The Importance of Brand Liking and Brand Trust in Consumer Decision Making: Insights from Bulgarian and Hungarian Consumers During the Global Economic Crisis

This paper presents the research findings of a global brand study conductedduring the recent global economic crisis. The study sought tounderstand how four brand constructs (country-of-origin, brand familiarity,brand liking and brand trust) would influence global brandpurchase intent in a sample of consumers living in Bulgaria and Hungary.Step-wise regression models were used for the study’s twentybrands for consumers living in both countries. The regression modelsindicated that brand liking and brand trust were the most importantpredictors of purchase intent in both groups. The paper discusses therelevance of these findings for marketing global brands in post-crisisenvironments in both countries.