The mechanisms of building and supporting customers' brand loyalty in the hospitality industry

<p>This study is intended to cover some major issues pertaining to the sphere of customers&#39; brand loyalty. The present study examined the mechanisms of building and supporting customers&#39; brand loyalty using interviews from 146 visitors of seven hotels which represent the chain Radisson in Russia. The results of the performed study will help company to understand the priorities of their customers and to estimate the existing level of loyalty.</p><p>The annotation includes five sections: introduction to the study (1), review of the literature (2), conceptual model (3), empirical analysis (4) and conclusion and recommendations (5).</p><p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>Nowadays the marketplace is very competitive and dynamic. The customers are smart, well-informed and have a lot of easy ways to choose the best product. The key issue marketers face today is how to increase customers&rsquo; loyalty and retention. Transforming indifferent customers into loyal ones and establishing a long term relationship with customers is critical for organizational success. (Bhardwaj and Deepali, 2007, p.61)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The subject of the study is the relationship between the factors characterizing offers of the hotel chain and customer satisfaction and loyalty. The Object is the customers&rsquo; satisfaction and loyalty to the hotel chain Radisson represented in the Russian market.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The aim of this paper is to verify the hypotheses formulated on the basis of analysis of theoretical frameworks and studies conducted by other authors and to develop a set of recommendations to enhance customer loyalty to the hotel chain Radisson in the Russian market.</p><p><strong>Literature review</strong></p><p>A large body of literature on brand loyalty provides a basis for the present study. The selection will observe both theoretical and empirical studies in the field.</p><p>Aaker (1991, p. 27) points out that brand loyalty reflects how likely a customer will be to switch to another brand, especially when that brand makes a change, either in price or product features. According to Barringer and Ireland (2009, p.8), brand loyalty means &ldquo;a valuable assets for a particular company where the customers becomes loyal to its product or service and buy its product or service time to time again&rdquo;.</p><p>Oliver (1999, p.36) suggests that brand and customers&rsquo; loyalty is a buyer&rsquo;s overall attachment or deep commitment to a product, service, brand or organization. He points out that loyalty manifests itself in a variety of behaviors and the more common one is the recommendation of a service provider to other customers.</p><p><strong>Conceptual model</strong></p><p>After the analysis of the theoretical part the model of the mechanism of building and supporting customers brand loyalty was developed (picture 1):</p><p><img height="530" src="file:///C:/Users/05E9~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png" width="572" /></p><p><strong>Empirical Analysis</strong></p><p>During the study the fifteen hypotheses were tested using the program SPSS Statistics and Pearson&#39;s correlation coefficient. All of them were confirmed and the model mentioned above was fully proved. Additionally the hypothesis that behavioral loyalty to separate hotel correlate to the behavioral loyalty of the whole chain was confirmed as well.</p><p><strong>Conclusion and recommendations</strong></p><p>By results of research recommendations to the hotel chain Radisson were made. The chain needs to draw attention to the prices of services and to rework pricing if it will be economically justified.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To summarize, the goals which were stated in the beginning were fulfilled. Moreover, the step to the future research was made.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p style="margin-left:18.0pt;">1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Aaker, D. (1991). Managing Brand Equity: Capitalising on the Value of a Brand Name, NY: The Free Press.</p><p style="margin-left:18.0pt;">2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Barringer, B. R., Ireland, R. D. (2009): Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, 3rd edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ.</p><p style="margin-left:18.0pt;">3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bhardwaj, Deepali. (2007). Relationship Marketing in Context to the IT Industry. VISION-The Journal of Business Perspective, 11, (2) (April &ndash; June), pp. 57-66.</p>