Do Consumer Sentiments Mediate the Relationship Between Consumer Solidarity and Brand Loyalty? An In-Depth Analysis of Gaza’s Supportive Marketing Strategies

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework on which this research is based is the Value-Emotion-Behaviour (VEB) framework which as per (Islam et al., 2024) consists of detailing how value orientations trigger emotional reactions which in turn facilitates consumer behaviour especially in situations where ethical and political issues are involved. The VEB framework is more suitable in the context of solidarity-based loyalty, as internalised moral values are the initial cause of emotional involvement and behavioural commitment before the Stimulus-Organism-Response model which assumes the externally caused causality, as suggested by (Ahmadian et al., 2023).

In this context, consumer solidarity to Gaza is the value-based orientation embedded in the moral, humanitarian, and political identification. Consumer sentiments will be the emotional process by which these values are converted into market place behaviour. Empathy, moral outrage and compassion and other emotions have been demonstrated to serve as evaluative signals that influence consumption decisions in political consumerism situations as proposed by (Hanchukova & Velikova, 2025) and echoed in further moral emotion studies. Brand loyalty is thus the behavioural result of this value-emotion chain as opposed to a direct response to marketing stimuli.

The supportive marketing strategies are placed as contextual amplifiers in the VEB framework as opposed to the causal stimulus. As indicated by (Patwardhan et al., 2020) this kind of strategies are congruence cues of value, and emotion authenticity-enhancement, reinforcing or diminishing the transfer of solidarity-based values into loyalty. The fact that supportive marketing strategies are theoretically treated as a moderator in VEB is logically consistent since it preconditions the power of value activation and emotional resonance without the violation of the logic of internal models. Hence, the study offers a logical explanation of how the values of solidarity, emotional reactions, and supportive brand actions collectively contribute to the establishment of loyalty in the Gaza context by implementing the VEB framework.

2.2. Hypothesis Development

2.2.1. Consumer Solidarity and Brand Loyalty

Consumer solidarity has been observed to be an important factor of determination of consumer behaviour especially in situations where humanitarian crises and moral contestation are involved. According to (Ahmadian et al., 2023; and Stylidis et al., 2020) solidarity consumption is a tendency where consumer wants to demonstrate ethical fitment by making a decision in a marketplace instead of depending on a solely utilitarian decision. Such consumption gains particular relevance in cases when the brands conspicuously identify themselves with social causes that are controversial.

In response to this phenomenon, (Hanchukova & Velikova, 2025) present empirical data, which supports the fact that solidarity with a country in crisis has a positive and significant impact on the purchase intentions of consumers to products manufactured in a particular country. They found that solidarity comes as a result of positive country image and familiarity, which is translated to supportive consumption behaviour. It is also worth noting that solidarity also enhanced perceptions of product authenticity, but not the perceptions of quality, and authenticity alone did not influence the purchase intentions. This indicates that solidary-centred consumption is influenced more by affections and symbolic factors than cognitive product judgments.

In agreement with this argument, (Cardoso et al., 2022; Severi & Ling, 2013) also stated that value congruence among consumers and brands creates emotional attachment and loyalty especially when the brands express moral congruity. But inconsistent views are seen later. (Hsieh et al., 2023; Mumtazah et al., 2025) warns that support generated by solidarity is often unprepared and dependent on long-term communication ethics, and wonders whether loyalty that is created when a person is in crisis conditions will last. In methodology, most of the literature, such as (Hanchukova & Velikova, 2025), is based on cross-sectional survey designs and intention-based measures, which restrict the causal inference and behavioural generalisation. Consumer solidarity is a value-based orientation in the Value-Emotion-Behaviour model which displays moral and ideological commitment to humanitarian values like Gaza among consumers. Solidarity being a highly internalised value influences the way in which consumers assess brand actions and in which the supportive communication is understood. This value orientation when activated has emotional reactions leading to behavioural companions, such as brand loyalty. Consumer solidarity, based on this, is theoretically based and empirically testable predictor of loyalty in consumption situations that are politically and morally charged, that is, where consumption is a form of expression of ethical and ideological opinions.

H1: There is a statistically significant predictive relationship between consumer solidarity and brand loyalty in the context of brands’ support for Gaza.

2.2.2. Mediation Effect of Consumer Sentiments

The mediating role of consumer sentiments is vital in converting the value-driven orientations into the visible consumption behaviour, especially in the situation that is influenced by the political conflict and ethical consumption. The sentiments of consumers with the Value-Emotion-Behaviour model, the emotional mechanism that transforms value orientations to behaviour. Sentiments are not passive states of organisms elicited by stimuli, but active moral judgement. According to (Jiang et al., 2023; and Wang et al., 2024a), emotional responses chain values to behavioural consequences, which is a pattern that is gaining acceptance in the current consumer activism studies in various ethical consumption settings.

