Forrester Research released a study recently saying that brand loyalty among online leisure travelers is disappearing rapidly. In 2006, 31 percent of online leisure travelers considered themselves brand loyal, but that’s now down to 25 percent. What is going on here?

Some of the reasons are to be expected. People are saying that the products are becoming more generic so there’s less reason to be loyal. There is also an increasing number of options that can help to draw people away from the brand to which they were previously loyal. It was also interesting to see that an increase in user generated content is driving the decrease in loyalty, but that makes sense. I can actually see this happening for two reasons.

On one hand, people would previously trust certain information sites to get what they needed. Places with expert reviews would help drive decisions. Travelers are now less likely to be loyal to a travel research brand because they’re turning more toward user generated content on a variety of other sites to get their information. Another way to look at it is in terms of loyalty to certain large travel brands. In the past, someone may have been partial to Marriott, because they always knew what they were getting no matter where they traveled. Now that people have access to comprehensive user content, they might be willing to leave their trusted brand for something local because the reviews were much more accessible.

Another reason people may be less brand loyal is because there is less incentive these days. In the airline industry, this is very true. Frequent flier programs have made many changes in recent years that make them less valuable. These devaluations give people less reason to be loyal to that brand.

So, we have a world where brand loyalty is disappearing, but that doesn’t mean everyone should just go out and compete on price. I tend to think that people would like to be loyal to a certain brand if they’re treated right and given a good reason to stay. This tells me that there is room for brands to really step up their loyalty efforts, and the rewards could be great.

taken from industry.bnet.com