The myth and reality of brand loyalty - Guest Column - Brief Article

DSN Retailing Today, Sept 23, 2002 by Carolyn Setlow

Marketers have long courted young consumers based on the age-old wisdom that brand loyalties are formed early in life and dictate our purchases at retail for decades to come. The older we get, the less experimental we are, marketers have assumed. Younger consumers have the exclusive on being open-minded about brands, right?

In some categories, that's true, according to recent Roper surreys, but on the whole, the relationship between brand loyalty and age has been vastly overstated. In reality, it is not one's age that dictates consumer choice, but rather one's experience. And experience teaches us not just to become "creatures of habit." Instead, we also learn to ask the right questions and look for proof of claims; it enables us to examine life from a broader perspective. Sometimes experience makes us more experimental. Moreover, brand loyalty varies more by category than by age, depending on such factors as the number of brands in a category, the range of price points and the real/perceived differences among brands.

In fact, different patterns of brand loyalty--our tendency to regularly buy one favorite brand in a category--emerge in different product categories. Let's start, for example, with household cleaning products. Yes, consumers 60 years and older are more likely to have one favorite brand of countertop cleanser than those aged 18 to 29, but only 10 percentage points more likely. And even among older consumers, barely 3-out-of-10 has one favorite brand. There is still plenty of room for brand switching.

Now, let's turn to the health and beauty aid category, specifically to brands of shampoo and deodorant. Here, on an interesting note, brand loyalty drops off with age. Fifty-six percent of 18- to 29-year-olds has one favorite brand of deodorant, compared with 46% of those 60 and over. Physical changes may cause people to rethink the products they have used all of their adult lives. Or, perhaps, HBA marketers have ignored the older market for so long that 60-plus consumers don't see as many products that are "for me."

In contrast, consumers experiment in their 20s, but settle into brand choices for a number of staple "pantry" items, for which levels of brand loyalty remain stable after age 30. This category includes a couple of the highest loyalty categories--mayonnaise and coffee. Brands in these categories do a good job of asserting their superiority and/or uniqueness among all but the least experienced and youngest adults. For example, only 37% of 18- to 29-year-olds usually buy one favorite brand of mayonnaise, compared with a much higher 55% of those aged 30 to 44, 53% of those 45 to 59 and 55% of those 60 and older.

Soft drinks are in a class by themselves. By far, the most loyal consumers are 18- to 29-year-olds. But marketers who spend all of their energy targeting the young are passing up another gold mine--the rest of the adult population. While the battle for younger consumers' soft-drink loyalty is worth the efforts, it is clear Americans don't remain loyal for life. Forty-five percent of 19- to 29-year-olds has one favorite carbonated soft drink brand. By the time Americans reach their 40s and 50s, their loyalty dwindles to 32%, and drops to 30% for those 60 and older. So, even if middle-aged Americans are not the primary consumers of soft drinks, they remain active in the category and also serve as the gatekeepers for their household, suggesting the need to broaden messaging beyond youth.

Just as consumers in many categories remain open-minded about brands, marketers must remain open-minded about consumers and the opportunity to attract them, at all ages, to brands. In an aging America, marketers will ignore this reality of brand loyalty at their own peril.