Gen X is the consumer segment aged between 45 and 60 years and the lady was happy with her choice of shampoo up until recently when her world opened up to new-age online brands of beauty and personal care. For a decade, a south-Delhi based Gen X consumer picked a particular brand of shampoo in a big bottle that targets salons, for use at home. This way she didn’t have to replenish her hair wash product for the next six months. Now she’s testing new shampoos, hair masks and serums from different direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands available online and delivered home, often within minutes.
If a Gen X consumer – a much older cohort than millennials and Gen Z – is tempted to switch her decade-old brand, imagine the churn brands face from younger consumers. Truly spoilt for choice in categories such as beauty, personal care, food, beverage, fashion and lifestyle, brands are finding it tough to keep their consumers loyal. And loyalty is no longer just about product, price or availability. Rituparna Dasgupta, EVP, network research and insights at Zee entertainment Enterprises Ltd agreed that quality, trust and consistency is basic hygiene to build customer loyalty. Customer retention is a challenge faced both by legacy as well as new-age online brands. D2C brands have to build a market and create loyalty While traditional brands must keep pace with evolving consumer needs. Habit-based loyalty among legacy brands doesn’t guarantee continued success as any smart D2C brand can pull the rug beneath their feet, Pillai noted. Beauty and personal care have higher loyalty as people are wary of what touches their skin or hair. So large companies are either investing in startups or creating product extensions of their master brands to target the young.
“For legacy brands, the 16-24 age group is vulnerable as that’s when experiments happen.
Ketki Sitapati, general manager, CMI: Beauty & Wellbeing, South Asia at Hindustan Unilever, too, said consumers are moving from inertia to more active re-selection in every purchase. What consumers seek is a brand that is culturally and personally relevant to them, she said. The marketing head of a large, traditional FMCG company said that consumer loyalty also depends on age, gender and the product category. Also, women are more brand loyal than men who are naturally more flirtatious and experimentative, he said, declining to be named. If traditional brands don’t have a portfolio to address their needs or don’t evolve, there’s a challenge,” he said.
