Brand loyalty has gone by the wayside with the recession. A two-year study of 685 grocery brands, which analyzed data from 32 million consumer grocery discount cards, found in 2008 that the average brand lost one-third of its loyal customer base. By this year, according to the Financial Times, more than half of the typical brand’s loyal consumers will switch to other products.

“Defection is top of mind for brand managers now because they’re the most profitable customers,” says Eric Anderson, associate professor of marketing at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. “Price and promotion have become so salient at retail, that what we thought was the loyal customer can be moved with discounts.”

The study was conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer Council and Catalina Marketing’s Pointer Media Network.