Reportlinker Adds Driving Brand Loyalty in Food and Drinks: Strategies to Improve Customer Retention Through Consumer Engagement
NEW YORK, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:
The retail and brand landscape today is very different from five years ago. The recession has been deeper than any recent experience and there has been a heavy toll in failed retailers and brands.
Consumer behavior and attitudes have changed substantially and there is widespread debate without a firm conclusion as to the extent to which consumers will return to pre-recession spending behavior.
The brands which have succeeded through the recession have been those with an extensive heritage to which consumers has turned to as a trusted brand during difficult times. Brands that are associated with value, either in low prices or as value or money have also thrived. The biggest challenges have been faced by brands which are premium/ luxury where increasingly consumers have been unwilling to pay the premium unless justified by superior ingredients and flavor experience. Even when consumers have been willing to pay the price premium, they have done so less often than they would have done pre-recession.
Key features of this report
- Analysis of the critical elements of building and retaining brand loyalty
- Evaluation of the changes to brand loyalty during the recession and the types of brand best positioned to thrive in a post recession era
- Analysis of food brands that have designed their marketing online to engender a high degree of continued loyalty
Scope of this report
- Understand how brands are expanding their marketing effort across a variety of online and offline media to drive brand loyalty
- Understand the importance of a cross company effort to ensure that all staff members understand the unique values and proposition of the brand
- Evaluate how brand extensions can add brand value and increase loyalty to the core brand
- Develop more effective brand loyalty strategies based on the in depth case studies and best practice examples
Key Market Issues
- The recession has changed customer loyalty, and post recession is likely to cause further changes to loyalty
- As consumers purchasing habits have changed, so private label and deep discount brands have developed a brand loyalty based on satisfactory taste plus lower prices
- As consumers become more sophisticated and demanding, brands need to develop marketing strategies that create a dialog with consumers and cause them to become brand advocates
Key findings from this report
1. Brand loyalty has been severely challenged by the recession.
2. Private label brands have made significant inroads into market share and are likely to continue doing so as retailer brands are actively promoted and quality and choice continue to increase.
3. Brands with a long heritage and consumer trust have survived the recession better than middle brands, and have invested to ensure that they come out of the recession strongly placed to continue growth.
4. Many middle ranking brands have been killed off by the brand owners in order to concentrate resources on the main brands.
Key questions answered
• What type of brands have increased brand loyalty during the recession
• What are the implications for brand loyalty post recession
• What methodologies are brands using to engage with consumers to encourage brand advocacy
• How has private label grown
• Who are the key purchasers of private label, and are they brand loyal to those private label brands
Table of Contents
Driving brand loyalty in food and drinks
Executive summary 12
Renewing the focus on brand loyalty 12
Building brand loyalty 13
Case studies 14
Industry survey 15
Conclusions 16
Chapter 1 Renewing the focus on brand loyalty 20
Summary 20
Restating the benefits of brand loyalty 21
Brand loyalty is the crucial factor in today's tough market 21
Existing customers cost less and are less price sensitive than new customers 21
Loyalty can also create space to respond to competitive activity 22
Loyalty also helps secure shelf space and counter retailer power 22
Should brand loyalty's definition be updated? 23
Defining brand loyalty 23
Consumers are decreasingly likely to stick with the same brand 23
Updating the view of "brand loyalty" 25
How then should the view of "brand loyalty" be updated? 25
Moving from purchase frequency to "brand engagement" 26
The key is creating a meaningful post-purchase involvement with the "brand" 26
A lack of post-purchase engagement with consumers characterizes CPGs 26
Taking inspiration from mobile telephony: the iPhone and consumer engagement 28
A new model for developing brand loyalty 30
Post-purchase engagement is a critical area to address 30
But other areas are still vital 33
Post-purchase engagement should be seen as additional to other activity 33
Benefits and challenges of a new approach 34
Loyalty and its measurement needs reviewing 34
The view of loyalty needs changing, and metrics therefore need reinterpreting 34
Purchase frequency and other customer experience metrics are still relevant 35
Consumers as brand advocates (and detractors) 35
Examples of online brand advocacy (and detraction) for consumer packaged goods 38
Online post-purchase engagement means more transparency 40
Social networking sites provide challenges and opportunities 41
Further trends affecting loyalty 42
Private label as a competing brand 42
Private Label's growth means a focus on brand differentiation 43
Heritage and trustworthiness are increasingly attractive 44
Chapter 2 Building brand loyalty 48
Summary 48
Introduction 49
Strategies and tactics across several areas require updating 49
Aligning with the key drivers of loyalty 50
Achieving emotional connections with consumers 50
High emotional status products tend to have higher loyalty 51
Securing product trial 52
Accounting for modern retailing practices 55
The threat from deep discounts, and deep discounters 55
Avoiding the "squeezed" middle ground 56
Brands in the middle ground need to differentiate, quickly 57
Aligning with consumer trends 57
Offering "simplicity" to consumers is powerful 57
Simplicity of message helps to save consumers time 57
A good example of this is the "traffic light" food labeling system in the UK 58
Offering simplicity and value for money is even better 58
The importance of offering "basics" should not be overlooked either 60
Offering variety is powerful, if done in the right way 60
"Disruptive" approaches help add variety and create opportunities 60
