New approaches to brand equity research: Understanding how context influences brand perceptions

How does the rise of promiscuous decision making affect the way we approach consumer insights? New proprietary research has uncovered variances in shopping behavior that are directly linked to brand category, spelling dramatic consequences for brand equity research. This suggests that there is power in moving away from brand-focused to consumer context focused techniques to elevate insights and create more meaningful consumer relationships. How can researchers start to view projects with a new lens? First, we must understand these core shifts in consumer behavior.

Defining the Promiscuous Shopper

Promiscuous shopping is defined as: “the propensity to look for new brands and products before considering previously purchased brands”. This is becoming the norm across all categories (our bespoke research finds that this behavior encompasses 62% of consumers) and seems positioned to increase in the future. We found that there are four main forces putting pressure on consumers to engage in and continue this kind of promiscuous behavior:

• Unbounded distribution: Consumers can effectively get their hands on any product made by any brand at any time, giving them the opportunity to seek out new experiences
  
• Rapid innovation: Innovation and technology advancements are snowballing at the most rapid rate the globe has ever seen, so consumers are always looking for the newest “upgrade.”  This means that consumers really can’t be loyal if they want the latest and greatest
  
• Expectation economy: Closely related to the point above, the expectation economy means that any current consumer expectations will be quickly replaced by new ones.
  
• Digital filtering: In most categories, brand is a secondary consideration after consumers have filtered search results on price, reviews, and features. Even traditional categories like automotive and CPG are seeing large declines in consumer loyalty because of this behavior.

What does this mean for insights professionals? The traditional approach to a consumer funnel is no longer valid. Loyalty is no longer the endgame for a brand, and brands need to keep in mind that brand is often one of the last things that consumers consider, if at all. Surveys ask consumers to evaluate brands against their competitors, but this is no longer reflective of how people are making purchase decisions. Moving away from brand narcissism when building questionnaires and market research studies is one of the first steps toward understanding the promiscuous consumer.

Shopping Style by Category

There are nuances in shopping styles that vary by category and can have dramatic consequences for brand equity research. Brands need to understand the unique context of their category in order to discover their true position against the competition.

Right now, most brand equity research treats all categories and shoppers as the same. A soda brand will ask the same questions of their customers that an automotive brand asks. But, is that how the category truly operates?  We’ve seen in our research that consumers will change their shopping styles depending on the category, which we think is due in part to the consumer’s state of mind about the category itself. It is important for brands to uncover that state of mind before making assumptions about shopping styles.

While brands have long depended on loyalty for success, our research found that very few consumers are loyal in the traditional sense of the word. Those who appear loyal are passive and dispassionate, lacking the engagement needed to make a brand change. By far, most shoppers fall into varying promiscuous categories. When you layer category into the mix, we found that the most dispassionate grocery purchasers switched completely to the rover category when making a technology purchase. It’s vital for brands to keep these shifts in mind when trying to understand their audiences.

Changing Our Approach to Consumer Insights

Consumers are becoming more promiscuous in their decision making – in many ways, these changes are fueled by factors outside of brands’ control. Our industry’s traditional approach to understanding purchase decisions is to place them in the framework of a purchase funnel. But, we know now that consumers are not moving linearly towards loyalty and that loyalty, as we have traditionally defined it, is eroding. While many of the same questions are relevant – awareness, familiarity, consideration – researchers must push beyond these metrics to understand how their client brands can intercept shoppers who are becoming less and less interested in loyalty.

Marketers and researchers should consider the following when seeking consumer insights:

1. Brands must operate from a posture of constant customer acquisition. Even repeat customers are at risk of abandoning brands and must be courted with the same level of enthusiasm and engagement as prospects
2. Purchasers are often not thinking about brand first when considering a decision. In some cases, brand doesn’t factor into the decision at all. While having a solid brand is as essential as ever, companies can no longer coast on loyalty and brand equity. All aspects of the consumer touchpoint are now as or more relevant to their future decisions than the brand’s reputation and identity
3. Competition is coming at brands from all angles and marketers and researchers should have a clear-eyed view of not only direct competition, but adjacent or emerging threats outside of the traditional competitive list we typically track

The onus is on us to keep up today’s marketplace and understand the way that our audiences are thinking – and shopping – in order to help brands and marketers make good business decisions. As the shopping landscape becomes more and more complicated, we need to be nimble in our thinking and keep our research methodology in step with our fast-moving consumer.