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<\/p>\nBrand loyalty needs to be understood correctly by small brands. The first thing to know is that normally, by psychology, a customer is inclined to be loyal to a brand he has bought \u2013 simply because the purchase represents a choice he has made and he does not like to feel or accept that he has made a poor choice. His ego works in favour of his loyalty to a brand, because it will make him defend his purchase and self-validate his purchase and investment. Most brand loyalty failures, however, happen because something MAKES the customer switch his loyalty for a reason. He doesn\u2019t TAKE the decision to switch unless he is forced to regret his original decision. Brand loyalty is a kind of default mode, so as a brand you need to focus on increasing whatever positively affirms or reinforces a customer\u2019s brand loyalty \u2026 and you need to decrease whatever puts off the reluctantly-departing customer!<\/p>\n
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You\u2019d be surprised at some of the most important reasons why customers switch brand loyalties. Contrary to what many of us think, we may inadvertently be doing exactly the opposite of what we should be doing to preserve brand loyalty in our hard-won customers!<\/p>\n
In his book \u201cBrand Failures: The Truth about the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time\u201d, the author Matt Haig talks of brand fatigue of companies being more prevalent than brand fatigue of customers! He writes:<\/p>\n
Some companies get bored with their own brands. You can see this happening to products which have been on the shelves for many years, collecting dust. When brand fatigue sets in creativity suffers, and so do sales.<\/p>\n
James Heaton of the Tronvig Group further elaborates exactly what businesses do wrong when they are hit by brand fatigue:<\/p>\n
What I mean by brand fatigue may not be what others mean by it. My concern with brand fatigue is not that people become tired of a brand, but rather that businesses become prematurely tired of their own brand presentation and, as a result, push to change it before it has had the opportunity to fulfil its mission or even fully register and build power in the minds of their brand consumers. If a brand is authentic, true, and well executed, if it exhibits brand health, aligns with the mission and values of the business, or speaks to the key attributes of the business\u2019 products or services, there should be no reason to tire of it. The great Robin Wight summarizes this quite succinctly, \u201cIt\u2019s certainly true that clients tend to throw away brand assets too early.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet there persists a drive to keep changing things, and this is aided and abetted by ad agencies who, of course, make money by continually creating new material for their clients. Sometimes this makes sense. People do get tired of the same TV commercial. For essential brand matters, however, the race is won by those who are most consistent. The thing about consistency is that it is really only boring to those who are dealing with it unnaturally closely every day; in a world characterized by clutter and overstimulation, absolute consistency is a key attribute of any strong and healthy brand. I have seen executives tire of seeing the \u201csame thing\u201d over and over, and be unable to resist the temptation to say \u201cI\u2019m sick of blue. Can we do this in another color?\u201d. This is understandable.<\/p>\n
I would argue though that the outside experience of the brand \u2013 the brand as it resides alongside its competitors \u2013 is quite different, and this kind of brand fatigue often seems to set in just as the brand is actually beginning to leave an impression, just as it is beginning to sink in and lodge in its proper place in the minds of the brand\u2019s consumers.<\/p>\n
So you see, customers don\u2019t tire of brands as easily as the businesses themselves do, and if you are a small brand with itchy fingers, you have to restrain yourself from fiddling with brand consistency just as it is about to ingrain itself into the consumer\u2019s psyche!<\/p>\n
In marketing and sales there are two concepts to be very wary of, especially when considering brand loyalty.<\/p>\n
The first is what experts call \u201cbuyer remorse\u201d, which happens just immediately after a purchase is made. Wikipedia explains buyer remorse as:<\/p>\n
Buyer remorse is the sense of regret after having made a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of an expensive item such as a car or house. It may stem from fear of making the wrong choice, guilt over extravagance, or a suspicion of having been overly influenced by the seller. Buyer\u2019s remorse is thought to stem from cognitive dissonance, specifically post-decision dissonance, that arises when a person must make a difficult decision, such as a heavily invested purchase between two similarly appealing alternatives. Factors that affect buyer\u2019s remorse include resources invested, the involvement of the purchaser, whether the purchase is compatible with the purchaser\u2019s goals, and what positive or negative evidence the purchaser encounters post-purchase that confirms or denies the purchase as a good idea.<\/p>\n
In other words, a person, immediately after a purchase is extremely vulnerable to some psychological pressures that make him \u201cregret\u201d having made the purchase, but usually this is a fleeting moment and soon rights itself. Nevertheless, it\u2019s a critical juncture when a brand has to hand-hold a customer very tightly, and reassure him that his decision was just perfect!<\/p>\n
Closely associated with buyer-remorse is the tendency that experts call the \u201cfallow phase\u201d, when just after (and despite!) a SATISFACTORY purchase experience the buyer itches to switch brand loyalties! Roger Sinclair of Prophet writes about this phenomenon:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do clients who have expressed satisfaction at the conclusion of a service encounter too frequently appoint an alternative service provider when next they have a need for the service? For example, an architect whose client expressed complete satisfaction on completion of a project is surprised to find the next project given to a competitor. Often the firm that believes it is the incumbent in a relationship learns that it has not been appointed for new work only when it sees another name on the project board.<\/p>\n
