Developing a model to measure and manage brand loyalty in South Africa

Abstract

This study investigates the development of a general model to measure and manage brand loyalty in South Africa. Many local and international studies have applied brand loyalty models to specific industries, however no general brand loyalty model exists which can be applied to general businesses or multi-faceted enterprises that do not specialise in selling a single product. This study, therefore, aims to provide an answer to the question of which antecedents are relevant in a general model to measure and manage brand loyalty in South Africa. Bisschoff and Moolla's (2014) simplified brand loyalty model of nine antecedents is used and applied to an existing multi-industry database on brand loyalty, consisting of 2035 cases. The aim is to identify antecedents that are generic across industries, and then also, to identify antecedents that may be industry specific. The relevance of the nine antecedents used in the selected brand loyalty model were empirically validated to arrive at a general brand loyalty model for South Africa, which was empirically tested as a generalised model. Seven of the brand loyalty antecedents were retained in the model. The model consists of two main loyalty drivers, namely attitudinal and behavioural drivers which are important for measuring and managing brand loyalty, with attitudinal drivers being the stronger of the two constructs. Furthermore, the model revealed that customer satisfaction is directly related to brand loyalty. It is recommended that the model be operationalised in the business environment to assist management in measuring and managing brand loyalty.