Insights

Why customers switch brands

Loyalty is habit. Switching is the interruption of habit. Promotions are how marketers manufacture that interruption.

Behavioural research consistently finds that most category purchases are repeats. The customer does not re-evaluate the shelf — they scan for the shape they bought last time.

A switch requires two ingredients: a strong enough reason to break the default, and a low enough friction cost to try the alternative. Prize mechanics supply the first; money-back guarantees remove the second.

Brands that treat switching as a media problem overpay. Brands that treat it as a behaviour problem design the incentive first and buy the media second.

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