Examining the effect of customers' perception of bank marketing communication on customer loyalty

Even though the banking industry across the globe has undergone tremendous transformations especially digitalisation, research has barely kept pace with these changes especially as it has to do with marketing communication strategies. Thus, this paper examined how customers' perceptions of banks marketing communication tools influence customer loyalty. 313 valid responses were obtained from Nigerian bank customers through a survey questionnaire. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) procedure was utilised to examine the measurement model and test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that elements of bank marketing communication including advertising, sales promotion, public relations and personal selling are significant predictors of customer loyalty, but direct marketing is not. This study has implications for the update of marketing communication and formulation of customer loyalty policy in commercial banks in Nigeria and other emerging economies with similar business and economic history. The contributions of the study were discussed. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative.