Does your tracker really know which category you’re in?
Author
Chris Hope
Author
Chris Hope
You don’t buy a snack, a new car and homeowners insurance in quite the same way. Sometimes you know exactly what you want before you start shopping. Sometimes you’re open to trying something new. And sometimes you wouldn’t be thinking about the category at all if something hadn’t prompted you to act.
The reasons you choose a brand, trust it or stick with it can be just as different.
But many brand trackers start with much the same set of metrics: awareness, consideration, preference and loyalty, alongside the other measures and models that traditional tracking leans on. They’re useful, but they won’t necessarily tell you what you need to understand about your particular category.
We’ve heard the same concerns for years: tracking built around pre-defined models and familiar metrics that don’t always give brands the insight they need to make better decisions. Rather than simply argue that tracking should be more category-specific, we wanted to test the idea.
The research
Buyers across the UK and US, covering 18 categories, to see how much buying dynamics really differ.
Source: Basis Global
So we spoke to 4,000 buyers in the UK and US, covering 18 categories, to understand just how much buying dynamics differ and what that means for brand tracking.
Four differences stood out, each with implications for what brands should measure, where they should focus and how they can use tracking to make better decisions.
These differences don’t matter equally in every category. The trick is knowing which ones shape the buying decision in yours, and building your tracking around them.
1. Some sales are won before the store, others are won in it
Think about a typical snack. I already know I’m buying crunchy Cheetos. That’s not unusual: many people have a brand in mind before they get to the shelf, so the job is to make sure it’s available and easy to find.
Now imagine heading out to buy a soda. I tend to buy from a handful of brands, but today I spot a new one I haven’t tried before. The can looks great, the flavor sounds interesting and I’m curious enough to give it a try. Twenty seconds later, it’s in my cart. Price hasn’t really been a factor.
Both are everyday purchases, but the decision is happening at different points. In the first case, the brand has already done much of its work before the store. In the second, what happens at the point of sale can make all the difference: distinctive packaging, visibility, availability and an appealing product can turn a passing glance into a sale.
For brand tracking, these distinctions matter. If the decision is largely made in advance, you want to understand how readily people think of your brand. That’s part of building mental availability. If the decision is still open at the shelf, the questions move toward how well your brand shows up and converts that opportunity: whether your distinctive assets (logo, colors, packaging) help it stand out, and what role range, price, placement and point-of-sale triggers play.
2. In some categories, the first question is who’s actually in the market
People don’t usually wake up with a burning desire to switch internet providers. Something prompts them: a contract comes to an end, the connection starts to drop or a problem that’s been nagging at you finally becomes too much.
Four in ten insurance buyers we spoke to had been prompted by a contract coming to an end.
That matters when you look at metrics such as consideration. In a category like snacks, most people are effectively in the market all the time. For a new car, home internet or insurance, the number of people actively considering a purchase at any given moment is much smaller.
A change in consideration across the whole population might tell you relatively little about how your brand is performing among people who are actually making a decision. Many of those in your sample may have no reason to think about the category at all.
Who’s in the market
insurance buyers were prompted by a contract coming to an end.
Source: Basis Global
3. Trust doesn’t work the same way in every category
In home internet, people may actively seek reassurance before committing. They might ask friends, read reviews or consult comparison sites. Only three in ten home internet buyers we spoke to had used their current brand before, compared with most people who bought snacks.
In a category like sodas, familiarity can play a different role. People have often tried a range of brands, and recognizing a familiar product on the shelf can be enough to make it feel like a safe choice.
The point isn’t that one category runs on recommendations and another on familiarity. It’s that the things that create confidence can vary considerably. What reassures someone choosing home internet may be quite different from what makes them trust a grocery brand, a gambling brand or a car brand.
A single trust question can tell you how people feel about a brand. It won’t necessarily tell you what’s behind that feeling, or what you could do to strengthen it.
How trust forms
home internet buyers had used their current brand before. In snacks, most had.
Source: Basis Global
4. Loyalty can be lazy: scores don’t always tell the whole story
Many trackers measure loyalty with questions like “Is this one of my favorite brands?” or with affinity scores. They’re quick to ask and easy to report, but they only capture what people say about a brand, not what actually keeps them there. They don’t paint the whole picture.
And people are generous in surveys. Nearly three in four buyers in everyday categories told us the brand they’d bought was one they always or usually chose. But almost half also said they’d have switched if something cheaper or easier had come along.
There’s no contradiction here. People can have a preferred brand and still be open to alternatives. Sometimes they stay because they genuinely prefer it; sometimes convenience, habit or a lack of compelling alternatives plays a part.
What sits behind loyalty differs by category, and two things matter most. The first is circumstances: financial pressure or a change in someone’s life can make them stick with what they have, or go looking for something different or cheaper. The second is effort: how hard is it to switch, and how willing are people to do it?
Take wireless. Ask me about my carrier and the affinity is fine, and so’s the satisfaction. Ask whether I’m open to other brands and I am. And I still haven’t moved, because it’s such a pain: the contract, the number, the paperwork. On a tracker I’d look like a perfectly loyal customer, when what keeps me there is the effort of leaving.
In snacks, where switching takes a second, the same answers could mean something quite different. If I say I like my usual brand but would happily try another, there’s very little standing in the way of that switch. In wireless, the hassle might keep me put. In snacks, I could be buying a competitor’s brand on my next shopping trip.
This is why a loyalty score on its own doesn’t tell you how resilient the relationship is. Customers who look equally loyal on paper may respond very differently when prices rise, a competitor makes an offer or their circumstances shift.
The question isn’t just what to measure.
It’s what matters in your category.
Awareness, consideration, trust and loyalty are useful measures. But their value depends on understanding what’s behind them, how people buy in your category and which factors are most likely to influence their choices.
That’s why we don’t believe a single tracking template is the right starting point for every brand. We start with the buying dynamics of the category, then build the measurement around the questions that matter most.
Because the point of tracking isn’t simply to know where your brand stands. It’s to understand what that means for what you do next.
If you’re reviewing your current tracker, we’d be happy to talk about what a more category-specific approach could help you uncover.
