With shoppers becoming increasingly influenced by promotions, brands need to find new ways of ensuring marketing efforts engage and retain UK consumers, says Cint, a global provider of market insight tools.

According to recent consumer research carried out in a UK Shopper Survey, 40 percent of brand sales are now led by promotions. Brand loyalty initiatives, particularly from big supermarkets, have proved to be extremely popular with consumers helping to keep the ‘customer loyalty’ buzzword alive. However, as the financial climate tightens household finances, loyalty is often losing out to offers for cheaper goods.

The financial climate can determine, and cause, a real shift in consumer decision-making. Promotions can lure consumers away from their favorite brands as a result. However, never before have there been so many ways to engage customers and similarly, never before have consumers been so open to this multitude of channel. As Cint’s CEO, Bo Mattsson, explains, “Online tools designed to obtain market intelligence, such as Cint Access, are platforms on which brands can directly communicate with consumers.

“Consumers want to be listened to, so when it comes to better understanding what engagement tactics will be successful, brands would be wise to employ a multi-channel approach and ask current and potential customers their opinion. These latest findings, regarding consumers being more promotions-led in their decision-making, should not inspire concern as long as companies work hard to grasp how to get brand advocates back on-board.”

Brands can better understand the landscape of their market by using research tools, either to survey their specific target groups or to create their own interactive community. Insight can be obtained simply and cost-effectively, but also, as Cint’s own research found, 62 percent of people are more inclined to buy from a brand if their opinion has been sought.

Bo concluded, “Customer loyalty will always be something brands have to work at, especially in a competitive and financially unstable climate. Nevertheless, the ways in which to achieve this are plentiful and brands just need to find the combination of tactics to form the best approach for their offering.”

For further information about Cint’s range of market research software, please visit www.cint.com.