Original scientific paper
THE SPECIFIC APPEARANCE OF BRAND LOYALTY IN GENERATION Y CONSUMTPTION
Szabolcs Pronay
Erzsebet Hetesi
Abstract
In our research we analyse customer brand loyalty from a specific approach, from the side of consumer sociology. Several levels of customer loyalty can be defined based on the strength of the brand-consumer relationship, out of which we study the closest relationship, the adherence. According to our central hypothesis, the brands to which the consumer adheres have a symbolic significance for the consumer. By linking loyalty and symbolic consumption the contradictions regarding their analysis can be reduced. According to our assumption, the basis of connection is that the image of those brands which the consumer loyal to match his/her self. This self-image congruence creates a symbolic relationship between the brand and its consumer. On the basis if this the central question of our research is: Can brand loyalty be explained by the self-image congruence? We study this issue on the group of the young or Generation Y. We analysed the topic both from qualitative and from quantitative aspects. In the course of the qualitative research, we aimed to reveal the consumption habits of the young with 192 in-depth interviews, with special regard to the symbolic role of brands as well as the relationship of loyalty and self-image congruence. According to the main findings of our qualitative research, brands and their symbolic content is particularly important for the young, which serve for them as self-expression besides fitting into a group. They are aware of the brand images and they can easily link self and brand image. We intended to support and extend these findings with our quantitative research. Based on 979 questionnaires, we reinforced our hypotheses regarding loyalty and self-image congruence on a nationally representative sample in terms of age and sex. The results indicate that a relationship can be assumed between loyalty and self-image congruence, that is, our assumption about linking loyalty and symbolic consumption seems to be well-founded.
Keywords
Brand loyality; Self-image congruence; Self-congruity
Hrčak ID:
103995
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2012.
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