Brand+Loyalty

(Google, 2012)toc

=**__1. Introduction:__**=

This wiki will be identifying the new trends within brand loyalty, and what companies can do to increase and retain consumer loyalty. In order to identify this, you have to recognise whether brand loyalty is of contemporary relevance.

The influencing factors that need to be recognised are, why brand loyalty is of contemporary relevance, explain what companies retain loyalty; concentrating on Amazon and Dunkin’ Donuts, why are companies and consumers loyal, negativity and the new trends within brand loyalty.

The wiki will explain that brand loyalty benefits both the company and consumer, but it needs to explained how they will benefit each other, and how they both need to work together to enable brand loyalty.

It is important to define the new trends within brand loyalty, to see whether these can influence customers and change the negatives perspectives. This means that companies have to think of new trends to keep their customers loyal, and the wiki will explain what companies do to achieve this.

=**__2. What is brand loyalty?__**=

According to Okonkwo (2007: 119) brand loyalty is simply a consumers’ favourite brand in a product category. It is often a conscious or unconscious decision that is expressed through the intention to purchase or repurchase specific products of a brand.

However, Pride, Ferrell (2012: 400) state that the idea of brand loyalty is a consumers’ favourable and committed attitude towards a specific brand, or they form an emotional relationship with this brand, building trust. Resulting in, if the brand loyalty is strong enough, consumers may consistently purchase this brand when they need a product in that product category.

Ferrell and Hartline (2010) claim that brand loyalty is "a positive attitude toward a brand that causes customer to have a consistent preference for that brand over all other competing brands in a product category".

Pride, Ferrell (2012: 400) go onto saying that brand loyalty can be driven by a number of underlying factors, including economic, emotional, psychological, age and cultural. Many researchers consider brand loyalty to be a series of purchases that are repeated over a certain frequency of time.

Although, brand loyalty may not result in a consumer purchasing a specific brand all the time, the brand is at least viewed as a potentially choice in the variety of brands being considered for purchase. Development of brand loyalty in a customer reduces the individuals risks and shortens the time spent buying the product (Pride, Ferrell, 2012: 400).

media type="youtube" key="q3hLfF2R8lg" width="560" height="315" Austin McGhie explaining brand and emotional engagement.

=__**3. Why is brand loyalty of contemporary relevance? **__=

Mintel (2007) identifies that brand loyalty is of contemporary relevance to the business world, as there is focus on identifying a trend that can guide new opportunities to encourage the return of customers, and enable repeat business. This enables businesses to charge premium prices and position themselves in a high category, which allows for relationships to occur.

Therefore, a trend to guide new opportunities according to Yeshin (2006: 257) is you have to identify the economic climate first. The economy has seen a trend towards consumers that now prioritise budgeting and saving over brand loyalty. This results in the consumer wanting to pay less for branded products/services. From consumers budgeting, trusts in the products have declined and fewer relationships are being built, creating less prominence in consumer buying behaviour and a decrease in loyal customers.

Mintel (2007) describes ‘In Goods We Trust’, identifying that customers prefer the trust of a brand over budgeting. It seems this old saying reveals a deep-seated truth about trust, loyalty, and risk-aversion, which is how businesses create loyal customers. Factors such as social media and social institutions have merged to bring the trust of brands to the forefront for loyalty.

Therefore, taking into account both Mintel (2007) and Yeshin (2006) arguments, brand loyalty is of contemporary relevance towards the business world as it is creating loyalty in the economic climate and shall encourage the return of customers; creating an opportunity to build the trust and relationship between the brand and customer. Developing repeat and loyal customers is what every business desires and creates more difficulty for competitors to sell their products.

=__4. How brands can create loyal customers__=

media type="custom" key="25924754" (Salmat, 2013)

This video looks at how a brand can create loyal customers and the advantages of having loyal customer. The video highlights factors such as;
 * It costs a brand 5x more to get new customers than to keep current ones.
 * A brand needs to focus on current customers and their satisfaction levels.
 * Engaged customers spend 16% more.
 * In order to satisfy customers a brand needs to deliver; outstanding customer experience, maintain exceptional customer engagement over various channels - both online and offline.
 * 57% of customer rate customer service as the most important factor in driving customer loyalty.
 * Provide highly personalised information and experiences with loyal customer - 1/2 of these customer claim they do not receive personalised activity.
 * Show customers you know them, providing personalised information and unique offers.
 * Customers want loyalty offers to be consistent over channels - brands need to treat all channels the same.
 * Multi-channel marketing - help to give the right offer on the right channel to the right customer at the right time.
 * Solid customer data + effective multichannel marketing + superior support = a successful loyalty programme.

Brand loyalty consists of three different stages; recognition, preference and insistence. (Pride and Ferrell, 2008).
 * Brand recognition: this is when a customer is aware of the brand and will choose this brand if their preferred brand is unavailable or if other brands are completely unknown - mildest form of loyalty.
 * Brand preference: more intense brand loyalty. It is clear that a customer prefers one brand over its competitors - and will purchase from this brand when products are available. A brand is able to compete effectively amongst competitors when brand preference have developed.
 * Brand insistence: no other brand will do as brand loyalty is so high. Will devote both time and money into purchasing products from the chosen brand. Will not settle for any substitutes.

