Customer Loyalty towards Traditional Cultural Drama in Chengdu, China

Abstract

This paper investigated the drivers of consumer loyalty to traditional cultural dramas in Chengdu, China, as mediated by perceived value and customer satisfaction as dependent on perceived quality, customer expectations and content of television series. To accomplish it a mixed methods design was used, which involved a combination of quantitative data (403 questionnaire respondents) whose selection was done using proportional convenience sampling to the various districts of Chengdu and qualitative data (15 in depth interviews). The model was tested and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the goodness of fit. Findings revealed that the perceived quality of dramas which included traditional cultural aspects had a significant effect on viewer loyalty because the audience showed high interest in authentic and meaningful representations that transcended into superficial representations. Loyalty was further enhanced by high perceived value, whereby the viewers wanted to see meaningful portrayals that would provide them with a distinctive experience in the process of viewing. Higher satisfaction levels were observed to be highly linked to higher levels of loyalty in the Chinese context today, a fact that highlights the central role played by customer satisfaction in ensuring continued attention of the audience to traditional cultural dramas.