Network Analyses of Brand Switching Behavior

Abstract

Networks are extremely important in marketing because so much of marketing is relational, and network methods are important and appropriate tools for studying such structures of interconnections. In this paper, we model data that represent consumer brand switching in the French and British automobile marketplaces. We describe network methods that range from simple to sophisticated. We believe it is novel to consider brand switching patterns as networks, exploring results that arise from network methodologies and philosophies and examining what leverage network methods might have for understanding purchase transition behavior. Our methods include the modeling of multiple networks simultaneously to study such phenomena as dynamic markets and cross-cultural competitive market structure.

Keywords: Network analysis, Brand switching, Car industry