Introduction
A company’s main question in relation to selling their products or services use do be:
,,How do I get people to buy my product?” Nowadays companies still greatly appreciate the answer to this question but they have also realized that getting customers is not the only thing they need to do. In today’s rapidly moving world consumers don’t stick with products for life. Advertisements and an increased feeling of independence have created consumers that will switch brands or products as soon as the feel the need to do so. What company’s look for in this consumer environment is creating a so-called brand loyalty.
This paper will explore the ways companies go about in creating this brand loyalty and it will investigate the circumstances and effects that come with it. It will start of by thoroughly explaining what brand loyalty exactly is. After that an overview of key success factors stimulating brand loyalty will be given and we will have a look at how these factors are influenced by different conditions. Examples will be provided. The relationships between brand loyalty and brand commitment and satisfaction will be explored. Finally a conclusion will be reached on how important brand loyalty is to companies and for what reasons.
What is Brand Loyalty?
Before one can give a definition of brand loyalty one first has to make the distinction between repeat purchasing behavior and brand loyalty. ‘Repeat purchasing behavior is the actual rebuying of a brand.’ So the behavioral aspect of this action. Brand loyalty also includes ‘that behavior’s antecedents’. This means the reason or fact occurring before the behavior. When talking about brand loyalty we can yet again make a distinction between two types: On the one hand we have spurious brand loyalty and on the other true brand loyalty. The former was defined by Bloemer and Kasper as the ‘(1) biased (2) behavioral response (3) expressed over time (4) by some decision-making unit (5) with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brand, (6) which is a function of inertia.’ The key word here is inertia meaning without commitment towards the brand. Their definition the latter, and the most important one in this paper, is exactly the same on the first five points but differs for the sixth adding ‘is a function of psychological (decision making, evaluative) processes resulting in brand commitment.’ In this definition brand commitment is the key word.
Mise, J. K., Nair, C., Odera, O., & Ogutu, M. (2013). Determinants of Brand Loyalty and Product Quality of Soft Drink Consumers. Asian Journal of Business and Management , 1 (1), 8-13.
Besides marketing its customer service, the company markets different programs according to its three major types of customers. Some of them being,
In the science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury introduces the universal theme of loyalty and continues to emphasize the pros and cons of what Relationships and pacts are simultaneously broken and developed throughout the novel; Montag experiences these interactions with static characters: Mildred, Faber, and Beatty. Mildred ultimately betrays Montag when she is afraid of his commitment in books; he attempts to openly spark a passion in their relationship. Faber, once afraid of fireman, befriends Montag because he feels it is the “right” thing to do; he follows Montag to the brink of danger, believing in what is correct. Beatty was considered “a [my] friend” and ultimately pursues to arrest Montag for defying the strictly enforced laws. Loyalty is defined by the breakable bond held by individuals; Montag experiences this natural humane connection as the novel progresses. Ray Bradbury expresses loyalty throughout the novel through the affiliations with Mildred, Faber, and Beatty.
The product’s features are the most influential factor on maintaining brand loyalty. For Apple, software updates for apps, constantly updated newer and lighter versions of all their products, and overall product design and brand imagery are all factors that keep Apple’s customers coming back. Our textbook also mentions that advertising can communicate how a brand fulfills needs and desires of the consumer. Apple wants to be a “different” company, not like any of the existing PC companies. Advertising can also help create a personal connection with the consumer.
A customer’s response falls in two categories, judgment and feelings. Consumers are constantly making judgments about a brand. These judgments fall into four categories: quality, credibility, consideration, and superiority (Keller, 2001). Customers judge a brand based on its actual and perceived quality, and customers judge credibility using the perception of the company’s expertise, trustworthiness, and likability. To what extent is the brand seen as “competent, innovative, and a market leader,” “dependable and sensitive to the interest of customers,” and “fun, interesting, and worth spending time with” (Keller,
I am a compassionate, reliable, caring, and dedicated health care professional, who enjoys caring for the welfare of patients, in order for them to have the best quality of care.
1: Have knowledgeable experienced business staff and services to answer all the questions asked by the customer.
The second step deals in creation of proper brand meaning through powerful and unique brand connection with the customers. The third step involves invoking positive brand response while the fourth one involves engaging the customers so as to build a brand affiliation aimed at enhancing active brand loyalty. However, some building blocks are requ...
Lastly, brand awareness is a crucial consideration. And It may be thought of as a consumers’ ability to find a brand within a group in adequate detail to make a purchase. It is important to remember that adequate detail does not always need identification of the brand name. Often “brand awareness is no more than a visual image of the package that stimulates a response to the brand.” Moreover, recall of the name is not necessarily required because brand awareness in which can try via brand recognition. According to Emma Macdonald and Byron Sharp (2003), suggested, when a brand is recognized at point of purchase, its brand awareness does not need brand recall. This is a major point in the consideration of brand awareness as the most important communication objective. In fact, the difference is misunderstood by marketing and advertising managers. The difficulty is to relate to the essential difference between recognition and recall, that is extremely important to advertising strategy. Brand recognition and brand recall are two separate types of brand awareness. The difference depends upon the communication effect that occurs primarily in the consumers’ memory.
The source of the brand features is in a connection between customers and companies that sell services or products. Consumers who choose a specific company fundamentally acknowledge to prefer that brand more than other brands rooted from the recognition of the brand’s worth.
Brand reinforcement is all regarding preserving brand equity; specifically, it is concerning ensuring the patrons possess the preferred awareness configurations to facilitate the brands continuous required sources of brand equity. This may be accomplished through marketing undertakings which would continually supply the purpose of the brand, to the patrons, which might be in the manner of brand awareness and brand image. Though, occasionally, still an ingenious reinforcement stratagem be unsuccessful for different reasons such as, materialization of contemporary technology or contenders, variation in patrons' preference. Under this condition, the brands must revitalize their fortune through returning to their origins, to recapture the absent sources of equity, this is known as brand revitalization (Keller, 2012).
Secondly, some light has been thrown on the previous researches by various authors on the similar topics by providing with a summarised form of the same. It helps in better understanding of the ongoing concepts and perceptions on the concept of brand and its importance.
Branding is an effort on the part of the manufacturer(s), marketer(s), to create a distinctively unique image about their market offering(s) in the heart and mind of the consumer(s) through delivering value, utilizing marketing promotion and various brand building initiatives. Truly brands resides in the hearts of the consumer(s), and the consumer(s) brand awareness, brand preference and brand loyalty determines the fate of the brand. Brand equity measures the goodwill of the brand in the market and the level of consumer brand preference and consumer brand loyalty. Consumer(s) brand loyalty is highest, when the consumer(s) demands their favored brand, refuses to buy any other brand and are willing to put in an extra
From the study it is clear that people often purchase branded products since they are aware of the brand performance or perhaps they have a good past experience about the brands. This makes customer’s become loyal with the specific brand.
Even with commodities, there are quite a few parameters which brands can use to position themselves to capture a place in the consumer’s memory and consequently in their shopping basket. A few of the more widely accepted of them are: Consistency of Product Quality, Customization of the product to the extent possible, Providing a wider range of products, Identifying the most profit generating segments of the market and modifying or adding an offering to cater to their specific needs, Unique packaging, Emotional Branding and even basing branding on building a unique image to the extent of professing to have a brand personality. In fact focusing on getting consumers to build an emotional identification with the brand and its personality has a far longer lasting effect and builds far greater loyalty than focusing on just functional and utility attributes which a competitor would also able to easily match if not surpass.