On-demand app users stay loyal because of the service, not because they saw the advertising

One-stop on-demand service apps such as LINE MAN and Grab compete through advertising and discounts. Which of these actually predicts user loyalty — exposure to information about the app, the marketing mix, or service quality?

A quantitative online survey run in October 2020 using non-probability sampling, with 400 Bangkok residents aged 18 and over who had used this kind of app at least three times in the previous three months. Data was analysed in SPSS using Pearson's correlation and multiple regression.

• Overall loyalty scored 4.26 out of 5, a very high level, with behavioural loyalty above attitudinal loyalty (4.35 against 4.06). The highest single item was intending to use the service again (4.43).
• Service quality was the strongest predictor of loyalty (Beta = 0.491), followed by the marketing mix (Beta = 0.127).
• Exposure to information and advertising did not predict loyalty at all (Beta = 0.043, Sig = 0.32), even though it did correlate positively with it.
• The three factors together explained about 36% of loyalty (R² = 0.364, F = 75.68); the rest lies in factors this study did not measure.
• The most common reason for using the service was convenience (35.4%), then discounts (20.8%) and ease of use (20.6%). Food delivery was the most-used service (41.7%), followed by ride-hailing (33.3%).

For platform marketers, the finding says that money spent on being seen more often does not buy loyalty back. What does is the experience of the service itself — its credibility and trustworthiness, and having enough staff to serve.