The antecedents of brand loyalty that lead to re-purchase intention in the South African sports and fitness apparel industry

Abstract

The fitness industry is set to grow rapidly and e worth 50.43 million USD by 2023. This suggests that the businesses supporting the industry such as its apparel is set to grow as well. However, due to its massive and rapid growth it suggests an investigation discussing the purchasing decisions of people who take fitness to the highest level like professional or semi-professional athletes or sports and fitness professionals. Since it is their main income and passion it suggests that training apparel is important to them. The purpose of this study is to discover what factors of brand loyalty lead to brand loyalty and re-purchase intention for individuals who take performance seriously. Through a qualitative approach the researcher was able to guide in-depth interviews to gain further understanding of what factors of brand loyalty were most important to the participants. Through the use of on an online portal due to the international pandemic COVID-19, the interviews were conducted. The information provided aligned with past research and the researcher was able to place participants into the levels of David Aaker’s consumer loyalty pyramid which was the main theoretical framework for the study. The researcher analysed the data by thematic analysis methods as behavioural loyalty is a main concept for this study. It can be summarised as the action or behaviour of the participants identify if performance-based individuals were any different from the rest of the public regarding their re-purchase indent..