Brands fail to inspire loyalty in men – survey

Loyalty is a theme that permeates throughout society – from the personal lives of everyday people, to the pages of celebrity magazines as high-profile relationships regularly fall apart and politicians lose the loyalty of the electorate and their peers.

Brands too are fighting a constant battle to maintain the loyalty among consumers in the frugal society that has emerged from the recession. Today it is much harder to build brand loyalty as customers swap brands easily, chasing the best deals.

Some of the loyalty dynamics at play in the relationship between brands and Britain’s consumers have been uncovered by a recent survey by customer insight and loyalty specialist The Logic Group and Ipsos Mori. It found out that male consumers too are apparently less loyal to brands than women.

Of all the women who were asked in the survey of more than 2,000 consumers, 67 per cent said they are members of at least one loyalty scheme; a significantly higher proportion than the 57 per cent of men that are members of at least one loyalty scheme.

Women were also found to be significantly more likely than men to say they are loyal to the following organisations or places:

• Supermarkets (68 per cent vs 59 per cent of men);

• Department stores (32 per cent vs 21 per cent of men);

• Clothes shops (36 per cent vs 24 per cent of men);

• Restaurants/coffee shops (35 per cent vs 30 per centof men).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, men are significantly more likely than women to say they are loyal to bars/pubs/clubs (28 per cent vs 20 per cent of women).

Women are also more satisfied than men with the benefits shopping and retail loyalty schemes offer to them (71 per cent vs 62 per cent of men).

Women are more likely than men to agree that:

• Since the recession started, loyalty schemes have had more influence on what they’ve chosen to spend money on (19 per cent vs 15 per cent of men);

• Since the recession started, they have taken more advantage of the benefits provided by loyalty schemes (20 per cent vs 15 per cent of men);

• They trust companies who run loyalty schemes to keep their personal information safe (51 per cent vs 44 per cent6 of men);

• They always remember to use loyalty cards (54 per cent vs 40 per cent of men).

Women are also more likely than men to say “Offers that are relevant to me” will encourage them to spend more with a business or organisation (51 per cent vs 44 per cent of men).

Anamaria Chiuzan, customer insight and loyalty specialist for The Logic Group comments: “When it comes to brand loyalty men and women clearly have very different drivers and motivations. The challenge for brands is to capture these differences in their loyalty messages and programmes, ensuring that they offer the right deals and messages at an individual level.

“British consumers are incredibly diverse and a one-size-fits-all approach will do nothing to increase feelings of loyalty among both men and women. Loyalty is about the customer experience underpinning en-gagement with a brand.

“A series of factors determine how that experience should be defined: age, sex, lifestyle, etc. Loyalty succeeds when the brand messages are tailored to build an experience that resonates with different customer types.”