Brand Loyalty

Thus, companies seek to strengthen customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is considered to tilt the consumer to purchase the package / product specific brand (Jacoby and Chestnut, 1978). Later, Oliver (1997) defined loyalty as "a deeply held commitment to REBUY or repatronize preferred product / service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing activities, which would result in causing switching behavior "(p. 34). This conceptual definition covers two different aspects of loyalty: the behavioral. This is consistent with an integrated conceptual framework proposed by Dick and Basu (1994), that customer loyalty is regarded as a "power relationship between the relative position of the individual and repeat

From an organisations point of view, especially in the short term, it would seem more appropriate to concentrate on behavioural loyalty because this is reflected in sales behaviour. Such behaviour is easily measured compared to components of attitudinal loyalty and matches key managerial performance indicators. Attitudinal measures may also not reflect consumer’s actions when the consumer is confronted with real choice. However, from a longer term view and especially from a CRM viewpoint, it is also vitally important to measure attitudinal loyalty. Attitudinal loyalty is composed of commitment and trust in the brand and/or organisation which will have impacts on sales both in the short and longer term. This type of loyalty is more likely to be an indicator of the potential longer term relationships that will be possible with given customers. Attitudinal loyalty is also likely to have influence on word of mouth and customer advocacy which may lead to indirect impacts on longer term sales or on costs of servicing

Simplified brand loyalty describes a status in which consumers determine their selves in; out of it they become committed to a brand. Thereby they continue purchasing products or services of a specific brand. At this point consumers rather spent more money on a product of a specific brand than buying from multiple suppliers within the same category. Mainly brand loyalty is a result of consumer’s behavior, which is enforced through a company’s measurements regarding branding. Branding is a process that a company runs through in order to establish a new brand. The ambition here is to strengthen a unique name and image for a product in

The first two hypotheses of this study are related to the effect of brand attitude and brand attachment on the behavioral intention. Figure 5.11 presents the structural model of the direct effect

Primarily the loyalty is based on perception, not tangible evidence. Here we can see how important brand equity and positioning can be to a product that is otherwise probably on par with many of its competitors, but the message conveyed by the brand is quite different.

The definition of Brand Loyalty is when consumers become committed to your brand and make repeat purchases over time. Brand loyalty is a result of consumer behavior and is affected by a persons preferences. Loyal customers will consistently purchase products from their preferred brands, regardless of convenience or price. Companies will often use different marketing strategies to cultivate loyal customers, be it is through loyalty programs (i.e. rewards programs) or trials and incentives (ex. samples and free gifts). (Investopedia)

Ted Baker’s brand differentiation and consumer loyalty can further be related to the characteristics theory, which was developed by Kelvin Lancaster in the mid-60’s and it is based on four key assumptions:

Building enduring relationships with customers is a key marketing objective for most firms (Elbedweihy et al., 2016). Customers choose to identify with brands they perceive as attractive, motivated by their self-definitional needs fulfillment (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003). Identifying with a company that has an attractive perceived identity may result in benefits to customers in terms of self-enhancement (Marin et al., 2009). Customers will feel the motivational impulse to attain a psychological attachment to a brand when they perceive the brand as attractive and as partially fulfilling one or more of their fundamental self-definitional needs (Currás-Pérez et al., 2009).

By and large, loyal customers will be beneficial to a brand as it can reduce the cost of marketing. Moreover, customer loyalty can be made the most of brand extension and market penetration strategies. As a final point, “loyal customer is an asset for a brand, and has been identified as major determinant of brand equity” (Dekimpe et al., 1997:20).

One of the most desirable traits that marketers would like to see in the consumers they are positioning their product towards is loyalty to their brand. Brand loyalty can be defined as “the extent of the faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases, irrespective of the marketing pressure generated by the competing brands.” (Business Dictionary, 2012) An expression of brand loyalty from consumers can help companies to experience significant growth not only through repeat purchases, but also word-of-mouth: brand-loyal consumers who talk among their peers about their purchasing behaviour may talk positively about the brand they like, which allows these consumers to try these

Oliver (1990) as cited by Dickinson, states that customer loyalty as a totally commitment to rebuy or repatronize a desired product/service constantly in the future, in that way causing repetitive purchasing of same-brand or same brand set, in spite of situational influences and marketing efforts of having the potential to cause the changing of behaviour.”

4. Characteristics of customer loyalty: impact of brand image or product characteristics/attributes – A study of packaged milk brands

(Foundation, 2016). . It is common practice even well-known brands to use practices classified as unfair, containing misleading information or using misleading omissions. Sluggish broadband service is a problem, even in some parts of central London. No consumer trust t in her/his internet supplier, that he will deliver the speed of internet as stated in the contract. Customers like Jim McColl discovered they were tied into 25-year credit agreements with their energy suppliers /HELMS/ – despite being told their solar panels were free and the most recent scandal with global consequences both, for the consumers and the brand - Volkswagen the world’s largest carmaker lied about their emissions tests through cheating software. The arrogance that they thought they wouldn’t get caught is scary, especially since they publicly promised to be the ‘greenest’ car producer in the world by 2018. The Starbucks coffee cups scandal has the same dimensions, where the brand misled the consumers about what happens to cups collected in instore recycling bins.

In consumer behavior study, the construct brand personality has received a considerable amount of attention, defined in Aaker’s (1997) article as the “set of human characteristics associated with a brand”. This idea is well accepted by most proactitioners and marketing academics (Aaker, 1997; Carr, 1996; Duboff, 1986; Durgee, 1988; Kassarjian, 1971; Levy, 1959; Ogilvy, 1988; Plummer, 1985; Sirgy, 1982) for decades, and now has become an important topic of marketing research because of its implementation in consumer behavior theory: differentiating a brand in a product category (Plummer, 1984), enhancing consumers ' preference and loyalty to a brand (Fournier, 1998), and creating brand equity (Keller, 1993). It also has impacts on influencing brand recognition, brand beliefs such as perceived quality (Ramaseshan and Tsao, 2007), and brand associations (Freling and Forbes, 2005).

The concept of Brand loyalty is defined in terms of 6 necessary and sufficient conditions. These conditions are as follows: -