Brand Loyalty: The Bond Between A Brand And Its Customers

Sometimes, you ask your friend for recommendations before buying a phone or a laptop. And every time you ask, they talk to you about the same brand they prefer. So, people develop brand loyalty with time whether it is a product, design, or service.  

They connect with that brand and positively engage with them. However, there are numerous choices these days. Brand loyalty seems fleeting for some brands and businesses.  

Some brands have learned that they can retain their customers through innovation and creation of new products. Let’s get into the topic and see why brand loyalty is important while making a brand marketing strategy. 

What Is Brand Loyalty?

Brand loyalty is when a customer keeps buying from one particular brand over and over again. Even when competitors offer the same kind of service or products. Not only do they keep using products from the same brand, but they also have positive feelings towards the brand.  

One of the main factors of brand loyalty is how the customers perceive the brand, what they think of their actions and their values. If you understand your customers, it would be easy to incorporate a strategy to retain customer loyalty. 

Levels Of Brand Loyalty

There are three different levels of brand loyalty:  

Brand Recognition 

This is when a brand tries to get a new customer’s attention while retaining its existing customers’ attention. Before brand recognition, many parameters come into play, like people knowing your brand through the logo, jingle, narrative, or tagline.  

If you can familiarize your customers with your brand before they buy anything from your brand, it is going to make your brand equity strong. Part of brand recognition needs corporate branding and marketing strategies to expose your brand to its target audience. 

Brand Preference

Brand preference means when a consumer chooses your brand over your competitors, even when the service and products are almost identical.

Recognition has a huge role in brand preference, as packaging and marketing influence customers’ buying decisions. Once your customers are loyal to you, they will prefer your brand no matter what.  

Brand Insistence

When a customer thinks of a brand as part of its industry, the brand has already achieved brand insistence. For example, we instantly think of Colorox when we think of bleach as if no other brand is available in the market.  

Brand instance means that the customer has become loyal to the brand, and they will buy anything that is associated with that brand. 

How Can You Build Brand Loyalty?  

The road to brand loyalty is different for every brand.

Here are some strategies that can help a brand increase brand loyalty. 

Provide Amazing Customer Service

More than 70% of customers are loyal to one specific company, and more than 50% go above and beyond to buy a product from that specific brand. So, whether a brand will get customer loyalty depends heavily on customer service.  

According to research, one out of three customers walk away from a brand just after one bad experience. So, you must take care of every step you take, starting from customer support to handling social media.

If you provide your customers with an experience, they do not get anywhere else, they will definitely come back to you. 

Form A Community 

Meeting with regular customers or using a social media hashtag can promote many feelings. It promotes your customers’ sense of belonging, trust, and loyalty. For instance, GoPro turns its user-generated content into strong marketing material. 

These campaigns get social proof for new audiences and get loyal customers together as they all come under one hashtag. 

Use Rewards Program

Encourage people to make repeat purchases and offer them rewards. The majority of the loyal customers would join the rewards program when asked.

These would help you retain customers and provide extra perks and added advantages to continue the relationship with the brand. 

Coca-Cola keeps its customers close with the help of My Coke Rewards. Starbucks has a loyalty program, or Starbucks Rewards, with around 17 million members in the United States and 10 million in China. This is why it is one of the most popular loyalty programs. 

Improve Customer Service

Let your customer know you have dedicated your entire business to meeting their needs. Improve your customer service and always listen to what your customers have to say.

If the customer feels that you have their best interest at heart, they will trust the brand more and be loyal to the company. 

Understand The Journey Your Customer Had 

The customer journey starts from the moment you launch your product online. Arrange the website to give your audience a better buying experience, and this will increase brand loyalty. Keep things simple and ask your customers what they want. 

Find Your Brand Story And Voice

Build a brand story to find out how it strengthens your business. Communicate your brand story to your audience. Do it in a way that your mission statement would connect with your customers who share the same value as your brand. 

So, if you are co-branding or thinking of product branding, connect with a brand that shares the same values. Otherwise, there is a good chance that you might lose a few loyal customers during this merger. 

Personalize The Marketing Efforts 

Finding out what your customer wants is always beneficial. However, you can try to take it beyond that and try personalization marketing schemes.

For those consistent customers, offer a customer loyalty program. This way, you will find a rise in matrics, and you will also understand your customers’ buying habits and product preferences. 

Use Brand Ambassadors 

Brand ambassadors represent your brand as loyal customers and present a service or product on social media and other media outlets.

Any person who is active on social media and has a strong online presence can be your brand ambassador for your business branding. But make sure their image on social media aligns with your values. 

Measure Brand Loyalty: Different Ways

One of the easiest ways to help you understand the habits and opinions of your loyal customers who can represent your brand is through a survey. You must stay in touch with your audience and track the shift in brand loyalty. 

Here are some of the other ways you can measure brand loyalty over time. 

• Net Promoter Score or NPS: NPS is the percentage of people who will recommend your brand minus those who would not. Ask your customers what they would do. You can also ask open-ended questions to acquire qualitative data. 

• Customer satisfaction: In your brand loyalty survey you ask specific questions about the products, price, and customer service. Figure out what it is that is keeping them hooked to your brand.  

• Customer loyalty index: most brand marketers find the metric quite useful in their work. The survey tells you what it is that keeps the audience interested in your brand. This is going to help you develop and position your brand. 

Examples Of Brand Loyalty

Some brands have set examples of brand loyalty in the market for their fellow competitors. Here are a few examples of great brand loyalty. 

Starbucks

Starbucks has a loyalty program that goes beyond serving free coffee. They offer an amazing gaming experience with shopping features and rewards, which makes the experience more engaging. 

Sephora

Sephora has a reward system where customers get points that they can redeem for buying luxury products that they would not buy otherwise. This loyalty program incentivizes customers to buy more products and earn points for getting a free product. 

Build Your Own Set Of Loyal Customers 

Brand loyalty is like having best friends who will choose you in every situation, no matter what happens. It is like an unbreakable bond between a brand and its customers, and it is not just limited to transactions. 

However, analyze your customers’ behavior and identify places to improve your user experience. Figure out with the help of surveys whether your customers are loyal to you and for what reasons. 

It takes time to build a strong relationship, but once you get a loyal set of customers, it will be worth it. 

Read Also:

• Brand Protection: Safeguard Your Brand From Potential Breach
• Enhancing Your Brand Recognition In Orlando: Effective Tools And Techniques
• Mastering Brand Promotion: Strategies, Innovations, and Legal Considerations for Branded Merchandise