The 25th annual ranking of consumer brand loyalty found bev/al brands faced two loyalty challenges in the 2020 marketplace, Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, which conducts the survey said. The first was emotional engagement and the second was how to leverage brand values to best meet customer expectations.
Emotional engagement is a result of effective marketing communications that increases a brand’s equity and results in customers behaving more positively toward the brand, noted Passikoff.
Consumer expectations, a key dimension of customers’ brand belief-systems, are unconstrained customer desires. Expectations increase on average 22 percent a year, yet brands typically manage to achieve only a7% increase, a big gap between customer desires and brand promises to deliver, he added.
Jack Daniels, Coors Light, Grey Goose, Crown Royal, Sauza, Corona, Jose Cuervo, and Tito’s managed to have high levels of both emotional engagement and meeting customer expectations.
Maker’s Mark, Coors, Stolichnaya all had low levels of consumer engagement but high marks for meeting customer expectations.
Amstel Light, Suntory, Canadian Mist and 1800 Tequila all achieved high engagement levels but fell short in meeting consumer expectations.
Anheuser-Busch brands — in particular, Busch, Budweiser and Bud Light — as well as Popov, Dewar’s and Absolut all had low emotional engagement and low scores for meeting customer expectations.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, liquor stores were the one type of business that seems to have seen an increase in activity, although they too had to face the same obstacles as brick-and-mortar retailers.
Those included health-and-safety regulations and dealing with increased customer expectations; mask wearing, controlling the number of employees and customers in stores, and then controlling physical distancing, and addressing the problems of contactless transactions. For alcoholic beverages, customer loyalty to brands was preeminent during the pandemic.
Broken supply chains caused by the pandemic led to lack of product availability but not lack of loyalty, Passikoff said.
During pandemics consumers will compromise, but they still continue to demand that their expectations be met, he said. “But lack of availability does not denote a decline in loyalty. Yes, being in-stock matters as regards sales, but loyal customers are more likely to stick with their favorite brands through difficult times and, in a more stable marketplace, will wait for them or will actively seek them out.”
“What’s incontrovertible is that the 2021 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index confirms brands that best meet consumers’ expectations, and are capable of sustaining emotional engagement relationships, always see enhanced loyalty and the market share and profits that come with it, added Passikoff.