The Relationship Between Brand Strength and Customer Loyalty in the Airline - Research Proposal Example

The relationship between brand strength and loyalty in airline of the Rationale and Research Questions The application and development of marketing metrics has been both a key issue for the practitioners and a major focus of academic works since the last decade. Branding and consumer satisfaction have continued to be stay as pivotal subjects of marketing. According to Jones & Suh (2000) consumer satisfaction is essential for the long term growth of a business. It is also regarded as a fundamental determinant of business success. Ekinci, Dawes & Massey (2008) stated that in order to ensure higher customer satisfaction, apart from the product quality and services, the role of branding is significant. Various studies have shown that the customer lifetime value increases with positive brand experience (Dimitriades, 2006). Most of the research activities carried out previously by the practitioners and academicians have demonstrated concepts of brand equity, customer lifetime value, brand loyalty and other associated concepts of branding. However, there are hardly any studies that tried to explore the relationship between brand strength and customer loyalty. Although, few studies can be found that considered this two concepts as a part of the study but never considered it as the central theme. Hence, this endeavour is an attempt to fill the gap in the existing branding literature. Therefore, the topic chosen for this study can be said to be justified and has high relevance in the business world. In order to further narrow down the subject of the research and also make it more effective in the business world, the study seeks to investigate about the relationship between brand strength and customer loyalty in airline industry. In simple words, how brand strengths influences customer loyalty in the airline industry will be evaluated in this paper. The findings of the paper can be appealing to the airlines companies and also has the scope to appeal to the other sectors of business as the study will also generalize how brand strength influences customer loyalty. On the basis of the objectives following research question will be explored: - What are the major factors that enhance the level of loyalty among the airline customers? What role does brand strength plays in enhancing the loyalty among consumers? What initiatives do companies take to strengthen their brand and how the same is communicated to the customers? Literature Review Brand management has always been an essential part of marketing. A number of studies have confirmed that the role of barding in influencing the purchase decision of consumers and enhancing their level of satisfaction has been instrumental. However, this study will focus on a more specified topic i.e. how brand strength enhances customer loyalty. Discussion on brand strength often suggests that these are the abstract values and is somehow quite separate from the actual sales of the brand in the market place. Hence, the strength of a brand cannot be adjudged only by looking at its sales and market performance. In one sense, it is justified to say that a brand is strong if it is big and successful, but it is only true from the tautological point of view. According to Dall’Olmo Riley & de Chernatony (2000), the best option or the way to define a brand strength is to consider aspects such as demand of that particular brand in the market place in relation to its competitors. The author also emphasizes on the fact that the brand’s strength is also determined on the basis its distribution and price. O’Loughlin & Szmigin (2006) emphasized on the fact that an obvious place to understand the brand’s strength is the consumers’ minds. The author also stated that brand’s strength can be associated with its awareness, attitude, association and belief. According to Pappu & Quester (2006) brand strength positively influences the customer loyalty. Echoing the same authors such as O’Cass & Grace (2004), stated that brand strength acts as a major determinant of the consumer’s repeat purchase intentions. This directly links with the consumers’ loyalty towards a brand. However, these scholars did not consider a broader framework while conducting the research. Their focus was on only a small sample size and a particular industry and it is not wise to accept or generalize a finding only on the basis of the results of a particular sector. Thus, the approach undertaken by the researchers to explore this area can be adjudged as a weakness for the existing literature. Davis (2000) stated that brand’s strength management is an area of enhanced importance for the marketers nowadays. This is particularly because of the fact that organizations are attempting to communicate the intangible and complex messages as a key brand management strategies. A study carried out by Reichfeld and Schefter (2000) about the factors that creates loyalty among the consumers found that customer brand loyalty is deemed as the ultimate outcome from the strategic marketing initiatives. The authors divided loyalty into two divisions and named it as behavioural loyalty and attitudinal loyalty and also considered loyalty as a sophisticated construct. Their research model unearthed six key factors that have a direct influence on the consumers’ loyalty. The factors are satisfaction, value, resistance to the change, trust, affect and brand equity. (Source: Reichfeld & Schefter, 2000) Although, authors such as Reichfeld & Schefter (2000) believes that brand equity or the brand strength does impact the loyalty of consumers, but this notion is contradicted by eminent academicians such as Oliver (1999). The author believes that the ultimate consumer loyalty is as the function of personal fortitude, perceived superiority of the product, social bonding and the synergistic impact. However, the arguments put forward by the author mainly support the assertion that the measures of customer loyalty which is constrained only to the repurchase consideration fails to capture the affluence of the loyalty construct. Furthermore, the transformation from purchase loyalty to a holistic conceptualization of loyalty construct is appearing to be consistent with the literature of customer loyalty and brand strength. These set authors mainly used the data of industrial equipment purchase as the means to underpin the role of brand strength on customer loyalty. Therefore, again the issue of generalization comes into play as very much specific data was used. However, if all these studies together are viewed from a broader perspective, it reflects that irrespective of industry and nature of the product the strength of a brand is directly proportional to customer loyalty. Moreover, one of the key strengths of these research initiatives is that statistical tools have been used to analyse the data and that gives a solid foundation to the findings. It also increases the reliability of the findings to a great extent. A study carried out by Hoeffler & Keller (2003) as an endeavour to understand the impact of brand strength on the consumer purchase intentions and loyalty found that the ultimate strength of the brand is being derived from the actions of the consumers