Testing the brand loyalty model and types of customers in the Iranian sportswear industry

The purpose of this study was to examine the brand loyalty and types of customers (diversified and diehard customers) model in the Iranian sportswear industry, which was conducted on a case-by-case basis in bodybuilding clubs in Fars province. The method of this research was correlation which was done in the form of structural equations. 350 people participated in this study voluntarily. The brand loyalty questionnaire (Aaker, 1996) was used which included the factors of brand name, quality, price, brand design, advertising, store environment and service quality. The questionnaire was distributed electronically among the participants. The results were analyzed using diagnostic function tests, path analysis and independent t-test. In general, the results showed that price, advertising, product quality and store environment have a significant relationship with brand name, but for service quality and brand design, this relationship was not significant. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the diehard customers and diversified customers regarding brand name, product quality, price, store environment factor and advertising. However, there was no significant difference in brand design and service quality indicators. According to these results, it is suggested that Iranian sportswear companies pay special attention to price, product quality and store environment according to the type of customers. In order to be able to maintain their brand in the competition of sports products market and customers to be loyal to them.