Shopping Habits, Brand Loyalty and Brand Preference: Exploring Consumers’ Behaviour during a Recession

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study conducted among a sample of 313 customers at a major mall in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to determine consumers’ perceptions of private label brands versus manufacturer brands during an economic recession and, to ascertain whether higher Living Standard Measure (LSM) groups are loyal to established manufacturer brands or if they switch to private label brands during an economic recession. Relationships were postulated among several variables by developing nine hypotheses and, evaluating these using Chi-square and Spearman’s correlation. The findings may be useful to retailers in that they could respond to the increasing power of brands during an economic recession, and not only improve their branding strategies in order to ensure their ‘survival’ during a recession, but also become aware of how consumers perceive private brands and how this perception can be improved to promote brand loyalty. Manufacturers may also become aware of strategies to adopt during a recession to ensure brand loyalty and minimize brand switching.