Webster University: Walmart Brand Image and Consumer Loyalty Study

This project delves into the relationship between Walmart's brand image and consumer loyalty, exploring how the company's image impacts customer retention and purchasing behavior. The research employs an interpretivism philosophy, a deductive approach, and a descriptive design, utilizing a case study strategy to analyze secondary data. The study is grounded in Oliver's theory of customer loyalty, examining cognitive, affective, conative, and action loyalty stages. It investigates factors such as customer service, pricing, and availability, and how Walmart's image is adapted and modified to boost customer loyalty. The project identifies limitations stemming from the use of secondary research and offers a comprehensive analysis of the subject.

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Influence of Company Image on Customer Loyalty of Walmart
Monalisa Ghosh
Webster University

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Abstract
This proposal aims towards understanding the impact of company image on customer loyalty by
studying the case of Walmart. Interpretivism philosophy, deductive approach, descriptive design,
case study strategy, secondary data collection and qualitative data analysis technique will be
used. The research proposal is based on Oliver’s theory of stages of customer loyalty that
includes cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty and action loyalty and the customer
loyalty of Walmart is studied.

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Research Objective..........................................................................................................................2
Statement of Problem......................................................................................................................2
Purpose of Study..............................................................................................................................2
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Customer loyalty for retail companies.........................................................................................3
Company image and customer loyalty........................................................................................3
Impact of the sustainers or vulnerabilities on the customer loyalty............................................5
Limitations.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Introduction
Customer loyalty refers to the positive emotional experience that can act for the benefit of
a business (Ahrholdt, Gudergan & Ringle, 2019). Walmart refers to a retail corporation of
America that is instrumental in the operating chain of the hypermarkets along with the
department stores (Walmart.com, 2019). The purpose of this proposal is to discuss about how
company image can be effective in the building of customer loyalty. This work talks about the
effect of the company image on the area of customer loyalty.
Research Objective
 To establish how the company image has a positive effect on the consumer loyalty.
 To find out the effect of sustainers on a brand.
 To recommend the impact of product modification on customer loyalty
Statement of Problem
The building of customer loyalty can help in retaining the customers that prove to be
critical for the success of a business. The problem that made the researchers carry out the
research is that the previous research has focused on the area of importance of customer loyalty
on a brand. They did not lay emphasis on the impact of company image in winning the loyalty of
the customers (Tran et al., 2015).

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Purpose of Study
The purpose of the study is to focus on how company image can have a positive effect on
the customers of Walmart.
Research methodology
For undertaking the research, “effect of company image on customer loyalty of
Walmart”, interpretivism philosophy, deductive approach, descriptive design and case study
research strategy will be used. Using case study research strategy will allow studying the
company image of Walmart and its impact on the loyalty of the customers. Hence, secondary
data collection process and qualitative data analysis technique will be used. Relevant themes will
be developed based on the existing information and will be analyzed accordingly.
Literature review
Customer loyalty for retail companies
The customer loyalty is important for the retail industry as it helps in facilitating the
growth of the business. The loyal customers help in increasing the profitability of a business with
the help of the repeat purchase. The customer loyalty is indicative of a behavioral tendency that
makes the customers favor one brand over the other brands that proves to be useful for the retail
sector (Cossío-Silva et al., 2016). It can prove to be more expensive for the retail business in
generating the new customers. The retail companies should maximize value of that of existing
customers that would make the customers return to the store.

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Company image and Customer loyalty
The customer loyalty theory of Oliver focuses on the fact that satisfaction can lead to a
chain of types of loyalty. The chain is the following:
Unsatisfied customers will not develop loyalty. When satisfied first the customer may
develop cognitive loyalty. This means that he or she starts to get familiar with the brand. A
customer with low cognitive loyalty does not know the brand well. A customer with high
cognitive loyalty does know the brand well but has no feelings yet about it. Then the customer
can develop affective loyalty. Here the customer has positive feelings for the brand or product.
This is usually expressed and measured by spontaneous recommendations of the product or
brand to friends or family. Then conative loyalty can develop, which is a commitment to the
product or brand.
Finally, in action loyalty the customer repurchases the products or brand. While
obviously repurchasing is the main goal of a brand, it needs to recognize that this repurchase
only happens when the customer goes through all those stages. However, an exceptional case is
that repurchase is a habit that is not highlighted or discussed in the current work.
Oliver developed a theory that gives a good explanation why some customers go through
that chain and others get stuck in a certain stage. The stage says that loyalty is influenced by
three factors: company image, sustainers or loyalty and satisfaction. Satisfaction is obviously a
big factor because usually there is no reason for an unsatisfied customer to learn the brand or
develop feelings or to make a repurchase. However, this work lacks discussion about issues such
as peer pressure, addiction and habit.

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
Secondly, a good company image can have positive repercussions in developing
emotions within the people in relation to the products. It can help in developing all stages of
loyalty from affective loyalty, conative loyalty, the commitment of the customers towards the
brand and this can lead to an action loyalty and in that way a business is making a significant
amount of profits (Watson et al., 2015). It can make the customers loyal towards the brand and
make the customers come to the retail company for the purpose of repeat buying. The retail
companies should be instrumental in the creation of a company image that can develop the
commitment of the customers. An example is the Apple Company that is able to charge high
prices because their image is so positive. This leads to very positive feelings for Apple (affective
loyalty) and therefore to repurchase (action loyalty).
The case study: In this case study, it will discuss how Walmart uses company image to increase
loyalty in its customers. The work will look at different areas: customer service, price,
availability/location and so on. It will also point out how Walmart had to make choices.
Image of Walmart: Obviously their image is not the image of a high-end retailer with high-
quality exclusive products. This research will show how they adapt and tweak their image by
recently emphasizing sustainability or by halting the sale of certain munitions or by other
examples ("Supporting measurement and transparency in our value chains", 2019)
This way will enable to recognize how the activities of Walmart to increase customer loyalty fit
in the Oliver framework.
Limitations
The limitation of the research arises on account of the fact that the research was
conducted with the help of the secondary method of research. The primary method of data

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collection could have proved to be more helpful in the collection of the accurate information
about the customer loyalty from the people. The study will throw light on the factors affecting
brand loyalty. However, to test how good the description in this work is, more tangible
quantitative results are required.

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BRAND IMAGE ON CONSUMER LOYALTY OF WALMART
References
Ahrholdt, D. C., Gudergan, S. P., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). Enhancing loyalty: When improving
consumer satisfaction and delight matters. Journal of Business Research, 94, 18-27.
Cossío-Silva, F. J., Revilla-Camacho, M. Á., Vega-Vázquez, M., & Palacios-Florencio, B.
(2016). Value co-creation and customer loyalty. Journal of Business Research, 69(5),
1621-1625.
Supporting measurement and transparency in our value chains (2019). Retrieved 25 September
2019, from https://corporate.walmart.com/2017grr/sustainability/supporting-
measurement-and-transparency-in-our-value-chains#grr-h2-class-cms-heading-grr-h2-
driving-adoption-of-issue-specific-measurement-tools-grr-h2
Tran, M. A., Nguyen, B., Melewar, T. C., & Bodoh, J. (2015). Exploring the corporate image
formation process. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 18(1), 86-
114.
Walmart.com. (2019). Walmart.com | Save Money. Live Better. Retrieved 19 September 2019,
retrieved from https://www.walmart.com/
Watson, G. F., Beck, J. T., Henderson, C. M., & Palmatier, R. W. (2015). Building, measuring,
and profiting from customer loyalty. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 43(6), 790-825.