Today, the Indian customers are more
empowered than ever before. The rising
competition, pricing wars, huge
product assortments, entry of many
national and international players, etc.
have provided the customers with a lot of
options to choose from. Today, the
customers can screen their brands on the
basis of minute parameters. For instance,
many of us prefer going to a brand that
provides a high level of service as compared
to a brand where the level of service is
mediocre. A major issue of debate today is
whether there exists some kind of brand
loyalty amongst the customers or not. Well,
according to me, the answer is pretty simple.
Yes, there exists loyalty but only if the loyalty
factor is present on both the sides i.e., the
organization and the customer. It is very
unfortunate that today many organizations, in the greed of maximizing their sales,
deceive the customers and indulge in
activities that are considered as unethical
from the point of view of business. If the
customer feels cheated then, he is most
likely to shift the brand. The organizations
should realize that if they are deceiving the
customers then the customers will not stay
with them for a long period of time. It will
be more of transactional marketing rather
than relationship marketing wherein we are
selling only to generate higher revenues in
the present rather than focusing on
nurturing strong relationships to stay
profitable in the present and in the future.
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