Customer loyalty and brand management

Abstract

Loyalty is one of the main assets of a brand (Aaker, 1991; Yoo and Donthu, 2001). It means repeat purchasing of the brand based on strong internal disposition—in other words, repeat purchase behaviour resulting from a preference for that brand. Customers loyal to a brand are customers who return repeatedly to buy the brand because they are emotionally attached and committed to it. These are the customers least tempted by the competition—customers with higher switching costs who are willing to pay a higher price for the brand to which they are loyal. In today’s markets, achieving and maintaining loyal customers has become an increasingly complex challenge for brands due to the widespread acceptance and adoption of diverse technologies by which customers communicate with brands. Customers use different channels (physical, web, apps, social media) to seek information about a brand, communicate with it, chat about the brand and purchase its products. Firms are thus continuously changing and adapting their processes to provide customers with agile communication channels and coherent, integrated brand experiences through the different channels in which customers are present. In this context, understanding how brand management can improve value co-creation and multichannel experience—among other issues—and contribute to improving a brand’s portfolio of loyal customers constitutes an area of special interest for academics and marketing professionals. This Special Issue explores new areas of customer loyalty and brand management, providing new insights into the field. Both concepts have widely evolved over the last decade to encompass such concepts and practices as brand image, experiences, multichannel context, multimedia platforms and value co-creation, as well as relational variables, such as trust, engagement and identification (among others).