in the market place. Therefore it can be clearly seen that both the concepts are mutually dependent. The action of consumers impacts the strength of a brand and in the similar way the strength of a brand determines whether it will be successful in the marketplace or not. Yet, most of the studies carried out so far assume that brand strength has a positive effect on the consumers’ purchase decision and loyalty. However, researchers who tried to evaluate it empirically used different proxies of the brand strength (such as familiarity of the brand, market share etc) and as a result the outcome differed. It is obvious that there is significant amount of paucity in the literature of the relationship between brand strength and consumer loyalty. Therefore, after conducting and thoroughly reviewing the existing literature about the subject of study, it can be stated that this research will add a new dimension to the existing literature of branding. Moreover, new insights are expected on how brand strength is influencing customer loyalty of the airline industry. In addition, this study also opens up new opportunities for further research of the role of brand strength in influencing the customer loyalty for other industries as well. Hence, it can be concluded that the findings of this study will be a new addition and can develop deeper understanding of the efficacy of brands in the success of a company. Research Methodology The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of a brand’s strength in the loyalty of consumers of the airline industry. Therefore, from the topic itself, it is clear that the aim of the study is very much specific. In this portion of the study, methodology to be adopted for fulfilling the objectives of the study will be detailed. Since, it is the proposal of the research, the research methodology chapter will only enlighten about the philosophy of research, the research method and sampling technique. Research Philosophy The research philosophy can be defined as the systematic search for the knowledge, existence and values. It is a means through which the research background and its nature are developed (Rungtusanatham, Zhao & Lee, 2008). Generally, research philosophy is classified into positivism and interpretivism. Researchers following a positivism approach use their own viewpoint to evaluate the social world and use the notion of objectivity in place of subjectivity. Researchers are more interested in collecting detailed information from a large sample. On the other hand, researchers believing in interpretivism consider their values and beliefs to justify the research problem. In addition, researchers mainly focus in highlighting the real facts and figures in regards to the research problem. However, small sample size is used in this philosophy but is evaluated in details. In this study, the aim is to highlight the real facts and figures and on the basis of that a judgement needs to be made. The sample size will be also less as it will be difficult to convince numerous respondents to take part in the study as the customers are from airline industry. Therefore, the study will be taking interpretivism approach. Research Method The study seeks to undertake a qualitative research. The qualitative research method will help in getting in-depth insights into the subject. Moreover, the study will have less number of respondents and thus collection of data through focus group interview will be justified. One of the major benefits of qualitative research is that it allows in-depth scrutiny of the phenomenon and explores the new research areas. Moreover, it is great way to uncover the experience of people. Hence, from an overall point of view, it can be stated that the application of focus group interview and qualitative research will indeed help in satisfying the objectives of the study. Sampling Sampling is the process which is concerned with the selection of the subset from the total population. The aim is to understand the characteristics of the overall population. The sampling method to be put into practise is stratified sampling method. Some of the potential benefits of stratified sampling are that it will allow in exactly getting respondents of the airline industry. In addition, the application of stratified sampling will allow focusing on important subpopulations and does not considers the immaterial ones, improves the accuracy and permits a greater balance. Ethical Issue The issue of ethics in research has gained significant attention of the researchers. In the recent past, there are various cases of ethical violation came into limelight. This has compelled researchers to be more careful with the research activities. In the similar way, this study also tries to comply with the ethical norms. The aim of the study is unearth the relationship between brand strength and customer loyalty and the target respondents will be the airline customers. Considering these facts, following ethical norms will be maintained: - The study will ensure accurate reporting. Respondents are free to leave the study at any point of time and that too without any prior intimation. The respondents will be made aware of the objectives of the study. There will be no discrimination and the study will be free of bias. References Dall’Olmo Riley, F. & de Chernatony, L. (2000). The service brands as relationships builder. British Journal of Management, 11(2), 137–150. Davis, S. M. (2000). Brand Asset Management: Driving Profitable Growth through Your Brands. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Dimitriades, Z. S. (2006). Customer satisfaction, loyalty and commitment in service organizations: Some evidence from Greece. Management Research News, 29(12), 782–800. Ekinci, Y., Dawes, P. L. & Massey, G. R. (2008). An extended model of the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction for hospitality services. European Journal of Marketing, 42(1), 35–68. Hoeffler, S. & Keller, K. K. (2003). The marketing advantages of strong brands. Brand Management, 10 (6), . 421-45. Jones, M. A. & Suh, J. (2000). Transaction-specific satisfaction and overall satisfaction: An empirical analysis. Journal of Services Marketing, 14(2), 147–159. Milberg, S. J. & Sinn, F. (2008). Vulnerability of global brands to negative feedback effects. Journal of Business Research, 61, 684-90. O’Cass, A. & Grace, D. (2004). Exploring consumer experiences with a service brand. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 13(4), 257–268. O’Loughlin, D. & Szmigin, I. (2006). Services branding: Revealing the rhetoric within retail banking. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. Oliver, R. L. (1999). Whence consumer loyalty? Journal of Marketing, 63, 33-44. Pau, R. & Quester, P. (2006). Does customer satisfaction lead to improved brand equity? An empirical examination of two categories of retail brands. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 15(1), 4–14. Reicheld, F. R. & Schefter, P. (2000). E-loyalty: your secret weapon on the Web. Harvard Business Review, 78 (4), 105-14. Rungtusanatham, M., Zhao, X. & Lee, T. S. (2008). Pooling data across transparently different groups of key informants: measurement equivalence and survey research. Decision Sciences, 29 (1), 115-45. Read More