Abstract
Building brand loyalty in a competitive market can play an efficient role in the modern
marketing environment. It is now widely acknowledged by companies and business enterprises
that strong brand loyalty will make a competitive advantage in the marketplace that will increase
their overall knowledge with experiences and trustworthiness. Indeed, recent trends in modern
marketing have changed tremendously, and study of brand loyalty is increasingly becoming
essential to keep pace with this change. In this conceptual paper, we have summarized the
literatures on currently prevailing concepts and approaches on brands that will allow us to
identify the necessary components of brand loyalty, and therefore will help companies and
business enterprises to improve their marketing efficiency. Based on a comprehensive review of
several earlier works, here we propose a plausible framework for building brand loyalty in
sequential order, namely, familiarity of the brand, satisfaction of
1.0 Introduction
A successful brand is an exclusive product (industrial or consumer), place, person or service,
amplified in such a way that the user or buyer perceives significant and exclusive added values,
which go with their needs closely. If a brand provides superior service over many years of
regular use, it gains added value of acquaintance and proven trustworthiness. The added values
can come from the experience of using the brand, e.g., reliability, risk and familiarity. The
practice of branding first urbanized in the middle ages.
During this period, craft guilds used brands to identify inferior goods and to limit production. In
nineteenth century America, the purposes of branding began to change.
The historical advancement of brands has shown that initially brands have served the roles of
discriminating between competing products, representing uniformity of quality and giving legal
protection from replication. Apart from providing the contribution with the badge of its maker,
thereby indicating legal possession of all the special technical and other relevant features that the
contribution may possess, the brand must have a powerful symbolic worth. The brand can in
itself involve status, increase project and image or augment lifestyle so that the ownership of the
making process by reducing perceived risk from the supplier’s perspective, it not only assist in
discriminating the offering, but also lead to brand loyalty, discourage market entry and well
deployed, facilitate its owners to rule profit margins and higher prices. (Bradley 1995; Egan –
Guilding, 1994)
According to Jacoby and Chestnut (1978) brand loyalty is:
“The (a) behavioral response, (b) biased, (c) expressed overtime, (d) by some decision making
unit, (e) with respect to one or more alternative brand out of a set of such brands and (f) is a
2
function of psychological decision making processes”. Building and maintaining brand loyalty is
a central theme of marketing practice and theory in establishing a sustainable competitive
advantage.
There are at least four cognitive based determinants of satisfaction. First, expectancy
disconfirmation theory says that customers form prospect as benchmarks from which
performance is rated. Disconfirmation has been established to be a significant determinant of
satisfaction. Second, perceived performance also affects satisfaction assessment (Tse & Wilton,
1988). Support for both expectancy disconfirmation and performance evaluations in a customer
satisfaction situation has been established (Oliver, 1995; Oliver & Burke, 1999). Third
satisfaction influences by equity (Oliver & Desarbo, 1988). In a study of payment equity, it is
found that satisfaction is directly affected by normative comparisons of payments (Bolton &
Lemon, 1999). Finally, the most important cognitive factor of satisfaction is potentially fairness
(Oliver & Swan, 1989).Fairness has been operational zed as perceived losses and gains in a
service relationship (Bolton, 1998).
The construct of loyalty has been researched in a number of contexts, including brand loyalty
(Cunningham, 1956; Jacoby & Chestnut, 1978; Kahn, Kalwani, & Morrison, 1986; Massy,
Montgomery, & Morrison, 1970), source loyalty (Wind, 1970), service loyalty (Butcher, Sparks,
& O’Callaghan, 2001; Caruana, 2002; Gremler & Brown, 1996), store loyalty (Beatty et al.1996;
Czepiel, 1990; Macintosh et al., 1992; Reynolds & Arnold, 2000) and e-loyalty (Srinivasan et al.,
2002).
Bearing in mind the importance of brand loyalty, a study was designed to examine the influence
of perceptions of service quality and product quality on attitude and behavior based brand loyalty
in a quick-service restaurant. In particular, the goal of this study is to determine either product
3
quality or service quality are predictors of brand loyalty in quick-service restaurants and if so,
their relative strength.
1.1 Background of the Study
Due to today’s up tight competition (F. Arslan, Altuna, 2010), developing a strong, positive
image has become crucial to the maintenance of lasting competitive advantage. (G. Birtwistle, L.
Shearer, 2001) In addition, rapidly changing consumer needs and markets, place strong pressure
to businesses to sustain their brand image and keep their products and services up to date.
(Haeckel, Nolan, 1993) Brand image refers to the perception of a certain brand in the mind of the
consumer when a brand name is mentioned (Keller, 1993), whereas brand awareness measures
the customer’s ability to recognize the brand when seeing the brand name, logo, symbol etc.
(Aaker, 1991) Building up a strong brand is not easy but if a brand could build a better image
than its competitors’, then it would enjoy a degree of protection (Cheverton, 2002). With high
brand image, a business can gain greater perception of the brand among customers, customer
loyalty, high profit margins, less negative attitude to price fluctuations and less vulnerability
compared to competitors (F. Arslan, Altuna, 2010).
In the 1980s, the conception of brands changed enormously, when the management started to
understand the importance of a brand as an asset of the business (Kapferer, 1997). Nowadays,
brands are seen more than just symbols and names: brands are major assets of a company due to
the fact that “a brand represents everything that a product or service means to consumer.”
