A quantitative study of the attitudes towards loyalty programs among students

Abstract: Title: A quantitative study of the attitudes towards loyalty programs among students   Course/ course code: 2FE16E – Independent degree project of the marketing program with integrated method, 30 hp   Authors: Sjöberg, Amelie 880410; Svensson, Daniel 890329   Background: In today’s global market, companies strive to gain a competitive position and attract as many customers as possible. One of the most important factors within the retail industry is customer loyalty. Loyalty program have become a common tool for companies to carry out in order to attract and keep customers and make them loyal to the company. However, little research has been conducted to understand what attitude customers have towards the programs. Are they really that value adding and effective for customers as companies think they are?   Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe students’ attitudes towards loyalty programs within the grocery retail industry. To get an understanding of what offerings that are attractive within a membership in a loyalty program, as well as to see if a membership affects the behavior of customers.    Method: This quantitative study has been carried out by a deductive approach with questionnaires as the data collection method. The research design has been based on a descriptive design.                                                                                      Conclusion: The study found that students have favorable attitudes towards the usage of loyalty programs. Further, the attitudes toward offering segmented loyalty programs were also favorable from students. The study also found signs that indicated that membership inICA’s loyalty program, lead to an increase in frequency of store visits. Additionally the research also found that student’s value economical benefits as the most attractive offerings in a loyalty program, such as discounts and personally customized discount.                                                                  Keywords:    Attitude, loyalty program, frequency, segmentation, offerings, ICA.