The Relationship Between Customer Demographics and Brand Loyalty in the Indian Telecom Sector

Abstract

Customer loyalty is vital in any relationship marketing effort. With little or no product and service differentiation in the telecom sector, retaining the loyalty of customers is a big challenge. Service providers are investing substantial amounts in a variety of CRM strategies. While on one hand customer loyalty is a function of good products and services, resulting in increased levels of satisfaction, on the other hand customers' social and demographic profile plays a key role in determining a customer's loyalty to his service provider. Four types of loyalty measures were categorized and relationships with the demographic variables studied. This paper explores whether customer loyalty and demographic factors are linked in the telecom sector and to what extent. The findings and interpretation are similar to what other researchers have arrived at in the past, in that there is no significant relationship between demographic factors and loyalty. This study will have a huge impact on CRM investments in the telecom sector and will make service providers rethink their customer loyalty strategies.