Look after me and I will look after you!

Abstract

Purpose Loyalty has been widely researched and while we know the ways that consumers demonstrate their loyalty and the factors that influence loyalty, research reporting consumer and marketer views of loyalty is scant. To date there has been no attempt to compare and contrast marketer's views on loyalty with their own consumers' views. The purpose of this paper is to report research that responds to this omission. Design/methodology/approach An Australian beer category was selected for this research because beer is a category where consumer loyalty exists. A qualitative research approach was used to provide detailed marketer and consumer views about loyalty to gain strategic insight. Company documents were also used to gain additional insight and increase the validity of the research findings. Findings A detailed view suggests that many marketing initiatives employed are eroding rather than contributing to consumer loyalty. Consumer views suggest that loyalty must be earned and that a consumers' loyalty cannot be bought. Research limitations A single case study was used in this research to provide rich and detailed insight into consumer loyalty. Further research is needed to test the validity of the research findings by using a larger sample of consumers, but also in other beer categories and product and service categories. Practical implications/implications Practices where companies profit at the expense of their own consumers will diminish rather than build consumer loyalty. Marketers must consider loyalty as a reciprocal concept. This research suggests that to gain a consumers loyalty a company must adopt “a look after me and I will look after you” philosophy.

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