A consumer panel is a sample of consumers that record their purchases for a wide range of goods. Some of the data being recorded may consist of categories like brand purchased, store in which bought, price paid, and whether or not the item was bought on sale. These records are then mailed to a research organization that tabulates data by brand. The data allows researchers to trace the consumer s pattern of brand purchases over time. A number of studies have attempted to define the characteristics of a brand loyal consumer.
Brand loyalty is product-specific.
Consumers will be loyal to brands in one category based on strong commitment and will portray little loyalty to brands in other categories. Earlier studies based on behavioral measures of loyalty found few relationships between loyalty and consumers demographic and personality characteristics. More recent studies of loyalty found some relationships to consumer characteristics. These findings can be summarized into five categories. First, brand loyal consumers are more likely to be influenced by reference groups.