To help companies ensure the customers remember the brands, there are six steps to maintain the customers stay with brands with loyal.

====LDeSanctis (2013) argued that create stories are the trick for establish brands awareness that companies desire to express their brands personality and values. Based on these stories, companies need analysis and share the experience of stories with customers. Therefore, the potential customers had been collected by these stories. It is unequal with shown the price tags or list of details. Companies should distinguish similar stories from competitors to ensure the uniqueness. Consumers are able to recognize the stories that explain the specific company. There are clear memory for this contents and cause intense sympathetic chord after the time elapse.====
 * 4.1.Establish Brand Storytelling**

====Emotional connection with customers is very important. Periodical contact with customers can improve the understanding for brands. Provide customers the motivation to endorse the brands to other potential customers. (LDeSanctis, 2013)====
 * 4.2.** **Connect with Your Customers**

Companies should pay attention to customer demand before sell the products. Frequent communication with customers are understanding what is desired by customers. Companies also need add value for their new products. For example, customer satisfaction can lead the companies recognized the element that improved the products trying to be perfect. Therefore, the customers are more beneficial and will most probably require by staying loyal to brands. (LDeSanctis, 2013) Companies should develop a habit to care customers in each step of the way. Give customers more satisfaction beyond their expectations. It is offering the brand new and excellent products or service which stay true to brand mission and promise. (LDeSanctis, 2013)
 * 4.3. Anticipate Their Needs**
 * 4.4. Deliver on Promise**

Companies are strict with the same performance which coincide with their propagandist message is cause the companies consistent keep the top of mind by customers. It is also consistent maintain customers’ trust and credibility in the brand, and customers possess ability to justify the distinction from competitors. (LDeSanctis, 2013)
 * 4.5. be Consistent**
 * 4.6. Deliver Personalized Experiences**

=
Digital marketing can connect with customers in different ways. A strategy of conversational marketing that a thoughtful arrangement one-to-one unseamed messaging across all channels. Establish a customer base and create personalized to each customer, two way interactions with customers that are relevant and customized. To maintain a good relationship with customers is the purpose which supplying the personal services and satisfies each customer demands or expectations. (LDeSanctis, 2013)======

=**Achievingbrand loyalty through sponsorship: the role of fit and self-congruity.**=

Mazodier, M, & Merunka, D (2012) understood that the relationship between sponsorship activities on brand image and awareness was well known however, the relationship between sponsorship and brand loyalty was not well researched. In their study they sought to outline and explain the impact of sponsorship on brand loyalty. They concentrated on sponsorship specifically, ruling out sponsorship and advertising effects. They found as part of their study that sponsorship has a positive impact on brand trust and brand loyalty. They highlighted that self-congruity between the consumer and the event and the event-brand fit are managerially actionable and important as they are important as choosing the right event for the brand and the consumer that is being targeted is important to increase success. They suggest that to increase brand loyalty it is better to sponsor an event which happens more frequently than one that happened not so often such as the Olympics.

Stay with companies’ core principle and achievement beyond customer’s expectation are help companies to establish brand loyalty. Thinking further than competitors and determining the companies inside advantages, and strive to offer the products that unable to copy by competitors. Therefore, offering a differentiation is attempt to become the famous to the customers. Brassington and Pettitt (2006) addressed that the marketing is purpose to create the loyalty beyond the reasons. Marketers need focus on creating more loyal customers and emotional communication with them. The customers who are existing loyalty in current is the precious resources for companies. They should be protected by increase emotional communication and reward. (LDeSanctis, 2013)

=__**5. Why should companies strive to have loyal customers?** __= (Google, undated)

Okonkwo (2007: 119) suggests that brand loyalty for companies is the cornerstone of long term profitability and competitive leverage. Brand loyalty also leads to lower costs for companies in acquiring and servicing customers.

Not only this but if a consumer is familiar with a brand and if the brand loyalty for a customer us strong enough, they are likely to make frequent purchases from that particular brand when after a specific product from that given category (Pride and Ferrell, 2008). Although some loyal customer may not make immediate purchases, once brand loyalty has been established, the brand is viewed more highly than others when a customer does come to purchase decision making (Pride and Ferrell, 2008).

Loyal consumers purchase more frequently and in higher quantities and also show less sensitivity to price. This can also enable brands to save the costs of attracting new customers, which is often four to six times more than retaining an old customer (Okonkwo, 2007: 119).

Malekian (2009: 17) is agreeing with that Okonkwo (2007) states, as companies who serve loyal customers shall be more cost effective, because permanent loyal customers are more familiar with the company’s products and services. This familiarity means that a company does not have to spend as much money on selling, advertising, and personnel in order to serve those customers; the customer is already sold on the brand and the products and services.

