Comparative study on the impact of marketing tools on brand loyalty - Research in food vs non-food retailing

Abstract

In order to attract consumers to a retail brand and gain their commitment thereto, the benefiting company's decision-makers may resort to approach consumers by means of concrete actions performed through the marketing mix elements. By adopting assortment, price or communication policy measures, the retail enterprise will strive to strengthen in time the customers' trust into its performance, make them to express their satisfaction with the retail brand and, consequently, make consumers, who represent demand, to show commitment to the retail brand. The current research was conducted on a sample of almost 1800 consumers and its goal is to reveal the way in which customers of food and non-food retail chains develop their trust in, and satisfaction with, the retail brand as a result of the impact exerted by some tools of the marketing mix. The empirical data were initially validated by means of specific analyses (reliability testing) only to be aggregated later into a model designed to use the data as loyalty indicators.