factors influencing brand loyalty - a study on health drink products

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Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty - A study on Health Drink Products

by Dr. G.T. Vijayalakshmi [a]

Dr. N. Manimozhy

[b]

Abstract

In the highly competitive environment, companies have to protect the long-term interest

of the customers in order to enhance their profitability by means of long-lasting relationships

with the customers. This study examines the factors influencing of brand loyalty of health drink

users in Thiruvarur District, Tamil Nadu. Availability, product features, family influence and

brand trust are very important factors influencing brand loyalty. The researcher used convenient

sampling method to collect the data from 396 respondents through structured questionnaire.

47.2 per cent of the respondents are brand loyal, 16.5 percent of the respondents are switchers.

Finally, this research concludes there is no relationship between advertisement, price, product

involvement and sales promotion on brand loyalty.

Key words: Brand loyalty, product features, sales promotion, price, health drinks

[a]

Dr. G.T. Vijayalakshmi,

Assistant Professor

Department of Commerce

RabiammalAhamedMaideen College for

Women

Thiruvarur

E-mail Id: [email protected]

Mobile : 8344779285

[b] Dr. N. Manimozhy,

Guest Faculty

Department of Commerce

Pondicherry University

Karaikal Campus

E-mail Id: [email protected]

Mobile : 9095148512

1. Introduction

Now-a-days brand plays a crucial part in marketing strategy this is because it becomes a

vibrant component of marketing and rich source of information for consumers also. In consumer

perspective, a brand identifies the product and assigns responsibility to the product manufacturer

and provides the promise from the manufacturer of the product to the consumer. Brand can be

defined as ‘a unique name for a product of a particular manufacturer’. A brand is created by

developing a design, packaging and distinctive name and increasing customer expectations about

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



the offering. To develop an individual identity, branding allows the customers to build up

associations like prestige and economy with the brand (Chernatony, L. De, 1991).

Every business concern requires a factor which is needed for its success and to sustain a

business in the long run, which is brand loyalty. Brand loyalty has been a one of the biggest

issues in the marketing world over the last years (Kotler, 1994). It is the repeat purchase made

by the consumer out of commitment to the brand. Marketers may do well to crisscross if the

replicate purchases are made out of commitment or if they are inertia purchases. Brand loyalty

offers a number of rewards to the marketer. “Brand loyal consumers start building a relationship

with the brand”. In highly competitive world, the companies have to keep up the long term

relationship with the customers so as to increase the market share, using the marketing strategies

for discounting their market price, expanding their distribution channels and launching new

promotional campaigns to attract the existing customers and also the new customers. In the

competitive business world, the Health Drinks industry is trying to sustain their product in the

minds of the consumers and they realized loyalty of brand is a powerful connection to higher

sales volumes and gives low pricing to encourage the customers for their preferred brand.

Thiruvarur District is developing district in Tamil Nadu. Many brands of health drinks

are available in the market of many different prices. People buy health drinks according to their

own capabilities. The same price of the brands are also available in the market, these time people

might consider various factors while making purchase decision among the same brands. People

might buy the same brand repeatedly. This research is to find out the brand loyalty level of

Health drinks users and tries to find out the factors that affect brand loyalty of health drinks users

in Thiruvarur District. In the context of Thiruvarur District, Tamil Nadu, no previous research on

brand loyalty of health drink products has been done. The results of this study will provide the

companies the most important factors affecting brand loyalty on such products and it will help

them to understand their target markets better and carry out promotional activities and specific

market research aimed at them.

2. Objectives of the study

1) To know the level of brand loyalty in health drink users in Thiruvarur District

2) To identify the factors affecting brand loyalty of health drink users

3) To find out the impact of those factors affecting on brand loyalty of health drink users.



3. Literature review

The Oxford English Dictionary which states the word “brand” from the Germanic word

“brand” which referred to the mark which was made by burning with a hot iron, this usage noted

as early as 1552 (Srivastava and Thomas, 2003). The word brand in Old English, meaning

“burning stick” derived from the Indo-European word that meant “to be hot” (Jevons and Colin,

2005).The brands have been widely identified as a major factor of brand equity. If the number of

brand-loyal consumers increases, it will become an asset for the brand. The equity of an existing

brand name can be used to penetrate the market by introducing extension products. Thus there is

a major connection between the practice of brand extensions and brand loyalty (Aaker, 1991;

Aaker, 1996; Chaudhuri, 1995; Dekimpe et al., 1997; Delgado-Ballester and Munuera-

Aleman, 2001; Rundle-Thiele and Bennett, 2001).