However, Jones, Tilley, (2003: 245) argue that, loyal customers are given the special treatment by the company; this may raise the customers’ expectations of the brand to a level which is impossible to satisfy. This creates the potential for negative word of mouth to occur and can be particularly damaging for companies.

Furthermore, Belleghem (2013) suggests that companies who strive to have loyal customers are an established brand, but customer loyalty is disappearing in a hurry. Consumers put less trust in brands and tend to switch to different brands a lot faster. The famous 80/20 rule (20% of the customer’s account for 80% of the turnover) has turned into a 60/40 rule (40% of the customers generate 60% of the turnover) and is slowly evolving towards a 50/50 rule.

Brassington and Pettitt (2006) mentioned that the loyalty probably is a helpful mechanism. Not only for developing detail in the segment profile but also developing a deeper awareness of which segmentation variables are significant. For example, a considered market research is helpful for companies to recognize the customers exist loyalty for different brands, even frequent swap between the different brands. To explore other factors that differentiate between each of these groups. For concretely, Wind (1982; and mentioned at Brassington and Pettitt, 2006) recognized the six loyalty segments as shown:


 * 1) Current loyal users who will continue to purchase the brand
 * 2) Current customers who might switch brands or reduce consumption
 * 3) Occasional users who might be persuaded to increase consumption with the right incentives
 * 4) Occasional users who might decrease consumption because of competitors’ offerings
 * 5) Non-users who might buy the brand if it was modified
 * 6) Non-users with strong negative attitudes that are unlikely to change

It is ensured that the brand loyalty is brittle relationship between the customers and companies. There are many threats exist in the situation, and alternative brands available or promotions designed by competitors to damage customer loyalty. Such as the supermarket own brands, which is manufacture the equivalent products with cheaper price than famous brands. The customers will be sensitive to price and switched due to own brand products as good as well-known brands. Bennett and Rundle-Thiele (2005) emphasized that brand loyalty cannot be identified as a conservative concepts which among customers and that is changing the degree of loyalty may be adopted by companies to resonate with consumers. They identified the five stages of brand loyalty. These are birth, ‘golden era’, latent brand loyalty, the birth of multi-brand loyalty, and finally declining brand loyalty. The golden era is the most challenging stage for companies which are adopt to variety of loyalty schemes to prohibit over-familiarity and multi-brand switching.

=__6. Customer "delight"__=

Customers have been found to wanting 'delight' from a brand enhances their loyalty with the brand - this idea now shapes the consumer landscape, and techniques that brands can adopt in order to establish customer loyalty and also profitability.

Factors relating both to experience and brand values hold the biggest impact on customers when it comes to decision making, expectations from that product category and also engagement from the brand. Some of the top brands who have successfully created customer delight were: (Passikoff, 2012).
 * Apple
 * Amazon
 * Kindle
 * Facebook
 * Hyundai
 * Samsung
 * YouTube
 * Google
 * Haagen Dazs
 * Crest

These brands have successfully adopted brand loyalty and have established a set of loyal customers. The axiom "differentiation and delight grow on one stalk" (Passikoff, 2012) set good stead for brands, and those who act on this are said to be the ones who reap the advantages and return on their advancements. (Passikoff, 2012). The key to developing loyal customers is personalisation to each individual and 'delight'.

=__**7. Companies retaining loyalty: **__=

According to Morris (2012), and as stated previously, it is suggested that for most companies it is five times more expensive to recruit a new customer than it is to retain current customers. As stated before, with brand loyalty being of contemporary relevance, customer retention occurs and this enables an increase in profitability by anywhere from 25% to 125%. It is clear that current customers represent an incredible amount of value for businesses, yet on average, businesses lose 50% of their customers every five years.

Morris (2012) goes on in suggesting that achieving high levels of customer loyalty is not an easy task. Building brand loyalty requires a concentrated effort on the part of businesses to differentiate themselves and continuously improve their customer relationships. However, in every industry there are a few companies whose legendary customer care can serve as a guide to others.

If you identify some new trends in business, this enables the potential to develop brand loyalty or to destroy it for a company. If you take internet channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, these are ways in which companies’ can communicate and build relations with their consumers.

Therefore, taking into account Amazon and Dunkin’ Donuts as the examples of companies who have developed brand loyal customers, you can then identify how they have achieved this, and what method they have used.

__7.1 Amazon.com: __
(Google, undated)

The Amazon website was launched on 16th July 1995, where it would revolutionise the book business by creating an online store for books with the best conceivable customer service (Goodfellow, 2012).

Narayan, (2011) recognises that Amazon has a customer care service that helps to increase brand loyalty. For example, if you make one customer unhappy on the internet, they can each tell around 6,000 friends. Therefore, it is crucial that Amazon’s customer service is impeccable, which led to Amazon being ranked No. 1 in 2009 and 2011 by American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Narayan (2011) also states that Amazons’ brand loyalty occurs from building trust via their customer service. Amazon recognised that a main issue towards trust was the doubtfulness customers had towards e-commerce and Amazon. From this insight, Amazon came up with the idea of customer reviews. This consisted of individuals who can see other reviews about products, leading towards customers feeling more confident when purchasing a product.

