Customer Loyalty and Status Quo Bias

Abstract

Loyalty marketing has been popular topic among marketers of all regions, while status quo bias received only little to no attention in the marketing field. The main objective for this paper is to clarify the customer loyalty in relation to the status quo bias. Starting from an overview of relevant literature, this article explores the similarities between the two elements, using factors for status quo bias including regret aversion, sunk cost and loss aversion to help better understand customer loyalty. Furthermore, the paper introduces the soft-selling technique as practical marketing strategy and the New Coke issue to show how a marketing case can fail. In addition, the possible reasons for a failed survey according to the Coca-Cola case that generated opposite conclusion were discussed. A survey was also conducted to further investigate the factors for loyalty in smart phone industry. By relating the customer loyalty and status quo bias, this article provides a fresh perspective on the two terms and how they are alike in marketing. Discovering the intersections of the two concepts is mostly in terms of the psychological commitment section of interpreting status quo bias. The overall goal of this paper is to indicate the non-negligible effect of loyalty in the area of marketing.