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Customer Loyalty as a
Marketing Strength
Pakistan Textile Industry with regards to Brand
Loyalty, Equity and Reputation
Sahibzada Ali
2/27/2017
Customer Loyalty as a Marketing Strength

Abstract

Brand Loyalty has been defined in a number of ways. To put it simple, brand loyalty means a

customers positive feeling towards a brand and his dedication to purchase from the same brand

now and in future, which remains unaffected by the actions of the brands competitor or the

fluctuations in the environment. It is one of the most important goals that is also the most

desirable one in marketing strategies and counted as the most important business strength. This

study is being conducted using positivism research paradigm along with deductive research

approach. The data used in the study has been collected using multi stage sampling method

covering 200 employees in the textile industry. The area selected for the data collection was

Lahore, Pakistan. The study is being conducted to find out the relationships between brand

repute, effect and loyalty within the textile industry in the selected area. The study found out that

brand effect and brand repute are significantly and positively related to brand loyalty. The study

also found out that brand repute is also related significantly and positively with the brand effect.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 4

Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................... 7

Hypotheses: ................................................................................................................................. 7

Research Methodology ................................................................................................................... 8

Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 10

Table 1 ...................................................................................................................................... 10

Table 2 ...................................................................................................................................... 10

Table 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 11

Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................................................... 12

References ..................................................................................................................................... 13

Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 15

Table 1: ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Table 2: ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Table 3: ..................................................................................................................................... 16

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Introduction

Gaining brand loyalty has been identified as the prime goal of any marketing strategy, so

completing this task and afterwards maintaining brand loyalty is a task given to the marketing

specialists which is normally completed by improving the relations with the existing customers

and in the same time creating contacts with new or potential customers. The experience that the

customers have with the brand and the quality of the brands product are the prime defining

factors of the brand loyalty. When it comes to the businesses that are offering services, brand

loyalty is also affected by the quality and effectiveness of the services that are being rendered as

well as the value addition that can be during the performance of the services or as the after sales

services. Brand loyalty is very hard to gain and even more harder and complex to maintain, as it

is being affected by a number of factors in a sales transaction as well as the post sales services

along with the effectiveness of delivery and the process time of the order. Another factor

affecting the brand loyalty is the promotions and marketing techniques that are being used

specifically towards a customer based on the individual purchase patterns. The individual

purchase patterns indicate the possible future sales the person can make and helps a company in

predicting the future revenues from such sales. Other factors that affect the brand loyalty are also

the factors a customer keeps in mind while making a purchase. These factors include the

competitiveness of the prices a business is offering, the quality of the goods or services that is

being offered and the promotional material the business is utilizing in its marketing strategy. To

determine success of any company, brand loyalty and recognition plays a very important role, as

any business must make a specified number of sales to meet its breakeven point in order to

maintain itself and to expand further. The brand affect and the brand reputation in the market

compared with the market competitors an better help place the brand in the industry and earn

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higher profits. This study aims to find the relationship between the three aspect of a brand;

reputation, effect and loyalty. This study is targeted to the companies and managers that are

looking to find the ways to improve their brand loyalty and image. The project can also be used

by the student or general public that are looking to understand the relationship between the

variables set in the study, i.e. brand loyalty, brand reputation and brand effect.

Literature Review

The general client involvement with the brand decides the reliability of client and the willingness

of the customer about making new sales with the same brand. The brand loyalty cannot be based

on a single purchase, as a customer may not return after a single sale, or even a couple of sales.

Brand loyalty is measured by the customers willingness or inclination to make a purchase from

the same brand even when other competitors are offering better prices or other products are also

available in the market. The customer trust and satisfaction are developed in the ideas of brand

experience; the quality of service and goods offered by the business and the brand loyalty;

whether the customer is willing to return to the business in future even if alternatives are

available. On the off chance that the customer feels fulfilled and is completely dedicated to pay

the item cost against the quality that is being offered, the brand experience is executed to be sure

for both the business and customer. The experience of the customers with the brand ultimately

creates the reputation of the brand which is the overall image of the business in the eyes of the

customer for the goods or services that are being offered. This repute or picture in the market is

measured through various components including the brand general intensity, its capacity to better

target customers and connect with them, brand capacity to showcase adequately with part and

material that is most appropriate to the users and customers and the adaptability in operations to

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manage diverse customers in view of their one of a kind needs and prerequisites or requirements.

