A tri-dimensional approach for auditing brand loyalty

Over the past twenty years brand loyalty has been an important topic for both marketing practitioners and academics. While practitioners have produced proprietary brand loyalty audit models, there has been little academic research to make transparent the methodology that underpins these audits and to enable practitioners to understand, develop and conduct their own audits. In this paper, we propose a framework for a brand loyalty audit that uses a tri-dimensional approach to brand loyalty, which includes behavioural loyalty and the two components of attitudinal loyalty: emotional and cognitive loyalty. In allowing for different levels and intensity of brand loyalty, this tri-dimensional approach is important from a managerial perspective. It means that loyalty strategies that arise from a brand audit can be made more effective by targeting the market segments that demonstrate the most appropriate combination of brand loyalty components. We propose a matrix with three dimensions (emotional, cognitive and behavioural loyalty) and two levels (high and low loyalty) to facilitate a brand loyalty audit. To demonstrate this matrix, we use the example of financial services, in particular a rewards-based credit card

E-commerce ethics and its impact on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty: an empirical study of small and medium Egyptian businesses

The theoretical understanding of e-commerce has received much attention over the years; however, relatively little focus has been directed towards e-commerce ethics, especially the SMEs B2B e-commerce aspect. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework that explains the impact of SMEs B2B e-commerce ethics on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Using SEM to analyse the data collected from a sample of SME e-commerce firms in Egypt, the results indicate that buyers’ perceptions of supplier ethics construct is composed of six dimensions (security, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, service recovery, shared value, and communication) and strongly predictive of online buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Furthermore, our results also show that reliability/fulfilment and non-deception are the most effective relationship-building dimensions. In addition, relationship quality has a positive effect on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. The results offer important implications for B2B e-commerce and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of relationship marketing

Relationship quality as a predictor of B2B customer loyalty

This study aims to provide a picture of how relationship quality can influence customer loyalty in the business-to-business (B2B) context. Building on prior research, we propose relationship quality as a higher construct comprising trust, commitment, satisfaction and service quality. We believe that these dimensions of relationship quality can reasonably explain the influence of overall relationship quality on customer loyalty. In addition, this study provides more insightful explanations of the influence of relationship quality on customer loyalty through two levels of relationship quality: relationship quality with employees of the supplier and relationship quality with the supplier itself as a whole. Aiming to fully explain the concept of customer loyalty, we follow the composite loyalty approach providing both behavioral aspects (purchase intentions) and attitudinal loyalty. We seek to address three main research issues: Does relationship quality influence both aspects of customer loyalty? If so, which relationship quality dimensions influence each of the components of customer loyalty? And which level of relationship quality (employee level versus organizational level) has more influence on customer loyalty? This study uses the courier delivery service context in Australia and targets Australian Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We selected mail survey and online survey as the two methods of data collection, and together they received 306 usable respondents. Structural equation modeling yields insights into the influence of the dimensions and levels of relationship quality on customer loyalty. Results show that all four dimensions of relationship quality influence attitudinal loyalty, however, only satisfaction and perceived service quality influence behavioral loyalty (purchase intentions). Most remarkably, results indicate that only the organizational level of relationship quality influences customer loyalty. The employee level of relationship quality does not play a significant in influencing B2B customer loyalty in this study. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Service Quality and its contribution to Price Premium though Service Loyalty: a B2B Perspective

A steady stream of sales revenue for a service provider can be achieved through having superior market performance outcomes such a high price premium. Among the variables underlying customer relationships is the perceptions of quality received. However for relationships to be mutually profitable the customer s willingness to pay must be taken into account (Ravald and Gronroos (1996). This indicator of market performance outcomes is directly related to service loyalty (Aaker 1991, 1996; Chaudhuri and Holbrook 2001). Achieving and maintaining a high price premium through attracting and retaining a loyal customer base is particularly significant in a business-to-business market. Nevertheless, there are opposing viewpoints in that loyal customers are not always seen as profitable despite arguments that loyalty makes customers less price sensitive