Loyalty affects consumption of the very brands people are investing in

(image created by AI)

An interesting study by the New Columbia Business School finds that owning stock of popular brands can increase day-to-day spending to those brands.

Contrary to what investment managers advise their customers: “don’t get emotional about your portfolio”, people actually seem to do. The researchers prove a direct and reasonably strong relationship between investments and consumption. The brands consumers own stock of are the brands they spend more on, and that is good news for publicly traded brands and retailers.

The study (The Effect of Stock Ownership on Individual Spending and Loyalty) used transaction-level data from a brokerage app that rewards buyers with stocks from the brands and stores they buy from. Weekly spending increased with 40% after people received shares – an average of $23 per week. When users are granted with a brand’s stock upfront, their weekly spending at those brands increases by 100%.

Impressive results which demonstrate that rewards deliver direct results in influencing spending patterns. The conclusion drawn by the researchers relates familiarity and loyalty heavily to spending. Something we at VEMT already knew, but is reaffirmed through this route again.

If you want to make use of a reward program to increase your spend, contact us here. If you are interested to use shares as a vehicle for that: we have some great tools to launch that quickly.