According to Morris (2012), Amazon has consistently strong customer loyalty because of its focus on a simple, easy and customer-centric shopping experience. Amazon is second to none in product availability, making it easy for customers to find whatever they need, no matter how obscure.

This has created a strong brand awareness and recognition throughout a very large audience. This marketing over the years has established emotional connections between the consumer and the product, compatible theory that brand loyalty stems from familiarity, for example through their innovative products such as the Kindle, and the brand Amazon (Morris, 2012).

__7.2 Dunkin’ Donuts:__
(Google, undated)

Dunkin Donuts was founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts Dunkin’ Donuts are an American global donut company and coffee house chain based in Canton, Massachusetts. Since its founding, the company has grown to become one of the largest coffee and baked goods chain in the world, with 15,000 restaurants in 37 different countries (Canton, 2014).

Canton (2014) cited that for the eighth consecutive year, Dunkin’ Donuts has been ranked number one in customer loyalty in the coffee category by the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Furthermore, Passikoff (2014) stated that Dunkin’ Donuts would be ranked #6 overall in 2013 for best at meeting customer expectations and having the most loyal customers.

Customers are loyal to Dunkin Donuts as the company meets customers’ expectations (Canton, 2014). This is achieved via the DDperks Reward Programme; allowing customers to get a reward every time they purchase a product in the store. It works by earning 5 points for every £2 spent when the customer pays with their DD card. The customer gets a free medium beverage when they join the DDperks programme, when it is the customers’ birthday, or when the customer reaches 22 points.

According to Ames (2013) customers are loyal to Dunkin’ Donuts as they aim to provide variety and lots of options in their food, beverages and ice cream sections. It is an extraordinarily competitive space, and there are always new competitors coming along.

Therefore, Dunkin’ Donuts have to stand out as being an iconic American brand, with having a long history that people are familiar and comfortable with. The menu offering is also deep and wide, which is a strong part of its attractiveness. It provides an overall value based on great products, served quickly and easily in an accessible way, so that customer loyalty can strive.

=**__8. Why should consumers be loyal to a brand? __**=

Okonkwo (2007: 119) states that brand loyalty is clear evidence of the success and relevance of branding to both consumers and companies. For consumers it reduces the search costs and recognises a high level of trust in the promises the brand creates.

Okonkwo (2007) goes on in saying that brand loyalty is the height of consumer empathy with a brand. In some cases, loyal consumers see the brand as the only solution to their consumption problems and their need for fulfilment.

Some consumers that are truly attached to specific brands offer their loyalty to their trusted brands, to such an extent that the relationship with the brand departs from functionality to symbolism. This is because brands help consumers to project a self-image which features with a brand and the individual is then associated with them (Okonkwo, 2007).

According to Balmer, Mukherjee et al (2006) they state that consumers should be loyal to a brand as the individual not only wants to know more about the company’s products, but also about the company itself. The consumer can relate towards the brand as it creates an emotional attachment. Also the brands reputation can influence the willingness of consumers to either provide or withhold support from the company and its products. Furthermore, it is reported that a favourable corporate reputation helps in building consumers’ commitment to the company.

However, Babin, Harris (2011: 219) argue that for a consumer to truly be brand loyal the individual must have a bond with the product and believe that the consumption activity delivers value. Consumers should strive to be loyal as they often attempt to reward loyalty with reward programmes as found in frequent air miles, hotel reward points, and credit card cash back deals. However, in order for these tactics to be successful, consumers must ultimately value both the product and the incentives offered.

=**__9. Negative brand loyalty: __**= media type="youtube" key="3P45pmoRSh0" width="560" height="315"  GfK's Howard Lax, talking about negative brand loyalty.

Negative brand loyalty is about strategies which offer positive incentives to consumers to remain with, or return to the brand. However, there can be other reasons why customers remain with organisations, which can be viewed as less positive reasons.

Kitchen, Proctor (2001: 58) states that there has been a steady and measureable decrease in loyalty to specific brands. Several reasons have been suggested for this, including a narrowing of the actual and perceived differences between the relationships between the leading brands and a significant increase in the quality and credibility of retailers own brands.

Pride, Ferrell (2013: 502) argue that some customers remain with a brand even though they are not pleased with the service or product provided, as there are no alternatives which the individual can require. If brands subsequently find themselves no longer being the sole provider of a product or service, the brand will have to explore other options that they could offer to ensure their customers remain loyal to the brand.

Therefore, Kitchen, Proctor (2001) help argue Pride, Ferrell (2013) point in suggesting that sales promotion could be used to ensure customers remain loyal. However, Kitchen, Proctor (2001) identify that sales promotion has been blamed for negative brand loyalty. Consumers can become conditioned to buy only those goods which are on special offer and therefore the company’s other products shall suffer. It is equally easy to argue that sales promotion growth is simply a symptom, rather than a cause, of declining consumer loyalty. If brand loyalty is not enough to motivate consumers to purchase, then offering them ‘something extra’ can settle a sale.

