A Study Of Customer Loyalty Based On Switching Cost And Brand Attachment

Customer loyalty is always the hot spot in marketing research. A lot of efforts have been made to explore its influential factors. Traditional view is that customer satisfaction is an indicator of customer loyalty, and loyalty will come after satisfaction with no doubt. The finding of the facts that satisfaction does not always bring loyalty prompts that there must be some other influence factors of customer loyalty. For example, people’s economic and emotional motivation can affect their behavior. Switching cost is a typical economic motivation factor, and brand attachment is a typical emotional motivation factor.Previous studies have verified that switching cost do exist and play an activate role on loyalty. There are even some researches concerned the moderating effects of switching cost. However, the empirical study of emotional motivation factor, like brand attachment, is still in its infancy.This empirical study aims to study brand attachment and switching costs’direct and moderate role on customer satisfaction and loyalty. This paper used the empirical research data, combined with structural equation modeling and regression analysis to statistical analysis the direct and moderate effect of switching costs and brand attachment. Our results indicated that switching costs have no direct influence on satisfaction and loyalty, trust plays a direct influence role on satisfaction and brand-self connection directly affects loyalty. As for the moderate effect, financial switching costs and two dimensions of brand attachment, affection bind and trust, have significant moderating effects. Theoretical and practical implications for managing loyalty efforts are discussed.