This research aims to examine the effect of brand awareness on brand love for the Somethinc brand in Padang City, with brand image serving as a mediating variable. The increasing competition in the local cosmetic industry requires brands to not only focus on product quality but also on creating strong emotional bonds with consumers. Brand love, as an expression of consumers’ emotional at-tachment, is an essential factor in ensuring long-term loyalty. In this context, brand awareness is often considered the first step toward building consumer perceptions, while brand image plays a crucial role in shaping those perceptions into meaningful emotional connections. This research employs a quantitative approach by distributing questionnaires to 140 respondents who have used Somethinc products. Re-spondents were selected using a purposive sampling method to ensure the relevance of their experiences. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling based on Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) with the SmartPLS software. SEM-PLS was chosen for its ability to test complex relationships between latent variables and to evaluate both direct and indirect effects. The results show that brand awareness exerts a positive and significant influence on brand image, indicating that higher consumer awareness enhances the way they perceive the brand. Furthermore, brand image has a significant effect on brand love, demonstrating its role as an emotional bridge that transforms cognitive evaluations into affective attachment. In addition, brand image is proven to significantly mediate the relationship between brand awareness and brand love, highlighting its strategic importance in creating consumer loyalty. However, brand awareness does not have a significant direct effect on brand love, suggesting that awareness alone is insufficient to generate emotional attachment without a favorable brand image. These findings em-phasize the importance of strengthening brand image as a pathway to building brand love, particularly for local cosmetic brands competing in highly dynamic markets. Theoretically, this research contributes to the development of consumer behavior studies by clarifying the mediating role of brand image. Prac-tically, it provides valuable insights for brand managers to design marketing strategies that go beyond recognition and aim to foster deeper consumer-brand relationships.
Zahra et al. (2024) studied this question.