Brand Image and Customer Loyalty Through Sensory Marketing Strategies - A Study on International Fast Food Chain Restaurants
Keywords:
Experiential marketing, Sensory marketing, Brand loyalty, Brand image, Consumer behaviourAbstract
The competition in fast food chain restaurant industry is high and restaurants are using different methods to strive for bigger market shares. Creating an environment that is pleasant where customers enjoy coming plays a vital role in determining customers’ satisfaction, their visit duration and intention to revisit the restaurant. Sensory marketing has emerged as a tool to build a positive brand image and customer loyalty.
The purpose of the study is to find out the relationship between sensory elements and its effect on brand image and customer loyalty. For this quantitative study data was collected from from three international fast food chain restaurants i.e.; KFC, Dominos and Subway. Of 360 questionnaires distributed to customers 300 responses were taken for analysis, 100 questionnaires from each restaurant. The results fulfilled the research objective of the study and findings supported all five hypotheses to indicate that all five senses have strong correlation with brand image and customer loyalty. All sensory elements together are effective and effectiveness of olfactory, gustative and tactical elements are stronger in combination. Furthermore, the most effective sensory marketing element in a fast food chain restaurant happens to be olfactory elements followed by gustative, tactical, visual and auditory elements.
The research provides an immense contribution in the restaurant sector by providing an insight to sensory marketing strategies to enhance the brand image and customer loyalty. This study provides practical and theoretical implications in the restaurant sector which will help marketers in the fast food restaurant sector to excel.
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