MGT 312 Business Research Methods Essay Enhances Understanding.

Globalization triggered a transformation in the marketing fundamentals from products to corporate brands. Many automotive companies are aspiring towards building global brands as it positively affects their financial performance and the public perception towards the organization.

It is important for automotive firms to create a brand loyalty that positively affects the customer satisfaction. The popularization of automobiles is increasing, witnesses advancements in terms of the product and service quality, and the increased efficiency in the customer journey.

For customers, taking the decision of buying a car is not easy, as it involves many considerations, including, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, also, buying private car fulfills symbolic consumer needs. In addition, the social factors have an important role in shaping the relationship between the customer and the car brand, as the practical features and efficiency often prevail. The innovativeness in the automotive industry is highly important as it differentiates the brand from the other brands in terms of quality, cost, and value (Anisimova, 2016). Innovativeness is likely to strengthen the relationship between brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. This research is mainly concerned with analyzing the relationship between the brand loyalty and customer satisfaction in the automotive industry in the UAE.

To what extent does the brand loyalty affect the customer satisfaction in the automotive industry in the UAE?

The following section discusses the body of knowledge with regard to the brand loyalty and the customer satisfaction, the factors affecting this relationship, and how to be improved.

The automotive industry in the UAE is analyzed regarding its current situation, and future strategies in the third section.

• Brand loyalty:

Brand management is highly concerned with the brand loyalty, accordingly, firms constantly develop their brand innovativeness to positively affect the brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is considered an important measurement of customer satisfaction. The perceived quality determines the brand loyalty, as the consumer perception of the level of the quality of the products and services influences his loyalty to the brand (Hemsley & Alnawas, 2016). Organizations should be aware of the priorities of the customers when taking the decisions of buying the product or service.

Loyalty refers to the deep commitment of the consumer to rebuy the product or the service. The value for money and the customer satisfaction are considered the major drivers for the brand loyalty. The consumer decision of buying a certain product or service is derived from the brand awareness. The likelihood of the customer to remember the brand is the brand awareness. Another important factor is the perceived quality, as it affects the product loyalty. It refers to the customer subjective evaluation to the quality level of the brand. The perceived quality is not static, as it varies according to the marketing conditions (Pappu & Quester, 2016). Accordingly, organizations should develop their innovativeness according to the customer needs to gain the brand loyalty.

All types of organizations seek long time relationships with customers and to realize the main drivers of brand loyalty. Customer participation and engagement are considered among the important factors to sustain the customer loyalty. Customer engagement could be influenced by using the technology and social media channels, for example, the Facebook, and Twitter (Andrine, 2016). Organizations should take the opportunity offered through technology to tighten their relationships with their customers and assure brand loyalty.

Recent research focus on the brand love, to provide a better understanding of the factors affecting the relationships between the customers and the brand loyalty (Iyer et al., 2016). Affection and passion are likely to affect the brand love and create a lifelong relationship between the customer and the brand (Zarantonello et al., 2016). Accordingly, the brand love is likely to affect the brand loyalty in a positive way.

• Customer satisfaction

Customers are people who purchase the products or services either inside or outside the organization. Satisfying both of the two types of customers, either the internal or the external customers is very important to the success of organizations in achieving their goals (Camgöz et al., 2016). The long term relationships between the organization and its customers influence the customer satisfaction level and the organizational success. Customer satisfaction refers to the customer evaluation of the product or service after consumption. The external customer level of satisfaction is a function of the service quality provided by the organization. If the perceived performance of the product or service meets the customer's prior expectations or exceeds them, he is likely to be satisfied (Daikh, 2015). As the satisfied buyer is more likely to repurchase, and speak in a good way to his friends and relatives about his experience with the brand.

• Brand loyalty and customer satisfaction

Studies show that customers evaluate the brand names in terms of their prestigious levels. As brand names have symbolic meanings related to customer loyalty and satisfaction (Anisimova, 2016). Satisfaction and loyalty reflect the relationship between the brand and the customer. This relationship assumes that the product offering is the first stage, and brand is the second stage or the mature stage. Brand loyalty is analyzed regarding the brand not the product. Customer satisfaction is used by firms as a predictor of the consumer willingness to purchase in the future. Satisfied customers are more likely to rebuy again and recommend the brand to others. Satisfaction and brand loyalty are strongly related as argued by researchers, as satisfied customers are likely to be brand loyal customers. Experienced customers are directed towards the brand not the product (Torres et al., 2008). Accordingly, the brand loyalty is related to the degree of customers' experience with the brand. The highly experienced customers are the most loyal customers.

Some researchers assume that organizations should follow brand loyalty strategies, accompanied by guidelines for success. Also, rational and emotional brand loyalty should be analyzed by organizations to know the most significant factors that affect the customer satisfaction (Elsaber & Wirtz, 2017). Satisfying the customer is likely to be considered with much care from the organizational management side by conducting customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis and to be able to develop their brand image according to the customer needs.

The UAE is the second largest market among the gulf cooperation council (GCC) after Saudi Arabia, including, cars, accessories and parts, trailers, public transport vehicles, and other. The UAE market is heavily dependent on the imports, as its imports of cars represent 63% of its total automotive imports from the world. UAE is a regional hub in the MENA region for parts and components. Accordingly, the UAE plays a strategic role among the GCC as a re-export center for car parts. The automotive retail sector grew by 6.5% annually in 2014, representing an increasing demand for vehicles, which is expected to continue in the future. Accordingly, the projected investments in the automotive industry are likely to be directed to build new production plants for light vehicles, cars, and trucks, also, it might include car assembly lines for manufacturing and remanufacturing parts, components, and accessories. The promising future of the automotive industry in the UAE will affect the market attractiveness accompanied by stable investment conditions, including, taxes, fuel policies, technical infrastructure, and infrastructure. The logistics network of the automotive industry represents an attractive factor to investors when taking the investment decision. UAE government imposes high protection of intellectual property rights in the technical or design solutions to encourage the innovation in the automotive industry (Emirates NBD, 2015). The encouraging investment climate, accompanied by strong demand, and the availability of exportation are likely to stimulate more investments in the automotive sector in the UAE.

The strategic plan for building domestic automotive industry, includes investments in European auto firms, for example, Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investment fund brought EUR1.95 Bn. in 2009 of German autos company Daimler. Also, Ashok Leyland of India set up their assembly plants in 2008 to manufacture bus/truck. The Hafilat Industries of the UAE was licensed to produce Australia's Volgren bus assembly in 2008 (Government of Ras Al Khaima - RAK Investment Authority, 2015). More investments from the European countries are planned to take place in the UAE in the coming years to be locally consumed or re-exported to other countries within the Mena region.

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Camgöz, H, P?nar, H & Nazl?, K 2016, Internal customer satisfaction improvement with QFD technique, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 22, no. 5, pp.957-68.

Daikh, J 2015, A research proposal: The relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer loyalty, Johnson & Wales University.

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