(Kotler, 2009) That is the reason why brands should be carefully developed and managed.
(Kotler, 2009) However, very often firms consider brands just as a tool for advertising, but that is
not the case: good brands don’t just sell, they act! (Ind, 2003) Due to the present competitive
environment, every firm attempts to generate favorable and positive associations about their
4
brand which result in a positive image of the brand (Keller, 1993). Companies should understand
the fact that building up a positive brand image depends on possessing high brand awareness,
because when a brand is well established in the memory it is easier for associations to be created
and attached (Esch. et. all., 2006) In other words, this means that before customers can create an
image of a brand in their minds they have to get to know and be aware of the brand first.
To sum up, nowadays, brands are considered to be the key element when developing
relationships between companies and consumers. (Kotler, 2009) Brands are the key to winning a
position in the marketplace because they deliver unique benefits and build deep connections with
customers. (Kotler, 2009) In addition, customers are the most critical, though, very important
group to take into consideration because customers can always choose from where they buy.
Consequently, they will buy from the manufacturer that provides the most value. (Doyle, Stern,
2006)
1.2 Problem of the Statement
The problematic situation that gave rise to this study was that consumer perception towards
airlines is a very sensitive subject from the point of view of Fan Milk Plc. (D. Van Oudheusden,
1990) In conclusion of the previous statement, airlines can benefit from knowing what kind of
perception consumers have of them. A Fan Milk which seeks to succeed needs thorough
knowledge of current and potential markets for its services: it must be able to identify customers
and distinguish them from consumers. (Stephen Shaw, 2011) In this regard, this study was
decided to carry out in order to research the phenomenon of perceptions that consumers have
towards Fan Milk. This led to research problem formulation which is the following: what kind of
image consumers have and how aware they are of Fan Milk Plc.
5
1.3 Objectives of the Study
In this research, it has been attempted to analyze the factors affecting perfume preferences based
on the consumers. Relationships between brand value and its dimensions with brand loyalty have
been researched. The primary objective of the research is to determine the effects of consumer
buying decisions on each dimension of brand value and the effects of these dimensions on brand
loyalty. For this purpose, finding answers to the question of whether brand awareness, brand
associations and perceived quality – which are among the components Aaker has included in his
scale of brand value- have an effect on brand loyalty is among the objectives of the research.
i. To examine the various factors influencing brand loyalty?
ii. To study the impact of customer satisfaction on brand loyalty.
iii. To investigate the role of brand performance in customer satisfaction and loyalty.
iv. To investigate the role of brand efficiency to improves customer satisfaction and brand
loyalty.
v. Empirically investigates the role of customer satisfaction for enhancing brand loyalty.
1.4 Research Questions
Questions to be investigated are as under:
Q1. What is the connection between brand credibility and brand loyalty?
Q2. What is the association between brand awareness and brand loyalty?
Brand credibility and brand awareness both are essential for product loyalty, which is significant
for people. Product loyalty not only differentiates the people who are loyal with the brand but
also provides the perceived value to those people. Brand credibility and brand awareness
increase the value of the product and also play a vital role in creating a positive image of the
product
6
1.5 Statement of the Hypothesis
The present study is carried out with the following hypothesis.
H0: There is no significant relationship between brand choice of the respondents and frequency
of consumption.
H1: There is a significant relationship between brand choice of the respondents and frequency of
consumption.
H0: There is no significant relationship between qualification of the respondents and Influence
of advertisement towards their buying decisions.
H1: There is a significant relationship between qualification of the respondents and influence of
advertisement towards their buying decisions.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The research work is very significant because of it contributes to the field of knowledge, in
finding ways of maintaining the brand loyalty of Fan Milk Plc in Eleyele Ibadan.
Additionally, the research work would appraise the significant role of middlemen in maintaining
the brand loyalty of Fan Milk Plc. Nigeria, in Eleyele, Ibadan as to know whether it has been
adequate to the company’s most target audience.
The findings and recommendations of this research work, if adopted by Fan Milk Nigeria Plc, in
her physical distribution policies will reduce some costs and enhance her distribution activities
above her competition.
Academically, further research could be carried out to widen the intellectual horizon of people,
and also, improve the physical maintenance of brand loyalty of Fan Milk Nigeria Plc, and other
Companies in Ibadan and beyond.
7
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the relevance of middlemen in maintenance of brand loyalty in the society
with a case study of Fan Milk Plc. Ibadan Nigeria as far as the area is concerned, is limited area
only. Due to time and other resource constraints I have limited scope of study to this particular
area and hope to focus entirely on our objectives.
1.8 Definitions of Terms
In this research, the following definitions are used to determine the key words: Brand, Brand
Image, Brand Awareness and Consumer Perception:
1. Brand: “A trade name used to identify a specific product, manufacturer or distributor”
(Pallister & Law, 2009).
2. Brand Image: “Brand image is defined as a set of perceptions about a brand as reflected by
the brand associations held in consumers’ memory.” (Keller, 1993)
3. Brand Awareness: “Brand awareness measures the ability of a potential customer to
recognize or to recall a brand when faced with a purchase decision in a specific product
category” (Aaker, 1991).
4. Consumer Perception: “Customer perception is the process by which an individual selects,
organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world”
(Shiffman & Kanuk, 1997)