BRAND LOYALTY AND ANTECEDENTS IN SPORT SHOE SECTOR: COMPARATIVE RESEARCH

There is an intense competition among brands in the sports shoe industry. The established and new brands that try to dominate the market, especially the young generation, are competing. Afterwards, new brands entered the market, which was established by well-established brands such as Adidas and Nike. New Balance brand is the most preferred brand among them. Therefore, it is the main objective to maintain and increase its share by gaining competitive advantage for all brands. Therefore, it is the main objective to maintain and increase its share by gaining competitive advantage for all brands. The aim of this study is to explore the relationships among the brand loyalty antecedents of the consumers who prefer Adidas, Nike and New Balance sports shoes brands and to propose strategies for the companies in the sports shoe sector according to the results obtained. The universe of the research consists of the consumers who live in the city center of Bursa and use sports shoes. The data of the study were collected between March and September 2018.Convenience sampling method was used for collecting the data. A total of 377 questionnaires were obtained The scale of the study was adapted from Karjaluoto et al. (2016), Ünal and Aydın (2013) and Taşkın (2014). According to the results; it was found that the image and trust created by the New Balance brand in the consumer affects the love of the consumer brand more than other brands. When the effects of word of mouth communication and brand love on brand loyalty are examined on the basis of brand preferences; it was found that the influence of word of mouth communication and brand love on brand loyalty was more for New Balance brand than other brands.