Increasing customer brand loyalty for hospitality organizations practicing sustainable marketing: a case study of Café Javas, Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to discover the effect of sustainable marketing of hospitality services on consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty. Additionally, this research also aims to discover the mediating effect of brand trust and brand affect on this relationship. A combination of descriptive and causal research was used, for which data was collected from 582 respondents and processed using structural equation modeling to establish multivariate relationships. The process method was used to approximate mediation effects. A reasonably valuable insight that arose is the significant role that brand trust and brand affect play in engendering attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty among consumers, for hospitality organizations adopting sustainable marketing practices. Findings revealed that sustainable marketing practices result in enhanced brand trust, which further translates into higher levels of brand affect, thereby leading to attitudinal brand loyalty and further resulting in behavioral brand loyalty. This study also highlights the importance of brand affect in developing enduring behavioral brand loyalty. Research limitations/implications – Consumers today are changing their consumption habits, preferring to satisfy ideological and symbolic needs rather than just rational needs. So, hospitality marketers practicing sustainable marketing should aim to leverage brand trust and brand affect to ensure lasting behavioral brand loyalty. The examination of the effect of sustainable marketing practices on brand-related variables in hospitality organizations has contributed to a better understanding of the mechanism that underlines the operation of emotion-based enduring loyalty. The vast majority of studies that provided insights about sustainable marketing practices and consumer behavior thereof were dominated by European and American perspectives and very few studies exist with a focus on developing economies such as Uganda.