Regularities in buyer behaviour and brand performance: The case of Australian beer

Abstract

In recent years, there have been calls for more emphasis on empirical generalisations in marketing. An empirical generalisation is a ‘pattern or regularity that repeats over different circumstances’.¹ Empirical generalisations are important for marketers. They provide a fact base from which to work, and are distinguished from mere opinions—even very learned or considered opinions. Three empirical generalisations to be discussed in this paper originated from the work of Ehrenberg and his colleagues. They are (1) repertoire buying, (2) the ‘double jeopardy’ phenomenon and (3) the duplication of purchase law. While many studies have demonstrated these generalisations, more evidence from other markets and conditions would be useful. Indeed, marketing textbooks typically do not discuss these findings, which limits the chance that practitioners become aware of them. This study examines whether these three established generalisations hold in quite a different market to those considered previously—the market for beer in Australia. Local market wisdom and other published research casts doubt over their applicability to this market. Therefore this study can either identify an exception to these generalisations, or find that they do apply where arguably they would not be expected to apply. The study finds that Australian beer drinkers do buy from repertoires of brands, that the brands do exhibit the classic double jeopardy pattern in loyalty, and that the duplication of purchase law also holds in this market. Therefore Ehrenberg's findings hold in another new context, one in which they were not necessarily expected to. The implications from these findings are that marketers should not expect many of their buyers to be very loyal, rather they should view them as people who occasionally buy their brand among a portfolio of other competing brands. Secondly, marketers should recognise that brand loyalty metrics are largely dictated by market share levels, and that somewhat lower levels of loyalty to smaller brands are to be expected. Thirdly, marketers should view their competition more widely and not focus too much on any one specific competitor brand. Rather, brands usually compete with all other brands in the market approximately in-line with the size of those other brands. This is to be expected unless there are marked functional differences between the competing brands.