Explaining the Effective Factors on Customer Satisfaction in the Bread Industry (Evidence from: Sahar Bread Industrial Group)

Today, the bread industry is undergoing an important transformation. A transformation through which large industrial companies replace local and traditional bakeries and gradually, become reputable and well-known brands. In this regard, paying attention to customer behavior plays a special role in the marketing of these organizations. For this purpose, using the Grounded Theory, qualitative data were collected through interview with 18 bread industry experts in Iran and then analyzed with MaxQDA software. In the second part, using a researcher-made questionnaire, quantitative data related to 482 customers of Nan Sahar Group in Tehran were collected, and analyzed using the structural equation modeling and the AMOS software. The findings showed that four variables including product characteristics, production process, price fairness and store environment have a positive and significant effect on product satisfaction, employees, environment and brand, but the effect of employees was not statistically observed. It was further found that the impact of customer satisfaction on achieving a competitive advantage, increasing market share, improving financial performance and customer loyalty through marketing strategies are positive and meaningful. These marketing strategies are classified into four groups; Complaints handling, branding, brand social responsibility and customer relationship management. On the other hand, the inverse role of the intervention factors and the direct role of the governing context of the strategies were statistically confirmed. Finally, suggestions to the managers of bread companies emphasize on supply chain management and customer relations, as well as fulfilling social responsibility.