Constructing Customer Loyalty Beyond Satisfaction: The Interplay of Brand Meaning and Servicescape Experience in the Coffee Shop Industry

The increasing competition in the coffee shop industry has intensified the need to understand customer loyalty beyond satisfaction with individual service encounters. This study examines how customer loyalty is constructed through the interplay between brand meaning and servicescape experience at Sukaluyu Coffee in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Adopting a qualitative interpretive case study design, the study collected primary data through semi-structured in-depth interviews and non-participant observations, complemented by documentary evidence concerning the coffee shop’s brand identity and physical environment. Data were analyzed thematically through familiarization, initial coding, categorization, theme development, thematic review, and interpretation, with triangulation, member checking, and an audit trail supporting analytical trustworthiness. The findings reveal four interconnected themes: brand meaning as a personally relevant experience, servicescape as a lived experience, brand–servicescape congruence as an interpretive mechanism, and customer loyalty beyond satisfaction. Customers constructed loyalty through accumulated experiences in which personal meanings, recurring activities, familiarity, and environmental experiences became interconnected. Brand–servicescape congruence strengthened perceptions of coherence between what the coffee shop represented and what customers experienced, supporting sustained preference and continued patronage. The study contributes to coffee shop and customer loyalty research by extending satisfaction-oriented perspectives toward a meaning–experience framework in which loyalty develops through personally relevant brand meanings and coherent servicescape experiences. The framework is interpretive and does not imply statistically tested causal relationships.