Shankar Chelliah

Marketing Mix and Customer Retention of Herb Coffee in Malaysia: the Impact of Marketing Mix on the Customer Retention Shankar Chelliah

Today, the major problem faced in the herb coffee industry is the ease of market entry which is characterized by many new players frequently entering the market. The industry is highly competitive and the producers are faced with the dilemma of whether to continue to produce and sell at low profits or compete with the many players in the fierce environment as they seek to identify and determine the causes and factors that will lead to increased customer retention to guarantee profits. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between marketing mix and customer retention for Tongkat Ali coffee, a well known herb in South East Asia. We are trying to answer the following questions - What are the product?s attributes sought by consumers? What factors affect repurchase decisions? Why do they continue to consume? The findings revealed that product attributes and promotional activities have positive relationship with customer retention. Price and place do not have a relationship with customer retention. Customer preference, positive customer experience, satisfaction and lasting customer loyalty are the factors that keeps the customer.