Brand loyalty and consumer innovation: An empirical research on the automotive sector

The primary reason for being a company is to make a profit. In the long term, it is to maintain its presence by increasing its competitiveness. The long-term profit and the continuity of the company is the presence and abundance of loyal customers who trust the brand. Today, the presence of brands that are increasing day by day has brought brand loyalty to the agenda as an important issue. The rapid development of communication facilities and technology makes it easier for people to have immediate information about developments. This allows companies to introduce themselves better on the one hand and on the other hand causes a negative situation to be reflected to the customers in a short time. Establishing a loyal customer profile requires labor and financial opportunities (promotion, advertising expenses and the need to do this periodically) in a long-term. In the meantime, it is quite obvious that in order to survive in the market it is necessary to compete with both the old and new competitors in the market. Here, the promotion and management of the brand have strong effects on the preferences of the customers to direct them to choose the particular brand for specific products as well as affecting them to recommend this brand to other customers. Especially for today's generation, where the internet is strongly active in daily life, fast life and fast consumption become the main habit thus it becomes increasingly difficult for consumers to be loyal to the brand and provide satisfaction. The immediate fulfillment of customer demands has moved to an important point in the way of increasing satisfaction and loyalty for companies. In this case, the customer profile that knows what he wants and does not want, has a culture of inquiry, can immediately announce a wrong situation to the large masses, and the customer profile searching for qualified product / service is becoming widespread. In many cases, there are even situations that offer tailor-made solutions to ensure loyalty and satisfaction. In this study, a research on the effects of brand loyalty on the concept of dependence, trust concept, satisfaction concept, country origin concept and the effect of consumer innovation on brand loyalty are presented. The issue is being researched within the scope of revealing which factors are effective in the automobile preferences of consumers and their decision to purchase. The high level of competition and diversity in the automotive sector makes it difficult for consumers to determine what they take as their basis for making their final decisions. In addition to the characteristics of the car (engine volume, color, horsepower, seat capacity, commercial or passenger car, spare parts and widespread service network, baggage volume, fuel consumption and fuel type, etc.) factors such as social status, desire to be liked, quality of life, and sense of trust are also considered as reasons of preference. The reason why the automotive sector has been selected for research in terms of brand loyalty is that it is a sector which is constantly renewed and developed by R & D, where competition is intense, attitudes and behaviors related to the country of origin can be observed, product diversity is high, and various alternatives can be offered to consumers. In this context, it is aimed to present a detailed study for the sector, consumers and researchers by analyzing the hypotheses determined to question the brand loyalty of consumers. In this study, the factors affecting brand loyalty for the automotive sector will be examined and hypotheses related to the solution of the problem will be investigated and analyzed using the survey method. As a result of the analysis, the findings of the demographic characteristics of the participants were expressed as a result of the examination of the participants' consumer innovation and brand loyalty in terms of various variables. In the study, within the scope of determining the characteristics of the mass that constitutes the findings; gender, age, educational status, marital status, occupation, number of children, income level, car ownership status, brand and model of the car owned, importance of brand and origin for car user, frequency of changing the user's car and residence percentage (%) for arguments such as the county in which it is and frequency (f) values were found and hypotheses established in relation to demographic variables were tested and answered. T-test, ANOVA and correlation analysis were used for independent samples in the testing of hypotheses. Furthermore, findings regarding Schaffer are expressed from post Hoc tests to test whose variables are among the variables of meaningful difference. Regarding the testing of hypotheses; What level of consumer innovation and brand loyalty (along with sub-dimensions) are the participants at? The participants' consumer innovation and brand loyalty (together with their sub-dimensions) is based on gender, marital status, car ownership status, age variable, educational status variable, income level in terms of number variable in terms of variable, in terms of the automobile brand variable, in terms of the automobile model variable, in terms of the importance variable it gives to the automobile brand, in terms of the value variable it gives to the automobile origin, in terms of the frequency variable of automobile change does it make a meaningful difference? Is there a significant relationship between participants' consumer innovation and brand loyalty (with all their sub sizes)? answers to the questions were sought and the results of the analysis were presented in tables and expressed in the findings section. Keywords: Brand, Brand Loyalty, Addiction Concept, Trust Concept, Satisfaction Concept, Country Origin, Innovation, Consumer Innovation, Automotive Sector