However, Pride, Ferrell (2013) argue further in saying that there are more negatives to concentrate on; brand loyalty can appear from complications from moving to another brand. For example, customers may stay with a specific brand not necessarily because they feel they are receiving the best value, price, relationship or offer, but they remain loyal because it can be too complicated to make comparisons with other brands, and therefore to move their custom elsewhere.

=__**10. New trends in brand loyalty:**__ =

Mitskavets, Mintel (2013) recognises that there a number of important new trends within brand loyalty.

1. Discounts and rewards: This trend has been encouraged by the high volume of discounts and special offers available through supermarket, high street and online retailers, making it easier to find products on offer. Retailers have responded to value-driven customers by making discounts more readily available.

(Mitskavets, Mintel, 2013)

2. Loyalty programmes: In the past customer loyalty schemes acted as a promotional mechanism that encouraged the consumer to stick with a certain brands for the long haul. Today’s shoppers have a variety of schemes to choose from and often have several ‘loyalty cards’ from the loyalty programme at their disposal, choosing where to shop depending on what is on offer at any given time.

(Mitskavets, Mintel, 2013)

3. Smartphones apps, online and social media: Mobile platforms and tools are already changing the shopping range. Increasing adoption of smartphones and tablets, as well as increased availability of online connectivity, signal a bright future for m-commerce and t-commerce.

The adoption and interest in shopping via mobile devices has been rapidly growing, with smartphone or tablet owners now buy products and services using their mobile devices, whilst over a quarter are interested in doing so in the future. Mobile platforms present opportunities for brands and retailers to connect with current and potential customers and understand their needs better.

Brands could also look to utilise social media channels and cultivate their own brand supporters, as currently nearly a quarter (24%) of smartphone or tablet owners share pictures of products they like on social media, whilst 16% also write reviews.

Passikoff (2013) suggests that they are more new trends towards brand loyalty to identify.


 * 1) Targeting becomes personal: With consumers craving and expecting more, and more customised and personalised products, services and experiences, brands that better respond to real consumer expectations, will find consumers engaging with brands that are able to personalise the products and service.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Consumers expect more: Over the past 5 years consumer expectations have increased on average 20%. Brands have kept up by only 5%, a big gap between what’s desired by the customer and what’s delivered. The ability to accurately measure real and unspoken expectations will provide significant advantages for the brand and customer.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Price: Consumers now realise that cheaper brands can always be purchased. Many consumers delay purchasing until the products are on sale or a special promotion is offered; this leads to consumers wanting more for their money, or at a cheaper price. This enables brands to undercut each other to ensure their brand is purchased instead of others.

=__**11. From brand loyalty to E-loyalty:**__=

**__11.1 Introduction of E-loyalty:__**
Customers are the most important key of marketing. Apart from some special business such as private doctor, the size of market depends on the number of customers. Thus, establish and maintain the brand loyalty has always been one of the theme of the marketing. In the traditional marketing, strong customer loyalty can increase the competitive advantage and maintain premium pricing, reduce the selling cost, greater bargaining power with channels of distribution, a strong barrier to potential new entries into the product or service category, and synergistic advantages of brand extensions to related product or service categories (Reichfeld, 1996). However, with the development of technology, network has become the necessities of people's life, soon after, E-business is becoming more and more popular. With the advent of B2C (Business to Consumer), marketers realized the importance of E-consumers and maintain the visitors of e-commerce website. Consumers are also aware of the benefits of online shopping, it is cheaper and more convenient. Thus, E-loyalty which belongs to brand loyalty also become more and more important. Gommans, Krishnan and Scheffold (2001) argued that brand loyalty focuses on two different concepts: behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. In the aspect of attitudinal loyalty, it includes cognitive, affective, and behavioral intent dimensions. In traditional market, consumer loyalty depends on the brand impression. However, in the E-commerce, existing technology allows firms to put the emphasis on the cognitive dimension by offering customized information. At the same time, firms needs to strengthen consumer privacy and security issues for the affective dimension, and converting behavioral intent to an actual purchase. In the aspect of behavioral loyalty, E-commerce makes it become more complicated, the reasons are that customers may just visit the website for some information or by mistake, and it is hard for marketers to gauge their thoughts. Thus, satisfying customers is very important to create behavioral. However, Oliver (1999) argued that customers loyal to the product means customer satisfied with it, but satisfaction does not always lead to loyalty, they are unequal relationship. This phenomenon is more obvious in the E-commerce, because consumers have more choices. media type="custom" key="25754592"

**__11.2 The composition of E-loyalty__**
In the traditional marketing, brand building activities and trust building are two important factors to attract and maintain the brand loyalty. Brand building activities and trust building generally through advertisement, after-sales service, value-added services, sale promotion, and loyalty card etc. These activities can maximize the establishment of the consumer impression of the brand and draw customers’ eyes. However, compared with traditional marketing, E-commerce is more flexible and complex. These activities are easier to implement in the E-business, however, the effect of these activities are decreased. The reasons are that these concepts are easy to copy as well as consumers can easier find more information from the internet (Smith, 2000). Thus it is necessary for firms to do more in such an E-environment. Gommans, Krishnan and Scheffold (2001) provided a basic conceptual framework of E-loyalty. Figure 1: The E-Loyalty Framework.

