The concept of loyalty to be considered should be dependent on both market and
situations. Distinguishing between market types is important because the very
nature of markets indicates that the measures used to capture loyalty should be
very different. In behavioral terms, brand loyalty is simply a customeráïs
consistent repurchasing of a brand. Every time a customer repurchases a
product(shampoo, cologne, wine, jeans, shoes, frozen pizza, motor oil,
automotive tools, computers, mail delivery service, cable company, plumbing
service, car insurance, or whatever), if the customer buys the same brand of
that product, we can consider for that product category. The problem with
behavioral brand loyalty is that simply shows that customers repurchase the same
brand, not whether they actually like the brand more than other brands. Only if
the customer attitude for a brand is more favorable than for the competing
brands should that customer be considered brand loyal to that brand.
This way of
looking at brand loyaltyáêthat is , a greater liking for the brandáêcan be
termed attitudinal brand loyalty.
Brand loyalty has been largely defined and measured in either behavioral or
attitudinal terms (Mellens et al., 1996). Brand loyalty is the biased behavioral
response, expressed over time by some decision-making unit, with respect to one
or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands, and is a function of
psychological processes (Jagdish N.Sheth, 1999). Brand loyalty is one or
combination of attitudinal or behavioral. Different types of markets may require
different methods of measuring loyalty.
Manufacturers want to enhance the loyalty to their brand and use this loyalty to
increase profits.This has led to emphasis on a number of strategies such as
brand extension, good complaint handling ,loyalty schemes and other techniques
using database methods to stay close to the customer. People...