Brand Loyalty Essays

Brand Loyalty Essays Brand Loyalty Essay Brand Loyalty Essay One of the major goals of marketing is reaching the brand loyalty phase to a customer. Brand loyalty would be the commitment of a consumer to continue purchasing and supporting the company/brand. Companies benefit from this because they have a constant customer who would spread the word about the company and will be willing to pay higher prices for a certain product or service. Brand Loyalty Most people if not everyone is loyal to a certain brand or service. When a company offers good customer service, a unique product, benefits for purchasing that product and other incentives, etc, a consumer will start leaning to that brand each time they consider purchasing that product. I recently asked my husband about any brands he considered to be loyal to, he told me that Apple/ Macintosh is one of his favorite electronics brand. Things that attracted him and held him to this brand were their original designs/looks, great customer service, dependability, and frequent innovations. In 1976 Apple Computer Inc. ame to be in Cupertino, California. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. In 2007 they dropped â€Å"Computer† from their name because of their expansion in electronic products. Since the early days of Apple, they have been known to â€Å"reinvent the wheel† and taking the risk of trying something new and innovative. Apple has always strived to push the limits and to provide more efficient computers, s leeker designs, and products offered by no other company. Apple is also known to be a very environmentally conscious company. Consumers enter into a purchase with certain expectations about a product or a service and satisfaction is the hoped-for-outcome. Those expectations are based on (1) Past buying experience, (2) Brand connotations, (3) Word-of-mouth, (4) The firm’s promotional material and communication, (6) Individual persuability and perceptual distortion, and (7) Price. In this context, brand loyalty occurs as a result of customer satisfaction because consumers commit to a certain brand based on favorable attitudes and behavioral responses. Behavioral and Attitudinal brand loyalty: Brand loyalty can be classified into two broad categories:   a) Behavioral brand loyalty is measured by the ratio of the times that a repeated purchase occurs over total purchases. This measurement of proportion of purchases includes cognitive, affective and co native features, which imply an indirect relationship between brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. In other words, considerations of customers perceptions about a brand can make or break a firm’s branding strategy in the context of repetitive purchases when measuring brand loyalty levels. ) Attitudinal brand loyalty holds that brand loyalty involves a favorable attitude which reflects a preference or commitment expressed over time. This argument implies that consumers like the particular firm more than its competitors and therefore they express a favorable preference over the firm’s products or services. Both behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty consider that consumer have developed a feeling of favorab le attitudes towards the organization and therefore they engage in repeat purchases. However, marketing studies hold that, often, repeat purchases occur as a result of convenience or lack of alternatives bearing no intentional component. Factors influencing brand loyalty: It has been suggested that loyalty includes some degree of pre-dispositional commitment toward a brand. Brand loyalty is viewed as multidimensional construct. It is determined by several distinct psychological processes and it entails multivariate measurements. Customers perceived value, brand trust, customers satisfaction, repeat purchase behavior, and commitment are found to be the key influencing factors of brand loyalty. Commitment and repeated purchase behavior are considered as necessary conditions for brand loyalty followed by perceived value, satisfaction, and brand trust. Fred Reichheld, one of the most influential writers on brand loyalty, claimed that enhancing customer loyalty could have dramatic effects on profitability. Among the benefits from brand loyalty. Specifically, longer tenure or staying as a customer for longer was said to be lower sensitivity to price. This claim had not been empirically tested until recently. Recent research found evidence that longer-term customers were indeed less sensitive to price increases. Benefits of brand loyalty: The benefits of brand loyalty for a firm are numerous. First of all, loyal customers are less price- sensitive, which means that they are ready to pay a higher price, if required, in order to acquire the product or service. As a result, apart from higher profitability for the firm, the cost incurred for pursuing new customers is reduced. Loyal customers are also strong advocates of the firm playing a powerful role in the decision making process of other people. The word-of-mouth advertisement is a strong marketing tool that improves the firm’s reputation and brings certainty to the firm by enlarging its customer base. In addition, loyal customer expose higher tolerance for mistakes, are willing to provide feedback for any unfulfilled needs, to try additional products and to offer a higher share of wallet. In todays highly competitive environments, improving consumers loyalty to brands permits marketers to maintain a comfortable and lasting position in the marketplace. The issue of brand loyalty has been examined at great length. Branding is by far one of the most important factors influencing an items success or failure in the marketplace, and can have a dramatic impact on how the company behind the brand is perceived by the buying public. In other words, the brand is not just a representation of a companys product; it is a symbol of  the company itself, and that is where the core of brand loyalty lies. Therefore, a strong brand is more than just a name; it is a promise that can be trusted.