Leveraging Brand Loyalty
For a weak and volatile economy, it is prudent to consider customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is not loyalty to a discount or a deal. Brand loyalty is the customer’s trust that the brand will continue to deliver on its promise to the customer. Customer service is relationship marketing. When asked why they continue to purchase products or services from a particular company, 45 % of respondents said it’s because they have grown to trust the company’s products or services. 43% say that they believe the program causes them to purchase more from that brand. There are other ways of adding value to customer experiences, and every company needs to determine what kind of a loyalty program works best for its kind of customer. When sales are soaring customer loyalty does not seem to be important, but solidifying your customer base in good times as well as bad is fundamentally sound business strategy. A product is a blend of multiple features which is positioned and distinguished by way of some special offering to establish it as a brand. And, if a customer is loyal towards a particular brand, it means a product has fulfilled all the requirements of a customer and satisfying a customer translates the brand into a pivotal product to lend the organization the leading edge over its competitors. The brand loyalists have the power to make or break the image of a brand by word of mouth publicity. Any brand in the market thrives or survives based on its effective usage by the customer. Since the advertising for a brand has taken off new dimensions with online advertising tools as one of the potent mediums, the end user has evolved with time immemorial and hence it has become rather difficult to prevent the customer from brand switching. The brands that have been continuously nurtured and innovated over a period of time has been the insistent choice of a consumer.
Types of loyals
The Hard Core loyalists: Who is keen to buy one single brand every time.
Soft Core loyalists: A consumer is loyal to 2-4 brands at a time.
Shifting loyalists: Although a consumer is loyal towards a brand, but may keep shifting from one brand to another and keep coming back to the first brand towards which he was loyal.
Switchers: Who always are on the lookout for a new brand. Perhaps here the consumer tries to experiment with new brands each time and also he may switch over because of pricing or some other reasons.
Here are the main Key constituents on the Brand Loyalty:
Customer’s set of logical and emotional conditioning: Even though a brand may not be doing well in the market and might be having few customers, a brand occupies a place in the customer’s mind by continuous advertising using all the available mediums existing today. Today, a lot of viral marketing techniques have been utilized in order to create brand awareness and maintain brand loyalty.
Good Relationship with the customer: Once the brand has been used by the customer, the organization focuses on establishing and maintaining a cordial relationship with the customer by the use of emails, direct mails or telephone. And the essence of this relationship is brand loyalty.
Leveraging a brand by offering brand extensions : Either the brand extensions or the line extensions are introduced in order to keep up with the customer loyalty. For example, a detergent like Rin was expanded by extensions to its brand name, like Rin Advanced and Rin washing powder.
Rebranding by offering a different marketing mix: The brand may often be delivered into a new packaging form. For example, under the category of fast food, Maggi was offered in a new packaging form. Earlier it was available in a single packing form, later was reintroduced in the market in a double packing form. Often the price may be reduced by offering the brand through a scheme which would entail the brand being packaged in a set of 3-4 and deducting the overall price. For e.g. most of the soaps are today being offered in a pack of 2-3 or 4.
Brands supporting a good cause: There are consumers who would like to remain attached to a brand which supports social cause or any other good cause for the betterment of the general public. For example, the Kingfisher Airlines floated by Vijay Mallya swayed the Indians by sponsoring the cricket T20 match.
Now, the important thing to note is in what situations, a customer is not brand loyal.
Here are some of the vicarious situations under which a customer is unlikely to purchase one single brand all the time:
Non-availability of a product: At times, a customer may switch over to a different brand because of locational constraints like the non-availability of a product in certain locations due to which a customer may buy another brand.
Non-conformity with the latest fad/trend: Apple has launched 3G iphones to budge or transform the customer from the earlier mobile phone applications to the latest introduction which is sure to appeal the customer. So, the companies which innovate ad infinitum are sure to remain there is the market for a long time as well as retain their existing customers. At the same time also build up new customers.
The congregation of options available to a consumer: The customer may be price conscious and whenever he is offered the least priced brand, he is lured towards it. A customer may get a host of benefits from the new brand launched in the market as much as the brand which he was using so may try to experiment with the new one.
No doubt that, a brand always faces a tiff competition from the other brands in the market and suffers from the perils of downslide, so a marketer should keep an eye on his competitors’ brands. And, a marketer should capitalize on his brand by offering a unique set of propositions to maintain his brand loyalists.
Marketers have long courted young consumers based on the age-old wisdom that brand loyalties are formed early in life and dictate our purchases at retail for decades to come. The older we get, the less experimental we are, marketers have assumed. Younger consumers have the exclusive on being open-minded about brands, right?
In some categories, that's true, according to recent Roper surreys, but on the whole, the relationship between brand loyalty and age has been vastly overstated. In reality, it is not one's age that dictates consumer choice, but rather one's experience. And experience teaches us not just to become "creatures of habit." Instead, we also learn to ask the right questions and look for proof of claims; it enables us to examine life from a broader perspective. Sometimes experience makes us more experimental. Moreover, brand loyalty varies more by category than by age, depending on such factors as the number of brands in a category, the range of price points and the real/perceived differences among brands.
