EVALUATION OF OTHER CRITICAL VARIABLES IN THE SUSTENANCE OF BRAND LOYALTY BEYOND THE PROMOTION MIX

Abstract

In the globalised world, thousands of brands are trying to gain new customers and tend to retain them. In this competitive environment where customers have a wide range and variety of choices and availability of a huge amount of information related to the product which makes them excessive aware of the goods and services and their functionalities and uses so, it is difficult for the managers to stop them switching to other brands and to make them loyal it also difficult to decide that what factors should be focused to get their attention and to make them loyal. Therefore, building brand loyalty has become very important in gaining long-term profitability and competitive advantage. The objective of this study was to determine the key element and their contribution towards making brand loyalty. To achieve that, many firms have relied on promotional strategies. However, consumers are exposed to thousands of promotional messages every day. Organisations compete heavily for the attention and custom of the consumer through their advertising, and competitors offering similar products have all begun aggressive marketing and creating awareness to customers that these products considering the high budget and relative effectiveness of the promotional strategy, this paper reviews other critical factors that enhance consumer loyalty to brand other than promotional mix elements. Following a review of existing literature, so many factors that influence brand loyalty beyond promotional mix were observed, but some wereextracted, including brand name, customer satisfaction, price, product involvement,perception of product quality, trustworthiness and uniqueness, and brand awareness. It was recommended that management should improve on and spend more resources on factors like brand name, customer satisfaction, price, product involvement, perception of product quality, trustworthiness and uniqueness, and brand awareness. These factors can complement promotion, and not replace it.