What you’ve been taught about brand loyalty is wrong.
Why? Because the consumer behaviors that marketers call brand loyalty are not the result of a deep-seated love of your brand. They’re really not that into you.
What we perceive as brand loyalty is actually the result of consumers seeking a low risk, easy solution. In fact, the human brain is engineered to be that way.
Why is this so dangerous? Because it means your customers are at a higher risk of being stolen away than you think. Let me try to slightly shift your paradigm so that you’ll be a more effective marketer.
Paradigm Shift #1: Brand Loyalty as Risk Mitigation
Instead of an attitudinal preference, what if you considered brand loyalty to be a buying strategy, as much as anything else, that consumers use to mitigate risk?
Trying a new brand or product involves risk. What if I don’t like it? What if my hard earned money is wasted? What if it isn’t an equal or better substitute to my current brand or product?
This is the very reason that promotional offers, such as coupons or introductory rates, are so commonly used to induce trial. Without an added incentive, the risk outweighs the value. A coupon lowers the financial risk or commitment so that the value proposition feels strong enough to at least try the product.
Paradigm Shift #2: Brand Loyalty as Habit
The human brain turns routinized activities into a subconscious process as quickly as possible. Active thinking is strenuous. We form habits so that we can set ourselves to auto pilot and avoid active thinking.
It’s like when you show up at work and barely remember driving there. Those habits allow us to move through a grocery store quickly and efficiently. We set ourselves on auto pilot and buy what we always buy (thinking that we are in control).
We look like loyal customers and kind of act like loyal customers, but we aren’t really loyal customers. Our subconscious habits dictate what we buy – not an emotional attachment.
The Implication: Focus on Penetration
The bad news is that your customers switch more frequently and easily than you probably realize. The good news is that your competitors’ customers switch more frequently and easily than they probably realize.
In other words, much of the market is up for grabs at any given time. So focus on penetration. Keep going after new customers. Catch all of the switchers. And accept that your customers are switching too.