| Abstract [eng] |
During the period of economic crises, competition among business organizations becomes more and more intensive in that they must think not only about business development but also about its retention: how to preserve the present market share and the profitability of business activity in future? Since market is overloaded with various enterprises selling very similar products, the problem which arises is that of retaining consumers rather than attracting them. The objectives of the companies to retain the present position in the market leads to the situation where it is necessary to carry out active loyalty policy which would be aimed at retaining present customers and attracting the new ones. Various client retention strategies are being created; however, at many cases, the concept of client loyalty, and its assessment methodology are left underestimated. The issues of building and managing customer loyalty are topical for the specialists of public relations, marketing and management as well as for the very organizations and their managers. Object of Research – consumer loyalty. Aim of Research is to assess the loyalty of consumers of the three trade networks in the city of Kaunas. The following goals were established in order to achieve the above-mentioned aim: 1. to review the concepts of loyalty ant their most important points; 2. to define the factors determining customer loyalty; 3. to identify the types of consumer loyalty; 4. on the basis of theoretical analysis, to prepare the consumer loyalty research methodology; 5. to assess the consumer loyalty of the three enterprises investigated. Research methods: the following research methods have been used to analyze the problem and to obtain practical results: analysis of scientific literature, written survey using questionnaires, comparative analysis, graphical representation and simulation. The paper is composed of the following three main parts: Theoretical Concept of Loyalty, Consumer Loyalty Research Methodology, and Assessment of Consumer Loyalty at Maxima, Norfa and Iki. Volume: 53 pages; 4 tables and 22 figures were presented. 62 literature sources were used. |
