Résumé
Variety-seeking is a behavior which appears when a consumer switches in his choices of products. This definition involves an opposition to loyalty (i.e. repeat-buying) and a longitudinal view (i.e. the consumer switches in comparison to a “normal” or “regular” choice). Our study proposes a new conceptual framework which doesn’t oppose systematically loyalty and variety-seeking: on one hand, we distinguish the temporal framework of variety-seeking (i.e. longitudinal or instantaneous), and on other hand, the “level” where variety-seeking appears (within a brand’s products line or within brands). So, we identify 4 types of variety-seeking which coexist theoretically within a market. Among these one, we concentrate our analysis on “intrabrand variety-seeking”. This behavior is a direct consequence of loyalty, by appearing within its line. The results of two discrete choice models (a multinomial Logit model and a multivariate Logit model) explore more deeply a classical result:consumers are simulteaneously loyals (intrabrand variety-seeking) and non-loyals (interbrand variety-seeking) to brands. We then discuss theconsequences of these behaviors: either brands’ loyalty programs are not successful for consumers in the category, or brands are positioned on different sub-markets, and so, their lines, as wide as they are, don’t allow individual variety-seekng.