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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS<br />

MODENAS has produced 23 models <strong>of</strong> scooters and motorcycles for the sale <strong>in</strong> local<br />

market. MODENAS‘s product has also penetrated overseas market such as Indonesia,<br />

Brunei, S<strong>in</strong>gapore, Iran and Greece. In September 2007, MODENAS has achieved its<br />

1,000,000 units production and had s<strong>in</strong>ce try<strong>in</strong>g to gear up to <strong>in</strong>crease the local and<br />

overseas sales volume.<br />

Nevertheless, MODENAS has lost its top rank<strong>in</strong>g position to its competitors when its<br />

biggest market share <strong>of</strong> 43% <strong>in</strong> the year 2000 has shr<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g to only 11% <strong>in</strong> 2009. The<br />

cont<strong>in</strong>uous decl<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> MODENAS sales is possibly causes by the aggressive effort<br />

taken by MODENAS‘s competitor to <strong>in</strong>troduce new competitive models with excellent<br />

market<strong>in</strong>g strategy. MODENAS‘s close competitors namely Honda and Yamaha have<br />

been <strong>in</strong> the Malaysian market for more than 30 years and received favorable brand<br />

acceptance and loyalty by the customer.<br />

S<strong>in</strong>ce the product brand creates an image and become the basic motive for the<br />

consumers‘ choice <strong>of</strong> a particular product, it is essential for MODENAS to determ<strong>in</strong>e<br />

how serious <strong>of</strong> its product quality perception and brand loyalty which could lead to the<br />

impairment <strong>of</strong> the sales volume. Apart from that, there is also a need to f<strong>in</strong>d out <strong>of</strong> any<br />

relationship, l<strong>in</strong>k or effect exist between the product quality and the brand loyalty to the<br />

motorcycle <strong>in</strong>dustry <strong>in</strong> Malaysia.<br />

This outcome has created the <strong>in</strong>terest to study the possibility <strong>of</strong> the effect <strong>in</strong> the<br />

Malaysian market environment especially to Malaysia‘s national brand<br />

motorcycle/scooter, MODENAS. The objective <strong>of</strong> the study is to determ<strong>in</strong>e the<br />

relationship between the product quality and the brand loyalty and its <strong>in</strong>fluence to the<br />

customer re-purchase buy<strong>in</strong>g behavior <strong>of</strong> similar brand <strong>in</strong> their future purchase.<br />

1.1 Relationship between Product Quality and Brand Loyalty<br />

A good quality product creates customer delight. In turn, delighted customers rema<strong>in</strong><br />

loyal and talk favorably to others about the company and its product. Studies show big<br />

differences <strong>in</strong> the loyalty <strong>of</strong> customers who are less satisfied, somewhat satisfied and<br />

completely satisfied. Even a slight drop from complete satisfaction can create an<br />

enormous drop <strong>in</strong> loyalty (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010).<br />

Several researches have been done and it was noted that there are positive relationship<br />

between performance quality and customer satisfaction. However the correlation differs<br />

between one product and services to another. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to a research constructed by<br />

Croan<strong>in</strong> and Taylor (1992) who exam<strong>in</strong>ed for bus<strong>in</strong>esses, found strong correlation<br />

between satisfaction and loyalty for fast food and dry clean<strong>in</strong>g. However it was also<br />

noted that relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is to be dependent on the<br />

characteristics <strong>of</strong> the focal products and services itself.<br />

It was also discovered that brand reputation do have a strong effect on loyalty. The effect<br />

<strong>of</strong> customer satisfaction on loyalty appears to be cont<strong>in</strong>gent and it was suggested that<br />

satisfaction will only have a direct effect on loyalty when customers are able to evaluate<br />

product quality through their experience with the product and services itself.<br />

COPY RIGHT © 2011 Institute <strong>of</strong> <strong>Interdiscipl<strong>in</strong>ary</strong> Bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>Research</strong> 137<br />

JANUARY 2011<br />

VOL 2, NO 9

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