MarTech » Marketing technology » Brand apathy growing among U.S. consumers

Brand apathy growing among U.S. consumers

Consumers choose les expensive options they don't see as inferior in quality. Can better consumer engagement fix that?

By Mike Pastore ,

Head of Content & Media

Published on March 25, 2025 • Last updated on March 25, 2025 • 2 minutes read

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More than half (54%) of American consumers say they don’t pay attention to the brands they buy, as long as the product meets their needs, a new report found.

That’s according to the Consumer Products Engagement report from SAP Emarsys and Deloitte, which was released today at the Shoptalk conference in Las Vegas.

According to the report, a new engagement-driven landscape is taking shape, and success in this “Engagement Era” depends on a personalized omnichannel approach across the customer lifecycle.
However, only 19% of brands excel in this engagement-driven environment, and the rest fall behind.

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For some brands, it’s not a lack of capabilities that’s holding them back. The report found that 43% of consumer package (CP) brands say they can engage with customers in real-time, but only 26% are doing so.

Similarly, 35% of CP brands say they can predict future consumer behavior, but only 17% are doing so.

Consumers' preferred channels for interacting with brands, — *Source: SAP Emarsys*.

Dig deeper: Why ignoring consumers’ AI concerns is a costly mistake

54% of U.S. consumers say they ignore brand names

Better engagement with consumers should help build brand loyalty. Without brand loyalty, consumer product purchases become a commodity.

The report found 57% of American consumers have switched to own-label brands because they are more affordable and 55% think the quality of own-label products is comparable to branded products.

In response to growing brand apathy, 88% of marketers say they need to overhaul their engagement strategies in 2025, the report found, but only 32% believe their company can effectively personalize marketing and only 24% are doing so.

The report is based on a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers and 150 senior marketers at multinational brands.

MarTech is owned by Semrush. We remain committed to providing high-quality coverage of marketing topics. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.

Mike Pastore

Head of Content & Media

Mike Pastore is the Head of Content & Media at Third Door Media, the publisher of the Martech and Search Engine Land websites and the producer of the SMX and MarTech Conferences. In nearly three decades in B2B marketing, Mike has worked as an editor, writer, and marketer. He first wrote about marketing in 1998 for internet.com (later Jupitermedia). He then worked with marketers at some of the best-known brands in B2B tech, creating content for marketing campaigns at both Jupitermedia and QuinStreet. Prior to joining Third Door Media as the Editorial Director of the MarTech website, he led demand generation at B2B media company TechnologyAdvice.

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