Attitudinal Loyalty and Behavioral Loyalty

Attitudinal Loyalty and Behavioral Loyalty

There are two basic types of consumer loyalty that include attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. A consumer’s loyalty to a product generally ranges from having an actual attachment to the particular brand or regularly purchasing the same product out of habit. There are also more subtypes of loyalty that include the four-stage loyalty model. The four-stage loyalty model includes, from weakest to strongest, cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty, and action loyalty. This range of loyalty details a consumer’s attachment to a brand and their willingness to go out of their way to purchase a product that they are loyal to.

Attitudinal loyalty can loosely be defined as loyalty that comes from a consumer’s state of mind. This kind of loyalty comes from when a consumer feels favorably towards a product or brand. Having a good image or attitude abut a company incites the consumer to continuously purchase a particular brand or product. Even though two products may be very similar, the consumer will purchase the one they feel better about (Cheng 2011). Attitudinal loyalty is very good for the image of a company because, even if the consumer cannot afford the brand at the time, he or she will speak favorably about the company or item. This “word of mouth” way of spreading information helps others who may have not heard of the company before see it in a favorable light (Jenson 2011).

An example of attitudinal loyalty is a consumer who tries a new local coffee shop. Even though there is a Starbucks right down the road, the consumer continuously goes to the new coffee shop. She also tells all of her friends about this new coffee shop and her favorite items to purchase there. This consumer tries to urge her friends to visit the new coffee shop, and tends to visit the shop every morning before work.

Behavioral loyalty is slightly different to attitudinal loyalty. When a consumer is behaviorally loyal to a company or brand, it means that they habitually purchase the same product over and over. According to one study, “Behavioral loyalty ensures that customer loyalty can be converted into actual purchase behaviors” (Cheng 2011). Unlike attitudinal loyalty that does not always guarantee a purchase, behavioral loyalty involves an actual transaction that earns the company money. Behaviorally loyalty tends to be more of a structured or substantial type of loyalty when compared to the more emotional or psychological attitudinal loyalty (Dick et al. 1994).

An example of behavioral loyalty is a consumer who purchases a coffee product every morning at Starbucks. This consumer may not particularly care for Starbucks and there may be better coffee shops in the area, but the consumer continues to purchase their coffee there each morning. The consumer does not have any strong feelings for the Starbucks brand, but it is