Branding evolved from the times of the Industrial Revolution, when companies branded their products to differentiate them from other goods. Today brands are the focus of marketing strategies. And so are the consumers. Even so, brand-loyal consumers are the biggest assets of any corporation. Of the various factors affecting brand loyalty is age; brand-loyalty increases with age as the young like to experiment out with new brands and the older people stick to what their experience has proved to be good. The parameters for measuring brand loyalty were taken from the definitions of the word by Chestnut and Jacoby (1978) and Oliver (1999). Questions were based on these parameters and asked from three age groups of 400 individuals each: 1838 years, 3959 years and of and above 60 years. The results were recorded and our findings were consistent with our hypothesis: the young people are less brand-loyal and loyalty increases as age increases.
The success of a firm depends largely on its capability to attract consumers towards its brands. In particular, it is critical for the survival of a company to retain its current customers, and to make them loyal to the brand. This is even more important today, as corporations have directed their marketing efforts towards brand development and promotion. Today's consumer is confronted with a plethora of choices, made available through fierce competition, globalization and the internet, which has drastically increased awareness on every aspect. Brand loyalty is therefore one of the most valuable assets. Former Ford vice president Basil Coughlan estimated that every percentage point of loyalty is worth $100 million in profits to his firm (Serafin and Horton (1994)).