Source: Gommans, Krishnan and Scheffold, 2001

Based on the theory of customers’ attitudes and behaviors determines the brand loyalty, Gommans, Krishnan and Scheffold (2001) provided five aspects that may influence customers’ attitudes and behaviors. First one called value propositions, this mostly focuses on how to let customers believe that it is worth to buy the products. There are two unique value propositions called product customization and interactivity that can increase the E-loyalty. A large number of online shoppers prefer customized products because to show their difference. If the customer highly involved in a product design, which will help to enhance the relationship between consumers and firms, furthermore, these products developed through this model also can increase the probability of meet consumer expectations. The competition in the E-commerce environment is very intense, for the same product, customers may have more than twenty kinds of options from different firms, and it is easier for customers to compare the price among different firms. In this case, having a competitive price range is the key for E-commerce to establish and maintain the brand loyalty (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000). Second part is brand building, in the E-commerce, brand image also reflected in the domain name. Customers prefer a well-known and easy to remember website name, because it is convenient for their second scan (Gommans, Krishnan and Scheffold, 2001). Otherwise, online community is also very important for customers to discuss their experiences and build the brand image. Next part called website and technology, this is a unique factor for E-commerce. First of all, the design of website directly affect the customer’s first impressions. A good website design should include an easy navigation, fast page loads, server reliability, quick shopping and checkout processes, and a personalized interface (Smith, 2000). Companies should be aware that consumers choose online shopping because it can save time, and more convenient than shopping in the store. Thus, if the design of website is very complicated, customers will lost their interest in continuing shopping or second visit. In addition, according to the different types of consumer groups, the website needs to have certain strain capacity. For example, the website should support language-changing options, because some customers are coming from different countries and use different languages. Certainly, all these are based on the premise that companies need to have a good technique. The fourth aspect is customer service, this is similar to the website and technology part, through using the existing technology, firms need to provide customers with a relatively comfortable and convenient technical services such as free online applications and easy payment methods etc. However, the difference is that firms need to have a strong human resources to support the customer service system, online shopping will happen in 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, thus, firms need to ensure that they can quickly response to customer consultation all over the time. Moreover, the efficiency of logistics and the customer reward system such as sales promotion are also very important to maintain the E-loyalty, because these methods will increase customer satisfaction. Final part is trust and security, trust directly affect the brand loyalty. In E-commence, generally, protect consumers' privacy and security is the key to achieve the trust. In such a digital age, some people such as Hacker are very common, thereby, this is also a test to firms. Moreover, the company's reputation and reliability also has a great impact on trust, online shopping has a major disadvantage which is consumers cannot touch the product, and therefore they cannot directly judge the quality of the product. So for the consumer, the company's reputation and reliability is particularly important when they choose the products (Gommans, Krishnan and Scheffold, 2001).

**__11.3 Analysis:__**
With the advent of internet, people have changed their lifestyle, customers do not lack of information as before, on the contrary, they can use the internet to find almost all the information they want. Therefore, this will be a big challenge for brand loyalty. For the companies, first of all, in the past customers did not have enough ability to get more information, thus the only thing they can do is to believe the company. In this case, in order to maximize the development and retention brand loyalty, firms just need to do the positive publicity. However, in the E-commerce, consumers can compare the same products through the Internet, and this will also increase the consumer's subjective judgment. After that, customers may find a lot of defects of the product, and the firm’s good image may be destroyed, or customers find more advantages, and more loyal to the firm. Secondly, the firm’s workload will be increased. According to the research, Clifford and Lang (2012) found that the most important factors that influence loyalty are privacy and security, therefore, the development of network technology is very important. Furthermore, internet is very liberal, from a positive attitude, this is a good opportunity for the company to show their brand. From a negative attitude, everything could happen in the network, so that maybe some people would deliberately denigrate the reputation of the company, or competitors deliberately suppression of the company's brand. Therefore, companies should spend more energy to establish the public relations on the network, and firms need to do as much as possible to create a good image for their own brands. For consumers, the network is one of the best platform to change a person perception of a brand. There are various comments and all kinds of suggestions on the internet, thus, this also provide consumers with a good opportunity to know more about this brand.

