eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Objectives:

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to add understanding of the brand loyalty phenomenon by studying the elements of brand loyalty in the context of lifestyle brands. The purpose of this thesis is to add knowledge about customer loyalty in the context of lifestyle brands by examining it from the customers' perspective. The objective is to reveal the elements that the customer themselves perceive driving or inhibiting their lifestyle brand loyalty. The findings are compared and contrasted to find similarities and differences between customers in different age groups and different levels of purchase amounts.

Data and methods:

Literature analysis is first conducted to gain a thorough view about the nature of the phenomenon at hand. The data to address the research problem is gathered in three focus group discussions among the loyalty club members of a lifestyle brand Marimekko.

Findings:

Lifestyle brand loyalty is a topic of scarce research. The results show that lifestyle brand loyalty is in close connection with the value system of the consumer, the consumer's lifestyle, consumer's personal history and social considerations, but also with the characteristics of the products that belong in the lifestyle brand's offering. The study shows that customers find their lifestyle brand loyalty driven by 1) correspondence of own values and brand values, 2) compatibility of the brand with current lifestyle, 3) stories and memories connected to the brand, 4) features of the products, and 5) sense of togetherness. The perceived barriers to lifestyle loyalty reported in the study are 1) incongruent brand values and personal values 2) poor quality and 3) price considerations. When compared to the antecedents to traditional brands that the current marketing literature recognizes, many of the themes reported in this study are also present in the antecedents of traditional brands. Lifestyle brand loyalty seems to differ from traditional brand loyalty in emphasizing compatibility of the brand to current lifestyle and the significance of the personal, brand-related memories and brand stories. These two aren't per se traditionally linked to development of loyalty in traditional brands.