Patterns of Buyer Behavior and Brand Metrics in a ‘High Loyalty’ Category : Liquor

This study examines behavioral brand loyalty in a product category that, based on industry evidence, is expected to exhibit high loyalty: liquor (distilled spirits). The motivation for the study is to extend knowledge of the factors that underlie behavioral loyalty, including brand characteristics of price level and promotion incidence; and buyer characteristics of age and income levels. The analysis confirms that liquor is indeed a high loyalty category in the context of consumer goods, with brands exhibiting an average share of requirements of 41-45% (average share of occasions & volume; compared to an average of 25-29% respectively in grocery categories from published studies). The study also identifies that liquor brands follow the double jeopardy pattern, whereby larger-share brands enjoy slightly higher loyalty, and that exceptions – brands with unusually high or low volume loyalty for their size - are related to high purchase volume per occasion. In turn, there is a strong negative association between brand price and high average volume per occasion (i.e. cheaper brands are bought in larger quantity or volume than expensive ones). The study also finds brands with a low price tend to be particularly attractive to low-income households, and that in turn, low-income households exhibit higher brand loyalty