Factors affecting brand loyalty and points of attachment to the brand: An application on the students from the department of Administrative Sciences and Economics of Bülent Ecevi̇t University

The increasing conditions of competition due to globalization indicate that brands can only survive as long as they have loyal customers. The brands that already realized this condition develop several strategies in order to create brand loyalty. In order to develop an effective strategy, they need to be conscious of the factors affecting brand loyalty. Because of the fact that the factors affecting brand loyalty and the degree of effect of the factors can become different according to sectors, brands must know the effective brand loyalty antecedents in their sectors, and develop strategies in the light of these antecedents. In this research, brand loyalty in football industry where brand loyalty is substantial is studied. The fans of Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor that have the highest brand value and called "The Big Four" of Turkish League are chosen as research field for this research. The sample of this research is formed of the students in the School of Economics and Administrative Sciences of Bülent Ecevit University. Questionnaire technique is applied to the sample. The effects of demographic variables, identification and brand connotations considerated to affect brand loyalty are analysed with the multi-linear regression. To determine whether the points of attachment to the team differ according to the team, the non-parametric tests of Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U are applied. These tests are also used to determine whether the brand loyalty differ according to demographic variables or not. In the result of this study, benefits variable from brand connonations and the identification variables are found to be the most effective variables on psychological commitmet while benefits variable and psychological commitmet variable are found to be the most effective variables on behavioral loyalty. Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Football, Points of Attachment