The fickle mistress: Loyal consumers, changing brands and the change-constancy conflict

This paper examines the 'change-constancy conflict', whereby loyal customers want brands to both change and stay the same, and suggests that brands belong to either 'anchor' or 'change' categories, with different amounts of change tolerated or demanded.

The fickle mistress: Loyal consumers, changing brands and the change-constancy conflict

Shobha Prasad Drshiti Strategic Research Services, India

INTRODUCTION: RESTLESS TIMES, RESTLESS BRANDS

Change defines modern reality. The modern obsession with innovation injects certain restlessness in brands today and there is an endless stream of product innovations, packaging innovations, new flavors, variants and sub brands across categories, to create a bewildering environment of change. Marketers believe that they are responding to the dynamic needs of consumers who demand similar dynamism in brands they interact with. An unchanging brand in such dynamic times would lead to a sense of stagnation,...

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