Investigating the Drivers that Determines Brand Loyalty: A Study of the Experience-Commitment-Loyalty Construct

The marketing field first took an interest in brand loyalty on an academic level through Copeland’s work in 1923 (cited in Kabiraj and Shanmugan 2011, p. 288), with the understanding that brand loyalty existed only at the behavioural level. At this time, brand loyalty was measured using factors such as purchase sequences, percentage of total purchases, and purchase probability (Kumar and Advani 2005; Kabiraj and Shanmugan 2011; Iglesias et al. 2011). This notion led to a focus on price, functionality, and quality when marketing products and services, with the expectation that customers would develop a repeated purchase pattern if these factors met the customer’s criteria. However, another level of loyalty was revealed during the 1950s, as brand loyalty became an increasingly popular research area. Several researchers, such as Cunningham (1967), Day (1969) and Jacoby (1971), began to recognise that the attitudinal aspects of brand loyalty were just as important as the behavioural aspects. As it became apparent that brands often held an emotional component as well as a functional one, marketing strategies shifted to focus on relationships and value creation (Iglesias et al. 2011). Wel et al. (2011) explained the two components of the phenomenon that is brand loyalty, by stating that in addition to having the intention to repurchase a brand, brand loyalists also have to hold some degree of emotional connection and/or commitment towards the brand.