Most buyers split purchases across a small set of acceptable brands rather than being loyal to one, so brands compete for share of a repertoire.
Panel data consistently show that sole-brand buyers are rare and usually light buyers, while heavy buyers hold repertoires. Brands of similar size therefore have similar loyalty metrics, and differences in market share come mainly from differences in how many people include the brand at all, not from how devoted those people are.
In practice
- A brand chasing exclusive loyalty is pursuing a customer type that barely exists.
- A supplier with high satisfaction scores and flat share is inside the repertoire and not winning more of it.
- Subject
- Economics & Incentives
- Essay
- The regularities money obeys