Approaches to Analyzing Brand Switching Matrices

Introduction Brand switching matrices are square tables that display customer purchases on two different, usually contiguous, occasions. Marketers have used such tables in at least three ways. First, by examining substitution patterns — those brands to which and from which consumers tend to switch — marketers can identify the major competitors of a brand. Second, consumer loyalty and customer retention can be assessed from the degree of repeat buying as measured by the diagonal elements of the table. Third, the tables can be used for forecasting since they show losses and gains of each brand from every other.