Survivors of a typical business school education from a couple of decades ago will likely remember being drilled on the importance of capturing consumer brand loyalty early. Consumer preferences, went the refrain, tend to form early in adult life and are stable ever after, seldom changing as people get older. As a result, the 18- to 34-year-old age demographic was routinely exalted as being critically important. Catch them young, we were told, and you’ll have them forever. Lose that battle, and you’ll never get them back from competitors.

As often happens over time, however, the reality on the ground has never been quite that simple. While brand loyalty is a real (and tremendously valuable) thing, subsequent studies have found that it can, and does, change. Research has suggested a number of mechanisms through which consumer preferences evolve and shift, many of which can take place at any time of life, triggered by multiple factors.