Kandidatuppsats om bibehållande av kunder genom lojalitetsskapande aktiviteter

Companies of today are facing a development where it is more significant to focus on existing customers since the approach constitute a more cost reducing way, compared to finding new customers. During the last decades the marketing has therefore moved towards a relationship based marketing. Companies emphasize creating long-term relationships with customers, instead of consider the sale as a non-recurrent phenomenon. To engender customer loyalty has been an essential objective in the creation of long-term relationships. In this essay the authors have chosen to do a study which enlighten how companies in the ready-made apparel business produce added value to their brand and through this generate customer loyalty. Through a case study we analyze how Filippa K, Tiger of Sweden and Gant do to maintain value in their brand, in both a business- and customer perspective. The information from the companies describes their applied approaches, while a study with customers from the companies gives information about their relationship to the brand and the tendency to loyalty, from their outlook. Information for the study has been obtained through a qualitative method, in shape of personal interviews with employees in the companies, and a quantitative procedure through a questionnaire survey with customers of the companies. The foundation of the study lies within theories of relationship marketing, internal marketing, “the moment of truth”, “the meaning of branding”, the involvement theory and “the effect of lever”. The analyse of our study shows that the foundation of making added value to their brand is by supplying the picture of the brand in a consequent manner. This imbues everything from the design of the products, the shop interior to the personal treatment in which contexts the brand is marketed. The associations the customer receives to the brand and the design of the product leads to purchase and hopefully repurchase. The creation of relationships to the customers, which promotes the making of loyalty, is an attribute in all of these companies in form of customer database where privileges is handed out to the members. Depending on how the brand is differentiated as well as the type of the target group, the level of the loyalty among those asked customers varies