FACTORS OF BRAND LOYALTY: KAKAO CASE STUDY

Abstract

Abstract Brand loyalty plays a key role in establishing a presence in the social media market. Kakao, one of the most popular Korean mobile applications, was selected in this study to explore the brand loyalty factors. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted among Korean customers in the U.S. Findings suggested that Kakao was able to establish a connection between their brand and their customers based on the following factors: brand image, trust, easy access, and cost. These factors would strengthen Kakao’s brand loyalty even when users have some complaints about the brand. For example, some users said that their satisfaction tends to be reduced when Kakao implements business channels for an organization. Users said they started to feel “annoyed” and “distrust” as they received promotional messages through the business communication channels. However, it would later be discovered that despite some of the conflicts with the brand itself, Koreans still established a strong loyalty presence with the Kakao brand and have shown reluctance to switch to mobile applications because of the amount of time invested in the application. Keywords: Brand, brand loyalty, trust, Kakao, mobile communication, relationship