=** 12. Exploring social motivations for brand loyalty: Conformity versus escapism. **=

Labrecque, L, Krishen, A, & Grzeskowiak, S (2011) address the underlying motivation for consumers to forge social ties with brands. Consumers might remain loyal to a brand because of pressures to conform to a reference group; it stems from the need to identify with the group through the purchase, possession and use of brands. As a result of this people who identify with this motivation demonstrate a willingness to conform to the expectations of others and their purchasing decisions are influenced by them. On the other hand, the desire of the consumer to escape from their current environment might motivate brand loyalty, in order to escape discomfort or stress experienced, this change would give a sense of comfort or refuge. Escapism is brand loyalty where consumers want to change the social ties that they are associated with, for example a user of a high power super car might not be able to deal with the social pressures that can be associated with the damage to the environment that they can have and would therefore become loyal to the Toyota Prius brand which is renowned for being environmentally friendly.

//(Figure 1)//

Figure 1 developed by Labrecque, L, Krishen, A, & Grzeskowiak, S (2011) shows that although conformity and escapism both tie into brand loyalty the strength of their effects can vary depending on the circumstances in which they are fostered. Two variables, product knowledge and self-image congruence influence the effects on brand loyalty. Although self-image congruity intensified the effects of conformity on brand loyalty, it had no effect on the connection between escapism and brand loyalty. Furthermore, although product knowledge increases the strength of the connection between escapism and brand loyalty it decreased the relationship between conformity and brand loyalty.

=__13. Brand Loyalty and Social media__=

This section will expand on the idea of brand loyalty and included the view of brand loyalty through social media. The section will look at different methods of using social media to affect brand loyalty then continue to look at how companies use social media to increase brand loyalty and how social media affects consumer perception on brand loyalty. The wiki will then take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of using social media to increase brand loyalty, and conclude with some recommendations. This video is an introduction in how social media can be used to effect brand loyalty. media type="custom" key="25924252"

The first way in which social media can be used to help increase brand loyalty is through increased communication. Using social media a company can have access to communicating with its customers wherever they are. Twitter is the most used tool for this; consumers can contact a company directly by mentioning a company in a tweet. A company can directly reply to that tweet building up a relationship with the customer. L. Julian states in research that “social media as way to communicate effectively with consumers who attach themselves to your brand and provide them with something valuable to ignite loyalty.” (L. Julian 2012) Julian concluded in her research that loyalty can be increased by using communication tool on social media. She stated that “For the first time, consumers feel that their feedback is being appreciated and listened to through real time communication methods on social media sites.” (L. Julian 2012) Following on from communications is using social media for customer service; this can have a positive effect on band loyalty. The use of good customer service will lead to a better view of the company and increased brand loyalty. Sashi states that, "the evolution of the internet and in particular the emergence of social media with its enhanced ability to facilitate interaction between buyers and sellers has captured the interest of managers seeking to better understand and serve their buyers using these technologies and tools"( Sashi 2012) This statement from Sashi shows that companies already know that interactions with consumers that already have and use their products are key to increasing brand loyalty. The research shows that having good communication and customer service increases trust in a brand and therefore leads to brand loyalty. Twelp forces has been one of the most successful social media campaigns for customer service, Twelp force is a twitter help line set up by Best Buy, the concept is that Best Buy customers can contact experienced Best Buy employees through social media at any point and they will answer any question, according to Best Buy at least. The aim is to give the same service that is available in store, but be able to access this anywhere; this is taking traditional techniques of increasing brand loyalty and developing them to work with social media. (Simon Badman 2012) The successful use of Twelp force has built up a large amount of trust in the company and built a positive relationship with a large number of customers. The brand loyalty to Best Buy has increased drastically as consumers trust in their products and the reliability in the brand has become a lot greater due to the use of Twelp force. John Bernier describes it as “Marketing that isn’t marketing” (John Bernier 2010) the use of Twelp force is a customer service strategy that also marketing the company. L. Julian found in her research that content generation helped lead to brand loyalty; she stated that “All respondents stressed the importance of content generation, which in turn leads to loyalty.” (L. Julian 2012) Other authors have agreed with this, stating that interactive and high quality content on social media helps to build relationships with consumers leading to brand loyalty. Sites such as Facebook and Pinterest are used by companies in social media marketing, companies can post fun and interactive content giving meaning that consumers are more likely to interact with the brand. Erdogmus and Cicek agreed with Julian and found in their study that “at advantageous campaigns on social media are the most significant drivers of brand loyalty followed by relevancy of the content, popularity of the content among friends, and appearing on different social media platforms and providing applications” (Erdogmus and Cicek 2012)

