Advisers

Jennylene A. Abalos

Discipline

Business administration

Abstract

Membership programs in retail are meant to strengthen customer loyalty, but many retail brands set membership programs up without clearly defining their value to customers and have duplicate benefits within multiple membership programs. In the Philippines, there is limited research identifying the membership value dimension that had the most significant impact on how customers viewed their membership experience. Due to such gaps, this research paper aims to identify, analyze, and describe the membership value perception of members in Landers Superstore Fairview (2025-2026) using Theory of Consumption Values (1991) in terms of functional, emotional, conditional, social, and epistemic values. By examining these factors, the study seeks to identify which factors are most meaningful to members addressing the problems of unclear value drivers and overlapping program benefits. This research was based on a quantitative descriptive-comparative type of study where ten active members took part in a quantitative research study through a validated questionnaire that was administered through a 4-point Likert scale. The value perception scale was evaluated through the application of weighted mean and differences among the four demographic groups of age, gender and frequency of visit were evaluated using the Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H statistic at a significant level of.05. The emotional and epistemic values were on the first place (WM = 3.32), then functional (WM = 3.26), conditional (WM = 3.22), and social value (WM = 3.14) and the overall positive evaluation (GWM = 3.25, Agree). The members appreciate fun, exclusivity and the discovery of products more than the saving economies. Its major areas of concern are the challenge in redeeming benefits and limited partner brands. There were no significant differences in relation to demographics (p > 0.05), which means that groups perceive the same. The findings indicate that experiential and novelty-based benefits are important motivators of the value of membership, which aligns with the Theory of Consumption Values. The research, however, was conducted on a small sample and on one branch, which limits generalization. Larger samples and more branches should be used in future studies. Practically, the management can improve the management of engagement, service quality and increase the benefits of partners that will help to retain members in the long run.

Keywords

landers superstore, membership value perception, retail membership program, theory of consumption values