Consumer loyalty on the grocery product market: an empirical application of Dick and Basu's framework

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to assess the usefulness of Dick and Basu's framework of customer loyalty to examine consumer loyalty on the grocery product market.

Design/methodology/approach

After a short presentation of Dick and Basu's framework, the article discusses a number of anticipated antecedents and consequences to consumer loyalty on the grocery product market. Next, the four loyalty categories and the hypothesized relationships with antecedents and consequences are tested on empirical data from a large survey investigating brand loyalty across five grocery product categories.

Findings

The results support the presence of Dick and Basu's four loyalty typologies within all the investigated product categories and further provide evidence for the expected differences between product categories with regard to the proportion of loyalty categories within each product category. The results also support relationships between relative attitude and corresponding antecedents and consequences as suggested by Dick and Basu. And, finally, men are found to be less loyal consumers when compared with women.

Practical implications

The study shows that, at least within some categories of grocery products, it is still possible for marketers to create loyal consumers. The importance of building true loyalty is highlighted by the evidence of true loyals being significantly more likely to postpone their purchases if the store is out of their favourite brand, the least likely to switch to another brand if on sale and less keen on variety seeking.

Originality/value

Survey data from 348 households were used to test the hypothesised relationships.

Citation

Møller Jensen, J. (2011), "Consumer loyalty on the grocery product market: an empirical application of Dick and Basu's framework", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 333-343. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761111149983