Exploring the main drivers influencing brand loyalty to motorway services areas in Italy
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Exploring the main drivers influencing brand loyalty to motorway services areas in Italy Francesca De Canio1 · Manuel J. Sánchez‑Franco2 · Elisa Martinelli1 Received: 3 March 2020 / Accepted: 7 May 2020 © Società Italiana Marketing 2020
Abstract Due to the emergence of new shopping trends in alternative retailing formats, the paper aims at exploring the role of assortment levers to increase customer loyalty to the retailer’s brand in an on-the-go retailing format, such as motorway service areas (MSAs). Specifically, the paper investigates how the grocery assortment perception (GAP) of MSAs influences shopping satisfaction and shopping enjoyment, generating customer loyalty to the MSA. A mobility proxy, measured in terms of the number of kilometres driven in a month, was included as an antecedent of consumers’ loyalty to MSAs. Survey data were collected from 526 respondents during their stop in three MSAs. The covariance-based structural equation model was computed to estimate the direct and indirect effects. The findings show that the perception of assortment is a significant driver of loyalty to the MSA retailing format. Most remarkably, the results show a positive relationship between the customer’s mobility and his/her loyalty to the MSA brand. The paper focuses on an emerging, although poorly investigated retail context, MSA, in which companies are enlarging the grocery assortment to offer the opportunity to shop during the consumption. Implications in terms of competition between incumbent grocery retailers and companies operating MSAs are derived. Moreover, a new conceptualisation of consumers’ mobility in influencing the retailer’s brand loyalty is prosed when shoppers are on-the-go. Keywords Brand loyalty · Mobility · Grocery assortment perception · Shopping satisfaction · Shopping enjoyment · CB-SEM
* Francesca De Canio [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Italian Journal of Marketing
1 Introduction New trends of shopping and consumption are remodelling the retailing sector and supporting the spread of alternative retailing formats (Jayasankara and Aryasri 2011); for instance, the increasing out-of-home consumption that fosters the rise of new shopping models (18% of meals in Europe—Girafoodservice 2018). In particular, a new shopping logic-in which the consumption meets the shopping- is favouring the emergence of non-traditional retailers (e.g., Eataly) that offer consumers the opportunity to buy a selection of high-quality food products, drink a coffee, have lunch/dinner or buy books in one single place (Massa and Testa 2012). Moreover, the increasing ubiquity of individuals, both for personal and professional reasons, has led to the emergence of incumbent grocery retailers operating in the trip context (Sari et al. 2017; Martinelli 2012), such as in airports, train and bus stations or motorway service areas (hereinafter MSAs), among others. In this regard, MSAs are evolving their offer towards the need of conv
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