THE EFFECTS OF BRAND SATISFACTION AND BRAND PREFERENCE ON BRAND SWITCHING COST : SNOW ICE ICE-CREAM

Abstract

This research aims to examine the effects of customer satisfaction toward product brand and brand preference on brand switching costs for the context of ‘snow ice ice-cream business’ in Thailand. The researcher conducted both qualitative and quantitative research methods. With respect to the qualitative approach, this study did exploratory survey by observing the real market circumstances and interviewing 30 samples of the target consumers. As a result, the researcher used the information from this exploratory survey stage to comprehend the market situation and to identify research problem. In addition, the information was used for jointly designing the questionnaire with the results of literature review. Major analysis method for hypothesis testing is a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).

Important instrument for the quantitative research is a questionnaire. This research collected the questionnaire from consumers who ever consumed the products, snow ice ice-cream at After You and Sulbing Korean Dessert Café in Bangkok area. The valid data points are 202 units which composed of male and female in the age range between 15-44 years old.   

The research results shows that customer satisfaction significantly affects the brand switching cost at p-value < 0.05. Importantly, this research found the significant mediating role of the brand preference on this relationship. Furthermore, the total effect was higher than the direct effect of the customer satisfaction on the brand switching cost at p-value < 0.001. Therefore, market practitioners should be concerned the effect of brand preference on the brand switching cost too. As a result, the Fast Fashion product as the snow ice ice-cream which has the Fad life cycle may be improved to be more sustainable in terms of their market growth and brand position.