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Title :

Promoting customer engagement with a service brand: evidence from coffee shop customers

Abstract

Objective – The aim of this research is to investigate how service brand loyalty can be increased through
customer engagement, based on engagement theory and symbolic interaction theory as theoretical background.

Types of papers Research papers

Findings - Results identified customer-brand identification and service value influence service brand engagement
and service brand engagement decisions. However, self-alignment only influences customer service brand
decision engagement. The results also confirm that customer engagement has a positive effect on service
brand satisfaction and service brand loyalty. Aspects of brand loyalty have been extensively investigated, such
as antecedents and outcomes

loyalty (for a full review, see Kandampullyetal., 2015). While previous research has contributed to the
understanding of how brand loyalty works, however, one of the main problems in managing a coffee shop is the
high failure rate due to intense competition (Lee and Kim, 2016b). One reason many coffee shops do not survive
in the long term is due to industry standardization, which makes it difficult for coffee shops to differentiate the
customer-company relationship between coffee shops (Cha et al., 2015 Choietal., 2017).

Thus, every coffee shop in South Korea needs to develop a brand management strategy (Choietal., 2017).
According to Kotler and Keller (2009), the core value of a brand lies in developing its loyalty. Brand loyalty plays
an important role in the coffee shop business, as the barriers to entering the coffee shop business are low and
substitutes are easy to find.
This environment spurred ever stronger competition; therefore, strong brand loyalty helps customers differentiate
certain brands from others (Susanty and Kenny, 2015).

Design/Methodology/approach – This study investigates how service brand loyalty can be increased through
customer engagement, based on engagement theory and symbolic interaction theory as the theoretical
background. Understanding the factors that increase customer brand engagement can help coffee shop
managers provide effective marketing strategies to develop long-term relationships with customers, such as
brand loyalty (Parasuramanetal., 1985).

Practical implications – Results suggest what factors can increase brand loyalty to gain competitive advantage.

Limitations/implications of the study – This study contributes to brand engagement and loyalty research,
investigating the role of customer engagement on service brand loyalty.

Coffee shops are everywhere in South Korea, expanding the types and increasing the number of coffee shops.
The coffee shop market in South Korea is becoming overcrowded, due to the number of chain coffee shops and
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alone increased more than threefold from 12,400 in 2011 to 49,600 in 2015 (Lee and Kim, 2016a). In
South Korea, coffee shops number more than 17,000 in a city with a population of over 10 million.
Coffee shops face stiff competition from franchised brands, independent coffee shops, non-franchised
chains, fast food restaurants, and/or convenience stores (Cha et al., 2015). Coffee shops can be multi-
unit, branded coffee shops, including international (Starbucks), Korean coffee brands (Caffebene), non-
branded coffee shops, unique cafes, fast food restaurants or gas stations (Cha et al., 2015). The
market has almost reached saturation point (Lee and Kim, 2016a). It is not surprising to find a coffee
shop in almost one out of every two buildings in South Korea (Lee and Kim, 2016a). This rapid growth
awakened researchers and coffee shop managers to better understand coffee shops in South Korea.

Keywords Brand loyalty, Engagement, Customer brand identification, Self-congruence, Service value