Brands and reward schemes fail to inspire loyalty in men
The concept of loyalty is so much more complicated than it at at first appears – especially for men.
Consider if you will, why men stay loyal to their chosen football team, even when they get relegated, or lose an important match. Yet when it comes to brands, they are a fickle lot. On the subject of reward schemes, less of them are even interested in joining.
A recent survey by The Logic Group and Ipsos MORI confirms that male consumers are less loyal to brands than women and far less likely to join a loyalty scheme.
Of all the women who were asked in the survey of more than 2,000 consumers, 67% said they are members of at least one loyalty scheme; a significantly higher proportion than the 57% of men that are members of at least one loyalty scheme.
Women were also found to be significantly more likely than men to say they are loyal to the following organisations or places:
• Supermarkets (68% vs. 59% of men)
• Department stores (32% vs. 21% of men)
• Clothes shops (36% vs. 24% of men)
• Restaurants/coffee shops (35% vs. 30% of men)
Perhaps unsurprisingly men are significantly more likely than women to say they are loyal to bars/pubs/clubs (28% vs. 20% of women).
Benefits
Women are also more satisfied than men with the benefits shopping and retail loyalty schemes offer to them (71% vs. 62% of men).
Women are more likely than men to agree that:
• Since the recession started, loyalty schemes have had more influence on what I’ve chosen to spend money on (19% vs. 15% of men)
• Since the recession started, I have taken advantage more of the benefits provided by loyalty schemes (20% vs. 15% of men)
• I trust companies who run loyalty schemes to keep my personal information safe (51% vs. 44% of men)
• I always remember to use loyalty cards (54% vs. 40% of men)
Women are also more likely than men to say ‘Offers that are relevant to me’ will encourage them to spend more with a business or organisation (51% vs. 44% of men)
Anamaria Chiuzan, customer insight and loyalty specialist for The Logic Group comments: “When it comes to brand loyalty men and women clearly have very different drivers and motivations. The challenge for brands is to capture these differences in their loyalty messages and programmes, ensuring that they offer the right deals and messages at an individual level. British consumers are incredibly diverse and a one size fits all approach will do nothing to increase feelings of loyalty amongst both men and women.
“Loyalty is about the customer experience underpinning engagement with a brand. A series of factors determine how that experience should be defined: age, sex, lifestyle etc. Loyalty succeeds when the brand messages are tailored to build an experience that resonates with different customer types.”