Brand loyalty becoming increasingly fickle

The study, Seeing Beyond the Loyalty Illusion, gathered the experiences and attitudes of over 25,000 consumers around the world towards brand and organisational loyalty. 

It uncovered a number of key findings, including: 

• 57% of consumers spend more on brands or providers to which they are loyal
• 71% say loyalty programmes don't engender loyalty
• 61% had switched some or all of their business in the last year
• 77% of all consumers admitted that they retract their loyalty more quickly than they did three years ago
• 23% demonstrate a negative or non-existent reaction to companies’ loyalty efforts. This number is rising, especially among younger consumers

The report also reveals that millennials’ values and behaviours towards loyalty are quite distinct from the rest of the population in terms of their priorities: value celebrity endorsements over lower prices (favoured by the rest of the population); supporting causes over privacy/ data security; personalisation over product/ service quality; innovative experiences over a single point of contact for issue-resolution; and access to exclusive offers over urgency of issue resolution. 

'One group that warrants personalised attention is millennials,’ the report reads.

'This segment now numbers 1.8 billion globally and is expected to have a lifetime value of $10 trillion.

'Unfortunately, Millennials aren’t enamoured with most current loyalty programmes. In fact, our research revealed they are more likely to have a negative reaction to a company’s attempt to earn their loyalty. Therefore, it is critical that companies understand millennials’ impressions of loyalty and then tailor language and experiences to their values and behaviours.

'Across all communications and loyalty investments, address what millennials like and dislike, and what types of promotions and rewards they are likely to embrace or shun.'