We present a list of the seven types of customers, classified according to their level of loyalty to the brand.
Even if your marketing strategies are the most successful, brand loyalty is never the same for all consumers. Since everyone is different and so are their behaviors, it is advisable to be prepared to deal with all types of loyalties.
Companies that have been in the market for some time usually have a wide variety of clients; for example, frequent purchasing, occasional purchasing and high purchasing volumes. They expect services, special prices, preferential treatments or others that are adapted to their own particularities.
This situation poses a great challenge to entrepreneurs because at stake is not only customer satisfaction and loyalty, but also the proper orientation of the company’s efforts and resources.
Here we present a list of the seven types of customers, classified according to their level of loyalty to the brand:
1. The Apostles. They are the unconditional members of the company. They manifest very high levels of charm and future commitment. They become “ambassadors of good will” because within their respective circles of reference they usually exercise pronounced opinion leadership in favor of our products.
2. Loyal Customers. They manifest a pattern of behavior similar to the Apostles, but with a lower level of intensity.
3. Terrorist Clients. They are characterized by their very low levels of Charm and Future Commitment. They have frequently had one or more bad experiences with the product or service and a large part of them spread their “bad voice” with a comparatively high level of effectiveness.
4. Potential Defective Customers. They manifest a pattern of behavior similar to Terrorists, although with less intensity.
5. Indifferent Customers. This segment groups those customers who are indifferent to the product. In a way, their attitude toward the product or service is like “it is neither right nor wrong, but quite the opposite.”
6. Hostage Clients. Hostage Customers are those who, despite not being happy with the company, remain with the brand. This situation can occur, for example, in semi-monopoly markets where they do not perceive viable alternatives, or in categories where these clients see migration to other alternatives as excessively expensive.
7. The Mercenaries. They are characterized by comparatively high levels of “charm”, but with very low commitment intentions towards the product. These tend to clearly occur in commodity-type categories, where the price of the good dictates the conditions of the customer’s permanence.
There are 3 types of mercenary consumers:
-The Switchers: They have a few favorite brands and they jump between them depending on whether they are on promotion or not.
-The Negotiators: They switch regularly within a broader range of brands acceptable to them.
-Price Sensitives: They systematically buy the lowest priced brand, no matter what it is.
