Who's more Brand Loyal - Women or Men?
(A2019-9044)

AUTHORS

John Dawes, University of South Australia; Philip Stern, University of Exeter Business School & Ehrenberg-Bass Institute University of South Australia; Magda Nenycz-Thiel, University of South Australia/Ehrenberg-Bass Institute; Jaap Wieringa, University of Groningen

KEYWORDS

Loyalty; Gender; SCR

ABSTRACT

Many studies have examined the association between gender and brand loyalty. Despite a significant body of work on the topic, a literature search revealed no studies on this issue that have utilised actual repeat-purchase loyalty. We examine the impact of gender on behavioral brand loyalty using consumer panel data. We use single-person households to avoid confounds due to family purchasing. We analyse consumer Share of Category Requirements (SCR) as the loyalty metric, across four UK consumer packaged-goods categories. The analysis controls for age, income level and category purchasing rate in a multiple regression. In contrast to the predominant view in the literature that women are more loyal, we find men are more behaviorally loyal, giving an average of 6 points more share of category requirements to the brands they buy.