Subliminally we have all been trained to consume brands that either have now become habitual parts of our repertoire or have been recommended. It is very rare that someone tries a new brand without any external influence or other forces driving their trial. To this point, trail of new brands is on the up, which means brand loyalty in general is under threat.
The unseen sophistication of digital experience platforms and holistic customer experience management techniques are creating very loyal brand bonds between customers and brands, and vice versa. As a result, these bonds are being created and nurtured more rapidly than ever.
But what are the drivers that lead to habit forming and recommendation?
Habit forming
The definition of a habit is a routine or behaviour that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. The American Journal of Psychology define a habit as a fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.
Ingrained habits are behaviours done with little or no conscious thought and they guide nearly half of our daily actions. Habits form when the brain takes a short cut and stops actively deliberating over what to do next. The brain quickly learns to codify behaviours that provide a solution to whatever situation it encounters
What are some of our habits? And how did we get them?
Our habitual brand consumption falls in to four key areas: Inherited, Consistency, Convenience and Lethargy.
Inherited - I grew up during the 80's and 90's in a Sainsburys family, we went monthly for a big shop and then weekly for a top up. Our alternatives were Safeway or Tesco - these were never visited as my parents liked Sainsburys. I was brand influenced by proxy to be a Sainsburys shopper from an early age. This changed later in life, as it does for many.
Consistency - a high percentage of brand consumption is driven by our memory of our consumption of a particular brand. If you love Pizza Express pizzas because you always order the same product and it always tastes the same and the service is always the same, this consistency helps fill the slot for Pizza. Deviation would be a risk, and there's nothing worse than a bad meal because you have deviated from your norm. The same is relevant to most consumer areas where there is an open choice. A consistent product / brand experience is a safe option and leads to driving maximum customer lifetime value for businesses.
Convenience - physical availability is not the same as loyalty, it's a location driven dynamic. Petrol stations are a good example, as are supermarkets and coffee shops. Many people use the same petrol stations as they are located on their regular commutes or daily journey routes. This is particularly true in distressed or urgent situations where the need out-weighs the name above the door. What I am not saying is that people are not loyalty to petrol stations, what I am stating is in most cases the loyalty formed later and not primarily due to location.
Lethargy - According to the Daily Mail, 60% of UK households eat the same meals week in week out. Controversial point [maybe] but 80% of peoples own weekly food shopping list contains the same brands. Not because they have any lasting affinity to the manufacturers or brands but because they always buy it and secondly, they like the taste of their particular Tomato Sauce, so no reason to change. They do not have to think [particularly with the rise of automated selection in online grocery purchases].
Anywhere where repetition-buying is present brand selection is usually secondary in our needs hierarchy and therefore habits takeover.
The key to driving switching is to break people’s pattern by grabbing attention, driving initial use and ongoing advocacy. Alternatively, some brands cause their own destruction:
Broken Brand Promises = Broken Brand Habits
Recommendation
Recommendation, word of mouth or endorsement are arguably the three biggest drivers of purchase that lead to some sort of brand loyalty. According to Nielsen 66% of people trust Amazon reviews, with less than 1% of purchasers leaving reviews.
Looking at the statistics for word of mouth it's clear that people trust the people they know to advise them on purchases. Here’s what the research says:
- 83% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services – making these recommendations the highest ranked source for trustworthiness. [Nielsen]
- 90% of people trust suggestions from family and friends. [HubSpot]
- 70% of people trust consumer reviews online. [HubSpot]
- 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. [Ogilvy Cannes]
- 72% of people get news from friends and family, making word-of-mouth the most popular channel for sharing. [Pew Research Center]
- 68% of people trust online opinions from other consumers, which places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information. [Nielsen]
- 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. [BrightLocal]
- 72% of consumers say reading a positive customer reviews increase their trust in a business; it takes, on average, 2-6 reviews to get 56% of them to this point. [BrightLocal]
- Consumers discuss specific brands casually 90x per week. [HubSpot]
- On social media, 58% of consumers share their positive experiences with a company, and ask family, colleagues, and friends for their opinions about brands. [SDL]
Word of mouth is also a highly used source at a micro scale - when looking for a local plumber, electrician or taxi firm for example.
But why do we keep going back to the same brands? What drives us to prefer certain products, brands or experiences and is this loyalty?
In simple terms, once we are hooked on a product, brand or experience it falls into our unconscious habits list and we become a frequent user/consumer. This loyalty is to the experience of brand consumption, not necessarily the company.
What makes us change our habits or our consumption of different brands?
One theory [published by Forbes] is that consumers are not inclined to be loyal to brands as much as before as the underlying value of loyalty itself is no longer particularly relevant. Their view is that loyalty "in the old world" was good and something we aspired to give and receive across all aspects of life...with friends, family, employers, dentists, bankers, politically etc... But through generational changes remaining loyal to the "tried and trusted" is a little stale or boring. Not exploring alternatives is the same as going backwards. So trial is fashionable in the new generations.
I have a slightly different view. I believe that brands who continue to evolve their products and service will retain a large proportion of their "loyal" customer base and it is poor customer / consumer experience that acts a catalyst for change.
There are numerous examples of great brands that have evolved their products and retained users; Gillette, automotive brands [BMW, Audi, VW] and Samsung for example. It is also important that product quality is maintained, particularly where the product is in a narrow market. Brand development and market segmentation also helps position brands to create and retain loyalty through the production and positioning of key products for key segments. These "cradle to grave" brands are growing in numbers.
There are other factors that cause people to change their brand repertoire. Change in personal circumstances such as employment status or relocation can change consumer habits as can other external factors. Probably the most powerful external factors are economic or environmental.
In the main I believe that loyalty as we knew it is dead [long live loyalty], it is brand experience and relevance that drives and retains consumer consumption.