Market researcher Euromonitor International has been investigating consumer's brand loyalty to provide insight on how a company can tailor offerings to the needs of specific buyers.
“Looking at the reasons why consumers choose to be loyal or not to certain brands provides a deeper understanding on how to tailor offerings,” explains Beauty and Personal Care senior research analyst, Ildiko Szalai.
Category shift
And when it comes to the benefits brand loyalty can bring, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution, as consumer behaviour varies between product type.
Euromonitor’s recent survey on personal appearance, beauty and grooming found that in facial care, 50% of consumers stick to one trusted brand. But in other categories consumers are more open to experimentation – such as in colour cosmetics.
In nail polish 55% of consumers switch between brands on a regular basis and only one quarter of consumers would buy the same brand.
This is perhaps most evident when looking at a brand's market performance, such as with L’Oreal who owns the market leader in both facial care (L’Oreal Paris) and nail polish (Maybelline).
In 2008-2013, as per Euromonitor’s figures, skin care brand L'Oréal Paris expanded its market value share by 50 basis points while L'Oréal's Maybelline line remained flat over the same period.
Brand loyalty
Customer loyalty can be important to cosmetics companies as they have realized that selling to brand loyal customers is less costly than converting new customers.
The concept of brand loyalty is so important that brand managers must give it sufficient consideration before they plan and implement their marketing strategies.
However, although it gives surety that products will have a strong bond in the minds of consumers, discouraging them from switching to another brand it is not always easy to obtain and sustain, as evidenced in the different personal care categories.
Propensity to switch can be high in what can be a low-trust environment and a market which sees a great deal of new products appear and new opinions form about them.