The objective of this work is to analyse whether households are consistent in their choice of brands. As well as analysing whether brand loyalty is independent of category, we study whether as family’s similar intrinsic preferences for specific brands are common for different product categories, whether price sensibility is independent of the product purchased and whether the weight of the dependence of the initial state is similar in different products. A further objective is to analyse the effect that the studied variables have on purchasing behaviour, as well as to show how they influence distinct consumer segments in different ways. Within the frame of discrete choice models of random utility, we decided to use a model of finite mixture or latent classes.

Key words: consumer behaviour, panel data, discrete choice models.
JEL Classification: D12, C33, C35.