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J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2012) 40:625638 DOI 10.1007/s11747-011-0272-3
ORIGINAL EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Consequences of customer loyalty to the loyalty program and to the company
Heiner Evanschitzky & B. Ramaseshan &
David M. Woisetschlger & Verena Richelsen &
Markus Blut & Christof Backhaus
Received: 8 February 2011 /Accepted: 5 July 2011 /Published online: 26 July 2011 # Academy of Marketing Science 2011
Abstract Gaining customer loyalty is an important goal of marketing, and loyalty programs are intended to help in reaching it. Research on loyalty programs suggests that customers differentiate between loyalty to a company and loyalty to a loyalty program, yet little is known about the consequences of these two types of loyalty. Therefore, our study intends to make two main contributions: (1) improving our understanding of the constructs program loyalty and company loyalty, (2) investigating the relative impact of the two types of loyalty on preference, intention, and purchase behavior for the case of a multi-firm loyalty program. Results indicate that company loyalty influences a customers choice to visit a particular provider and to prefer it over competitors, but it is not a strong predictor of purchase behavior. Conversely, program loyalty is a far more important driver
of purchase behavior. This implies that company loyalty primarily attracts customers to a particular provider and program loyalty ensures that once inside the store, more money is spent.
Keywords Program loyalty. Company loyalty. Preference . Intention . Behavioral consequences
Managers are recognizing the importance of cultivating loyal customers to increase sales and customer share (Zeithaml 2000; Zeithaml et al. 1996). This is illustrated by the number of companies that presently have loyalty programs in place. A wide variety of such loyalty programs exists throughout the world (Kumar and Reinartz 2006; Shugan 2005; Yi and Jeon 2003). Reports show that retail
H. Evanschitzky (*)
Aston Business School, Marketing Group, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET, UKe-mail: [email protected]
B. RamaseshanSchool of Marketing, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6149, Australiae-mail: [email protected]
D. M. Woisetschlger : C. BackhausTechnische Universitt Braunschweig,Institute of Automotive Management and Industrial Production, Schleinitzstr. 23a,38106 Braunschweig, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
C. Backhause-mail: [email protected]
V. RichelsenGelsenkirchen University of Applied Sciences, Mnsterstrae 265,46397 Bocholt, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
M. BlutDepartment of Marketing, TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn-Str. 6,44221 Dortmund, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
626 J. of...