Customer loyalty presents a paradox. Many see it as primarily an attitude‐based phenomenon that can be influenced significantly by customer relationship management initiatives such as the increasingly popular loyalty and affinity programs. However, empirical research shows that loyalty in competitive repeat‐purchase markets is shaped more by the passive acceptance of brands than by strongly‐held attitudes about them. From this perspective, the demand‐enhancing potential of loyalty programs is more limited than might be hoped. Reviews three different perspectives on loyalty, and relates these to a framework for understanding customer loyalty that encompasses customer brand commitment, customer brand acceptance and customer brand buying. Uses this framework to analyze the demand‐side potential of loyalty programs. Discusses where these programs might work and where they are unlikely to succeed on any large scale. Provides a checklist for marketers.

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Many empirical regularities in the buying behavior of consumers have been linked together into a comprehensive model, the Dirichlet. In this paper we list some of the well-established regularities, show how they are theoretically intertwined, and illustrate how this approach to modeling can assist the marketing analyst.brand choice, store choice, replication studies, empirical generalisations

Although market segmentation is widely described as a major marketing tool, questions whether brands which are broadly similar and competitive are bought by identifiably different consumer segments. Notes that few, if any, examples of marked brand segmentation are cited in the literature. Reports on a new international study of the characteristics of brand purchasers in over 20 grocery product categories using consumer panel data, which reveals that there is little brand segmentation. Finds that the consumer profiles of competitive brands differ little in terms of the commonly‐used classification measures such as socio‐demographic characteristics, and that brands in the same product category tend to be bought by similar kinds of people.