For several years now, marketers have tracked a growing subset of consumers who see right through branding strategies and are intent on getting maximum value for their money. These are "brand sluts" -- savvy consumers who flit from brand to brand, choosing whichever product is offering the best proposition at the moment, then moving on. Brand sluts play a constantly expanding field of brands that compete ruthlessly yet rarely offer truly differentiating benefits.

Some consumers believe that few, if any, brands are loyal to their workforce or to their suppliers; they downsize and outsource whenever possible. Those consumers have adopted a similar approach -- as their needs change and the terms of the deal change, they readily switch allegiances. Brand sluts (and an increasing number of everyday consumers) have become adept at seeing through the spin of branding; they evaluate tangible performance, along with price and reputation, and then choose products accordingly.

Brand sluts are seduced by the newness of the new. No matter how good a product proposition is, that's not enough to make consumers loyal to the brand, because there's always something new coming down the pike. At best, they're serial monogamists, like the lover grazers on Match.com. If there's nothing novel and exciting from their current partner, they'll find a new partner to spice things up. Even brands that have ardent devotees -- take Apple again, for instance -- have that loyalty because they constantly reinvent themselves and hence retain their desirability.