UWABOR Osagie Leslie
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences,
Federal University Otuoke (FUO) Bayelsa State, Nigeria
uwaborben@yahoo.com, uwaborol@fuotuoke.edu.ng
ORCID ID: 0009-0001-4812-6417
Abstract
This study investigated the relationship between responsible marketing practices and customer loyalty. The study used corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethical marketing and consumer privacy to represent responsible marketing practices, and tested their relationship with customer loyalty. The study is quasi-experimental in nature, and adopted a survey research strategy. Primary data was collected at a single point in time, and in a non-contrived setting, using structured questionnaire designed in the 5-point Liker scale. The population of the study comprised of resort hotels in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. A census was taken, while 10 management level staff of each resort hotel served as respondents. Thus, 100 copies of questionnaire were administered, and all of which were retrieved and used in the final analyses. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the demographics of respondents and for univariate analyses, while t-test associated with simple regression was used to test the link between dimensions of responsible marketing practices and customer loyalty. The results of the statistical tests indicated the existence of a positive and significant relationship between dimensions of responsible marketing practices (CSR, ethical marketing and customer privacy) and customer loyalty. Therefore, the study concluded that CSR, ethical marketing and customer privacy as responsible marketing practices, are key determinants of customer loyalty of resort hotels in Port Harcourt. This means that resort hotels in Port Harcourt that seek improved customer loyalty can achieve it by undertaking CSR, focusing on ethical marketing and ensuring customer privacy.
Keywords: Consumer privacy, customer loyalty, ethical marketing, resort hotels, responsible marketing practices.