PALO ALTO, Calif. (June 22, 2009) – Consumer loyalty and defection has always occurred; however, the historic unknown has been the degree of occurrence. In response to requests to understand this dynamic across hundreds of brands, Catalina Marketing's Pointer Media Network and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council studied 34 million US shoppers’ purchasing patterns for two-years across 685 leading CPG brands and 24,000 retail stores. The milestone study released today, entitled Losing Loyalty, The Consumer Defection Dilemma™, was designed to evaluate the global dynamic of consumer behavior on a granular level never before accessed.

Key findings demonstrate an industry-wide challenge- not a scoreboard on loyalty. An astounding one-third of the average CPG brand’s most loyal US consumers defected from the brand between 2007 and 2008, and many more reduced share of category spend with the brand. For the average brand, only 48 percent of highly loyal consumers in 2007 remained highly loyal in 2008, and 33 percent of these highly loyal consumers completely stopped buying the brand even while they continued to make purchases in the same product category.

"CPG manufacturers are facing a formidable challenge to brand loyalty further inflamed by the economic downturn," said Todd Morris, senior vice president of Catalina Marketing, the parent company of Pointer Media Network. "However, these findings also demonstrate that consumer defection and churn are persistent problems for brands, even during good economic times."

Defection levels were high for most brands even in 2007—before the start of the current recession. A financial analysis of select leading brands demonstrated revenues could have increased between four and 25 percent had highly loyal consumers in 2007 not reduced loyalty or defected from the brand. The study also showed that the total number of highly loyal consumers declined for many major brands in 2008, not just because of churn and defection, but because brands were having greater difficulty winning new loyal brand buyers. This phenomenon has increased the impact of defection for the packaged goods industry.

"Building long-term customer loyalty is arguably the most pressing issue marketers are facing," said Dave Murray, executive vice president with the CMO Council. "A lack of insight has previously challenged CPG companies' ability to precisely connect with customers. However, as this study demonstrates, granular-level, predictive modeling advancements offer new opportunities for relevant and personalized consumer interactions. CPG brand managers must take action to address the financial impact of loyalty erosion by identifying and engaging with today’s at-risk loyal consumers."

^* Highly loyal consumers were defined as shoppers who made 70 percent of their category purchases with a single brand during a 12-month period.

About the CMO Council
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council's 4,500 members control more than $125 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 17,000 global executives across nearly 100 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Customer Experience Board, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). More information on the CMO Council is available at www.cmocouncil.org.

About Pointer Media Network
Pointer Media Network (www.pointermedianetwork.com), a service of Catalina Marketing, is one of the largest, most advanced, addressable media outlets in the world. Pointer Media enables advertisers, media buyers, creative agencies, brand managers and marketers to leverage the network’s sophisticated database of 250 million weekly shopping transactions to develop, manage, and measure direct-to-consumer media campaigns and engagement opportunities. The on-demand media channel provides an extensive infrastructure of 24,000 retail distribution channels, 25-years of actionable insight development and expertise, and unique communication exchanges with nearly 80 percent of US households.

Certain statements in the preceding paragraphs are forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially. Statements not based on historic facts involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, potential complications, hardware and software issues and delays related to the schedule, installation and operation of color printers, the effectiveness of color printers to increase sales and redemption rates or provide a more effective advertising medium, the changing market for promotional activities, especially as it relates to policies and programs of packaged goods and pharmaceutical manufacturers and retailers, government and regulatory statutes, rules, regulations and policies, the effect of economic and competitive conditions and seasonal variations, actual promotional activities and programs with the company's customers, the pace of installation of the company's store network including as it relates to the installation of color printers in existing and future retail channels, the acceptance by the company’s manufacturer clients and retailers of color printers and related new and additional terms and conditions, the success of new services and businesses and the pace of their implementation, the company's ability to maintain favorable client and retailer relationships, and the outcome and impact of the pending shareholder class action and derivative lawsuits.

Contact:

Peter Moore
CMO Council
pmoore@globalfluency.com
646-652-5205

Matt Farrell
CMO Council
mfarrell@globalfluency.com
646-652-5204