THE ROLE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN MEDIATING MARKETING COMMUNICATION EFFECT ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Abstract

This study aims to test the effect of a) marketing communication on customer satisfaction; b) marketing communication on customer loyalty; c) customer satisfaction on customer loyalty; and d) to identify the role of customer satisfaction in mediating marketing communication effect on customer loyalty of the IM3 user community in Jember regency, East Java province. The study was designed in a form confirmatory research, with the whole IM3 community members in the regency as the study population. By using random sampling, 100 respondents were taken as the samples. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied as the data analysis model. The result shows that: a) marketing communication has a significantly positive effect on customer satisfaction; b) marketing communication has a significantly positive effect on customer loyalty; c) customer satisfaction has a significantly positive effect on customer loyalty; and d) customer satisfaction has a very important role in mediating marketing communication effect on customer loyalty of the IM3 user community in Jember regency