Christina Ruther

Are Customers loyal to the Tesco Superstore in Roundhay Christina Ruther

Bachelorarbeit, die am 07.05.2003 erfolgreich an einer Universität in Großbritannien im Fachbereich Business eingereicht wurde. Abstract: Throughout modern marketing literature there is extensive agreement that 'Customer Loyalty' is marketing's newest challenge. Marketing's main focus is shifting away from a transactional approach, focusing on the single sale, to a customer relationship approach, establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships with customers. Today the advantages of cost efficiency, market share, and service quality do not guarantee a company's success any more. Companies need to invest in customer retention programmes to stay competitive. Due to the belief that retaining existing customers is far cheaper than attracting new ones the subject of customer loyalty has become of increasing interest to businesses over the last decade. Theorists argue that loyal customers are more likely to pay an extra price and that their average expenditure will increase over time. In particular in the food retailing industry companies are facing an ever-increasing level of competition due to a high saturation point and low customer switching costs. Growth is only possible by gaining market share from competitors. Under these conditions the effective management of customer loyalty has become a key issue in securing competitive advantage. This study focuses on the review of theories behind customer relationship and customer loyalty marketing found in academic literature. It sets out to explore customer loyalty at UK's biggest supermarket chain, Tesco plc. A questionnaire was carried out on Tesco customers to investigate whether customer loyalty exists. The survey was used further to identify which marketing mix variables influence customer retention at Tesco. Further, a semi-structured interview with the Tesco Customer Service Manager was used to investigate Tesco's attempts at building up a loyalty based rel