The concept of Customer Loyalty can be seen in the work of Deming and his TQM model but the modern more detailed definition was derived from the work of Storbacka Strandvik, and Gronroos (1994) in the area of service quality models. Relationship Marketing places great emphasis on customer lifetime value.
The conventional wisdom suggests that loyal customers are the most profitable but recent work by Heiner EvanScy and John Glasfield, both now at Aston Business School suggests that this may not always be the case.
To what extent do you believe customer loyalty should influence marketing strategy?
Your essay should include at least 7-10 peer reviewed (scholarly) journal articles in addition to any textbook references.