Many question and/or study while brand loyalty exists. This report, and its sources, most certainly assert that it does and this report explains why. Even with no compulsion to stay or return to a brand, many consumers stay with a brand. The reasons for this can vary including social responsibility concerns, saving money or overall quality.
Marketing Case Study
The case study being completed in this reports asks the author of this response to answer to three major questions. The first is what Fournier means when she says that consumers have relationsihps with a brand. The second question asks the author two pick two out of three brands from a list provided in the assignment and explain if and/or how consumers do or do not have relationships with those brands. The third questions asks the author to explain whether the relationship between brand and consumer is universal or not and why the author of this response believes that to be the case.
Questions Answered
As for the first question, Ms. Fournier talks in the opening or her 1998 treatise about how there has been a lot of work done regarding the relationships that businesses and vendors have vis-a-vis their established lines of communication and business agreements/arrangements. Fournier also notes that there was (at least at that time) a dearth of research related to the relationships that consumers do or do not form with the brands that they purchase. In other words, the concept of brand loyalty speaks to the concept of consumers having a relationship and rapport with the brand and the company behind it and the fact that they do indeed keeping going back to that same brand is not a function of luck or laziness but rather that relationship being as entrenched and established as it is (Fournier, 1998).
The two products that will be analyzed for the second part of this report will be a make of car and a fast food restaurant. The author of this response states unequivocally that people do indeed form relationships with brands for these two examples of industries and the author will use Ford and McDonald's as the test cases to prove that assertion. Both products have an intense amount of brand loyalty even though they are very different products and each product type, while they have loyalty for different reasons, have the same basic loyally precepts and concepts behind why people keeping using and coming back to those brands.
There are a number of things that can be pointed to that define and explain why Ford buyers are usually very loyal. First, there is a stark rivalry between General Motors and Ford (and Chrysler to a lesser extent) regarding which company makes the better vehicles. The author singles out Ford because General Motors has struggled mightily as of late (including having to be bailed out by the United States taxpayers and going bankrupt) and the exact two things can be said for Chrysler, with the add-on that they are now owned in large part by Italian automaker Fiat. The latter of those facts usurps the long-held bragging right that Chrysler was a truly American brand and that has been an issue since the short-lived and chaotic merger between Chrysler and Daimler.
Ford, on the other hand, can assert that they have been party to none of that as they were the one major automaker that did not file for bankruptcy during the 2007-2009 United States recession, they did not receive any government "bail-out" money and they have never been owned (in whole or in part) by a foreign automaker. Indeed, they have actually divested foreign nameplates that they mostly or entirely owned including Jaguar (British) and Volvo (Swedish). Ford being an American car company in general also instills a lot of loyalty. A lot of the rest can simply come down to styling preferences. Much the same back and forth goes on between fans of "muscle cars" like the Corvette (GM), Camaro (GM), Mustang (Ford), Challenger (Chrylser) and Charger (Chrysler).
McDonald's is much the same. Some people just like the food but others like the culture and marketing spiel that McDonald's gives due to the kid-favorite "Happy Meal" and the playground contraptions they have at some of their stores. McDonald's has been a giant in the fast food sphere for quite some time. There are competitors that also do quite well like Wendy's and Taco Bell, but one major thing that McDonald's has going for them is that hamburgers are a very "American" ideal and item and that helps make marketing their wares all the more easier and other hamburger sellers like Carl's Jr., Wendy's and such enjoy the same benefit as well.
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