NEW YORK — How likely are collegians to keep wearing the same brands of apparel, once they snag their diplomas?
The odds are 6 to 1 against it, which puts clothing in the middle of a pack of 18 products and services with varying degrees of brand loyalty among recent college graduates, based on new research from Brand Keys, a marketing consultant based here.
In fact, young adults are peeling off the labels they wore during their collegiate years at a faster rate than they are switching brands in seven other categories. Post-collegians are most likely to use the same computers, online music and books as they did as students, with only 2:1 odds that they would switch. Next come credit cards, with odds of 3:1 against staying loyal; athletic shoes, 4:1; beer, 4:1; consumer electronics, 5:1, and TVs, 5:1.
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Why aren’t apparel brands inspiring the allegiance of more college graduates? For one thing, most fashion players aren’t applying consumer research to their marketing campaigns, said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of customer-loyalty specialist Brand Keys. It’s a condition that could be rectified rather easily, though, by the many fashion brands that are already researching consumers’ lifestyles, attitudes and values to inform product development.
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“Clothing makers haven’t concentrated on branding efforts [in their marketing],” asserted Passikoff, who cited Ralph Lauren as a rare exception. “They do a lot of advertising, but they ought to focus on what people value,” he advised. “Product categories with the least [brand] loyalty are responding more to each other than to the changing consumer.” Passikoff did acknowledge, though, that fashion brands have a tricky marketing equation to balance, as their products are an ever-changing variable, along with people’s evolving values.
While 6:1 odds against post-collegiate allegiance to apparel brands appears steep, clothing had plenty of company at those stakes: pizza, soft drinks and candy.
Passikoff’s criticisms of fashion’s shortcomings in brand building find credence in Brandchannel.com’s newly published report, Readers’ Choice Brands of the Year, designed to identify the labels with the most impact on people’s lives in 2003. Nary a fashion brand made the top 25, as ranked by 4,010 people in 85 countries. The poll was taken from November through December. The closest approximation was Target, which has heavily advertised its designer-brand, popular-priced apparel. It ranked second in the U.S. and Canada — one of five regions represented in the global report — behind Apple and ahead of Google, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme.
Ironically, Brand Keys found the odds were longest against post-collegiate loyalty to a type of brand consumers not long ago had no choice about — long-distance phone service, which came in at 12:1 against. The odds against fidelity to fast food are slightly better, at 10:1. Mobile phones and wireless services were next, each with odds of 9:1 against allegiance post-graduation, followed by banks, 8:1; salty snacks, 7:1, and gasoline, 7:1.
The findings are based on a study of 2,400 recent college graduates and 2,073 college students in 52 schools nationwide, evenly divided between public and private institutions.
“The key to developing customer loyalty is keeping up with people’s changing values and expectations,” Passikoff concluded.
Odds Against Brand Loyalty Post College Graduation
Computers 2:1Online Books and Music 2:1Credit Cards 3:1
Athletic Shoes 4:1Beer 4:1Consumer Electronics 5:1
Televisions 5:1Apparel 6:1Soft Drinks 6:1
Candy 6:1Pizza 6:1Gasoline 7:1
Salty Snacks 7:1Banks 8:1Mobile Phones 9:1
Wireless Service 9:1Fast Food 10:1Long Distance Service 12:1
Source: Brand Keys; Fourth Quarter 2003