Customer loyalty towards brands within Botswana's petroleum industry

The retail and distribution industry in Botswana's deregulated economy is one of the largest and most difficult sectors in which to operate, mainly because of levels of competition amongst Botswana companies and the global competitive industry, in general. Hill (2000:539) postulates that competition in free market economies generally tends to be tense depending on differences between distribution systems such as retail concentration, channel length and channel exclusivity. At the same time the retail industry grapples with other complex social and structural problems as they face ever increasing marketing problems that relate to attracting and maintaining customers (Luh, 2006:1). In view of the intense competition, it is more expensive to obtain a new customer than to retain and maintain an existing customer. Consequently, retailers should develop competitive and sustainable ways to maintain the customers that they have and should develop strategies to retain any new customers that the business acquires (Naylor and Frank, 2000:37).