Consumer tastes are ever-changing; consumer loyalty is, too

Discount Store News, Oct 20, 1997 by Jennifer Negley

It's a curious phenomenon--call it the Domestics Conundrum. This year's Power Brands study reveals that the domestics category is one of the most vulnerable to consumer brand switching. And yet it's a domestics brand, Cannon, that is this year's number one Power Brand. Moreover, Cannon outstrips the No 2 Power Brand by more than 90 points, the biggest gap between two sequential rankings on this year's list.

The point here is that no matter how fickle consumers may appear in respect to a product category in general, it's still possible for a strong brand to make a statement.

Consumer willingness to switch brands is highest in the stationery category (75.0% of consumers). Other departments where consumers have no firm brand loyalty include greeting cards (73.1% would switch), domestics (67.9%), personal care appliances (64.2%) and lawn & garden (63.7%).

By age group, consumers under age 35 are most likely to brand-hop in domestics (73.3%), lawn & garden (71.4%), stationery (66.7%), personal care appliances (65.5%) and glasses and dishware (60.0%).

Boomers, in categories where they are willing to switch brands, will shift in greater numbers than any other age group. The most vulnerable categories with this group are stationery (85.7% would switch brands) greeting cards (80.9%), personal care appliances (73.8%), domestics (71.4%), groceries and canned foods (63.0%) and lawn & garden (60.7%).

Consumers 50 and older in general have the greatest brand loyalty. In categories where they are willing to trade off to another brand, they do so in smaller numbers than younger consumers. The categories in which Empty Nesters are least brand-loyal include greeting cards (68.4%), stationery (65.5%), children's apparel (64.3%), sporting goods (63.6%), lawn & garden (60.9%) and blank video cassettes (60.0%).

When examining consumer brand preference in the 26 categories that have been the subject of the survey over the past five years, several areas are subject to waning consumer brand loyalty. In sporting goods, for example, the number of consumers who express a brand preference has traditionally ranged between 71% and 79%. This year that number dropped to 55%.

Other categories where consumer brand loyalty has been steadily weakening over the past five years include:

* Cameras: from 92% five years ago to 80% today;

* Groceries and canned food: from 84% four years ago to 73%;

* Consumer electronics: from 81% five years ago to 68%;

* Computer software: from 75% four years ago to 50%;

* Household cleaners: from 95% five years ago to 90%;

* Cosmetics: from 92% to 85%;

* Domestics: from 45% to 39%

* Glasses and dishware: from 50% to 44%.

There are two messages here. First, in some of these areas, retailers have a real opportunity to buck up their store brands. Second--bearing in mind the Domestics Conundrum and Cannon's No. 1 spot on the Power Brands ranking--there's always room for retailers and manufacturers to work together to build brand power.