Brand Loyalty: The Link between Attitudes and Behaviors

Bringing attitudinal and behavioral perspectives together for predictive power.

by Joel Rubinson
President at Rubinson Partners Inc

Brands exist in the minds of consumers, but the manifestation of loyalty comes via purchase behavior, especially repeat buying and a high share of purchases. When I was at the NPD Group as Chief Research Officer, I created a brand equity measurement system in the mid-90s called BrandBuilder that brought those attitudinal and behavioral perspectives together. What we discovered was that attitudes and behaviors were usually consistent from respondent to respondent – but not always.For example, when we defined “high loyals” as those who buy a given brand more than 50% of the time, only about 70% of those consumers had attribute ratings of that brand versus others that supported their level of behavioral loyalty. This led us to wonder if big brands are always strong (as Ehrenberg claimed), or if a big brand could be weaker in the mind, and if this portended a likely decline in market share.