The Hindu Business Line : Brand commitment

This is a term used by marketers very often and which is often confused with brand loyalty. However, there is a difference between the two terms and the difference is this:

Loyalty refers to how often a consumer buys a brand out of his total purchase opportunities.

For instance, if a consumer buys 12 cakes of soap in a year, and buys Medimix on eight of those occasions, Hamam on three, and Lifebuoy on the other, then we could conclude that he is more loyal to Medimix than to the other brands.

Commitment, on the other hand, refers to the extent of loyalty he feels, not to the extent of loyalty he demonstrates in his purchase behaviour. For instance, if out of the eight occasions that he bought Medimix, three of them were because Hamam was not available anywhere near his home, then his commitment to Medimix is a lot lower than his behavioural loyalty would indicate.

So, if purchasing pattern is not a good indicator of commitment, then how do marketers assess whether their consumers are committed to their brand or not?

The level of satisfaction is a fairly good indicator. After all, it is logical that if consumers are satisfied with the product or the service, then they will feel more committed to the brand.

However, this is not always true. Nowhere is this dichotomy more apparent than in the mobile telephony industry in India. There must be a very, very large number of customers who stick to their service providers despite being unhappy.

Why do they do this? Because if they change their service providers, their numbers would also change and that could mean that someone somewhere would not be able to get in touch with them.

Let us then look beyond satisfaction. The fact that the number will change serves as an exit barrier. So it would appear that the presence of a strong exit barrier increases commitment.

However, it can be argued by many people (including me!), that the exit barrier has increased only behavioural loyalty and not emotional commitment. In fact, the frustration at being unable to change the brand may actually reduce the commitment felt to it.

Another important aspect affecting commitment is the extent of choice available. When a consumer feels that his current brand is a better buy than the competition despite the increasing amount of competition in the market, then it truly indicates commitment.

In contrast, if a consumer is inclined to try out different products just because choice is available, then he / she clearly does not feel very committed to the current brand.

The current business climate is one where most companies across industries are busy scaling up and hence concentrating on customer acquisition rather than on customer delight.

However, long-term success is likely to go to the ones who pay as much attention to customer commitment as to customer acquisition.

(Compiled by Kaybase, a business consulting firm. Mail: Info@Kaybase.com)

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