Customer loyalty and its antecedents: A conceptual framework understanding e-marketing –optimization of resources

The single most important thing is to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer. Several years ago, Peter Drucker suggested that the purpose of a firm was to create customers. As the author put it: “Business is a process, which converts input, a distinct resource, into output of economic value in the market place. The purpose of business is to create a customer”. (Kelly, 1976). In today's competitive market, the purpose of a firm should be read as “creating a loyal customer ”, which involves both capturing and retaining him. Importance of creating a loyal customer arises from that it costs more to create a new customer than to retain an existing one. For example, the cost of creating a new customer is five times more than that of retaining an existing customer. (Reichheld, 1996). Today's world is distinct with its higher competitive environment. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the mantra of this century. Loyalty has, over the past decade, become a crucial construct in marketing and particularly in customer relationship management. Managing customers is one of the main issues faced by the organizations in these days. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the key antecedents of customer loyalty. Within the limitations of the study, the theoretical aspects of these antecedents are discussed.