Brand Loyalty In Hotel Industry

A STUDY OF BRAND LOYALTY OF HOTEL INDUSTRY

S.SATHISH KUMAR K.VIJAY S.YUVA BALAJI

II B.B.A K.C.S. KASI NADAR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE –CHENNAI.-21.

Abstract

Brand loyalty helps in increasing productivity and quality and to gain the competitive advantage of a workforce strategically aligned with the organization goals and objectives. All the hotel industry having their brand loyalty but the cuisineswho is having the best is the most successful among the competitors by applying best, effective practices. This study provides suitable suggestions to evolve meaningful, relevant and effective loyalty that match the various categories of hotel industry so that the organization improve its efficiency and effectiveness in order to satisfy

Creating and maintaining brand loyalty with existing customers is critical for thesurvival of a company in a competitive environment. Besides being difficult to copy, brand loyalty programs based onunderlying emotional attitude can increase business performance.Reichheld and Sasser (1990) found that a 5% increase in customer retention resulted in a 25-125% increase in profits. This increase in profit is due to lower sales and marketing costs,increased price premiums, referrals, and revenue growth. Further, loyal consumers have fewerreasons to engage in an extended information search among alternatives, thus reducing theprobability of switching to other brands. Still, based ontheir research in luxury hotel, Bowen and Shoemaker stated that ―Loyalcustomers also claim they purchase other hotel services (e.g., laundry and restaurant meals)more frequently at hotels towards which they feel loyalty compared at hotels where there islittle loyalty”. In short, brand loyalty is an important strategy to develop a sustainablecompetitive advantage for any business including in the hotel industry.Despite the notable impact that brand loyalty has on business performance, relativelylittle theoretical and empirical research has examined service loyalty. Scholars are only beginning to grasp the complicated

Interestingly, prior studies appear to support two opposite predictions concerning the relationship between service quality and CBI. On the one hand, scholars posit that characteristics such as the physical facility of the service environment could assist consumers in developing social identification. When consumers perceive the brand as having high quality they aremore likely to identify strongly with the brand. However, within the hotel industry, where products have been described as a commodity, superior service quality is considered as necessary but insufficient to establish strong CBI. From an alternative perspective, scholars argue that identification may be the key underlying psychological variable that affects customers’ product judgments, positive responses, and positive product evaluation. Individuals who identify with a brand are more likely to engage in favourable actions toward the