The Impact of Mobile Phone Brands on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

ABSTRACT: Companies have to improve their performance to keep customers satisfied so as to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in a highly competitive business environment, because the main result is customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customer loyalty can reduce marketing costs, attract more customers, and be effective in business. In addition, loyal customers promote the products by word of mouth and counteract rival strategies. The present study examines the impact of mobile phone brands on customer satisfaction and loyalty. The main question of this study is: What is the relationship between mobile phone brands and customer satisfaction and loyalty? Hence, the present study examines the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty on the one hand and effective factors related to mobile phone brands on the other. To achieve this objective, the relationship between customer satisfaction, trust and brand equity on the one hand and customer loyalty on the other was hypothesized based on the conceptual model of the research. Data were collected by administering a questionnaire in the target population of visitors to Alaeddin market – which is a professional mobile phone market in Tehran – among a random sample of 100 participants and were analyzed using the Spearman correlation coefficient and structural equation analysis. Finally, 100 questionnaires were analyzed by the SPSS software v. 20. The results suggest that trust and brand equity are the most important factors influencing behavioral and attitudinal patterns of customer satisfaction and loyalty.