The consumer-brand relationship amongst low-income consumers

Abstract

The nature of relationships that consumers form with their brands has been well documented in the marketing literature, but research conducted to date has not focused on the relationships that low income consumers form with brands, despite this being an extremely important market globally. Through understanding the consumer-brand relationships with low-income consumers better, companies have greater opportunities for new markets as well as leading to increased innovation. This paper highlights low-income consumers as value-conscious consumers through the brand relationships they have. Results from thirteen in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 13 women from Alexandra Township in South Africa are presented. Low-income consumers form many different relationships based on value, quality, choice and service, to name a few – with very few relationships being based on price. The low-income consumer requires trustworthiness, innovativeness and a willingness to do things differently. Understanding of their situation and a willingness of management to design processes and procedures around this is found to relate to improved relationships with an extremely brand-loyal market.