A new study from Grey Canada shows Canadian consumers to be promiscuous – in that they’re willing to carry on affairs with multiple brands – and indicates a full two-thirds of those surveyed believe private label brands are as good as or better than national brands.

The Grey Brand Loyalty+ Index looked at brands in the coffee, beer, gasoline retailing, supermarket, credit card, yogurt and fast-food categories.

The survey is the cornerstone of Grey’s Brand Loyalty+ Program, which the agency says evaluates the state of consumer/brand relationships and determines a course of marketing action to strengthen consumer loyalty to specific brands.

While the study is an ongoing multi-million dollar project for Grey Worldwide, this is the first time a Canadian sample has been included.

Of the 10,000 people in 24 countries who participated in the study, 600 were Canadian.

Among the startling results of the survey, some 66% of all Canadians surveyed consider private label products to be as good as national brands. Even more surprising, some 81% of French-speaking Canadians – a group traditionally known for their brand loyalty – believe that to be true.

In addition, it seems that price is the major deciding factor for most Canadians when choosing brands in the consumer goods categories covered in the study, with French-speaking Canadians again accounting for the highest proportion.

This shamelessly fickle behaviour is a phenomenon specific not only to this country, but is consistent with a global attitude documented in the Grey Brand Loyalty+ Program.

‘There’s been evidence for a long time that brand loyalty and brands have been suffering from the infidelity of their customer base, but I guess the extent of the picture seems to be pretty severe,’ says Rick Morgan, vice-president of research and strategic services for Grey Canada.

He says the study points to the need for brands to focus on relationship issues – factors beyond feature, benefit and performance.

Brian Bolshin, Grey’s vice-president of strategic planning and business development, says loyalty to brands was easier to establish and maintain when selection was limited and consumers tended to buy the same brands their parents and grandparents did.

‘The marketplace today is much broader. I’ve got 15 choices now of breakfast cereals and there were only 10 choices last year, but people aren’t eating dramatically more breakfast cereal.’

Bolshin’s take on the survey? ‘[It] isn’t about going after new customers, it’s about making sure the customers we’ve got, we keep. It’s about customer retention, because that’s where the profit comes from.’

Peter Case, vice-president of advertising for the Royal Bank of Canada, says he’s not surprised by the findings of the Grey study. He attributes the dire results to the fact that, for the past decade, clients have redirected their marketing spending to efforts that don’t build or maintain brands.

‘In many cases, marketers deferred their brand spending or, alternatively, moved it over to direct response activities – to the point where brands began to fall off.’

Although the Royal Bank is one of the largest, private sector direct marketers in Canada, Case says he does not believe direct response activities can deliver that all-important share of mind. That’s the job of advertising, he says.

‘You need the brand before you can actually do the mailing,’ Case says. ‘The reality is that spending is required on both fronts.’