brand loyalty

• Article

Tension Hunting: A New Method for Audience Loyalty

Chris McCarthy – EVP, Brand and Innovation Strategy, Kantar

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• Article

NYCU: Personalization Creates Brand Connections

A Redpoint Global survey of U.S. adults, conducted by Dynata, highlights trends in brand loyalty and implications around customer experience management. The findings of this survey shed light on the importance of personalization to consumers.  It is a key to their brand connection. 74% of customers believe that brand loyalty is about feeling understood and valued and not about discounts and loyalty perks. Sixty-four percent said they would purchase a product from a brand that knows them. Nearly half also said they were more likely to consider purchasing from a brand that does effective personalization. Additionally, 32% are also willing to overlook a single bad customer experience, if they feel the company is trying to understand them as a customer. Though offering quality products and services are essential, brands should emphasize understanding customers. According to 52% of consumers, brands can make individual customers feel understood by offering relevant product and service recommendations. Further, around 44% of customers said brands should make navigating in-store and online stores easier. Forty one percent also said they feel understood through the frequency of brand interactions – sharing relevant information on a semi-regular basis. Source: YouGovAmerica. (2022, February 10). Consumers prefer feeling valued and understood over discounts and loyalty perks. New Ideas in Marketing. YouGovAmerica.    

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• Article

NYCU: SPONSORED CONTENT -- Understand Me, Don't Define Me (Gen Z)

Generation Z is poised to be the most influential generation in human history.

The oldest members of Gen Z are just graduating from college, while its youngest members are still in grade school. Despite that, they account for 20% of all U.S. consumers, with an estimated direct buying power of $143 billion. They are a generation to be reckoned with: Constituting approximately 32% of the global population, Gen Z is emerging as the world's largest and most diverse generation. And now, marketers are jockeying to build brand loyalty among this increasingly valuable cohort. As the first generation of digital natives, Gen Z was born into a world of seismic social change. With a practical streak that belies their young years, they are known for their work ethic, technology prowess and passion for action. As they come into their own as consumers, employees and citizens, it is imperative to truly understand what motivates and drives them. Moving away from labels and toward the future of data will successfully guide CPGs and retailers that want to market to Gen Z. Doing so will pay off. Brands that make the connection with this remarkable generation drive, on average, 14x greater dollar growth opportunity versus other generations. Source: IRI's Lynne Gillis And Jennifer Pelino, And Janis Gilman At The Female Quotient. Link.

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NYCU: Brand Loyalty Remained High During 2020

How did the events of 2020 affect brand loyalty? A new survey provides initial insights. Please note that The ARF will address this topic, in-depth, in upcoming research.   In a new survey of 1,500 U.S. consumers by Merkle, more than half (57%) of respondents said they stayed loyal to a brand, despite of the events of 2020.  About half (49%) said those events hadn't stopped them from purchasing a brand. Among consumers who switched brands in 2020, 18% said their old brand was unavailable and 16% said a new brand offered a better discount or price than other options. Consumers can be persuaded to switch back, however, with 23% of survey respondents saying they would return to a brand if offered a discount. That response was more popular than making a product or service available again (19%), apologizing or explaining a stance on a public issue (12%) or providing information about how a brand bests its rivals (11%). Eighty-one percent of consumers said they want to form a relationship with brands, a sign of their willingness to participate in loyalty programs. Discounts are the most popular loyalty reward, with 70% of consumers preferring these offers over free products (65%), free samples (51%), free services (48%) and a chance to win prizes (28%). Consumers also like surprises, with 58% of them saying offers and gifts are the most important way for brands to interact with them and recognize their loyalty. Forty-one percent of people surveyed said it was important for brands to make the shopping experience more convenient, indicating that the pandemic's disruptions to daily routines has people asking retailers to help make their lives easier. Source: Williams, R. (2021, March 3). 57% of consumers remained loyal to a brand during chaotic 2020, study finds. Marketing Dive.  

• Research & Data Quality
• Article

The ARF’s 2021 Research Agenda

ARF research initiatives tackle the industry’s most pressing questions. So where can you find this year’s itinerary? Announcing the 2021 research agenda. Projects include: assessing whether brand loyalty is still the norm, examining privacy issues—including those related to COVID, exploring changes in organizations’ research and analytics functions, investigating the sharing of streaming service passwords and how viewers use the apps, recording and evaluating how brands handled 2020 and the impact of those decisions, and much, much more.

• Article

NYCU: Is Brand Loyalty Changing?

Yes and No. The article provides different points of view. More research is needed. A July report from communications firm Ketchum found that 45% of American shoppers have altered their brand preference amid the rapid changes in the world. A month later, research from McKinsey put that number at 75%. “For certain products and brands, COVID-19 caused supply-chain disruptions,” says the McKinsey report. “And when consumers couldn’t find their preferred product at their preferred retailer, they changed their shopping behavior: Many consumers have tried a different brand or shopped at a different retailer during the crisis. “We expect these changes will shape consumers’ habits even beyond the effects of COVID-19,” says McKinsey. “In…the U.S., upward of 60% of consumers who tried a new behavior plan to stick with its post-crisis.” Ketchum’s study agreed, saying that 62% of people who have changed their brand preference will make that a permanent change before the pandemic is over. “We're seeing massive consumer behavior shifts that are likely to persist,” says Mary Elizabeth Germaine, partner and managing director at Ketchum Analytics. Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, a brand loyalty and customer engagement consulting firm, disagrees. Some shoppers might be buying other brands out of necessity, he says, but they’ll return to the names they know as soon as they have the opportunity. “People are looking for particular brands, and they’re loyal to particular brands,” he says. “The COVID-affected categories are easy to see, but it’s not an issue of ‘I was loyal before March and now that it’s September, I’m not loyal anymore.’ “Shoppers do not want to visit multiple stores to cherry-pick the good deals on branded goods,” says Doug Bowman, professor of marketing at Emory University. “So it’s easy to imagine a situation where a shopper may be more likely to just buy the store’s private label brand to get a good price in a category rather than visit a second store.” Source: Morris, C. (2020, October 21). Brand loyalty is changing due to the pandemic. Fortune.    

