Marketing communications: Factors influencing brand loyalty of internet service provider

This research investigates the relationship between marketing communications and customer loyalty of the home Internet users in Southern Thailand. This study looks into addressing the factors that influence brand loyalty intentions of the home Internet users. This research is based on the premise that brand personality, brand image and brand awareness are created either by direct company communication mix or indirect contact with the consumers both of which influences the perception of consumer expectation while at the same time reinforcing brand trust. Exploratory research finds that, consumers will be satisfied with the brand if the brand can fulfil its promises and expectations that the consumers have of its brand and products. In return, high consumer satisfaction will augment the level of brand trust and brand value, eventually affecting brand loyalty. Track: Brands & Brand Management INTRODUCTION The main thrust of this research is to develop a framework that can be empirically tested in order to determine the factors that influence brand loyalty in the ISP home use market in Southern Thailand. The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre of Thailand (NECTEC, 2010) notes that there was a growth in Internet users by 13.7% between 2008 and 2009, and 84.68% growth between 2005 and 2009. At the same time, there have been a high number of home Internet users switching their service providers each year in Southern Thailand (Thaichon, Lobo & Mitsis, 2012). This research provides an opportunity for ISPs in Southern Thailand to understand factors that influences brand loyalty, which in turn can lead to customer retention in the competitive home Internet service market and subsequently increase their market share through a more loyal customer base. This research addresses the following question: “What are the factors that influence brand loyalty (retention) of home Internet users in Southern Thailand?” and “What are the effects of marketing communications on brand loyalty (retention)?” LITERATURE REVIEW Growing market competition has resulted in an increasing focus on customers and how to maintain the current customer base (Hong & John, 2010). Business performance improves as the number of loyal consumers increases (Jahanzeb, Fatima & Khan, 2011). Customer retention is very important and becomes the main concern of many businesses (Flint, Blocker & Boutin, 2011), especially when a lot of companies are facing costly customer acquisition (Abdolvand, Charkari & Mohammadi, 2006) and high customer turnover rate (Spiller, Vlasic & Yetton, 2007). Recruiting new customers cannot guarantee long-term success for a company especially when that company cannot retain its customers (Wang & Wu, 2012).