Once the mission has been achieved, there is a "window of opportunity" 61
The key is not to take up too much time 62
Offering nostalgia 62
Accounting for changing mealtimes (for food and drinks) 63
The importance of a budgeted meal is increasing 63
A need for new-style convenient meal solutions 64
Facilitating "on-the-go" consumption 66
Updating marketing strategies and tactics 67
Ensuring sufficient investment in brand marketing 67
For big brands maintaining or increasing budgets is key 67
For smaller brands, innovative marketing is vital 67
Ensuring sufficient investment in new product development 68
Even consumers heavily affected by the recession will be receptive to new products 68
New technical innovations should avoid making food seem "overprocessed" 68
Seek out breakthrough innovations 69
Avoiding playing it "too safe" 71
Seek to make the most of first-mover advantage and develop emerging areas 71
New marketing approaches 71
Mobile technology opens up new opportunities at the point-of-sale 72
Ambush marketing 73
Online advertising is undoubtedly a long term growth area 73
Privacy issues must be handled appropriately however 74
Mini sites and social networking sites 74
Buzz marketing – using key opinion leaders to create online "buzz" 75
Chapter 3 Case studies 78
Summary 78
Introduction 79
Case Study – Kellogg's Special K 79
Company overview 79
Goals and strategy for Special K 80
Through brand extensions Special K has become a "solution" provider to dieters 80
Consumer engagement strategy 82
The Special K challenge has taken the brand beyond being a "just" a food 82
Overall the site provides strong engagement with interested consumers 84
Television advertising 86
Takeouts from Kellogg's Special K approach 86
Case study – Whole Foods Market 87
Company Overview 87
Goals and strategy for Whole Foods Market 88
Consumer engagement strategy 88
Regular updates are a tool for helping achieving lasting marketplace change 89
Blogs and social media are cornerstones of online activity 89
Developing a community drives repeat site visits 91
Takeouts from the Whole Foods Market approach 91
Chapter 4 Industry survey 94
Summary 94
Introduction and methodology 95
Key findings 95
Overview 95
The industry feels that levels of loyalty are set to fall in the future 95
However, the average figures hide major divisions among respondents 96
Effects of the recession on brand loyalty 97
Marketers believe that premium brand loyalty is less affected by the downturn 97
Demographics of Loyalty 98
Pre- and post-children families are seen as being more loyal 98
Loyalty rates vary greatly with different income groups 99
Younger consumers are more loyal, but this comes under pressure as people age 99
Methods of driving brand loyalty 100
Product quality and word-of-mouth are still the most effective, but engagement is close behind 100
Marketers appear under-estimate the growing importance of new technologies 100
Levels of customer loyalty by product category 101
Alcoholic drinks, soft drinks and confectionery have the highest loyalty ratings 101
Loyalty and Private Labels 103
Loyalty to private labels is expected to increase 103
The importance of brand attributes 104
Heritage is seen as the most important attribute, and low price the least important 104
Marketers' attitudes towards brand loyalty 105
Innovation and attracting new customers are seen as important in driving loyalty 105
Companies perceived as excelling in developing loyalty 106
Survey summary 106
Chapter 5 Conclusions 110
Summary 110
The future of brand loyalty 111
Heritage will continue to be important 111
Maintaining marketing expenditure is key for global brands 111
Rising private label quality means that private label will continue to grow 112
Key strategic recommendations 112
Align internal values to consumer needs 112
Meet or exceed consumer expectations 112
Understand and target consumer need states 113
Engage the consumer, online and post-purchase 114
Loyalty in a traditional sense may still fall, but the effort should still be put in 114
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Coke Zone website 28
Figure 1.2: A model for developing brand loyalty and where online communication can be most effective 33
Figure 1.3: Wispa Facebook campaign 37
Figure 1.4: Mumsnet website 38
Figure 1.5: Zeer website 39
Figure 1.6: Zeer website 39
Figure 1.7: Heateatreview website 40
Figure 1.10: Kellogg's packaging and logos over time 44
Figure 2.11: Loyalty and peer recommendation 53
Figure 2.12: The "essential Waitrose" range 59
Figure 2.13: Simplicity of message 59
Figure 2.14: Shopping Mission 61
Figure 2.15: Stella Advertising 63
Figure 2.16: Sainsbury's fiver promotion 64
Figure 2.17: El Paso family meal solutions 65
Figure 2.18: Bird's Eye Packaging 66
Figure 2.19: Hovis product innovation 68
Figure 2.20: Vio Carbonated Milk 70
Figure 2.21: Coors Beer 70
Figure 2.22: Pringles "These are not Tennis Balls" 73
Figure 3.23: Original Corn Flakes Packaging 80
Figure 3.24: The Special K range in the US 81
Figure 3.25: Special K ingredients 82
Figure 3.26: Special K Challenge meal plan 83
Figure 3.27: Special K personalized plan 83
Figure 3.28: Special K forum 85
Figure 3.29: Whole Foods Market blog 90
Figure 3.30: Whole Foods Market Twitter page 90
Figure 3.31: Whole Foods Market iPhone application 91
Figure 4.32: Level of consumer loyalty towards mainstream food and drink brands now and in the next 5 years 96
Figure 4.33: Effect of current economic climate on brand loyalty 98
Figure 4.34: Brand loyalty by demographic 99
Figure 4.35: The spectrum of consumer engagement tactics by their perceived effectiveness in developing brand loyalty 101
Figure 4.36: Brand loyalty by product category 102
Figure 4.37: Brand loyalty by brand type over next 5 years 103
Figure 4.38: Brand attribute importance 104
Figure 4.39: Attitudes towards brand loyalty 105
List of Tables
Table 1.1: Consumer switching to store brands 43
Table 2.3: Emotional status of various product categories 51
Table 4.4: Brands that excel at retaining brand loyalty 106
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Marketing Industry: Driving Brand Loyalty in Food and Drinks: Strategies to improve customer retention through consumer engagement
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Nicolas Bombourg: [email protected] |
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SOURCE Reportlinker
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