These elements can be diverse for organizations as per their operations, final customer market

and the business attributes. Brand reputation is additionally viewed as high when the brand is all

the more outwardly and ethically dependable towards its customers. Better relationship

administration enhances the brand reputation while the brand component development in the

market likewise improves its reputation for being quickly developing business inside particular

industry. These similar components decide the brand impact in the market. The customers

reception towards the brand decides the brand impact. The brand that is considered to have high

value generally prompts to saw higher quality and more sensible administrations after deals,

whereas the costs may likewise be resolved as the aggressive component and amazing item gave

in less expensive cost to contend adequately. Brand affect or influence is likewise viewed as the

reason for the brand loyalty and brand development among the market component. With the

brand affect or influence as far as providers and wholesalers that are greater group level and

significant to social improvement likewise prompt to brand loyalty. Another concept helping the

buildup of the brand loyalty is the corporate social responsibility which affects any company

very deeply. CSR means the way the company is making its impact in the community that it is

operating in. When the company has already established its brand recognition, this impact can

also be said as brand impact or effect. Brand effect can lead to loyalty along with better

reputation of the brand leading to higher sales and profits. Brand loyalty is also affected by the

promotions or sales that company is running at any given time. Attracting new customers with

promotions and price cuts, the company can retain the customers building up brand loyalty by

showing off the quality it can offer in its services or goods. Brand awareness also affects the

brand loyalty, since the awareness of the market is increasing in the market. The customers

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normally tend to choose the brands that are well recognized in the market. Customers who are

very much aware in the market have the preferred standpoint to locate the best arrangements for

buy of things they are searching for however when the brands are put in the privilege special

means and through right promoting efforts, it can catch the consideration of the customers who

are associated with the knowledge body. In the current business environment, the access to

internet and increasing use of technology is making its impact on any companys efforts in

gaining brand awareness and loyalty. The elements of how much customers depend on the data

shared to them, the advertising material and its availability with the customers and the

customers perception towards the two components decides how adequately the brand impact the

purchase patterns prompting to continuous buy and eventually brand loyalty. The components of

innovation and access to data additionally affect the brand reputation in the market and how the

aggressive brands are put in the inclination of customer market. This study is intended to

discover the connections between brand repute, its affects and the brand loyalty in the Textile

industry of Lahore, Pakistan.

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Theoretical Framework

Hypotheses:

The study will be aiming to test the following hypotheses:

H1: Brand loyalty and Brand reputation are positively related to each other.

H0: Brand loyalty and Brand reputation are not positively related to each other.

H2: Brand effect and brand reputations are positively related to each other.

H0: Brand effect and brand reputations are not positively related to each other.

H3: Brand effect and brand loyalty are positively related to each other.

H0: Brand effect and brand loyalty are not positively related to each other.

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Research Methodology

Any research can be done with two approaches; qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research

focuses on a research that gathers information that is not in numerical form. The examples of

such kind of information resources are diary accounts, unstructured observations, unstructured

interviews and open ended questionnaires. Qualitative research approach normally deals with the

data that is in numerical and descriptive form. This research is designed on quantitative research

approach rather than qualitative approach and the data being used for analysis in numerical form.

The data collection done for any research can also be classified in two forms based on the

sources of the data; Primary and Secondary. Primary data means the data that is collected

directly from the participant of the study. Primary data can be collected by questionnaire or

conducting interviews. Secondary data is the data that is gained from sources other than primary

ones, like libraries, books and previous researches. The data being used in this research is

primary data as it is being obtained from the participant of the research. The textile sector has

been selected for the study for its diversity. There are a number of different brands that are

operating in the industry offering a wide range of textile products. This, along with the

customers access to the technology had given raise to intense competition. As mentioned before,

the sampling method that is being used in this study is Multi stage sampling. Under this sampling

technique, 10 random companies were selected on the first stage. Once the companies were

selected, the employees of the companies were selected on the basis of opportunity based

sampling to gain the data for the study. The participants were diverse, including both, male and

female participants and participants of all age groups were tried to be covered. The final

selection of the participants consisting on the employees of the industry was 230, out of which

200 responses were complete and had no values missing in them. So the response rate was

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86.95%. The data that is being collected was designed to cover all the variable set to be tested in

the study. 34 items were developed to help gain data for all of these variable and the factors that

have been discussed in the literature review. The factors that are under assessment in this data

collection are the very base of the brand reputation. These factors include the quality of the

product the company is offering or the service quality, as well as the after service image that the

company has created for itself in the market through its market impact and marketing strategies.

The brand loyalty of the customers is measured by the number of sales any given company has

succeeded in making and the preference given from the customers to any given brand. Whereas

the ability of a specific brand to stand out in the market containing a lot of brands is its brand

effectiveness, which is being affected by a number of factors. These factors include the

effectiveness of the company in dealing with its customers, how the company is managing its

relationships with the customers and the access to information to the customer through different

channels. These channels can be TV ads, billboards, email advertisement, SMS or social media.

There is a number of software available for data manipulations and analysis. This project will be

completed using IBMs SPSS which is the most popular among all others and offers the greatest

flexibility.

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Data Analysis

Since the study is focusing on testing three different hypotheses, the data analysis will be shown

in three different tables.

Table 1

The table 1 is showing a notable resemblance between the responses that were collected to

address the variables of brand effect and brand reputation. There were 86.1% of the employees

that responded positively for the brand reputation also rated high on the brand effect. All of the

respondents that rated lower on brand reputation were also rating low on brand effect. This can

be seen as the result in this area has been 100%. This shows that there is a positive relation

between the responses that were collected. In the light of these observations, the H1 will be

retained and H0 dropped.

Table 2

Table 2 shows all the same results that table 1 is showing with almost negligible differences.