MuthamizhVendanMurugavel, D. (2010) identified the factors influencing consumers

towards malted food product, to measure consumers’ satisfaction towards malted food products

and found that the advertising was the major source of information, usage of twice a day was

visible in majority of the cases. Refill packing was preferred by the major junk. Quality and

performance oriented aspects were given more weightage. Tamilselvi. J. & Kirubaharan. M

(2011) identified the factors influencing on buying decision found that there were no significant

differences in the product attributes in different groups as classified by income, family size and

education. Dharmesh and Khushbu (2012) studied that better understanding of consumer

perception of healthy foods and its elements are key success factors for development and market

orientation found that there is a positive correlation between different influencing factors and

buying behaviour of customers.

Brand loyalty which is considerable adding value to a brand and/or its firm because

which provides a set of habitual buyers for a long period of time. Brand loyalty as a core

dimension of Brand Equity and defined Brand Loyalty as the attachment that a customer has to a

brand. A loyal customer base represents a barrier to entry, a basis for price premium, time to

respond to competitor innovations, and a bulwark against deleterious price competition (Aaker,

1991).

Brand loyalty is one of the important four parts create brand equity Aaker (1991). Brand

equity is the liabilities or assets of a brand which is linked to its name and symbol, and adds to or

subtract from a given product or a service. Brand awareness, brand associations and perceived



quality are the other three parts. When it comes to brand loyalty, Aaker also stated that having an

intensely loyal customer base, although it is relatively small, and it can create significant brand

equity for the business concern. Aaker brings to notice finally that the important dimensions of

brand equity; brand loyalty would also affected by brand equity, creating an interrelationship.

Lau et al. (2006) mentioned that seven factors which were influenced consumers’ brand loyalty

towards certain sportswear brands. The factors were: product quality, price, brand name, style,

store environment, promotion and service quality.

Philip Kotler defines four patterns of behavior .1. Hardcore Loyals - who buy the brand

all the time? 2. SoftcoreLoyals–it is loyal to two or three brands. 3. Shifting Loyalty – brands are

moving from one to another. 4. Switchers - with no loyalty.

4. Research Methods

Research Design: The Research design for the study is descriptive and analytical in nature.

Consumers of various age groups have been taken for the study.

Data Collection: Primary source of data was collected through structured questionnaire, that was

distributed among the respondents those who are buying or using the health drinks. Secondary

data were also collected from journals and articles, websites and previous works on the related

issue.

Sample Size: The sample size consists of 396 respondents who are buying or using health drinks.

Sampling Technique: Convenience sampling technique was used for a period of two months

(June – Aug 2015)

In this study, three levels of brand loyalty has considered such as hardcore loyalty,

Softcore loyalty and switching loyalty except shifting loyalty because it is difficult to measure

people who keep shifting from brand to brand.

Eight factors have been taken to find out which are affecting brand loyalty of health drink

products. They are

Advertisement&Price Product Features

Availability Sales Promotion

Brand Name Product Involvement

Family influence Brand Trust



Hypotheses

H01: Advertisement of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

H02: Brand name does not affect brand loyalty

H03: Availability of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

H04: Family influence does not affect brand loyalty

H05: Price of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

H06: Product features of health drinks do not affect brand loyalty

H07: Sales promotion of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

H08: Product involvement of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

H09: Brand Trust of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

5. Data Analysis & Findings

The socio-Economic conditions of the respondents shown in Table 1

Table 1 Socio-Economic Conditions of the respondents

Sl.No Factors Frequency Percent

1

Age of the Respondents

18-27 years 103 26.0

28-37 years 110 27.8

38-47 years 93 23.5

48-57 years 72 18.2

58 & above 18 4.5

Total 396 100.0

2

Gender

Male 178 44.9

Female 218 55.1

Total 396 100.0

3

Marital Status

Married 388 98.0

Unmarried 8 2.0

Total 396 100.0



4

Education

No formal Education 26 6.6

School education 92 23.2

Degree & Diploma 134 33.8

Post Graduate 60 15.2

Professionals 39 9.8

Others 45 11.4

Total 396 100.0

5

Occupation

Private 82 20.8

Government 48 12.1

Professional 25 6.3

Housewife 111 28.0

Self- employed 50 12.6

Others 80 20.2

Total 396 100.0

6

Family Monthly

Income

Less than Rs.15000 273 68.9

Rs. 15001 - 30000 88 22.2

Rs. 30001 - 45000 28 7.1

Rs. 45001 & above 7 1.8

Total 396 100.0

Source: Primary Data

The table 1 depicts socio-economic conditions of the respondents. Majority of the

