<p>Loyalty card is one of the most commonly used promotional activities in business. Thus far, there are some research has been done on luxury hotel, but very few researches are on budget hotel. So, the purpose of the thesis is finding out the Swedish customers’ attitude and behavior towards budget hotel’s loyalty card; getting to know what factors influence Swedish customers’ response towards the loyalty card and budget hotels.</p><p>In the thesis, the main research problem is “<em>How do Swedish customers respond to the Budget hotel’s Loyalty Card promotional activity in Sweden</em>?” Under the main research problem, four sub questions and four hypotheses are designed. Face-to-face interview is implemented for collecting primary data. Interviewees include business traveling interviewees and leisure traveling interviewees, altogether 23 interviewees are interviewed. Secondary data is from articles and journals. The secondary data includes Purchasing/Decision making, Marketing communication, Sales promotion, Pricing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Relationship marketing, Customer satisfaction and loyalty, Personality and Marketing segmentation. The secondary data and primary data are mixed together for the main research problem’s analysis.</p><p>After the research, the thesis comes out that Swedish loyalty card holders show much awareness/ preference/ satisfaction/ loyalty towards the membership budget hotel. Swedish customers use loyalty card in a constant manner only when the benefit is large and the benefit can be gained fast. For the Swedish customers, the Budget hotel loyalty card’s benefit is important, but the benefit is not big enough to make them feel excited. Simple and clear loyalty card rules are appreciated. Reference groups’ comments, fast internet information, loyalty card rule’s complexity, customers’ previous experiences, original price, psychological quality feeling and perceived price level also affect the loyalty card’s effectiveness. By implementing loyalty card, the membership customers’ satisfaction can be increased. The non-membership customers’ satisfaction isn’t negatively affected. Compared with the Swedish leisure travelers, Swedish business travelers show even stronger and much more stable loyalty towards the membership hotel. Leisure traveler is much benefit oriented. But the business traveler is habit oriented. Psychologically, business travelers think that a budget hotel loyalty card can not provide them as much good feeling as the luxury hotel’s loyalty card does.</p>

Loyalty card is one of the most commonly used promotional activities in business. Thus far, there are some research has been done on luxury hotel, but very few researches are on budget hotel. So, the purpose of the thesis is finding out the Swedish customers’ attitude and behavior towards budget hotel’s loyalty card; getting to know what factors influence Swedish customers’ response towards the loyalty card and budget hotels. In the thesis, the main research problem is “How do Swedish customers respond to the Budget hotel’s Loyalty Card promotional activity in Sweden?” Under the main research problem, four sub questions and four hypotheses are designed. Face-to-face interview is implemented for collecting primary data. Interviewees include business traveling interviewees and leisure traveling interviewees, altogether 23 interviewees are interviewed. Secondary data is from articles and journals. The secondary data includes Purchasing/Decision making, Marketing communication, Sales promotion, Pricing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Relationship marketing, Customer satisfaction and loyalty, Personality and Marketing segmentation. The secondary data and primary data are mixed together for the main research problem’s analysis. After the research, the thesis comes out that Swedish loyalty card holders show much awareness/ preference/ satisfaction/ loyalty towards the membership budget hotel. Swedish customers use loyalty card in a constant manner only when the benefit is large and the benefit can be gained fast. For the Swedish customers, the Budget hotel loyalty card’s benefit is important, but the benefit is not big enough to make them feel excited. Simple and clear loyalty card rules are appreciated. Reference groups’ comments, fast internet information, loyalty card rule’s complexity, customers’ previous experiences, original price, psychological quality feeling and perceived price level also affect the loyalty card’s effectiveness. By implementing loyalty card, the membership customers’ satisfaction can be increased. The non-membership customers’ satisfaction isn’t negatively affected. Compared with the Swedish leisure travelers, Swedish business travelers show even stronger and much more stable loyalty towards the membership hotel. Leisure traveler is much benefit oriented. But the business traveler is habit oriented. Psychologically, business travelers think that a budget hotel loyalty card can not provide them as much good feeling as the luxury hotel’s loyalty card does.

Background      Catering to customer needs and wants by, at the same time, reaping maximum profits has, since the beginning of trade, been a tricky task for companies. Customer-segment pricing, i.e. offering lower prices to different target group segments, and its retail manifestation, student discounts, cater to students’ budgetary constraints, serving not only their particular needs but in return offering the company the possibility to reap long term profits from loyal students. High levels of price sensitivity among students provide companies a welcome point of action to address students and make them both attitudinal and behavioural loyal customers by means of financial incentives. The Mecenat card grants students access to those discounts – but does it help to make them loyal? Purpose            The purpose of this thesis lies in the exploration and description of a potential relationship between customer-segment pricing, i.e. student discounts and the formation of student loyalty. This exploration shall further be accompanied by a thorough analysis of the Mecenat card as a loyalty program and its ability to evoke student loyalty within the student body of Jönköping International Business School. Method             The research interest was served best by conducting qualitative prior to quantitative research. The focus groups allowed for a first insight into the topic and students’ opinions. These findings were then described by means of content analysis and further processed in quantitative research. An electronic survey was used to collect data from a sample drawn out of the total population of JIBS students. The data then was processed by means of descriptives, correlations, T-tests and factor analysis. Conclusion        Students at JIBS are a highly profitable customer segment, willing to be both attitudinal and behavioural loyal to stores that cater to their budgetary constraints by offering student discounts. The Mecenat card, however, due to low awareness and usage levels within the student body does not facili-tate, but rather hinders, the development of student loyalty. Thus, the find-ings were also processed into managerial implications that could help im-prove the service, such as improvements in communication

Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate if card loyalty increases attitudinal and behavioral loyalty of the customers, with a loyalty program (LP) membership.   Theoretical approach: The thesis is based on previous literature on loyalty programs and customer loyalty. The conceptual model proposed in the study ties card loyalty to the two loyalty dimensions of customer loyalty: attitudinal and behavioral loyalty.    Design/methodology: The study is conducted through a quantitative research design where data is collected through a survey. The self-reported questionnaires are sampled from social media users with active loyalty program membership with Coop. Findings: The empirical data from the 93 qualified questionnaires and the data analysis, indicate a significantly positive influence between both card loyalty and attitudinal respectively behavioral loyalty. Furthermore, the findings indicate that composite loyalty is present in the researched setting, since a strong correlation between attitudinal and behavioral loyalty was found. Although, the two-tailed correlation led to a revisiting of the conceptual model, since behavioral and attitudinal loyalty could also influence card loyalty.   Practical implications: The findings of the study provide academic implications by showcasing LP effectiveness and create a methodology for regional LP research. The results also provide managerial implications for managers who contemplate updating or implementing a LP. Originality/value: The study adds to loyalty program literature by investigating how card loyalty influences customer loyalty, within a sparsely researched nation with a regional focus.