Does attitudinal loyalty influence behavioral loyalty? A theoretical and empirical study

Despite a plethora of studies on brand loyalty spanning over last three decades, the research paradigm is unique in its inability to produce generalizable results. The research suffers from a lack of agreement over the operationalization of the construct of the brand loyalty. Many researchers [e.g., Kahn, B.E., Kalwani, M.U., Morrison, D.G., 1986. Measuring variety seeking and reinforcement behaviors using panel data. Journal of Marketing Research 23, 89-100; Ehrenberg, A.S.C., Goodhardt, G.J., Barwise, P.B., 1990. Double jeopardy revisited. Journal of Marketing 54, 82-91] have defined brand loyalty only from a behavioral perspective. They assumed that repeat purchasing can capture the loyalty of a consumer towards the brand of interest. Other researchers [e.g., Day, G.S., 1969. A two-dimensional concept of brand loyalty. Journal of Advertising Research 9, 29-35; Dick, A.S., Basu, K., 1994. Consumer loyalty: towards an integrated conceptual approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 22 (2), 99-113; Baldinger, A.L., Rubinson, J., 1996. Brand loyalty: the link between attitude and behavior. Journal of Advertising Research 36 (6), 22-34; Rundle-Thiele, S.R., Bennett,R., 2001. A brand for all seasons: A discussion of loyalty approaches and their applicability for different markets. Journal of Product and Brand Management 10 (1), 25-37; Rundle-Thiele, S.R., 2005. Elaborating customer loyalty: exploring loyalty to wine retailers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 12 (5), 333-344], however, have suggested that attitude should be included along with behavior to define loyalty. In particular, Dick and Basu (1994) were precise in suggesting that a favorable attitude and repeat purchase were required to define loyalty. By viewing loyalty as an attitude-behavior relationship in their framework, Dick and Basu (1994) were able to investigate the concept from a causal perspective thereby permitting the identification of the factors that influence loyalty. Our research extends the idea proposed by Dick and Basu (1994) in two ways. First, we provide a conceptually clear, and an operationally meaningful way of segmenting the market on the basis of attitudes that govern this behavior. To be specific, we offer a unique way to measure attitudinal loyalty. And we use a unique survey data with a large sample of 1800 respondents that includes both behavioral (purchase) patterns and attitudes of the respondents for all major brands of toothpaste, to demonstrate that behavioral loyalty is influenced by attitudinal loyalty across many brands of the toothpaste category. Finally, we propose that a third behavioral pattern-non-user-should be also included along with two known behavioral patterns viz. single user and multiple user. This is because a non-user has the potential to become a consumer in future. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.