The brand loyalty of American consumers has been seriously tested by the economic crisis – and more than half of those described as ‘highly loyal’ to specific brands in the FMCG sector have shifted their allegiance to cut costs.

The CMO Council (for chief marketing officers) and the Pointer Media Network have studied the purchase behaviour of 32 million loyalty cardholders across 24,000 grocery and pharmacy stores: a third defected to another brand between 2007 and 2008, with 19 per cent of them showing falling levels of loyalty. However, 48 per cent stuck with their favourite brands.

The brands which spent the most on advertising typically performed more strongly in maintaining their levels of consumer preference, according to the study – Losing Loyalty: The Consumer Defection Dilemma Overall.

Price promotions were also found both to encourage consumers to stay loyal to specific products, and attracted them to switch from competing goods.

Todd Morris, senior vice-president at the Pointer Media Network, said “we tend to think as marketers that once you get loyalty, it’s carved in stone, when it is actually written in sand”.