__Advantages__
The first advantage of using social media to increase brand loyalty is cost, the use of social media is comes at a lot lower cost than traditional methods. Khan and Khan support this by stating. "Social media is the most cost effective and easy to use platform to communicate and share information about brands, businesses, new products and services, events and anything else" (Khan and Khan, p. 4). As stated in the conclusions of the wiki on ‘Brand Loyalty’ “ Companies have concluded that it is expensive to recruit new customers, compared to retaining current and loyal customers ” (Nicola Newman 2014) This statement shows that companies that employ a large emphasis on brand loyalty and use it as a key marketing approach are often cost conscious. As previously stated using brand loyalty is cheaper than attracting new customers, however traditional methods of gaining brand loyalty can still cost. The use of social media being so cheap means that a company can employ a brand loyalty strategy at an even lower cost. Another advantage is the fact that on social media consumers can share their experiences with a brand, showing their brand loyalty. Social media pages are public, especially with companies, on these pages consumers can share their brand experience and their thoughts about a brand. This experience can be seen by others creating a positive brand image, this is turn creates brand loyalty. This will happen whether a company uses social media or not, consumers will always share their thoughts across social media, however if a company has a central location on social media ( a Facebook page for example) then a company can control the page and consumers know where to look for the company creating a stronger brand and stronger brand loyalty. The next advantage is that ease in which social media can create social communities. As stated earlier in the Wiki social communities have a big influence on brand loyalty. Laroche et al state that “these communities create value and affect brand loyalty through brand trust” (Laroche et al 2012) Laroche et al continue on to explain that the value created through communities on a social media platform builds trust which in turn build brand loyalty. They stated in their research “ that brand communities established on social media enhance feelings of community among members and contribute to creating value for both members and the company. Furthermore, the model show how brand loyalty is increased by brand communities.(Laroche et al 2012) With the ease in which social communities can be created through social media it gives companies a big opportunity to create such communities and therefore gain brand loyalty.

__Disadvantages__
There are negatives to using social media in a brand loyalty strategy. Just as with the positives the fact that consumers can share their positive experiences about a brand they can also share negative experiences. Negative comments about a brand will affect image and the loyalty to the brand, not only of the customer that has had the negative experience but to other consumers as the total brand images will be devalued and trust within the brand will drop. This can be easily avoided by careful control over content and quick reply to customer complaints, however there have been cases where complaints have gone viral and effected brand image and loyalty. Virgin media had a problem with a complaint that went viral over social media, so much so that it hit news headlines. Virgin is a large and very well know brand and have a lot of brand loyalty from consumers across many different markets, however this loyalty was affected when a complaint went viral. Jim Boyed posted the complaint to Virgin about his late father in law not paying fee’s, the complaint was shared across Facebook over 53,000 times. Virgin late issued an apology, however it was too late and the brand had be tarnished on social media and lost a lot of loyalty.

Trust in social media can be a disadvantage to brand loyalty, this goes along with the fact that not all consumers are on social media, or certain social media sites. With mistrust in social media comes mistrust in the brand if they are heavily involved with social media, this therefore leads to lower brand loyalty. However building relationships is key to successful brand loyalty, and in doing so trust is often gained. Harridge-March and Quinton state in their research on trust in social media that “the aim is to build longer term relationships with customers, generating trust between buyer and seller so that loyalty develops “(Harridge-March & Quinton 2009)

__Analysis__
The positives, to using social media to help create and maintain brand loyalty, massively outweigh the negatives. The negatives can be dangerous to a brand and the company, with the risk of any negative comment going viral and the ease in which anything can o viral on social media negative comments and experiences can destroy a whole brand. However with careful management they are easily stopped and turned into positives. The greatest advantage of using social media is the ability to create and maintain a relationship with consumers easily. Communication is key in brand loyalty, Twelp force have shown that through the use of great communications and customer service they can have a strong brand and brand loyalty from their consumers. Social media is one of the cheapest forms if not the cheapest form of communicating with consumers, with consumers being able to access social media sites nearly anywhere at any time, thanks to technological advancements, companies are able to communicate with customers at any point, meaning building a brand relationship becomes even easier.

__Recommendations__
I recommend that companies use social media alongside traditional techniques, this will introduce higher brand loyalty, but will also keep customers who mistrust social media by using the traditional techniques. Careful control over social media is key to success in a brand loyalty strategy and in doing this negative effects are less likely to be seen. Use interactive and fun content to draw consumers in to the social media pages will put a positive view on your social media page, and increase brand loyalty. =**__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">13. Conclusion: __**=

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To conclude, when investigating whether brand loyalty is of contemporary relevance towarsiness world, it has been identified that companies need brand loyalty to increase their sales and profit.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Companies need to progress from brand recognition to brand preference to ultimately brand loyalty - the three stages of brand loyalty.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Companies have concluded that it is expensive to recruit new customers, compared to retaining current and loyal customers. Loyal customers enable repeat purchase that shows a great deal of trust with the brand, enabling a relationship to build between the company and consumer.

Companies need to be giving customer personalised information alongside exceptional customer engagement - knowing and appreciating customers play a big part in brand loyalty.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It has been recognised that there is negativity when it comes to brand loyalty, as some consumers prefer cheaper prices and only purchase products on promotion, rather than purchasing their preferred brand.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As trends in society change so do trend in business change, social media is fast becoming on of the biggest tools for companies and it is a useful tool to increase brand loyalty and brand recognition in consumers. As society changes, business must and soon social media will be essential in brand loyalty.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Therefore, brand loyalty is still in existence and consumers are loyal towards brands. New trends will enable the negativity with loyalty to decrease. Although companies will need to implement loyalty programs, such as loyalty cards and discounts to encourage the consumer to purchase and be loyal to that brand.

=**__14. References:__**=

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