The Influence of the Relationship between Consumer and Tie-in Promotion on Loyalty: Focusing on the Difference between Target Customers and Non-target Customers of Tie-in Promotion

There has been recognition of the increasing importance of cooperation as an element of marketing strategy. Such cooperation is confined to four levels based on product development, sales promotion, pricing arrangements, and place (or distribution) mechanisms as the usual marketing 4Ps mixed (Varadarajan 1986). At present, however, little is known about the nature of tie-in promotion as a cooperative sales promotion comparing three other levels. The primary goal of this study is to examine the effect of consumer - tie-in promotion relationship on loyalty. The construct of consumer - tie-in promotion relationship is based on the previous research on consumer-brand relationship. In addition, this study divides the concept of loyalty into host brand loyalty and partner brand loyalty to reflect the characteristics of tie-in promotion including program in order to determine the effect of the consumer - tie-in promotion relationship on loyalty. The results showed that the three dimensions of the consumer - tie-in promotion relationship (i.e., commitment, intimacy, and interdependence) had significantly positive effect on program loyalty. The effect of program loyalty is significantly on both host and partner brand loyalty. This study empirically tested the relationships among consumer - tie-in promotion relationship, program loyalty, host brand loyalty, and partner brand loyalty, and then compared with the difference in the suggested model for the target customers and non-target customers. As a result, for target customers, intimacy and interdependence among dimensions of consumer - tie-in promotion relationship had significantly positive influence on program loyalty. In case of non-target customers, however, commitment and interdependence among dimensions of consumer - tie-in promotion relationship had significantly positive influence on program loyalty. Also, program loyalty had significantly positive impact on host brand loyalty and partner brand loyalty in both target and non-target customers. This study has significance in that it addresses the need to identify research and academic implications by analyzing the consumer - tie-in promotion relationship to determine the relationship between tie-in promotion and loyalty, which has not been clearly described by previous studies. Furthermore, this study builds a foundation for firms and managers actively using tie-in promotion to establish tie-in promotion strategies that can maximize loyalty for both host and partner brands from the consumers' point of view.