缺乏品牌忠诚度的中国消费者

According to a new study by Bain & Company and Kantar Worldpanel, Chinese consumers are adventurous shoppers who are constantly trying out new brands and are rarely loyal to one.

贝恩公司(Bain & Company)和消费者指数研究机构Kantar Worldpanel发布的一份新研究报告显示，中国消费者喜欢在购物时冒险，他们总是会尝试新品牌，而很少对一个品牌忠心耿耿。

The findings are likely to disappoint the marketing departments at major consumer product companies, the researchers say.

研究人员说，这次调查结果可能会令大型消费品公司的营销部门感到失望。

"There's always been an expectation that the Chinese will become more loyal as the market becomes more mature and we're saying "no" to that," said Bruno Lannes, a Shanghai-based partner for Bain and the lead writer of the report.

贝恩驻上海合伙人、该报告的主要作者兰尼斯(Bruno Lannes)说，人们总有这样一种期待，即随着中国市场趋向成熟，中国消费者的品牌忠诚度也会不断提高，但我们现在认为不是这样的。

"This may be sobering news for brand managers. The reality is that consumers in China, like in other countries, don't think of brands when they shop."

兰尼斯说，对品牌经理来说，这可能算是个发人深省的消息；其实，跟其它国家的消费者一样，中国消费者在买东西时想的不是品牌。

The researchers studied the shopping habits of 40,000 Chinese households by arming them with scanners to track their purchases in real time. Twenty-six types of consumer products were tracked in beverage, packaged food, personal care and home care categories.

研究人员给四万个中国家庭配备了扫描仪，从而实时追踪他们买东西的情况，研究他们的购物习惯。调查对饮料、包装食品、个人护理和家庭护理用品等几大类项下共26种消费品进行了跟踪分析。

Chinese shoppers are most often engaged in what Mr. Lannes calls "repertoire behavior," which means that they consider and buy several brands when shopping rather than sticking to one favorite. For example, the average Chinese household bought yogurt 16.2 times last year. But shoppers chose one of the leading three brands just 4.6, or 28%, of those times.

中国消费者会经常做出兰尼斯所谓的“大杂烩行为”，也就是说他们在买东西时，会考虑并购买好几个牌子的商品，而不是始终买自己最喜欢的品牌。例如，中国家庭去年平均买过16.2次酸奶，但其中仅有4.6次选择的是三大品牌之一，占总购买次数的28%。

And the more they shop in a category, the study found, the more brands they'll try. The 20% of Chinese shoppers who shopped the most for biscuits, for example, bought 10 different brands of treats, while the average shopper tried six.

研究发现，他们购买的同类商品越多，尝试的品牌就越多。例如，买饼干最多的中国消费者中，有20%的人买过10个不同品牌，而一般消费者买过六个品牌。

"Chinese do love brands. It's a reassurance for them. But even though they love them, in most categories, it doesn't mean they love one in particular."

兰尼斯说，中国人十分热衷品牌，品牌的东西让他们感到放心，但虽然他们对大多数种类的商品都有自己喜爱的品牌，但这并不意味着他们会特别喜爱某一个品牌。

Certain products do inspire loyalty, including beer, soft drinks and chewing gum. Diapers and infant formula are also categories where consumers will stick with one brand, partially because of recent scandals of tainted products, Mr. Lannes said.

某些商品确实会让消费者产生一定的忠诚度，如啤酒、软饮料和口香糖等。兰尼斯说，对于纸尿裤和婴儿配方奶粉等商品，消费者会坚持购买一个品牌，部分原因在于近期出现的一系列问题产品丑闻。

But with such little brand loyalty among most categories, what are marketing executives supposed to do? Mr. Lannes advises to scrap the idea of creating loyal customers and focus more on attracting shoppers in stores so they take notice of a particular brand.

现在的问题是，面对对大多数商品品牌几乎没有什么忠诚度的中国消费者，营销高管应该怎么做呢？兰尼斯建议，应放弃建立忠诚客户这个想法，而把精力更多地放在吸引店内消费者上面，这样他们就会注意到某一品牌。

"There was an expectation that loyalty would increase," he said. "But we don't expect China to really evolve this way."

兰尼斯说，过去有一种期待就是，消费者的品牌忠诚度会逐渐提高，但我们认为中国不会沿着这个方向发展。