We care about cereal, not insurance. Vodka not water.

Brand Keys, a research firm specializing in customer loyalty and brand engagement, recently released their 2009 Loyalty Engagement Index, a list of rankings of customer loyalty toward 440 brands in 63 categories. In the survey, 26,000 consumers were polled about the degree to which brands were able to meet or exceed their expectations within each category.

The results reveal a number of interesting insights.

First, loyalty and dominant market share are unrelated. JetBlue and Southwest, for example, tied for the lead in the airlines category, beating the majors. Tom’s of Maine outshone Crest and Colgate in the toothpaste category.

On the other hand, Walmart easily won the discount retail stores category and McDonald’s won quick-serve restaurants.

Second, consumers have favorites in every category but feel more strongly about some categories than others. You may be more engaged with brands in the pet food category, for example, than brands of gasoline. Brands in the following categories received the highest average rankings in the survey:

1. Luxury cosmetics
2. Kids’ breakfast cereals
3. Wireless handsets
4. Luxury moisturizing skin care
5. Discount retail stores
6. Mass-merchandise cosmetics
7. Mass-merchandise moisturizing skin care
8. Luxury hotels
9. Vodka (the only distilled spirits surveyed)
10. Digital point-and-shoot cameras

Brands in the following categories are presumably less engaging to consumers and received the lowest average rankings:

1. Banks (If only we’d known before the bailout.)
2. Insurance
3. Soft drinks (regular)
4. Casual dining
5. Bottled water
6. Soft drinks (diet)
7. Major league sports
8. Pizza
9. Allergy medicine (OTC)
10. Airlines

Consumers tend to endure rather than embrace their experiences with banks, insurance companies, and airlines. However, it’s interesting that soft drink and pizza brands rank so low given the millions of dollars that are spent marketing them.

Consumers found vodka as a category more brand-engaging than all other beverages surveyed, including regular beer, coffee, light beer, diet soft drinks, bottled water and regular soft drinks.

Third, and as expected, luxury brands rank higher than economy brands, indicating consumers are more loyal to brands that provide value than brands that compete on price alone.

Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys president, says in a BrandWeek article, “There is a price-value formula consumers use to calculate brand differences and to decide which brands to buy. Shopper consciousness has shifted from just trying to ferret out deals to looking for brands that provide value.”

A case in point: luxury hotels in the survey ranked 93rd on average, upscale hotels 140th, midscale hotels 275th, and economy hotels 340th. The same is true for cosmetics and moisturizing skin care — luxury out-engages mass merchandise.

Fourth, numerous competitive brands in a category does not mean consumer engagement is high.

For example, there are 10 brands in the bottled water category yet engagement with the category runs shallow, based upon the average brand rankings.

Which categories in the survey include the most competitive brands?

• Automotive (15 brands competing for loyalty)
• Vodka (14)
• Mass-merchandise cosmetics (12)
• Wireless handsets (11)

If you’re looking to compete in a category with only a few competitors, try:

• Parcel delivery (Only 3 brands, but be prepared to take on FedEx, UPS and USPS.)
• Office supply stores (3)
• Electronics stores (3)
• Online books and music stores (3)

Why the emphasis on brand loyalty?

• Loyal customers buy from you again and again.
• They ignore your competition.
• They refer to others.
• They cost less to retain than attracting new customers.
• They are more profitable.

Ask Tom’s of Maine.