The brand loyalty of the customer base is often the core of a brand's equity. If customers are indifferent to the brand and, in fact, buy with respect to features, price, and convenience with little concern to the brand name, there is likely little equity. If, on the other hand, they continue to purchase the brand even in the face of competitors with superior features, price, and convenience, substantial value exists in the brand and perhaps in its symbol and slogans.
Brand loyalty, long a central construct in marketing, is a measure of the attachment that a customer has to a brand. It reflects how likely a customer will be to switch to another brand, especially when that brand makes a change, either in price or in product features. As brand loyalty increases, the vulnerability of the customer base to competitive action is reduced. It is one indicator of brand equity which is demonstrably linked to future profits, since brand loyalty directly translates into future sales.
Brand Loyalty as One Basis of Brand Equity
A set of habitual buyers has considerable value because they represent a revenue stream that can go
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They listen to and understand their need and take steps to meet their expectations. Today's marketers therefore frantically search strategies to maintain a set of satisfied customers popularly termed as brand loyal, by repurchasing the product/service whenever the need arises.
Brand loyal consumers, as a matter of fact provide the basis for a stable and growing market share of a company. Therefore interest of the product marketers hovers around the ways and means to develop and sustain brand allegiance for their products and services.
Brand loyalty never just happens. Brand managers have to make it happen. There are the exceptions, of course. Sometimes brand loyalty does occur through no effort of the marketer. Sometimes even when a product is not promoted, it presents an attractive image to a particular consumer
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
Brand loyalty exists, especially towards the top end of the industry since it is easier for customers to form emotional attachments to luxury brands and luxury goods, since their durability and elevated prices make customers think more about the purchase.
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
Throughout the dissection there were many opportunities and weaknesses to uncover. Strong consumer loyalty is an important strength that can help increase word-of-mouth of the brand. Many people look for information for new brands online through websites, reviews,
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.
Brand loyalty is “when a consumer display a steadfast allegiance to a brand by repeatedly purchasing is”. (Text Book pg. 316) Every industry in the world benefits from brand loyalty because without consumers there is no industry. It is tremendously important for Aline Polo to identify areas in its brand that can improve and create loyalty with their consumer. The changes can be simple with little cost to the company. For example, a change in the current return policy from 20 days to 30 days can create peace of mine with the consumer. Comscore.com is a global media measurement and analytics company states; “consumer now expect free returns with 82% respondents saying they would complete the purchase if they could return the item to a store or have free return shipping, and 66% said they view a retailer’s return policy before making a purchase”. Aline Polo is a website based company with no physical store location. Frist time customer can be hesitant in purchasing product because they cannot physically touch the marital and become even more hesitant because of the return policy. When a company is attempting to create brand loyalty with consumer they must be aware and sensitive to their consumers' concerns. By adapting key aspect in the company that eases their consumers concerns they are able to make a relationship with the company and consumers who are brand-loyal typically exhibit less sensitivity to
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)
Brand loyalty is the ‘Holy Grail’ to all marketing organizations. Marketing practitioners are consumed by it. They search. They try. They dream. They want to achieve the ultimate in brand loyalty, making it so airtight that no competition can lure their consumers from their brands of products. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fit-all methodology. Competition is dynamic. There’s no way to accurately anticipate what the creativity of their competitors can bring to the marketplace, which can lead to
The research results showed that product quality was not the strongest factor that led to brand loyalty but market inertia and that product quality was more likely to lead
According to Investopedia.com, brand loyalty is when the consumers became committed to their favorite brand and repeat their purchases over time. Brand loyalty is the result of consumer behavior and is affected by consumer’s preferences. Brand loyalty could also be defined as the strength of preference for a brand compared to other available options that is similar. This is often measured in terms of repeated purchase or price sensitivity (Brandchannel.com, 2006). However, Bloemer and Kasper (1995) defined true brand loyalty as having six necessary conditions which are: 1) the biased (i.e. non-random); 2) behavioral purchase response; 3) overtime expression 4) by some decision-making unit; 5) with respect to one
In reality brands can exist forever if they are managed to stay in step with their target customers' unmet needs, preferences, wants and strive to exceed their expectations. Brand familiarity and execution are key to the longevity of any marketing strategy, and to attain this over time brand marketers must stay agile enough to shift with customer's needs, both actual and planned (Palmer, 2010). Consider Proctor & Gamble and their approach to branding soap over the last one hundred years, where the product itself was changing and continually improving yet the brand equity accumulated over decades of consistent execution (Srivastava, 2009). The ability of a brand to stay agile and take risks is also predicated on how much trust it has created and keeps fueling over time with its customer bases as well (Urde, 1994). A brand can survive over a very long time by concentrating on the customer first and their needs, making those the galvanizing force of the entire branding network (Sarkar, Singh, 2005).
Purpose - The aim of this paper is to examine if there is a correlation between brand equity and brand loyalty. The author will research the sources of brand equity for three international clothing companies: Abercrombie & Fitch, Marks & Spencer, H&M and apply each company to the Loyalty Ladder.
The term “Brand Loyalty” also called as “Customer Loyalty” has been in the business industry since a very long time as a model to be used in conducting business. But it wasn’t until the mid to late 1900’s that the term was actually given its due importance by making it a vital part of advertising and marketing. The concept of marketing evolved substantially from being focused on sales of a product to having Customer satisfaction to be its focal point. Studies further revealed that there was a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and Brand Loyalty.
Our text explains that “customer loyalty is the degree to which a customer will select a particular brand when a purchase from that product category is being considered,” (Levens, 2012, p. 72). This loyalty is present in the relationship that a brand has engaged with the customer, and the resulting attachment the brand has with a consumer (Levens, 2012, p. 72). It is the loyal customer that is most highly sought after by companies, in order to generate the most positive brand image, retain the customer, for the ultimate goal of generating the greatest profit (Levens, 2012, p. 72). The most important goal, other than retaining the loyal customer and persuading others to join them, is evaluating the important customer relationship to determine greatest profitability (Levens, 2012, p. 72).