Lapsed buyers' durable brand consideration in emerging markets

The acquisition of non-customers in durable categories is costly. A history of positive and negative brand behaviors that include past choice (the positive) ending in defection to another brand (the negative) make lapsed buyers of a brand an intriguing segment of non-customers. This research explores how this mixed brand history affects the re-recruitment of lapsed buyers. Drawing on data from over 3500 cell phone owners of 26 cell phone brands across six emerging markets (China, Brazil, Russia, India, South Korea and Indonesia), the results first reveal that the cohort of lapsed buyers hold more positive attitudes than never-buyers. Further, across 74 brand level regressions, even accounting for attitude affects, lapsed buyers are not less likely to consider the brand in the future than other non-customers, and in 51% of cases, lapsed buyers have significantly higher consideration levels. This result is consistent across the 26 brands, of large and small market share, and local or global brand origin, but stronger for lapsed buyers in more developed cell phone markets such as China, Brazil and South Korea, suggesting that the more experienced the buyer/market, the more past ownership works in favor of the lapsed brand. This research highlights the importance of considering the buyer's full past history with the brand, not just current status, in theoretical models and when modeling brand choice or customer lifetime value for durables in emerging markets. For practitioners, this research suggests value in marketing efforts to reactivate lapsed users in emerging markets, and that brand history creates another barrier for new entrants, with no lapsed buyers, looking to recruit customers.