In fact, different patterns of brand loyalty--our tendency to regularly buy one favorite brand in a category--emerge in different product categories. Let's start, for example, with household cleaning products. Yes, consumers 60 years and older are more likely to have one favorite brand of countertop cleanser than those aged 18 to 29, but only 10 percentage points more likely. And even among older consumers, barely 3-out-of-10 has one favorite brand. There is still plenty of room for brand switching.
Now, let's turn to the health and beauty aid category, specifically to brands of shampoo and deodorant. Here, on an interesting note, brand loyalty drops off with age. Fifty-six percent of 18- to 29-year-olds has one favorite brand of deodorant, compared with 46% of those 60 and over. Physical changes may cause people to rethink the products they have used all of their adult lives. Or, perhaps, HBA marketers have ignored the older market for so long that 60-plus consumers don't see as many products that are "for me."
In contrast, consumers experiment in their 20s, but settle into brand choices for a number of staple "pantry" items, for which levels of brand loyalty remain stable after age 30. This category includes a couple of the highest loyalty categories--mayonnaise and coffee. Brands in these categories do a good job of asserting their superiority and/or uniqueness among all but the least experienced and youngest adults. For example, only 37% of 18- to 29-year-olds usually buy one favorite brand of mayonnaise, compared with a much higher 55% of those aged 30 to 44, 53% of those 45 to 59 and 55% of those 60 and older.
Soft drinks are in a class by themselves. By far, the most loyal consumers are 18- to 29-year-olds. But marketers who spend all of their energy targeting the young are passing up another gold mine--the rest of the adult population. While the battle for younger consumers' soft-drink loyalty is worth the efforts, it is clear Americans don't remain loyal for life. Forty-five percent of 19- to 29-year-olds has one favorite carbonated soft drink brand. By the time Americans reach their 40s and 50s, their loyalty dwindles to 32%, and drops to 30% for those 60 and older. So, even if middle-aged Americans are not the primary consumers of soft drinks, they remain active in the category and also serve as the gatekeepers for their household, suggesting the need to broaden messaging beyond youth.
Just as consumers in many categories remain open-minded about brands, marketers must remain open-minded about consumers and the opportunity to attract them, at all ages, to brands. In an aging America, marketers will ignore this reality of brand loyalty at their own peril.
For a weak and volatile economy, it is prudent to consider customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is not loyalty to a discount or a deal. Brand loyalty is the customer’s trust that the brand will continue to deliver on its promise to the customer. Customer service is relationship marketing. When asked why they continue to purchase products or services from a particular company, 45 % of respondents said it’s because they have grown to trust the company’s products or services. 43% say that they believe the program causes them to purchase more from that brand. There are other ways of adding value to customer experiences, and every company needs to determine what kind of a loyalty program works best for its kind of customer. When sales are soaring customer loyalty does not seem to be important, but solidifying your customer base in good times as well as bad is fundamentally sound business strategy. A product is a blend of multiple features which is positioned and distinguished by way of some special offering to establish it as a brand. And, if a customer is loyal towards a particular brand, it means a product has fulfilled all the requirements of a customer and satisfying a customer translates the brand into a pivotal product to lend the organization the leading edge over its competitors. The brand loyalists have the power to make or break the image of a brand by word of mouth publicity. Any brand in the market thrives or survives based on its effective usage by the customer. Since the advertising for a brand has taken off new dimensions with online advertising tools as one of the potent mediums, the end user has evolved with time immemorial and hence it has become rather difficult to prevent the customer from brand switching. The brands that have been continuously nurtured and innovated over a period of time has been the insistent choice of a consumer.
Types of loyals
The Hard Core loyalists: Who is keen to buy one single brand every time.
Soft Core loyalists: A consumer is loyal to 2-4 brands at a time.
Shifting loyalists: Although a consumer is loyal towards a brand, but may keep shifting from one brand to another and keep coming back to the first brand towards which he was loyal.
Switchers: Who always are on the lookout for a new brand. Perhaps here the consumer tries to experiment with new brands each time and also he may switch over because of pricing or some other reasons.
Here are the main Key constituents on the Brand Loyalty:
Customer’s set of logical and emotional conditioning: Even though a brand may not be doing well in the market and might be having few customers, a brand occupies a place in the customer’s mind by continuous advertising using all the available mediums existing today. Today, a lot of viral marketing techniques have been utilized in order to create brand awareness and maintain brand loyalty.
Good Relationship with the customer: Once the brand has been used by the customer, the organization focuses on establishing and maintaining a cordial relationship with the customer by the use of emails, direct mails or telephone. And the essence of this relationship is brand loyalty.
