Brands and Brand Loyalty

It goes without saying that true customer loyalty is one of the most rare yet rewarding goals a company can achieve. In today’s highly competitive, ultra-connected world, instant gratification is often not fast enough. Consumers have more choices and options than ever.

I’ve recently started to think about how loyalty and brands are connected. Why is it that some brands are able to consistently stay at the top of people’s minds while their competitors struggle to break through? Especially in today’s competitive markets, how can such loyalty exist, and more importantly, how can it be created?

First, I believe loyalty is indeed attainable; it’s largely the result of nailing a few simple foundational pieces of your business, followed by finding thoughtful ways to deepen your relationship with customers. It needs to be a fair trade. Brands with high loyalty share a few traits:

They get their products right, and execute well. Many great products fail (and as a result, companies flounder) because they weren’t relevant or of a quality people expect. Success lies not just in great ideas, but in great execution. The oft-cited example of iPod not being the first mp3 player is the epitome of this.

They connect the product experience to their brand. Companies with great customer loyalty often have blurry lines between their brand, brand perception, and product experience; they are inextricably intertwined in people’s minds, creating a synergy that grows and feeds back on itself. A great example is Patagonia; people not only think of this brand’s products and quality, but also what they stand for and do in terms of their business and environmental practices.

They connect their brand to their customer. The pinnacle any brand can achieve is to stand for something so well that people adopt it to reflect a part of who they are. It’s the ultimate form of loyalty, expressed in everything from logo tattoos to growing profits in a down economy. Of course, to attain such a level takes time, discipline, and investment, but the result makes the effort required worth it many times over.

Second, there is a subtle yet important difference between product and brand loyalty. Product loyalty is what it suggests – people desire and become attached to a product because it fulfills a need, be it physically, emotionally, and/or psychologically. Brand loyalty is the next level up: it’s what happens when a company successfully associates that benefit/love of a product back to their brand – resulting in a relationship with the customer that goes beyond the purchase transaction.

Considered another way, this is akin to someone saying they love TV (product) vs. they love HBO (brand); such ‘bridging’ is a concerted effort that strives to connect brand to customer through product experience.

Developing brand loyalty is thus a focused activity – one that is planned, invested in, and cultivated over time. So while it’s important to focus on building great products, it’s equally important to also focus on how such products impact and influence the brand, and how it’s perceived. Doing well in both creates a solid foundation from which true, lasting loyalty can spring forth.