PENGARUH BRAND IMAGE DAN BRAND TRUST TERHADAP LOYALITAS PELANGGAN KFC

Abstract

KFC is the market leader in Indonesia's fast-food industry, yet its revenue declined by IDR 1.1 trillion between 2023 and 2025 due to a boycott movement triggered by the Israel–Palestine conflict. This study aims to determine the influence of brand image (X1) and brand trust (X2) on KFC customer loyalty (Y) amid this communication crisis. Using a quantitative explanatory approach, data were collected from 100 KFC customers aged 16–24 years in Semarang through purposive sampling and a Likert-scale questionnaire, then analyzed using simple linear regression. The results show that brand image has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty (Sig. 0.031; R² = 0.046), while brand trust also has a positive and significant effect with a much larger contribution (Sig. 0.000; R² = 0.386). Brand trust therefore plays a far more dominant role than brand image in sustaining customer loyalty during the boycott. KFC Indonesia is recommended to design a crisis communication strategy that reaffirms its independence from the global geopolitical conflict.