Customer Share-of-Wallet and Customer Loyalty |
Increases in customer loyalty will parallel increases in customers' share-of-wallet. But it is wrong to presume that share-of-wallet increases are driven by increases in customer loyalty. A number of issues affect customers' spending allocation.
You can download excellent powerpoint slides on Marketing Strategy and Marketing Management HERE. Increased loyalty is not typically the reason for increased share-of-spending; price is. Managers can increase customers' share-of-spending by dropping their price. Brand managers are universally aware of the effect of price promotions on sales: typically, large spikes in sales volume. Customers typically load up on the discounted brand, in effect warehousing the product for future use. As a result, share-of-wallet does increase, but the emotional aspects of loyalty have been damaged. Customers are taught that their preferred brands are worth less than they imagined they were. Sales levels in the future, at the original price, will be harder to maintain.
LOYALTY MYTH 4: Spending on Customer Service Increases Customer Loyalty For many business categories, service is not the driver of customer loyalty—product function is. Think of the loyal Coca-Cola customer. Loyal Coke drinkers may associate many positive emotional experiences with the brand, though they seldom relate to the service experience they receive from the Coca-Cola company. Still, it would be difficult to argue that the brand does not have an extremely loyal customer base.
LOYALTY MYTH 5: Loyal Customers Are Less Price Sensitive In their research, Reinartz and Kumar did not find that loyal customers were paying a higher price from a preferred supplier for the same bundle of goods offered elsewhere for less. In one business-to-business example, they found that long-term customers consistently paid 5 percent and 7 percent less than did new customers. The same thing applies to retail customers as well. An article in the Washington Post noted, "In a subtle shift of marketing tactics, some retailers have stepped up coupon offers directed at their most loyal customers in a bid to attract repeat visits from big spenders. . . . Eager to wean themselves from discounts for the masses, retailers hope more targeted coupons will limit big bargains to a pool of their best customers." In other words, loyal customers may often pay lower prices, but are unlikely to pay higher prices.
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