Relationship Marketing: The Rise Of Relationship Marketing

Considering the rise of relationship marketing and the increasing interest in customer’s loyalty, brand loyalty concept requires further research. The shift from the transaction-focused marketing to relationship marketing provides a clear evidence of the passage from traditional brands to lifestyle brands (Grönroos, 1994). There is a concurrence that loyal consumers is the key for the future of the brands. Having loyal consumers provides better profits, word of mouth and improves the overall image of the brand. Moreover, loyalty offers the basis for competitive advantage, an advantage that can be realized through marketing (Dick and Basu 1994). A research has deliberated the causal link between lifestyle brands and consumers loyal behavior

Brand loyalty is defined as “the situation in which a consumer generally buys the same manufacturer- originated product or service repeatedly over time rather than buying from multiple suppliers within the category” or “the degree to which a consumer consistently purchases the same brand within a product class” (Moisescu, 2006). Today, brand loyalty is categorized into two major approaches: attitudinal and behavioral with both of them have been studied extensively. Attitudinal loyalty is a systematically favorable expression of preference for the brand (Dick & Basu, 1994). An emotional attachment between the consumers and their brands that creates a commitment to repurchase. The framework suggested in their paper points social norms and situational factors as moderators of the relationship between attitude and behavior (Dick & Basu, 1994). Dick and Basu’s study identifies search for motivation, resistance to counter-persuasion, and word of mouth as the consequences of loyalty. This type of loyalty represents the long term impact of loyal consumers to a certain

So how does brand experience affects loyalty? There is a direct effect of brand experience on consumer satisfaction and an indirect effect on brand loyalty, through multiple brand personality associations. However, this study suggests that these effects are only short term consequences. Specifically, one of the studies from this paper focuses on using brand experience to predict consumer behavior in satisfaction and loyalty. Seems like brand experience can be a strong predictor of actual buying behaviors. The authors suggest that “if a brand stimulates the senses, makes the person feel good, and engages the mind and body, a stimulation seeking organism may strive to receive such stimulation again” (Brakus et al, 2009). Despite the several ways that have been used to explore consumer’s brand loyalty none of them investigated the direct or indirect effect that human personality traits may have. Oliver (1999) identifies the effect of consumer’s idiosyncrasies but did not explore it any