Brand loyalty is extremely powerful and a topic that is worth exploring in depth.
But firstly, let me just say that I am aware that the woman in the above photograph looks like she’s had way too much coffee. However, because she is a great example of a happy customer, I just had to include her in an article about brand loyalty.
We all know the kinds of businesses that have achieved brand loyalty with us. They’re the ones we get emails from and never hit unsubscribe on, even if we don’t often read the emails, because we like being associated with such businesses.
Not only do each of us keep coming back to the brands that we’re loyal to and keep spending money with them, we’re not highly concerned with the price of what we’re buying from such businesses when we do buy from them.
Even better, we continuously refer everyone in our network to them.
Brand loyalty means that we preference such businesses above other businesses continuously, and even if economic conditions are super tight and we have to spend less than normal, we’ll still spend at such businesses. Sarah Little comments on this stickiness, and how clients and customers prefer to stay with brands they’re loyal to in her Forbes article The Importance of Brand Loyalty to Commodity Product or Service Businesses. This is the reason that these businesses endure through pretty much anything, and achieve exponential sales when the economy swings around again.
And do you know what the most awesome thing is?
Brand loyalty in essence is a result of just one thing: strong business values.
As the American country and western singer Aaron Tippin says in his famous song:
I absolutely love this song for two reasons.
The first is that when I was younger I wandered around in life with little idea of what I stood for and what I wanted.
As a result, I did indeed fall for anything.
And falling for anything gave me awful results in every area of my life.
I would not recommend this to my worst enemy.
However, once I got clear on what I stood for and what I wanted, my life immediately became so much happier and so much better in every way.
The second reason I love the song is that I’ve seen time and time again how strong values do the same thing for businesses. They create stronger, more productive and better businesses. They create the kind of businesses that demonstrate absolutely unshakeable brand loyalty over the long term.
1. How Brand Loyalty Comes From Strong Business Values
The values of a business are of course its core, in the same way as the values of a human being are at a person’s core.
Values govern everything the business does, and how the business does it.
While the world is full of noise, most things in business and in life boil down to key principles that endure regardless of surface level changes in the way we do business (and in the way we do life).
Business values really are like the roots that anchor a tall tree and that keep it strong and steady, despite the strongest winds.
Consumers know that their money is powerful. None of us have to spend our money anywhere, so we will use discretion and choice in selecting which businesses we support.
Personally, I want to know if the business I support is as locally owned as possible so that I support the local economy when I buy from them, simply because this means that my money will come back to benefit me in the long term. I also want to buy from businesses that have demonstrated solid values in the way they go about what they do. This shows me that a business cares about the role it has to play in the world we’re currently living in and creating for future generations.
A good example of such a business is the Toodyay Bakery in the heart of Toodyay, Western Australia. I’m lucky because I live only 30 minutes from this divine bakery. This professionally run and presented business provides quality bakery products and consistently good service. The business also cares about the rural community it operates within. So when our government decided to ban live sheep exports on a whim because of governmental failure to oversee the industry effectively in the early days, the Toodyay Bakery recognised that the loss of the live sheep export industry was going to have a huge impact on local agricultural businesses and local jobs. As a result, the business proudly displayed a Keep the Sheep sign above the front counter and donated bread rolls to the Keep the Sheep rally in Perth. I love the consistently high standard of this business’ products and the quality service they offer when I drop in. I also love businesses that are prepared to stand for something and that care about the communities they operate in, and you betcha, I’m damn loyal to this brand. And this is not only because I’m a fat greedy piglet.
Another key benefit of strong and unwavering business values is that they attract clients, customers and employees who align with those values. These are of course great clients and customers to work with. Not only does working with such clients make life so much more enjoyable, you’ll also be supporting such clients and customers in their success, which represents the most beautiful combination of business energy in the world.
2. Brand Loyalty Needs a Strong Service Ethos
Happily, a strong service ethos tends to automatically comes out of strong business values.
This is because if you know what you stand for and you care about what is right in terms of how you treat other people, you’ll deliver strong service consistently, time and time again.
Without even thinking about it.
However, a strong and consistent service ethos is important in its own right because it acts as the glue that binds clients and customers to a business and as a result it is a key ingredient in brand loyalty. The Cuker Agency comments on the importance of great customer service in their fabulous article 10 Things That Will Make Customers Love Your Brand.
3. Brand Loyalty Means Being Willing to Do Your Own Thing if Necessary
None of us want to be served up the same old shit as we’re served up everywhere else.
However let me be clear, I don’t mean that businesses need to invent a brand new product in order to achieve brand loyalty (though they most certainly can if they choose to). Quite the opposite.
Most businesses that achieve brand loyalty supply goods and services in the same way as other businesses, but they’re not afraid to do things their own way when they need to.
For example, I know a great Western Australian business that is a café, general store, restaurant/pub, as well as an instore and online farm merchandise store in the wheatbelt of WA, because that’s what the business’ community needs. The business has rock solid values, an exceptional service ethos, and supports local community and sporting groups. It has achieved spectacular levels of brand loyalty and is a significant employer in the area.
Businesses that achieve brand loyalty are focused on serving their clients and customers well and doing things their own way in order to do so, rather than wasting time either worrying about or trying to emulate the competition.
If you need copywriting that helps you create and grow brand loyalty for the long term, fill in my contact form or give me a call.
© Annemaree Jensen