Car washes, muffler shops, and gas stations also want to know about the different usage categories of customers. Restaurants illustrate the value of the usagerate classification system as a way of identifying customers. As a restaurateur, your marketing mix would be very different if you were going after people who live in one particular neighborhood, who dine out three times a week, and who are loyal to one restaurant. A different marketing mix would be used if the target market you were trying to attract consisted of tourists or conventioneers who might be in that town only once in their lifetimes. Consumer loyalty represents another dimension for usagerate analysis.
Consumers vary in their loyalty to particular businesses and specific products.
Some people will not even try a competitive product or business. Other people are willing to shop around and compare product and service offerings. Consumers can be classified as having low, medium, or high levels of loyalty. Anyone who is considering starting a business should investigate the extent to which consumers are loyal to businesses already in the market. Highly loyal customers tend to not pay attention to the competitions' advertisements and usually are unwilling to try new businesses.