An Investigation of the Role of Customer Engagement in Strengthening Service Brand Loyalty

Abstract

For years, the development and maintenance of brand loyalty has been the ultimate goal of the marketing activities of many organisations (Dick & Basu, 1994; Fournier & Yao, 1997), and the significant benefits firms derive from strong brand loyalty have led to numerous studies investigating its formation. Previous loyalty research, which has mainly examined key marketing concepts such as service quality, customer satisfaction and perceived value as loyalty antecedents, has contributed significantly to the current understanding of the influence of transaction- related drivers of loyalty. However, the growth of the Internet and the emergence of new media channels have provided firms with an effective platform for customer interaction, enabling service brands to develop and maintain connections with customers beyond the service encounter. As a result, marketing scholars and practitioners increasingly recognise that brand loyalty can be built through a range of behaviours conceptualised as “customer engagement”.