Sub-cultural influence on brand loyalty: An exploratory study on Jammu and Kashmir

Culture being one of the most important factors affecting consumer behavior and has become one of the key determinants in the success of a business whether operating in local or global environment. To cope with the diversity of culture has emerged as a big challenge for the marketers. The changing preferences and expectations of consumers have resulted in emergence of consumers which are less loyal and unpredictable.

Jammu and Kashmir shares a multifaceted cultural blend and has become one of the important markets especially for the consumer goods and unfortunately very little is known about the consumption pattern shown by the people of the Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the differences and similarities in brand loyalty across four (Sub-cultures) of Jammu and Kashmir viz. Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Gujjars which represent four sub-cultures. The study will serve as guide line for domestic and international marketers.

Data was collected using self administered questionnaire on a sample size of 483 using systematic random sampling. Diversified sample from four main sub-cultures viz. Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Gujjars was taken. The Questionnaire contained Likert-scaled items scored from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Cronbach's alpha was used to check reliability and Principal component analysis with varimax rotation was carried out to retain the more significant items and eliminate the insignificant items. One way ANOVA was used for the data analysis.

The results show that the respondents of Jammu are more brand loyal than the respondents of the Kashmir, Ladakh and Gujjars, the respondents of the Kashmir are more brand loyal than the respondents of Ladakh. The Gujjars are least brand loyal.