Effects of promotion on relationship quality and customer loyalty in the airline industry: The relationship marketing approach

摘要

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of relationship-orientated promotion on customer loyalty after subsuming the intermediate factors – relationship quality. Questionnaires are used to measure customers’ attitudes and opinions, and a descriptive statistical analysis, a correlation analysis, reliability, a regression analysis and a factor analysis are used to analyze the data. It shows that relationship-orientated promotion has significantly positive effects on satisfaction and trust. Besides, satisfaction, trust, and commitment are powerful and illustrative components for explaining customer loyalty. The assumptions from the perspectives of relationship marketing and the findings can interpret the differences in the extant literature concerning the relationship between promotion and customer loyalty. It suggests that airlines should use high relationship-orientated promotions in order to increase satisfaction, trust, and commitment and then to retain loyal customers and maintain long-term profit for the industry, such as charities, referral rewards, free shuttle buses, and discounts for cooperatives.