The impact of customer loyalty programmes on consumer decision-making and brand loyalty: a University of KwaZulu-Natal student perspective.

Abstract

Due to the rapid increase in competition in the retail market, retailers offer several types of loyalty programmes and frequent-buyer programmes to increase sales of products through customer repeat purchases over a period of time. This study sought to determine the perceptions of University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) students on loyalty programmes as a means of influencing consumer decision-making, as well as increasing brand loyalty. Furthermore, this study investigated the type of loyalty programmes that were most influential in students’ purchase decisions. The sample size consisted of 375 students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Westville campus. A probability sampling technique was used to achieve a higher generalisation of results. The sampling method that was the simple random sampling method. The respondents completed a questionnaire consisting of 2 sections. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed using Factor Analysis and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics was employed to generate the results of the study. The results of this study showed that there are significant intercorrelations among the key dimensions (consumer decision-making, increasing customer loyalty, perceived value and brand loyalty and types of loyalty programmes) of the study relating to UKZN students respectively. There is no significant difference in the perceptions of UKZN students, varying in biographical profiles (gender, age, race, educational level and college) regarding each dimension of the study (consumer decision-making, increasing customer loyalty, perceived value and brand loyalty and types of loyalty programmes). The results further indicated that UKZN students are influenced by customer loyalty programmes in terms of consumer decision-making. The recommendations generated from the results of this study provide insight into how this goal could be achieved. Furthermore, recommendations for future research suggest that this research should be done in other universities across the country and globally to compare the differences.