respondents are from the age of 28 to 37 years. Majority of the samples are female. Majority of

the respondents are married. 134 respondents have studied Degree/Diploma. Majority of the

respondents are house wife. It also contains out of 396 respondents, 273 belonged to the income

category of less than Rs. 15000 per month.



The distribution of the brand loyalty of health drink users are shown in table 2

Table 2 Distribution of brand loyalty of health drink users

Brand Loyalty level Frequency Percent

Hardcore Loyalty 187 47.2

Soft core Loyalty 143 36.1

Switching Loyalty 66 16.7

Total 396 100.0


Table 2 stated that the majority of the respondents of health drink users are hardcore loyal

(i.e. 47.2 %) and switchers are the minority with 16.7 %. The cross tabulation was used to know

the factors influencing of brand loyalty of health drink users and the hypothesis testing was done

using Chi-Square Distribution

Table 3 Distribution of selection of Advertisement as a factor of brand loyalty

Brand Loyalty level Selected Not selected Total

Hardcore Loyalty 112 75 187

Soft core Loyalty 76 67 143

Switching Loyalty 41 25 66


H1: Advertisement of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 4 χ2 between Advertisement and Brand loyalty

[Source: Primary Data]

χ2 Value Df Sig. (2-sided)

2.111 2 .348



From the table 3 it was found that the hardcore loyalties are much interested in

Advertisements. And table 4 depicts that the chi square value i.e. 0.348 >0.05 Hence, the

researcher rejects the alternative hypothesis. It can be concluded that, Advertisement does not

influence the brand loyalty of health drink users

Table 5 Distribution of selection of Availability as a factor of brand loyalty






H2: Availability of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 6χ2 between Availability and Brand loyalty


From the table 6 it shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.001 < 0.05. Hence, researcher

rejects the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, Availability influences the brand loyalty of

health drink users.

Table 7 Distribution of selection of Brand name as a factor of brand loyalty







13.319 2 .001



H3: Brand name of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 8 χ2 between Brand Name and Brand loyalty


From the table 8 it shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.096 > 0.05. Hence, researcher

cannot reject the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, Brand name does not influence the

brand loyalty of health drink users.

Table 9 Distribution of selection of Family Influence as a factor of brand loyalty






H4: Family Influence of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 10 χ2 between Family Influence and Brand loyalty


The table 10 shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.009 < 0.05. Hence, researcher rejects

the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, family influence does influence the brand loyalty of

health drink users.


4.679 2 .096


9.359 2 .009



Table 11 Distribution of selection of price as a factor of brand loyalty






H5: Price of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 12 χ2 between Price and Brand loyalty


The table 12 shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.091 > 0.05. Hence, researcher cannot

reject the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, price does not influence the brand loyalty of

health drink users.

Table 13 Distribution of selection of Product Features as a factor of brand loyalty






H6: Product features of health drinks do not affect brand loyalty


4.785 2 .091



Table 14 χ2 between Product features and Brand loyalty


The table 14 it shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.000 < 0.05. Hence, researcher rejects the

null hypothesis. Therefore, it is concluded that product features does influence the brand loyalty

of health drink users.

Table 15 Distribution of selection of Sales Promotions as a factor of brand loyalty






H7: Sales promotions of health drinks do not affect brand loyalty

Table 16 χ2 between Sales promotions and Brand loyalty


The table 16 it shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.594 > 0.05. Hence, researcher cannot reject

the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, sales promotion does not influence the brand

loyalty of health drink users.


