|
|
Loyalty-based segmentation
Are your customers loyal? Some of the most loyal may be easy to identify.
Others may be die-hard shoppers, dedicated to switching brands in an instant at
every price concession or new feature introduction. Still others may be more
difficult to classify, exhibiting loyal behavior one moment, and appearing as
schizophrenic brand-switchers the next.
According to research conducted in 1952 by George H. Brown, there are four
distinct patterns of loyalty. For example's sake, let's take the case of a
market which has five brands, which we shall label brands A, B, C, D, and E.
The four patterns identified by Brown are as follows:
- Hard-core loyals: Consumers who buy one brand at a time. Thus a
buying pattern of A, A, A, A, A, A represents a consumer which undivided
loyalty to brand A.
- Soft-core loyals: Consumers who are loyal to two or three brands.
The buying pattern A, A, B, B, A, B represents a consumer with a divided
loyalty between A and B.
- Shifting loyals: Consumers who shift from favoring one brand to
another. The buying pattern A, A, A, B, B, B would suggest a consumer who is
shifting loyalty from brand A to B.
- Switchers: Consumers who show no loyalty to any brand. The buying
pattern A, C, E, B, D, B would suggest a nonloyal consumer who either buys
the brand on sale or wants something different.
Marketers can learn a great deal by studying the patterns of loyalty within
their target markets. Of equal importance to understanding why hard-core loyals
are the way they are is gaining insights into why groups of consumers shifting
away from a company's brands. What are your offerings' weaknesses, and how do
you stack up against your competition?
Back to free resources list » |
|
