Title: Loyalty and occasion of consumption: an empirical analysis

Authors: Andrea Trujillo, Jorge Vera

Addresses: Division of Business, ITESM, Santa Fe Campus, Ave. Carlos Lazo #100. Col. Santa Fe, Delegacion Alvaro Obregon, DF 01389, Mexico. ' Division of Business, ITESM, Mexico City Campus, Calle del puente #222. Col. Ejidos de Huipulco, Tlalpan, DF 14380, Mexico

Abstract: This research analyses the mode as the customer loyalty is pronounced according to the consumption occasion; comparing between customers of special occasion restaurants vs. customers of convenience restaurants, doing a parallelism with the concepts proposed for products where it is discriminated between products of comparison vs. convenience products. It was retaken a proposal that indicates four types of loyalty exist: cognitive, affective, behavioural and action. Instruments were applied to independent samples of customers at restaurants of special occasion and convenience. The statistical tests indicated that significant differences in certain aspects of behavioural and affective loyalty exist, but neither in cognitive loyalty nor in loyalty action. These results provide empirical evidence to the study of loyalty; in addition the findings can help the restaurants| managers to design specific strategies according to the type of loyalty indicated in each category of restaurant.

Keywords: consumption; restaurants; meals; Mexico; cognitive loyalty; affective loyalty; behavioural loyalty; action loyalty; special occasions; convenience occasions; customer loyalty; convenience products; fast food; restaurant managers; strategic management; hospitality industry; catering; leisure marketing; tourism marketing; value creation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2011.037186

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2011 Vol.2 No.1, pp.56 - 69

Published online: 30 Nov 2010 *

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