Leveraging a brand by offering brand extensions : Either the brand extensions or the line extensions are introduced in order to keep up with the customer loyalty. For example, a detergent like Rin was expanded by extensions to its brand name, like Rin Advanced and Rin washing powder.
Rebranding by offering a different marketing mix: The brand may often be delivered into a new packaging form. For example, under the category of fast food, Maggi was offered in a new packaging form. Earlier it was available in a single packing form, later was reintroduced in the market in a double packing form. Often the price may be reduced by offering the brand through a scheme which would entail the brand being packaged in a set of 3-4 and deducting the overall price. For e.g. most of the soaps are today being offered in a pack of 2-3 or 4.
Brands supporting a good cause: There are consumers who would like to remain attached to a brand which supports social cause or any other good cause for the betterment of the general public. For example, the Kingfisher Airlines floated by Vijay Mallya swayed the Indians by sponsoring the cricket T20 match.
Now, the important thing to note is in what situations, a customer is not brand loyal.
Here are some of the vicarious situations under which a customer is unlikely to purchase one single brand all the time:
Non-availability of a product: At times, a customer may switch over to a different brand because of locational constraints like the non-availability of a product in certain locations due to which a customer may buy another brand.
Non-conformity with the latest fad/trend: Apple has launched 3G iphones to budge or transform the customer from the earlier mobile phone applications to the latest introduction which is sure to appeal the customer. So, the companies which innovate ad infinitum are sure to remain there is the market for a long time as well as retain their existing customers. At the same time also build up new customers.
The congregation of options available to a consumer: The customer may be price conscious and whenever he is offered the least priced brand, he is lured towards it. A customer may get a host of benefits from the new brand launched in the market as much as the brand which he was using so may try to experiment with the new one.
No doubt that, a brand always faces a tiff competition from the other brands in the market and suffers from the perils of downslide, so a marketer should keep an eye on his competitors’ brands. And, a marketer should capitalize on his brand by offering a unique set of propositions to maintain his brand loyalists.
Marketers have long courted young consumers based on the age-old wisdom that brand loyalties are formed early in life and dictate our purchases at retail for decades to come. The older we get, the less experimental we are, marketers have assumed. Younger consumers have the exclusive on being open-minded about brands, right?
In some categories, that's true, according to recent Roper surreys, but on the whole, the relationship between brand loyalty and age has been vastly overstated. In reality, it is not one's age that dictates consumer choice, but rather one's experience. And experience teaches us not just to become "creatures of habit." Instead, we also learn to ask the right questions and look for proof of claims; it enables us to examine life from a broader perspective. Sometimes experience makes us more experimental. Moreover, brand loyalty varies more by category than by age, depending on such factors as the number of brands in a category, the range of price points and the real/perceived differences among brands.
In fact, different patterns of brand loyalty--our tendency to regularly buy one favorite brand in a category--emerge in different product categories. Let's start, for example, with household cleaning products. Yes, consumers 60 years and older are more likely to have one favorite brand of countertop cleanser than those aged 18 to 29, but only 10 percentage points more likely. And even among older consumers, barely 3-out-of-10 has one favorite brand. There is still plenty of room for brand switching.
Now, let's turn to the health and beauty aid category, specifically to brands of shampoo and deodorant. Here, on an interesting note, brand loyalty drops off with age. Fifty-six percent of 18- to 29-year-olds has one favorite brand of deodorant, compared with 46% of those 60 and over. Physical changes may cause people to rethink the products they have used all of their adult lives. Or, perhaps, HBA marketers have ignored the older market for so long that 60-plus consumers don't see as many products that are "for me."
In contrast, consumers experiment in their 20s, but settle into brand choices for a number of staple "pantry" items, for which levels of brand loyalty remain stable after age 30. This category includes a couple of the highest loyalty categories--mayonnaise and coffee. Brands in these categories do a good job of asserting their superiority and/or uniqueness among all but the least experienced and youngest adults. For example, only 37% of 18- to 29-year-olds usually buy one favorite brand of mayonnaise, compared with a much higher 55% of those aged 30 to 44, 53% of those 45 to 59 and 55% of those 60 and older.
Soft drinks are in a class by themselves. By far, the most loyal consumers are 18- to 29-year-olds. But marketers who spend all of their energy targeting the young are passing up another gold mine--the rest of the adult population. While the battle for younger consumers' soft-drink loyalty is worth the efforts, it is clear Americans don't remain loyal for life. Forty-five percent of 19- to 29-year-olds has one favorite carbonated soft drink brand. By the time Americans reach their 40s and 50s, their loyalty dwindles to 32%, and drops to 30% for those 60 and older. So, even if middle-aged Americans are not the primary consumers of soft drinks, they remain active in the category and also serve as the gatekeepers for their household, suggesting the need to broaden messaging beyond youth.
Just as consumers in many categories remain open-minded about brands, marketers must remain open-minded about consumers and the opportunity to attract them, at all ages, to brands. In an aging America, marketers will ignore this reality of brand loyalty at their own peril.