This table deals with the relationship between brand effect and brand loyalty and proves that

both are quite related. 45.6% of the respondents that appraised high on brand effect likewise

evaluated high on the brand steadfastness. Likewise, 66.7% of the respondents who appraised

low on brand impact additionally evaluated low on brand loyalty. These results are showing that

brand effect and brand loyalty have a strong relation with each other according to the data

collected against the two variables. In the light of the observations, H2 will be retained and H0

will be dropped.

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Table 3

Table 3 shows, there is a huge relationship between brand reputation and brand effect at .892

(Sig = .000) which implies that the reroute of a brand and its impact are fundamentally

associated. Also, there is a built up relationship at .225 (Sig = .000) between brand repute and

brand loyalty. The estimation of connection is not extremely solid but rather since it is more than

.2, it can be unquestionably expressed that the relationship has been set up. In conclusion, in a

similar way, there is a set up relationship between brand impact and brand loyalty at .289 (Sig =

.000).

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Conclusion and Recommendations

The study directed utilizing correlation infers that brand reputation and brand loyalty are

exceedingly associated and fundamentally positive in relationship. The findings of this study are

suggesting that the managers of any company that is looking to improve their marketing strategy

in order to increase their brand loyalty must determine the elements of the sales as well as the

after sales services in their promotions and marketing plans. It will help in deriving greater sales

from the customers, which is the first priority for any business and is linked directly to the

profits, both current and future. Given the scenario, it is to be decided how successful the

approach for showcasing can be to infer future deals and decidedly affect the association with

customers. The discoveries likewise suggest that the brand affect measured regarding brand

image in market and its ramifications of general market gauges and in addition the entrance to

brand data decided the brand loyalty and brand success. The brand loyalty as contemplated in

this study is resolved through recurrence of offers and the slant to organize specific brand over

the other accessible is driven through the client observation with respect to the favored brand.

Subsequently the cycle of brand administration requires administration of every one of the three

component of how a business builds up its administrations and items, how the brand is

maintained in the market rivalry and what does the customer see with respect to the brand and

business that determines the customer perception. Advancement of better methodologies to cater

for customer market while likewise marinating competitiveness through brand item quality,

brand services and different components including access to clients with respect to brands

updates and brand promotional strategies, all aggregately determine brand loyalty and help with

the customer retention for an extended period of time.

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References

1. Brnn, P. S., &Vrioni, A. B. (2001). Corporate social responsibility and cause-related

marketing: an overview. International journal of Advertising, 20(2), 207-222.

2. McDonald, L. M., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2008). Corporate social responsibility and bank

customer satisfaction: a research agenda. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 26(3),

170-182.

3. Chi, H. K., Yeh, H. R., & Yang, Y. T. (2009). The impact of brand awareness on

consumer purchase intention: The mediating effect of perceived quality and brand

loyalty. Journal of International Management Studies, 4(1), 135-144.

4. Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G., & Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic brand management:

Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.

5. Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2003). Advertising and promotion: An integrated

marketing communications perspective. The McGraw Hill.

6. Corstjens, M., & Lal, R. (2000). Building store loyalty through store brands. Journal of

Marketing Research, 37(3), 281-291.

7. Oh, H. (2000). The effect of brand class, brand awareness, and price on customer value

and behavioral intentions. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 24(2), 136-162.

8. Cretu, A. E., & Brodie, R. J. (2007). The influence of brand image and company

reputation where manufacturers market to small firms: A customer value perspective.

Industrial Marketing Management, 36(2), 230-240.

9. Sahin, A., Zehir, C., &Kitap, H. (2011). The effects of brand experiences, trust and

satisfaction on building brand loyalty; an empirical research on global brands. Procedia-

Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, 1288-1301.

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10. Brakus, J. J., Schmitt, B. H., & Zarantonello, L. (2009). Brand experience: what is it?

How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty? Journal of marketing, 73(3), 52-68.

11. Severi, E., & Ling, K. C. (2013). The mediating effects of brand association, brand

loyalty, brand image and perceived quality on brand equity. Asian Social Science, 9(3),

125.

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Appendix
Table 1:
Brand Effect
Total
High Low Medium

High Count 143 18 5 166

% within BR Trans 86.1% 10.8% 3.0% 100%

Brand Low Count 0 28 0 28

Reputation % within BR Trans 0% 100% 0% 100%

Medium Count 4 2 0 6

% within BR Trans 66.7% 33.3% 0% 100%

Total Count 147 48 5 200

% within BR Trans 73.5% 24.0% 2.5% 100%

Table 2:

Brand Effect
Total
High Low Medium

High Count 139 20 7 166

% within BR Trans 83.7% 12.0% 4.2% 100%

Brand Low Count 0 28 0 28

Reputation % within BR Trans 0% 100% 0% 100%

Medium Count 4 2 0 6

% within BR Trans 66.7% 33.3% 0% 100%

Total Count 147 48 5 200

% within BR Trans 73.5% 24.0% 2.5% 100%

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Table 3:

BR BE BL

BR Pearson Correlation 1 0.892** 0.225**

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.001

N 200 200 200

BE Pearson Correlation 0.892** 1 0.289**

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000

N 200 200 200

BL Pearson Correlation 0.225** 0.289** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.001 0.000

N 200 200 200

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