Commentary
Customer Loyalty Overrated -- Marketers Should Consider Consumer Habits Instead
- by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, June 23, 2020
Humans make an estimated 35,000 decisions daily, according to Marsha Lindsay, CEO and chief analyst at Lindsay Foresight & Stratagem, during an Advertising Research Foundation presentation on how habits are formed.
“Customer loyalty is overrated,” Lindsay said. “What makes competitive advantage truly sustainable is helping consumers avoid having to make …
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Laurie Sullivan is a writer and editor for MediaPost. You can reach Laurie at lauriesullivan@gmail.com.
Conversely, brand loyalty may (will?) be eroded as marketers query, probe and track customer behaviour. And don't forget that nascent brands have less to lose and more to gain. Be careful that if you get your wish it may have other consequences.
It all depends on what brand---and product/service category---- one is talking about. As a rule, products that have a personal meaning for a consumer develop much greater brand loyalty than commodities, though even here there are exceptions. Scanner panel studies indicate that a typical packaged goods brand gets anywhere from 70-80% of its sales from current customers and only the remainder from users of rival brands or those new to the category. I doubt that this ratio has changed much over the years but would like to hear from anyone with current data.