1. The customer\u2019s own need for novelty of experience.
\n2. The battery of relentless targeted communications by the competitor that finally pay off.
\n3. The long time gaps that the brand allows to creep into its relationship-maintenance with its post-purchase customers.<\/p>\n
I think we\u2019ve all seen examples of this when we travel and stay in hotels, where the staff have been told that \u201chospitality equals show of concern\u201d. I personally get so tired by the repeated knocking on my room door with solicitous staff asking if I am OK, do I need something, why I should not hesitate to ask, is the temperature of the room OK, and how would I rate the service so far on a scale of ten? The curious thing is that I always turn the board outside my door knob to \u201cDo Not Disturb\u201d but the staff think that is for visitors and not for them. In fact they even knock after they see the board to confirm if I want not to be disturbed! Phew! How would I be loyal to a brand that simply tires me out with its concern. Does the brand even know how desperately I want to put as much distance as I can between me and the brand, and how I\u2019d give an arm and a leg to be rid of that pester-power?<\/p>\n
I guess it\u2019s the same with brands that overdo emailing, or overdo the post-interaction follow up feedback ratings!<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve managed to avoid doing all of the above that puts a customer off the concept of brand loyalty, you can then focus on doing a few things right.<\/p>\n
Among the smart ways to make a customer feel loyal to a brand is the idea of \u201cfresh experiences\u201d. A relationship between a brand and a customer is more or less like a marriage, some experts say, and there\u2019s a tendency on the part of both to take each other for granted over time. So it pays to look at ways to make the \u201cpartner\u201d sit up and take notice of your brand now and then and say \u201cWhat\u2019s this? I am liking it!\u201d. Novelty never hurts a relationship, and it applies to brand experiences too. Especially long-term customers need something fresh to return to in the brand relationship every now and again! And creating these fresh experiences takes some creativity and innovative thinking on the brand marketer\u2019s side, but the investment is always worth it, because it costs six times more to get a new customer than it takes to retain an old one!<\/p>\n
There are a number of brands that do a drumroll when they announce their loyalty rewards programs and loyalty cards. But here\u2019s a bit of customer psychology again. A customer feels great, sure enough, when he\u2019s rewarded for loyalty, but he feels greater \u2013 and supremely high in status \u2013 if he\u2019s been rewarded for advocacy. If he\u2019s rewarded for his loyalty, you are saying to him \u201cThanks for investing in us!\u201d and if you are rewarding him for being your brand ambassador and advocating your brand to others, you are saying to him \u201cThanks for lending your influential power to our voices!\u201d Now which of these statements, do you think, will make him feel on top of the world? Besides, there\u2019s one more benefit. Research shows that if people are asked to advocate a brand to others, to become influencers, they willy-nilly become loyal to the brand they advocate!<\/p>\n
When a brand has made some servicing mistakes with customers, there is a real chance of losing brand reputation and loyalty, right? But some smart brands have learnt to give the customer a great feeling even when they have screwed up! They thank the customer for being a true and supportive partner \u2026 and especially for allowing them to learn how to do things better, because the customer is such an inspiration! This works beautifully most of the time, because it reduces ire and beckons at the customer\u2019s forgiving and large-hearted side!<\/p>\n