Consumers are habitual creatures – but not in the way we often assume.
Rather than buying one brand or constantly switching, we tend to settle into a repertoire of brands that we rotate between. Within that repertoire, there is also a reliable pattern: bigger brands tend to have more buyers, and those buyers are slightly more loyal. This empirical regularity is known as Double Jeopardy – a discovery made by Andrew Ehrenberg, building on earlier observations by William McPhee in 1963.
I am now in London for the next five weeks, meeting with Ehrenberg-Bass Institute sponsors and connecting with academics here. As always when I travel, one of my favourite pastimes is visiting supermarkets and local stores: like David Attenborough on a field mission. With a longer stay this time, I’ve been shopping beyond snacks and confectionery – and it has offered a different lens on everyday purchasing behaviour.
One immediate difference is category management. In Australia, the supermarket has trained me well: I know roughly where categories sit, whether I’m in Woolworths or Coles. Layouts and assortments are broadly similar.
Over here, that familiarity disappears.
Being a visitor also means I’m less saddled by store loyalty. I know Tesco is the largest supermarket chain, but I’m not going out of my way to find it. In line with physical availability and the Huff Model, I gravitate towards what is closest and the most convenient.
Well, at my local Sainsbury’s in Holborn. I found myself looping the aisles trying to locate tea bags. I didn’t expect them to sit somewhere near pet foods and household cleaning products. Back home, I know I’ve gone too far once I hit personal care and cleaning products. Despite the large footprint, I found fewer options within categories, which adds to the slightly gloomy shopping experience. By contrast, a close-by Little Waitrose feels easier to navigate. Maybe due to its tighter range, but also, in my view, more intuitive category organisation.
Beyond store layout, brand choice itself becomes an adventure.
Some brands are familiar, and I naturally gravitate towards them. I picked the same mouthwash brand I use back home, but I bought a different shower gel that’s unavailable in Australia, made by a massive global company. This tendency isn’t just anecdotal – it shows up strongly in migrant behaviour.
In our recent research on migrants to Australia, we found that migration leads to immediate shifts in buyer behaviour due to changes in physical availability. However, mental availability built in the country of origin continues to shape brand choice. Migrants are more likely to buy foreign and global brands and less likely to buy domestic brands. Furthermore, migrants tend to maintain larger brand repertoires – a behaviour more akin to heavier category buyers.
The implications go beyond migrant behaviours:
- There are clear benefits to maintaining consistent brand names distinctive assets across countries. Seeing brands like Colgate and Listerine here immediately anchors my choices – even when packaging differs slightly. (I find Listerine’s bottles are slightly more opaque here, maybe due to the use of recycled plastic?). This is one of the contributing reasons why visitors or migrants would put their preference on foreign or global brands compared to local alternatives.
- When familiar consumption contexts are not available, other cues take over. Without a pod machine in the flat, I had to buy ground coffee for the first time in years. I chose a private label from Waitrose, based on pack size and a “dark roast” cue: simple, functional signals guiding choice.
- Building mental availability remains crucial. For those about to leave a market, it’s a final opportunity to reinforce memory structures. For those arriving, it is an opportunity for brands to signal: “We are here, too!” Whilst media consumption now extends beyond borders, access to mainstream media back home will be severed. For most travellers, even knowing where to shop is not a given.
I spent three months in the UK back in 2017, also for work. This time, with a shorter, but still sufficiently long stay, I’m enjoying re-immersing myself in the market.
Like an astronaut in orbit, away from the mothership, but still tethered to familiar signals.