "place name+product name",will the tourists living in a foreign country and going out of the country have a special liking for geographical indication agricultural products from their hometown?Therefore,it is of profound practical significance to explore the influence of consumers’ affection to their hometown,namely "hometown attachment",on the brand loyalty of agricultural products with geographical indications of their hometown.In this paper,the geographical indication of hometown agricultural products as the research object,through the study of attachment theory,"emotion-behavior" theory,positive emotion expansion theory,etc.,to build a theoretical research model of hometown attachment-brand loyalty,at the same time,the introduction of customer fit as an intermediary variable,to verify the mediating role of hometown attachment in the influence of brand loyalty.Psychological ownership was introduced as a moderating variable to verify its moderating effect on the influence of customer fit on brand loyalty.The empirical analysis software SPSS and AMOS was used to process the data of 808 valid questionnaires,and the following conclusions were drawn:hometown identity,hometown dependence,social connection and cognitive fit,emotional fit and behavioral fit had a positive impact on the brand loyalty of hometown geographical indication agricultural products;Customer cognitive fit,emotional fit and behavioral fit play a partial mediating role among hometown identity,hometown dependence,social connection and brand loyalty.Psychological ownership can positively regulate the influence of customer fit on brand loyalty.Based on the research conclusion,this paper puts forward some feasible suggestions on the marketing of geographical indication agricultural products.First of all,attention should be paid to the publicity of geographical indication agricultural products.For example,create local official accounts--"Taste of hometown"--on different short video platforms.Professional teams or famous local video bloggers are hired to shoot.The video content mainly focuses on the geographical indications of agricultural products in the hometown,as well as the growing environment and the life of the growers.Secondly,attach importance to customer fit management and arousal of psychological ownership.For example,to build a fan group,appeal to fans to share,comment,like,at the same time appeal to fans to put forward the current video,product quality,packaging and other problems or suggestions for improvement.Finally,we should pay attention to the establishment and maintenance of brand loyalty of new and old customers.For example,the official flagship store can give a certain discount to each first-time customer,apply for a member points card,and give corresponding blessings and greetings to each member customer during holidays and special moments,such as the Start of winter and Spring.