Brand Loyalty is a term we use to describe consumer preference for a certain brand. In other words, when consumers prefer to buy a specific brand consistently. People will stick to a particular brand when considering some purchases. In fact, most of us do it for cheap goods like sweets and chocolates, and often for major purchases. It’s not uncommon for consumers to remain loyal to a single carmaker for decades.
Brand loyalty exists thanks to loyal customers. Brand loyalty usually takes many years to cultivate. In fact, it is worth gold!
The term is similar to habit buying. However, there is a slight difference. With habit buying, the consumer does not think about other brands much. The consumer with habitual buying behavior buys the same thing repeatedly due to a lack of dissatisfaction.
Although similar, the term has a different meaning from customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is much more about price and special offers.
Making and keeping a promise
Successful business owners say that building brand loyalty is about making a promise to people and delivering on it. In other words, if you make a promise and stick to it, you will get loyalty.
Above all, you must make sure that the consumer has a fantastic experience. It also involves connecting continuously with the customer. You need to do this to make sure you are doing the right things.
To be sure you are doing the right thing, you need to build up a database of your customers. It is crucial that you know who the customers are.
Additionally, you must know what they are thinking. Only then can you tailor your offering.
Your brand is the personality and image of your businesses’ products and services. It reflects how consumers perceive you.
Determining brand loyalty
You can determine brand loyalty by looking at consumer’s purchasing habits.
There are many reasons why people are loyal to a certain brand:
- They may not want to go through a decision process again.
- The brand provides excellent customer satisfaction. It may also provide unparalleled customer service.
- Consumers have a feeling of commitment to the brand.
- Some people are not keen to risk trying out something new. In other words, they are risk averse.
- Sometimes individuals buy the same brands simply out of convenience. We call this spurious loyalty.
However, true brand loyalty exists when consumers are willing to pay higher prices for a brand. True brand loyalty also exists when customers go out of their way for the brand. They do this because they think highly of the brand.
Companies benefit greatly from loyal consumers. Not only are customers willing to pay more for the brand, but they also improve its image through word of mouth. Word of mouth subsequently brings in more customers.
Coca-Cola’s brand loyalty
One of the best examples of a super brand is Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola brand has a strategic edge over the competition because of brand loyalty.
In 2024, Coca-Cola was ranked among the most valuable brands in the world, with a value of nearly $61.2 billion – not including company distribution, bottling, and manufacturing facilities.
The Coca-Cola brand is worth tens of billions of dollars partly because of brand loyalty. It has managed to develop and sustain brand loyalty because:
- Coca-Cola has been available for over a century. This long period gives satisfied customers a chance to buy their products again.
- The brand has symbols for consumers to link to past satisfaction. ‘Symbols’ refers to the bottle design, logos, etc.
- Through advertising, Coca-Cola reinforces and reminds consumers of their past satisfaction with the brand.
- These factors, among others, instill a positive image of Coca-Cola among consumers.
Successful brand loyalty is about maintaining the interest of consumers.
The most valuable brand in the world is Apple, with a brand value of over $480 billion. In fact, in 2024, the four most valuable brands were all of tech companies.
Brand ambassadors
Companies with a large, loyal customer base also cultivate brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are consumers who will market a specific brand. In other words, they will say nice things about it to their friends.
Nearly everybody has a relative, friend, or work colleague who swears by Apple products. Apple brand ambassadors are forever praising the company as well as its founder the late Steve Jobs.
Today, they also praise the company’s current CEO Tim Cook. Furthermore, all its brand ambassadors praise what the whole Apple company stands for.
Brand ambassadors are examples of word-of-mouth marketing. This is marketing that costs no money. Brand ambassadors contribute considerably to a company’s sales.
Brand loyalty – a business priority
An article in Bloomberg Businessweek –The Importance of ‘Brand Humanity’ for Customer Loyalty – highlights the importance of brand loyalty in pushing companies to success.
When brands give the impression that their goal is to make money, customers are less likely to trust it.
For a brand to enjoy healthy brand loyalty, it has to prove that its priorities include individual customer relationships.
Lifelong brand loyalty
From the day we are born, adverts that convey a feeling of happiness and fun target us. We first hear messages about food products and toys. Many of these ads influence us for the rest of our lives.
According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Arizona and Stony Brook University, lifelong brand loyalty is indeed pervasive. As they explain, “Our research provides an initial investigation into how exposure to ads in childhood can lead to enduring biases that favor products associated with the ads once the kids grow up,” highlighting how early advertising experiences can have a lasting impact on consumer preferences.
Market Attrition occurs when brand loyalty erodes due to the absence of effective promotions. We also call it customer turnover, customer attrition, customer defection, and customer churn.