20.354 2 .000


1.043 2 .594



Table 17 Distribution of selection of Product Involvement as a factor of brand loyalty






H8: Product Involvement of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 18χ2 between Product involvement and Brand loyalty


The table 18 it shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.196 > 0.05. Hence, researcher cannot reject

the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, product involvement does not influence the brand

loyalty of health drink users.

Table 19 Distribution of selection of Brand trust as a factor of brand loyalty







3.255 2 .196



H9: Brand trust of health drinks does not affect brand loyalty

Table 20 χ2 between Brand trust and Brand loyalty


The table 20 it shows that the chi square value i.e. 0.029 < 0.05. Hence, researcher rejects

the null hypothesis. It can be concluded that, product involvement does influence the brand

loyalty of health drink users

From the test of hypotheses, it can seen among nine factors availability, Family influence,

Product features and Brand trust influence are influencing brand loyalty of health drink users.

Advertisement, Brand name, Price, Sales promotion and Product Involvement do not influence

the brand loyalty.

6. Discussion

From the findings of this study, it concluded that the results of factors influencing brand

loyalty of health drink users in Thiruvarur district. Majority of the i.e.187 respondents are brand

loyal of health drink users. Availability of the product is very important factor. Health drink

products are available in local stores and therefore, it influences brand loyalty of health drink

users. Majority of the respondents are influencing their family members to buy the health drinks.

47.2 percent of the respondents are brand loyal this is because they buy the health drinks on the

basis of product features such as taste/flavours, nutritional value, extra growing power, contains

vitamins, minerals and calcium etc.

People are very much less pricing sensitive. Therefore price does not influence the brand

loyalty. People are having trust on branded products and it also influences brand loyalty. Sales

promotion does not influence brand loyalty. Therefore the companies have to provide various

offers such as price off, premium offer and free gifts to attract the customers. Product

involvement is also not affect brand loyalty for which the companies have to concentrate any

special offers, advertisement campaign especially with celebrity, any health conscious

programmes etc. 98 per cent of the respondents are married and 55.1 per cent are female

because they are taking care of their family and also awareness of health conscious while

purchasing the health drinks.


7.098 2 .029



7. Conclusion

As an overall conclusion, this study basically to find out the factors that influences brand

loyalty of health drink users in Thiruvarur District. It also gives the factors which are affecting

the brand loyalty of health drink users such as availability, family influence, product features and

brand trust. No previous research on brand loyalty of health drinks users in Thiruvarur District.

The marketers have to determine these factors are very important to build brand loyalty among

the customers. This study will provide the local marketers to understand their target and carry out

the specific marketing research and taking any promotional activities to improve loyalty among

consumers. The researchers can be extended to find out with more socio-economic conditions of

brand loyalty factors in any other district, state or national level. Four factors to be influenced on

brand loyalty of health drink users. The researchers can extend these factors for any other

products.

8. References

1) Aaker, D. (1991). Managing Brand Equity, The Free Press: New York City.

2) Catherine Matraves (2002), “European Integration and Market Structure in the Soft Drinks Industry”,

Economic of Business, Vol.9, No.3, pp. 295-310

3) Chernatony, L. De (1991), Formulating Brand Strategy, European Management Journal, 9 (2), 194-200.

4) DharmeshMotwani&KhushbuAgarwal (2012), “Customers' Behaviour in Health Food Drink Product

Category”, Pacific Business Review International, Volume 5 Issue, pp 78-84

5) Jevons, Colin (2005), “Names, brands, branding: beyond the signs, symbols, products and services,”

Journal of Product & Brand Management, 14 (2), 117–128.

6) Lau, M. M., Chang, M. S., Moon, K. and Liu, W. S. (2006) The Brand Loyalty of Sportswear in Hong Kong,

Journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, 5, 1-13.

7) Snack Food to Promote Health”, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 90, No.6,

8) MuthamizhVendanMurugavel D. (2010), “A study on consumers‟ attitude towards Malted Food products

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3. No.1

9) Srivastava, Rajendra and Thomas, Greg Metz (2003), The Executive’s Guide to Branding, Zyman Institute

of Brand Science –Perspectives.

10) Tamilselvi. J. &Kirubaharan.M (2012), “A study on consumer preference towards Health food drinks in

Trichy city”, Cauvery Research Journal, Vol. 4 Issue. 1. Pp. 6-13.



Web sources

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factors influencing brand loyalty - a study on health drink products

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