Loyalty
While I’m an atypical U.S. consumer who doesn’t buy into marketing hype, I do have strong product/service loyalty affiliations. I’ll try to keep my Journal entry under 1000 words! I like to revisit the meaning of familiar words. Merriam-Webster (n.d.) defines loyalty as, “The quality or state or an instance of being loyal”. This is exactly what brand loyalty and loyalty programs are trying to create: an ongoing experience with multiple touch-points that captures followers and keeps them engaged through rewards, added value, and “prestige”. The goal is to lengthen “the lifetime value of the customer” (Tanner & Raymond, 2010, p. 284) which helps to maximize profits.
My Loyalties
For some brands, my loyalty grew from happenstance and remains so because of switching costs. United Airline’s frequent flyer program, called Premiere is one example, more so, since their spreader effect enticed me into a United branded credit card that awards flight miles for every purchase. I didn’t set out to join United’s loyalty program because I thought their service was better, or they had lower airfares, it’s because they have a hub in San Francisco that offers the most flight options when I’m traveling by air for business.
For other products, affinity is a result of my family’s subtle influence, and probably why I favor Coke over Pepsi. I’d like to think that I chose to prefer one over the other, but it’s more likely because my parents drank Coke, which I grew accustomed to, and why
Most successful businesses today actively develop loyal customers who buy their brands again and again. After all, getting current customers to buy more is much easier than constantly seeking new customers. Think of three brands that you buy on a regular basis. Why do you stick to these products? How could another company dislodge you?
Loyalty programs include frequent flier miles or points systems associated with credit card offers that can be used only with the original company, creating a perceived loss or cost when switching to a competitor. Most programs are able to get consumers to spend more money just to get to free or bonus item.
Brand identity is important in the airline industry, and benefits larger airlines. Major carriers allocate considerable resources to marketing efforts. Frequent flier programs and other incentives have been successful in enticing travelers to fly with certain carriers. The frequent flyer incentive can often be strong enough to cause a customer to choose one carrier over another -- even when the other carrier offers a lower fare.
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
Developing a loyalty program is challenging. You team must understand what will keep your current customers interested and what will spark them to purchase multiple times.
Over the decades there were tremendous amount of challenges for every business. Customers have more knowledge, they have more options, and they have higher expectations. Customers are more informed with the humungous development in technology. Having more options in front of them, expectations has surpassed in retail industry. Loyalty is a customer having faith that your organization’s product or services offered is the best for them. It is the process of tapping the buying pattern of customers in a store based on their preferences. Customer loyalty is significant because it is economical to retain the old customers rather than acquiring new customers. So, organizations employ loyalty programs which reward customers for their repeat business.
Kudler Fine Foods founder and manager, Kathy Kulder, has requested information on developing a system to track customer purchases through a Frequent Shopper Program. This Program will award loyalty points for redemption to repeat customers. Purchases made by customers whom participate in the program will be tracked and converted into loyalty points for redemption for future purchase, gift items, and other products or services made possible through partnerships with external companies. The following will cover information and recommendations for Kudler Fine Foods Frequent Shopper
Product loyalty is why Coca-cola drinkers do not drink Pepsi and why 7-up drinkers do not drink Sprite. While there may be a fluctuation week – to – week on prices, the fluctuation is not large enough for the consumer to consider substitutions.
According Baker M (2000), loyalty schemes is the “Overt attempt of exchanging partnership to build a long term relationship association, characterised by purposeful co-operation and mutual dependence on the development of social, as well as structural bonds with consumer”.
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.
It’s essential that companies or businesses today listen to their customers. No company or business today can afford to disregard the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Aren’t they the same thing? No, they are absolutely not and they are enormously
Brian J. Franklin, BBA Accounting ‘12, College of Business and Public Policy, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, 907-268-4233 Ext. 401, bfranklin@frontiertutoring.com
The airline industry can be considered an imperfect oligopoly. There are several large carriers that dominate long distance flights, and many small carriers that compete for short distance flights. Competition is fierce, and the return for most carriers is very low. Some airlines are trying to differentiate themselves, like JetBlue for example, by offering superior services at low prices. Other low cost airlines, like Southwest, offer low costs with no frills. Most airlines offer a frequent flyer programs in order to develop brand loyalty. In recent years there has also been several alliances formed between airlines. These alliances enable
Brand loyalty is a competitive advantage for the brands. Brand loyalty is found to have a positive influence on the performance of the product. it is known to increase the financial benefits associated with the product. brand loyalty has a positive and direct relation with the financial performance of the company. The revenue generated from a product increases. When a customer buys a product and product satisfies the consumer need, the customer become satisfied. The satisfactory post purchase behavior of a consumer propels the consumer for buying a product again and again. This repurchasing behavior of a consumer increases the sales of a product and ultimately increases the revenue of a product. The financial performance of a product enhances as the revenue increases, the profitability of the product also increases. Brand loyalty sticks consumer to a brand and does not switch to other
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.