An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Supermarket\ud Loyalty Schemes Contributing to Brand Loyalty in\ud Bognor Regis: A Study of Sainsbury's Nectar Card

In recent months the supermarket industry has become hyper-competitive resulting in\ud supermarket price wars. The intensity within the supermarket industry has created a change\ud in consumer behaviour having results on market share. During this time, consumer loyalty to\ud supermarkets has declined and consumers are likely to shop around to find the best deals\ud and save money.\ud This increasing level of competition has led to an emphasis on price, location and quality\ud factors to influence consumer decisions to shop at one supermarket. One factor that is\ud considered to retain consumers is the use of loyalty programs/schemes. Whilst there has\ud been extensive research in to the concept of consumer loyalty, no research has been\ud conducted into the effectiveness of loyalty programs at maintaining consumer loyalty.\ud Therefore as a result of this, the rationale for this research was to examine the use of loyalty\ud programs as a method of retaining consumer loyalty, to identify factors that influence\ud consumer loyalty to supermarkets, whilst also identifying factors that influence consumers\ud to shop at Sainsbury’s Bognor Regis. To achieve this, a combination of questionnaires and\ud focus groups were carried out to establish these objectives. A total of 85 participants\ud responded to the question whilst a further 17 participants took part in the focus group to\ud establish the needs and behaviours of consumers in order to construct a more effective\ud loyalty scheme and retain loyal consumers.\ud The research explored the level of loyalty consumers had to supermarkets in Bognor Regis,\ud whilst also identifying the factors that influenced consumers to shop at supermarkets. In\ud addition to this the research offers recommendations to the supermarket industry to help\ud discover new and effective ways to retain consumer loyalty to supermarkets