Awareness Completes Brand Loyalty: Reality of Zimbabwe Tourism Destination

Abstract

The study investigated the supremacy of raising tourism destination awareness in improving brand loyalty. This was based on the fact that Zimbabwe as a tourism destination has received global awareness through various campaigns but still failing to improve its tourism destination brand loyalty. Therefore the study applied both a positivists and interpretivist’s paradigm using quantitative and qualitative research designs respectively. Sequentially the research design started with a qualitative approach whereby senior managers in the tourism industry were interviewed and agreed that the most common sources of brand loyalty are brand awareness, brand image and perceived brand quality. These variables were then investigated on their relationship to brand loyalty using survey questionnaires that were distributed to the three main sectors of the tourism industry namely accommodation, travel and resorts. The results of the study showed that brand image is the most dominant variable which needs to be uplifted in order to improve Zimbabwe tourism destination’s brand loyalty. This is then followed by brand awareness and perceived brand quality. It is when there is an acceptable image of the Zimbabwe’s tourism brand that positive brand awareness will be created and perceived quality will be enhanced in moment of truth experiences. The study recommended an intensive media campaign to change the current negative perception on Zimbabwe as a tourism destination and sponsored familarisation tours. Also the study recommended an effective evaluation of the tourism products and services in order to see if they are of required quality and an intensive stakeholder involvement in brand formulation.

Country brand equity model: Sustainability perspective

“…This research is based on the secondary global country data obtained from the global database sources as shown in Table 1. The use of secondary databases for analysis of country destination brand equity is supported by Busse (2010), Simkins et al (2015) and Chigora, (2015). In this study, both perceptual and real or historical data are used which is justified by the dual customer and financial (economic) perspective of the CABE model.…”

Relationships of Marketing, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty – A Case Of Vietnamese Dairy Retail Stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

“…Facing the highly competitive environment, the importance of the development of strong relationships with their customers has been recognized in all businesses (Morgan & Rego, 2006). In most of the businesses' development, the supports of two extremely crucial factors customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are recognized (Caruana, 2002;Chigora & Zvavahera, 2015) because both impact the profitability revenues of the businesses (Rosenberg & Czepiel, 1984) According to Nuseir and Madanat (2015), traditional Marketing (mix of 4Ps) is to face the environmental challenges seriously to achieve greater market share and is considered as a key contributor to develop and increase customer loyalty and customer satisfaction in terms of businesses' products (Nuseir & Madanat, 2015). In the contrast, modern/ relationship marketing is a business philosophy and a strategic orientation concentrating on the development of a good long-term relationship among stakeholders, suppliers, and customers of which will strengthen customer loyalty (Payne, David & Christopher, 2005).…”

Conceptualising tourist based brand-equity pyramid: an application of Keller brand pyramid model to destinations

“…Thus the construct of brand awareness in terms of the destination refers to the level of knowledge and information a tourists hold about a particular destination. Awareness can be regarded as the first step towards achieving brand loyalty that can be built if it is crafted considering various stakeholder (Chigora & Zvavahera, 2015). Keller (2001) focused on the ways identity can be maintained for creating brand awareness to form brand salience with customers having more detailed information about the brand like the product / service category in which the brand competes and which need of the customer the brand is going to satisfy.…”

“…Keller (2001) focused on the ways identity can be maintained for creating brand awareness to form brand salience with customers having more detailed information about the brand like the product / service category in which the brand competes and which need of the customer the brand is going to satisfy. While using 'destination salience', destination marketers and planners should have a clear understanding of the wide offerings (natural and manmade) a destination has to offer (Chigora & Zvavahera, 2015).. Thus, defining destination 'hierarchy of intent' as well as the fact that tourists visiting a particular destination are also well aware of destination product category, its logo, symbol, brand name resulting a relationship between the destination and the tourists where destination forms a dominant name in the tourists consideration set even if they have not previously visited the destination (Chigora & Zvavahera, 2015;Kashif, Samsi & Sarifuddin, 2014).…”