What exactly is it about a product or service that keeps you coming back again and again? What companies or organizations have you remained devoted to despite the economy virtually leveling, and potentially resetting, the brand loyalty field as we know it?
This topic was weighing heavily on my mind this weekend while I was grocery shopping. You see, I’ve become a highly dedicated Fresh & Easy customer, despite the fact that I have to pass three major grocery stores along my 5-mile drive to the location closest to my house. Why? Because it’s all about the experience for me, and I like everything about my Fresh & Easy experience. I like the size of the stores, the ready-to-go meals, the fresh produce, their philosophy, the prices, and most of all, the way it makes me feel.
Cheesy, I know, but completely true. And I’m not the only one willing to go out of my way, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal:
Many things influence why [we] embrace or reject particular brands’, says Aric Rindfleisch, a marketing professor with Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ‘Our relationships with brands can be deeply psychological and rooted in our personal experience with a company.
Just think about it: how many times have you sworn off something just because of a bad experience? I can tell you flat-out that the reason I don’t go to the grocery store nearest my house is because I’ve had one too many bad experiences there. I don’t want to get into it, but I’m in full-on boycott mode with this store.
Regardless of what industry you’re in or what you’re trying to market, brand loyalty is essential in order to gain returning customers. There’s even an annual award given out to brands that rank the highest in consumer loyalty called Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement. And as Robert Passikoff, founder of Brand Keys points out in The Wall Street Journal article, those returning customers are more important than ever:
For companies, it pays to have loyal customers. Loyal customers are more likely to give a brand the benefit of the doubt in tough times, buy stock in that company and recommend the brand to friends, Mr. Passikoff says. He notes that many of Brand Keys highest-rated companies, which include JetBlue, FedEx and Tom’s of Maine, also turn out to be leaders in overall profitability.
While there’s a lot of strategy that goes into building brand loyalty with customers, in essence, it’s another facet in the bigger customer service puzzle. If you give a customer what they want and what they like, they’ll keep coming back to who they trust the most.
photo credit: Stuart Chalmers
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