Every company would like to develop and maintain a strong brand. A strong brand name is a marketing tool whose benefits accrues for a lengthy period; these benefits include customer loyalty, positive responses to changes in prices, minimization of marketing risks and offers a chance for brand-extension (Ehrenberg. and Scriven, 1996).
Behavioural brand loyalty is conscious or unconscious brand identity by a consumer; it requires deep attitudinal attachment to the brand (Keller, Aperia and Georgson, 2010).
This paper defends the motion, “Behavioural brand loyalty requires deep attitudinal attachment to the brand”; it will use Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz as sample brands.
Brand identity
To attain brand loyalty, a company must ensure its products are differentiable in the market; this call for high quality good and making brand salience, the brand should be on top of a consumers mind so that they are willing to decide without much of consideration on the brand (Delgado-Ballester and Munuera-Aleman, 2005).
It involves having a psychological attachment where a mention of certain industry products creates a stimulus in a consumers mind. For example, by the mention of soft beverages, Coca-Cola Company has ensured that customers will think of the company first, in a rather unconscious way.
The mention of a soda is sometimes associated with Coke- the most sold brand by Coca-Cola Company. It has created the need for emotional attachment with the brand (Scriven and Ehrenberg, 1994).
Consumers’ attitude and behaviour
Consumer attitude goes a long way in influencing the choice of brand; attitudes are created by experiences with the brand, information from other people who have had an experience and it is subject to marketing and advertising tools implemented by a company (Fournier and Yao, 1997).
Consumer behaviour keeps changing, they are persuadable though a company with a strong marketing team can correctly predict consumer behaviour and implemented appropriate strategies.
Having a strong brand awareness campaigns that ensures customers can recall involves creating mental attachments like brand names, logos and symbols.
When this has been effected, then customers will be willing to buy a company’s products without much consideration (Fennis and Pruyn, 2007).
Mercedes Benz manufacturing company has invested in creating mental pictures about the brand; it is believed that the model is classic, expensive and has status. It is seen to have a “niche” products kind of approach because of its uniqueness and division of the market between those people who want their social status respected in the society.
Customers who have purchased the brand in the past are operant conditioned to believe they have made it to a higher class than their counterparts who have other models like Toyota.
For such a customer to buy another model, his mental picture as moulded by the company will show him or her that he is losing status, something that consumers will always fight against, the end result is brand loyalty and attachment (Reast,2005).
The longevity that Coca-Cola Company product has had in the market has favoured the company in creating positive attitude towards its products (Odin, 2001). For a larger population in modern world, they are younger than the brand. Since childhood, the brand name has been triggering in the mind of a person.
He grows believing that a soft drink in a soda from the company. The positive attitude created by the company has made it easy to have effective brand extension with the latest as Coke Light a brand extension of Coke brand. Believes of the people which run down generations is that the company has unique products and is superior.
The company has invested in understanding consumer behaviour; consumers keep changing with economic, social and age changes, the company keeps evolving with the needs of the customer.
For example, with modern busy world where people are busy hopping from one place to another, it is rather difficult for someone to sit back and enjoy a bottle of a soft drink, realizing this, the company came up with disposable bottles soft drinks, the response has been positive (Dall’Olmo Riley, 1997).
Brand depth and breath
Brand depth and breadth refers to how well a customer can recall, recognise and differentiate a company’s brand. Human memory can be conditioned to recall certain commodities that are of value to the human beings, having a brand that lingers in the mind of the people assists in developing behavioural brand loyalty (Jacoby and Kyner, 1973).
People aims at minimizing their sorrow and maximizing their utilities, they thus are likely to remember of two major situations, a situation where they had a pleasant experience and one that they suffered. With the two in mind attitude towards a certain product is formed and reinforced (Wanke, 2007).
What a company should aim at is having good customer experiences where it ensures they get higher utility from its products than they get form competitors. They will have positive attitude from the customer.
Pleasant experience with consumers can be created by a combination of different elements like brand quality, corporate social responsibilities and company moving with the moods of a customer (East, Wright and Vanhuele, 2008).
During festive seasons, people are willing to spend and rejoice Coca-Cola Company recognises itself with the season, with the aim of leaving a pleasant experience in the mind of the people during and after the period.
In most cases, it is around this time that the company embraces competition campaigns as it reads the behaviour and moods of the people. At the end of the day since people are rejoicing, when they latter count for the joy they had, Coca-cola products are mentioned.
This creates a positive attitude towards the product. This is a brand imaginary approach where the company builds on extrinsic properties of a product (Dick and Basu, 1994).
Brand responses and meaning
It is apparent that rational people are likely to develop a liking to brands they can attach some meaning and value to them (Vanden, 1987). They will respond positively to such brands than those brands that are in the market but are silent in the way they interact with communities.
In this sense the need for corporate responsibilities, activities by a company are important since they create a close link between consumers and a company.
With appropriate measures, consumers are likely to perceive a company with strong social corporate team as “their” company and increase their loyalty unconsciously. Their attitudes towards such a brand will be positive working for the benefit of the brand (Baldinger and Rubinson ,1996).
Conclusion
Attitude affects the behaviour of customers; developing and maintaining a strong brand loyalty involves a reinforcement of positive attitude towards a company’s products in target market (Reast,2005).
Consumers acts consciously and unconsciously when making a decision on the products they will buy; their psychological predispositions, attitudes, beliefs and mental pictures influence their decision.
It is paramount for a company to invest in developing a positive attitude of customers toward its products not only for short-term sales but also for continued customer loyalty; it should aim at leaving a memorable experience that will trigger brand identity and loyalty.
Rational consumers develop emotional and attitudinal attachment to those products that meets their needs and offers a higher utility (East, Wright and Vanhuele, 2008). Attitude is final product of a number of mental attributes, like behaviour, socialization and operant conditioning.
It is hard to change somebody’s attitude thus when customers have strong attachment with a certain brand, changing persuading them buy other products is not easy, thus the statement “Behavioural brand loyalty requires deep attitudinal attachment to the brand” (Wanke, 2007).
Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz brands have remained as market leaders because of their reinforcement of positive attitude reinforcement with their target market.
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