(Lopez et al., 2020; Shah et al., 2024) provides empirical evidence of the mediating role of sentiments in that they prove the existence of a strong relationship between customer sentiments and attitude towards imported brands, which in turn cause demand to local products. Their mediation analysis shows that the sentiments indirectly influence the behavioural outcomes through attitudinal process and this supports the argument that emotions are psychological channels but do not directly predict. Nevertheless, convenience sampling and cross-sectional design used in the study preclude the causal inference and cast doubt on the consequences of temporal stability of sentiment-driven behaviour.

In addition to this quantitative data, (Seyfi et al., 2023; and Wang et al., 2024b) applied a qualitative method of research to study the participation in boycotts in digitally mediated situations. Their results reveal that emotions like moral outrage, self-enhancement and perceived egregiousness are motivation of sustained boycott behaviour and the formation of sentiment is dynamic and process based not a fixed reaction. This criticizes previous models which posit that sentiment-behaviour relationships are linear and emphasizes the changing nature of emotional mediation. However, the qualitative aspect of the study limits the ability to generalise and predict behaviour.

Regarding the lens of crisis-marketing, (Adekuajo et al., 2023) find out that emotionally resonant approaches that prioritise the community support and consumer-focused communication throughout the COVID-19 crisis have increased brand resilience and long-term loyalty. As much as consumer sentiments were not assumed to be a unique behaviour driver, the outcomes reinforce the Value-Emotion-Behaviour logic by demonstrating how the values of solidarity determine the level of emotional reactions that are directed to brand-related results. Nevertheless, there is limited explanatory clarity because there is no direct empirical test on emotional pathways and because they depend on synthesised evidence as opposed to longitudinal or experimental validation. Together these studies come to the conclusion of the significance of consumer sentiments as mediating variables but disagree on the consistency, strength and duration. In politically sensitive situations where consumer solidarity is emotionally loaded like Gaza, it is probable that sentiments serve the pivotal role of catalysing solidarity into brand loyalty. These arguments lead to formulation second hypothesis H2 of the study;

H2: Consumer sentiments significantly mediate the association between consumer solidarity and brand loyalty in the context brands’ support for Gaza

2.2.3. Moderating Effect of Supportive Marketing Strategies

The supportive marketing strategies have also been studied more as contextual processes that influence the compliance of consumer emotion to brand related results more so in ethically and politically sensitive settings. The supportive marketing strategies can be viewed as context amplification within the framework of Value-Emotion-Behaviour, where the value-based orientations and emotional reactions are converted to behavioural results. Instead of being some environmental stimuli, these strategies indicate the congruence of values and authenticity, and thus reinforce or undermine the connections between consumer sentiments and brand loyalty, as suggested by (Quaye et al., 2022; Shahid et al., 2022).

Previous studies such as (Ilyas et al., 2021; Ismail, 2023) of cause related and brand activism marketing indicate that positive consumer sentiments and solidarity increase the degree of loyalty through supportive marketing efforts that strengthen the perceived value congruence. (Islam et al., 2024) argue that through proactive and authentic social initiatives, emotional ties are strengthened hence resulting in positive loyalty. Equally, (Adekuajo et al., 2023) discloses that consumers who are emotionally attached to a brand and thus become determined and resistant to switch brands when the brands remain active in socio-political matters. These studies however warn that inconsistency or symbolic involvement can break down the trust, which can cancel out the loyalty-enhancing effects of positive sentiments.

Opposite evidence can be found in (Ahmadian et al., 2023) claims, stating that supportive marketing can work against the company when regarded as performative or opportunistic, especially in polarised situations. Their results indicate that even a well-developed positive feeling cannot be transformed into loyalty in the case of marketing activities, which are not authentic. To some extent, both analytically and methodologically, this research is based on experimental designs of vignette research, which can be better internal validity but restrict external validity of behaviour in the real world.

In addition, (Tasci et al., 2022) show that the crisis-responsive or supportive marketing approach has the power to moderate sentiment-loyalty relationships by instilling emotional reassurance and moral validation, particularly in the case of humanitarian crises. They, however, have cross-sectional designs that limit the knowledge of long-term moderating effects. In its turn, as (Alexander, 2024) conclude, the digital advocacy and supportive messages enhance emotional involvement and loyalty, although the effect is not uniformly significant across cultural and political backgrounds, which represent the boundaries that previous research did not consider. These arguments lead to formation of third hypothesis H3 of the study;

H3: Supportive marketing strategies, statistically and significant moderates the predictive association between consumer solidarity and brand loyalty in the context of brands’ support for Gaza.

The hypothesised relationships can be seen in Fig. (1):