Feb 20, 2008 6:01 AM, By Amy Johannes

When it comes to loyalty, consumers aren’t too willing to give up their favorite brands. But marketers who are adapting to the changing times and to consumers’ needs are finding new loyal followers.

McDonald’s for example, rose to a top spot for the first time in Brand Keys’ latest Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. The fast food giant, which had ranked in the bottom portion of the annual survey, shares the No. 1 position in the quick service category with Subway, thanks to its addition of its premium coffee and salads to the menu.

“Subway was always No. 1,” said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, a customer loyalty and engagement consultancy. “What McDonald’s managed to do is get people to think of it more than just fast, fatty salty food.”

Brand Keys' annual survey asks people to rank how their favorite brands meet or exceed their expectations. It’s the 11th year of the ranking.

In the retail stores discount category, Wal-Mart outpaced Target for the top spot this year. And for retail home improvement, Lowe’s and True Value shared the No. 1 ranking for 2008.

In the beer category, Sam Adams surpassed Coors and Budweiser for the top spot. Coors last year held the No. 1 spot. For Coffee, people chose Dunkin’ Donuts as their favorite, followed by Starbucks and McDonald’s.

What’s driving loyalty for these companies?

“It’s a combination of promotion and marketing that’s reinforcing brand values,” Passikoff said. “These [companies] are just better at it. They have high engagement levels than their competitors.”

Two new categories added to the index this year include cosmetics (luxury), held by Estee Lauder, and cosmetics (mass merchandisers) and Maybelline and Mary Kay, respectively.

This year, the index had more ties for the top of categories (16 in all).

“A lot of categories and brands are losing their ‘brandness’ and are turning into category placeholders,” Passikoff said.

For the first time, W hotels took the lead spot in customer loyalty for luxury hotels over Fairmount in 2007. Embassy Suites and Hyatt tied for first place in the upscale hotel category, while Comfort Inn outpaced Best Western and Hampton Inn for second place.

The company polled 26,000 consumers ages 18 to 65 about their relationships with more than 360 brands via phone and face-to-face interviews in January. Details of the survey are available at http://www.brandkeys.com.

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