Brand Intimacy, Brand Loyalty and the Duplication of Purchase Law

Brand intimacy refers to the emotional bond that customers have with a particular brand. This bond is characterized by a feeling of closeness and personal connection to the brand, and it often goes beyond just a customer's satisfaction with a product or service.

The relationship between brand intimacy and brand loyalty is complex and multifaceted. On the one hand, brand intimacy can lead to increased brand loyalty. When customers have a strong emotional connection to a brand, they are more likely to remain loyal to that brand and continue making purchases from the company. This can be particularly true for products or services closely tied to a customer's identity or personal values.

At the same time, brand loyalty can also contribute to the development of brand intimacy. When customers consistently choose a particular brand's products over others, they may develop a sense of attachment and familiarity with the brand. This can lead to increased emotional engagement with the brand and, ultimately, stronger brand intimacy.

The proportion of consumers who are loyal to one brand is related to its penetration rate. Hence, brand loyalty is generally higher for high-penetration brands compared to low-penetration brands.

According to the Duplication of Purchase Law, the likelihood of a buyer purchasing from a second brand in the same category is directly related to the penetration of that brand in the market. This means that a brand with a high market penetration is more likely to be purchased by a buyer who already uses another popular brand. In contrast, a brand with a low market penetration is less likely to be purchased by a buyer who already uses a popular brand. Therefore, a brand can expect many of its own buyers to purchase from other popular brands, and only a few to purchase from smaller, less popular brands.

"The percentage of buyers any two brands share depends on their market shares rather than on their marketing related activities such as positioning" (A. Ehrenberg, 1988). The observations of this duplication law have been reported by marketing researchers for the past few decades and found in a wide range of brands and products.

If brand loyalty is directly related to the penetration rate and, at the same time, is linked to brand intimacy, we can state that brand intimacy has a direct effect on market penetration. Then, according to the duplicity of purchase, investing in developing your brand intimacy will produce increasingly positive results, as a higher penetration makes consumers from other brands most likely to purchase goods or services from your brand.

As professor Rachel Kennedy mentions: “Marketers who understand the Duplicity of Purchase make different decisions and allocate resources differently to those who do not” (Brand growth at Mars, Inc., Kennedy, R., & McColl, B., 2012)

Mario Natarelli and   Rina Plapler mention in their Brand Intimacy Study done at MBLM that intimate brands have consistently outperformed both the Fortune 500 and the stock market. In 2021, a comparison of the top 20 intimate brands with the top Fortune 500 brands showed that intimate brands had superior profit growth and stock performance. The significant differences in their performance highlight the fact that intimate brands generate millions more dollars in revenue and profit annually and are likely to continue to do so in the long term.

Other related advantages are:

• Price Resilience: Consumers are willing to pay more for intimate brands and less willing to live without them.
• Enduring: Intimate brands are about long-term relationships, which provide stability in times of crisis.
• Engagement: Consumers are more involved with intimate brands and enjoy increased engagement.

 The Top Brand Intimacy 2022 Ranking according to MBLM's study:

If, as many authors mention, each dollar invested today in developing your brand loyalty is not delivering the same growth with Millennials as it used to with previous generations, and the percent of consumers in some sort of intimate relationship with a brand has increased 9% since before COVID-19, perhaps is time to take a serious look into investing in improving your brand intimacy.

What do you think?

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