Our ‘beliefs’ about brands are nowhere near as stable and consistent as we think. As Ehrenberg-Bassโs work with re-contact surveys has shown, individual opinions about brands are much more volatile than top-line tracking data suggests.
The overall percentage of people who agree ‘Pepsi tastes better than Coke’ might stay the same from survey to survey. But that doesnโt mean that individual respondents are answering the same way each time. Look at the data more closely, and youโll see that people answer research questions in a โprobabilisticโ way. They may lean slightly in favour of one brand or another, but they donโt have fixed beliefs.
Behaviour patterns are similarly fluid and messy. We like to think that people divide into distinct buying groups. But look at long runs of data, and youโll find that real-life buying behaviour is much more โagnosticโ. Buyers of premium brands also buy Own Label; low-fat buyers also buy full fat; Coke buyers buy Pepsi.
Our opinions about brands fluctuate depending on mood and occasion. And so do our brand choices. In the morning, we feel healthy and go for low fat. In the afternoon, we want chocolate.
Excerpt from: How not to Plan: 66 ways to screw it up by Les Binet and Sarah Carter