Exploring the level of customer engagement and brand loyalty: A survey of a cultural organisation in South Africa

Abstract

This study explores the level of customer engagement and brand loyalty of a cultural organisation in South Africa. As recruiting and retaining members are very important, further understanding of these concepts is essential. The five dimensions of customer engagement (identification, attention, enthusiasm, absorption and interaction) and brand loyalty with its five dimensions (brand identity, brand identification, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and brand trust) were measured in the questionnaire. The research started by defining customer engagement and brand loyalty as concepts. The population consists of ATKV members across South Africa. From this population, a randomly selected sample of 570 ATKV members was selected, and a total number of 183 respondents completed the questionnaire. After inspecting the data, seven questionnaires were eliminated owing to incomplete responses, leaving 176 (N=176) usable questionnaires and resulting in an effective response rate of 31%. The value and uniqueness of this study are founded firstly in exploring customer engagement and brand loyalty within the environment of a cultural organisation and to identify the areas within these components where the ATKV needs to improve. The findings suggest that customer engagement has a positive correlation with brand loyalty. Based on the results the ATKV needs to embrace strategies to foster customer engagement which ultimately builds sustainable loyal customer relationships. The managerial recommendations can be helpful in engaging customers while managing the brand as to build a loyal membership base. The results confirmed that the ATKV needs to develop a marketing campaign to increase the recruitment and retention rate of members. Special emphasis needs to be placed on the offering of a value proposition to different customer segments and concludes that future research is needed.