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Customer Loyalty

Abstract
Background: During the last decades the efforts to foster customer relationships have become important due to increased competition in the consumer markets. One of the most popular strategies has been to introduce customer loyalty programs which are believed to enhance customer loyalty. The popularity of the customer loyalty programs is based on the beliefs that loyal customers are lucrative and these programs would bond the customers to the company. More recently however, the discussion whether these statements are accurate has started to blossom. Loyal customers are not necessarily as profitable as believed. Moreover, it is not easy for companies to gain competitive advantage through loyalty programs because almost all companies have similar ones. Purpose: This thesis evaluates, through a case study of a Swedish retail company, whether customer loyalty programs manage to create loyalty among their members. Different types of customer loyalty will be examined and evaluated with the aim to find out if any of them can be created by the use of such programs. A qualitative study was conducted to answer the purpose of the thesis. Within the case study several semi-structured interviews were carried out with INTERSPORT and 20 telephone interviews with INTERSPORT customers. Empirical material was analyzed with a reflection to the theoretical framework and the research questions. Customer loyalty programs can support the creation of loyalty, but should be seen as a complement to other aspects of the business, namely, the product line, the customer service and the store concept. However, sustainable customer loyalty is difficult to obtain because many customers today are loyal to several companies instead of one.

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Kandidat uppsats inom Företagsekonomi
Titel: Författare: Kundlojalitets forskning Kellgren Cecilia Moradi Ladan Romppanen Maiju Handledare: Johansson Anette Raviola Elena Datum: Ämnesord 2007-01-15...