Understanding the Drivers of Brand Loyalty in Mixed Media Context

With the increase in the popularity of the internet, brand loyalty building initiatives have evolved. The shift is from managing a predominantly one-way communication to a two-way communications with the consumer, as well as facilitating the peer to peer communication among consumers. Academic research has been focused on either the traditional media which uses primarily a one-way communication, or the digital media which employs two-way communications. However, in the present marketing context, both these forms of media coexist and interact with each other. This study attempts to bridge this gap in research by exploring the drivers of brand loyalty in mixed-media context and the relative strength of the different constructs studied. For this study, a comprehensive model of brand loyalty in mixed-media context has been developed from literature, which included constructs like satisfaction, interactivity, emotional value and perceived co-creation, perceived belongingness, perceived empowerment and brand equity. This model was tested empirically in the Indian market.

The results show that interactivity; empowerment and co-creation which are easily achieved in the digital media, are significant in developing brand loyalty. ‘Emotional value’, which was driven by satisfaction and brand equity from the traditional media as well as perceived empowerment from internet-media context, was another key construct which facilitated this interface. Managers could use this model to design their brand loyalty initiatives and allocate marketing resources optimally.