What Does Brand Loyal Really Mean? I Guess To Me, It’s A Little Bit Of Everything.
Brand loyalty!
Philip Kotler defines whether the customer is committed to the brand with four patterns of behavior:
- Hard Core Loyals - who buy the brand all the time.
- Soft Core Loyals - loyal to two or three brands.
- Shifting Loyals - moving from one brand to another.
- Switchers - with no loyalty (possibly ‘deal-prone’, constantly looking for bargains or ‘vanity prone’, looking for something different).
Mr. Kotler has very nice definitions of the four patterns of behavior. As you read on, I have named my definitions a little different.
When I started to think about this topic, I really thought I am brand loyal but as I think about it more and more it really depends on what I am buying.
For instance I am very brand loyal with hotel choices. I love the Marriott properties and will go out of my way to stay in one. Let me expand on what that means. I will probably travel an extra 10 miles to stay in one of the Marriott properties.
Call me crazy or brand loyal. I love Coke — not Pepsi…. But Coke. Pepsi is a little too sweet for my taste. I will go way out of my way to buy a coke and I am so brand loyal that I know which airports sell Coke or Pepsi and yes usually it is one or the other. DFW — which I fly out of the most only sells Pepsi not Coke out of bottles which I only drink. My definition is brand loyal and a little nuts.
I am brand loyal to airlines when it is convenient to me. Right now I am very brand loyal to American Airlines (which I do love) because I live in a hub city, but when I lived in Philadelphia it was US Airways. If I was in a city that wasn’t a hub I do prefer American Airlines. I like their service and typically they have solid flight schedules. Brand loyal based on geography.
I am brand loyal sort of — please stop laughing with Budget Rental. I will typically use them because of their rates. My preferred choice is Hertz but they are usually 25% more expensive than Budget so I use Budget instead. Brand loyal — based on price.
With consumer products I do like Cape Cod potato chips, Funyons and Doritos regardless of price — brand loyal for sure!
With regard to gas — I couldn’t care less. It is always about brand loyal — convenience.
The problem with not really being brand loyal, is companies like American Airlines and Budget Rental will eventually lose my business. While Marriott hotel, Coca Cola and others will have my business for the next 50 years.
I never really stopped and thought about it before but it is very interesting.
- When are you brand loyal?
- When doesn’t it really matter to you?
I look forward to your comments.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
First time, long time, Sir.
My own brand loyalty is based on a confluence of factors, and each factor has a different relevant value based upon the product or service provided. For example, I’m currently trying to determine what kind of external hard drive to buy. My principle drivers (no pun intended) are cost and quality. Quality can be difficult to ascertain, since many hard disk enclosures use different distributors for the actual hard drive itself. Generally speaking, the general consensus in the geek community is that the two best drives on the market as far as quality go are Seagate and Western Digital. One way to determine this is by looking at the warranty information. 5 years. That far out-distances the life-expectancy of other manufactures’ drives. That tells me something.
Other of my loyalties are not so pragmatic. Take for instance gasoline. I associate the gasoline provided by a 7-11 as somehow inferior to that of a Shell station. Why? Both conform to minimum government standards. Both provide cheap snacks, drinks, and facilities for people on road trips. But 7-11 *markets* itself as providing cheap food and products for those on the go, something all well and good when you’re talking about corn chips, but not so great when you’re talking gasoline. There is an illogical part of me that whispers in my ear, “They’re selling on the cheap; ergo, they must sell cheap products…I’m not putting that stuff in my $$$ car”). So it’s an associative response - the product’s impact is bundled with those other affiliate products of the same purveyor, a victim of association.
I’ve moved around a lot, and I’ve noticed regional biases. I’m reminded of Hannibal Lector saying, “We covet most what we see around us every day.” In Atlanta, I don’t think it’s much of a hard sell for Coca-Cola. In Dallas, Dr. Pepper is king. In Beaumont, TX, practically everyone directly or indirectly has familial ties to workers at Exxon Mobil (try picking a jury in Jefferson County sometime. Q.E.D.).
When am I *not* brand loyal? I’m looking at a device on my desk that props papers upright and holds them in place so I can refer to them when I work on the computer. I have no idea who made it. If it broke, I wouldn’t care who made the replacement. Why? Because the item itself is so idiot-proof, that I cannot fathom a company *not* making a nearly identically performing product for the same price, give or take a cent or two. If I’m at Target looking at blankets, I’m not saying to myself, “Well, I like this color, but this other manufacturer’s blanket has kept me warm for so many years…” I don’t doubt that no one has the foggiest idea who the manufacturer of any of their blankets are. When I think “blankets,” there is no identity, to either the product or the company who manufactures them. Running with this example, I’m curious as to how a marketing agency would tackle targeting an audience of blanket-buyers. Even assuming that the blankets were sold by, say, the Sony equivalent in bedding products, I don’t think with a product like a blanket a manufacturer could leverage its history in the bedding industry as Sony could in the, say, portable electronics industry. Would make a good interview question for Analysts…
December 21st, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I am brand loyal when I find a product is superior to another (or my perceptions of it are that it is superior) and better meets my needs (i.e., Bounty paper towels, Tide detergent, Reynolds aluminum foil, Cheerios). However, if all is identical, I might buy the store brand of acetaminophen instead of Tylenol because I am looking for ingredients (not that it is made with “love “– did you see that new campaign?) and the price difference is incredible. But I know people that would only buy Tylenol. I am typically loyal to my food brands (Boars Head, Simply Orange, cereals, etc.) and do not buy store brands of food because I find that there is a quality difference. I am loyal to places or services that have excellent customer service and make me feel that they really value my business. I do not put a price tag on that. In fact, that is even making me rethink the doctors who I have been seeing for a long time!
Good question Merrill. I am still thinking about that!