Building Brand Loyalty Among Students: A Year-Round Plan

Brand loyalty among students is built by being useful at the moments students set and reset their habits, and by giving them a reason to keep choosing you on a tight budget. A strong first impression in Freshers is the start. Loyalty comes from turning up again in January, at exam time and when students move into shared houses, with value they can see.

Key points

• Students watch every pound: only 30% feel confident managing money (Student Futures Index 2026, Dig In with We Are Futures, 1,086 students). Value has to be obvious.

• Plan for the academic year, not for Freshers week alone. Habits form in September and get tested again in January and at exam time.

• Student discounts and loyalty schemes work when they are simple and tied to everyday purchases.

• Track willingness to recommend and intent to buy again across the year, not just how many students you reached.

What loyalty looks like for a student

Students switch brands more readily than older shoppers. Money is tight, offers are everywhere and housemates bring their own preferences. Loyalty for a student is rarely an emotional attachment. It is your product becoming the default: the one they pick up without comparing, because it worked last time and the price felt fair.

That default is easiest to win early. Most first-year students are buying their own everyday products for the first time, so there is no incumbent habit to break. It is also easy to lose. A brand that appears once in September and then vanishes leaves the shelf to whoever turns up next.

The four levers of student loyalty

1. Value students can see

The Student Futures Index 2026, from Dig In with We Are Futures, found 88% of students say managing money is an important life skill. Brands that respect that win goodwill. Show the price per use, offer a pack size that suits a single person or a shared house, and make student offers easy to find.

2. Products that solve student problems

Quick meals, cheap staples, cleaning that works in a small kitchen, study fuel, a bank account that helps with budgeting. Lead with the product in your range that fixes something students deal with every week.

3. Presence at the moments that matter

Student life has a calendar, and loyalty is built by appearing at its turning points (see below).

4. Listening, and showing you listened

Ask students what they think, then tell them what changed. Surveys after trial, polls on mydigin.com and comments on social channels all count. Students notice when a brand acts on feedback.

A year-round loyalty calendar

1. September, Freshers: the first trial. Put the product in students’ hands as they arrive, through the Welcome Bag or Freshers sampling in halls, with a clear route to buy.

2. October and November, settling in: follow up by email and on mydigin.com with a reminder, an offer or a recipe. This is when the first-week trial either becomes a habit or fades.

3. January, Refreshers: students come back after the break and restock. Refreshers sampling is a second chance to reach students who missed you in September and a reminder for those who didn’t. Dig In is planning 300,000 bags for January.

4. Spring, exams: study snacks, energy, quick meals and wellbeing products fit this window.

5. Summer, moving on: first-years sign up for shared houses. Household and grocery brands can follow them into second-year shopping.

6. The next September: returning students are now the experienced ones in the house. Keep them, then recruit the new intake.

Student discounts and loyalty schemes

Discounts work when they are easy to claim and apply to something students already buy. Points schemes that take a year to pay out rarely hold attention. Good options include:

• A clear student price or bundle on the products students restock most.

• A one-off code in the Welcome Bag that leads to a repeat offer after first use.

• Offers through student discount platforms students already use, rather than a new app to download.

Keep the offer consistent. A student who sees one price in September and a different deal in every channel stops trusting any of them.

Measuring student loyalty

Loyalty shows up slowly in sales, so track signals that move sooner.

• Intent to buy again and willingness to recommend after trial. In the Dig In Trial Benchmark, the median brand scored 96% would recommend in 2025 (20 surveys). Gillette scored 87.4% likely to buy (Freshers 2024, n=1,703) and Venus 90.2% (n=3,530). See the Gillette and Venus case study.

• Redemption and repeat code use through the autumn term.

• A follow-up survey at Refreshers asking whether students have bought the product since September.

• Retailer data for stores near large campuses, compared with the same period last year.

The first step, turning a sample into a second purchase, is covered in our guide to student sampling as a gateway to brand loyalty.

Questions brands ask

How do brands build loyalty with university students?

Win the first trial in Freshers, then show up again at the points students restock: after Christmas, around exams and when they move into shared houses. Make the value obvious each time.

Do student discounts create long-term loyalty?

Discounts help when they apply to products students already buy and are simple to use. On their own they attract deal-seekers, so pair them with a product students rate after trying it.

When is the best time of year to build loyalty with students?

September is when most habits form, because first-years are buying for themselves for the first time. January is the second-best window, when students return and restock after the Christmas break.

Working with Dig In

Dig In reaches students at the start of the year through its Welcome Bag and Live Activations, again in January through Refreshers, and in between through mydigin.com. To plan a campaign that runs across the year, get in touch.