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• Past Event Highlights
• Article

Audio Advertising, Targeting, Creativity and Segmentation/CSR ads (Event Summary)

• Insights Studio Series: Inside the JAR

A global panel of experts synthesized their work published in the Journal of Advertising Research September edition (60,3). Presentations investigated speech rates in audio commercials; targeting and brand loyalty in digital media; differences in how consumers and advertising professionals assess creative; and segmentation considerations in CSR advertising. In the Q&A that followed, the speakers connected insights from their research to the extraordinary events of 2020. Editor’s Note: The full summary is available to members only.

• Article

NYCU: No Decline in Brand Loyalty

Early results from a new ARF project suggest that, contrary to some reports, brand loyalty has not dropped during the last decade, at least not for the larger CPG brands.  During last week’s SHOPPERxSCIENCE 2020 event, the ARF invited a number of experts to report on their research and insights on trends in consumer behavior, including recent changes as a result of the pandemic. We recommend reviewing the presentations and summaries on the ARF website.    At the event, one report discussed long-term trends in brand loyalty. The ARF’s Chief Research Officer, Paul Donato, presented initial findings from a new research project, the ARF’s Brand Loyalty study. This first report focused on IRI market share data for major brands in three CPG categories: salty snacks (short sales cycles), pasta sauces (mid sales cycles), and deodorants (long sales cycles) for the 2010-2019 period. The analyses showed no evidence of declines in loyalty among the larger brands in these categories. For example, while the top thirty brand share dropped slightly for salty snacks and pasta sauces, the average number of unique brands purchased and consecutive purchases were steady. The chart shows little change in the number of consecutive purchases of the same pasta sauce brands. The analyses are on-going, more data will be shared in Q3 2020. Source: The ARF. (2020, July 27). Consumer Behavior and Brand Loyalty: ShopperXScience, the ARF.

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• Article

NYCU: Crisis Impacts Consumers

A new survey of 3,000 consumers indicates a seismic shift in consumers values. The analysis reveals four “types”. Many question the behavior of the companies behind the brands.    Key Findings

1. 88% - said the coronavirus has made it more important that companies behave ethically.
2. 75% - COVID-19 has shown how unnecessary some of their past purchases were.
3. 74% - recent protests against racial injustice have made it more important to support businesses that improve diversity and inclusion
4. 72% - it is more important to support minority-owned business through their purchases.
5. 63% - they will purchase more private label items in the future.
6. 62% - expect that their brand preferences will change permanently before the pandemic ends
7. 45% - said their brand preferences have changed since the COVID-19 crisis began.

A major focus of the study was a segmentation along two dimensions:  change in values and openness to reengage. Four types emerged:

• Retro Reengagers—ready to return to the world as it was (representing 33% of consumers)
• Open-Minded Explorers— have new priorities as they return to a world reopening (22%)
• Worried Withholders— not easily influenced, preferring their comfort zones (20%)
• Cautious Questioners—keeping their distance until they know more (25%)

It’s important to note this is not set in stone—individuals may cross fluidly from one persona to another. Advice to marketers: Ensure that your messages and your actions are genuine and make sense to the audience’s experience. Decide from a place of data. Tactics like social listening tools and analysis of search data are all part of the equation of getting ahead of issues by predicting, monitoring and rapidly responding to trends. Source: Germaine, M.E. (2020, July 22). Study Shows Brands Face a Moment of Reckoning as Consumers Ask Hard Questions. Ketchum.  

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Other Surveys Indicate a Deterioration of Americans’ Mood The coronavirus is worsening Americans’ mood as they grow more worried they’ll catch the virus and lose hope in an economic rebound, according to polls released this week. For the first time since March, a majority of Americans say stress and worry about the pandemic is harming their mental health (53% in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken July 14-19). According to an Associated Press-National Opinion Research Center poll taken July 16-20, in households where someone has been laid off during the pandemic, confidence that those jobs will come back is plunging – with 52% now saying so, down from 78% in April. Source: Beckwith, R.  (2020, Jul7 27). Polls Show Americans’ Mood Is Deteriorating. Bloomberg Quint.  

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• Past Event Highlights
• Article

Consumer Behavior and Brand Loyalty (Event Summary)

• SHOPPERxSCIENCE 2020

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, long-held marketing beliefs about shopping habits and brand purchases are being called into question as consumers face life disruptions on a magnitude previously unimagined. Shopping has become an essential activity, but overwhelming demand has limited usual access to favorite brands and driven substitute experimentation. Marketing strategies had to pivot quickly to adapt as e-commerce came to the forefront, shouldering the brunt of new customers ordering online. At SHOPPERxSCIENCE 2020, the ARF delved into consumer behavior in the “new normal”, speaking to notable marketers and researchers about their experiences and which new habits will persist moving forward.  Editor’s Note: The full summary is available to members only.

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