Building consumer lifetime value through brand communications

Abstract

Before consumers can buy a product, they must be aware that it exists. Studies point out that consumers exposed to a brand's promotion more frequently, develop high awareness, perceived quality through perception building steps that involve exposure, attention and interpretation. The resulting brand equity, like the concepts of brand and added value, has also been defined both in terms of the relationship between consumer and brand (consumer-oriented definitions), or as something that accrues to the brand owner (company-oriented definitions). However, marketers' intense efforts to brand building activities and message aimed at attracting and maintaining ongoing relationship between the consumer and the products results in the bombardment of the average consumer with messages which influence the consumer to try, repeat and sustain consumption. The consumer may become increasingly vulnerable and susceptible to indiscriminate consumption to the detriment of the consumer and ultimately the brand. Stretched to the limits, the effort to build consumer and customer lifetime value through brand communications could lead to loss of efficiency, effectiveness, profits, focus and to sub-optimisation. This could threaten the essence of brand communication. This paper presents the key antecedents and potential outcomes of brand communications from literature as they pertain to perception of quality, trust and commitment and brand loyalty, suggesting that brand communications is an antecedent of perception of quality which has a direct relationship with customer retention and results in consumer lifetime value. The objective used to guide the study is to examine the relationship between brand awareness, emotional value, and consumer retention for life (brand loyalty). The research would make available to marketing managers, additional information and ideas for managing brand objectives and field executions just as consumers would find information that would guide them in their selective exposure to advertising messages and marketing stunts and ultimately caution their appetite.