Loyalty is not a four-letter word

brand loyalty

Brands crave loyalty. They engineer it into their offerings (think Apple ecosystem), they build brand awareness, design brand architecture, give brands meaning, build brand goodwill, create brand stories. Brand loyalty means that customer choice is so automatic that sometimes there is no choice at all. We just don’t realise it.

 Accountants even try and value brands…Get a life guys!

Great brands, built by the endless sweaty toil of marketeers and designers and honed by the real life execution of customer and operations teams, are  the seams of gold cherished, protected and relentlessly mined and exploited until they are exhausted. Build a glass-palace of brand loyalty and they will come….again and again.

It’s why Apple thrives, Bacardi and Coke is ordered without a moments thought at bars across the world, why Amazon sells us everything and why we always secretly know whether it is going to be Pepsi or Coke long before we reach for the door of the chiller cabinet. It’s the reason that we prefer a Hilton hotel, an Ibis, or a Marriott: Why we habitually choose Hertz or Avis.

 It helps if the product is fantastic. But it’s not a prerequisite.

So, this is about brands? No........ It’s about loyalty.

As humans we are loyal to that which rewards us, gives us comfort, delivers functionality, removes risk. We are not wired to always accept the thrill, or take the risk of trying something new. We tend to seek some comfort in doing what we have always done. It's why the barista is already tapping in my coffee order before I have said a thing and why welcoming faces utter the words "the usual?" as you approach the bar.

Build loyalty: Expect the flow of benefits.... higher prices, greater margins, barriers to competition, lock-ins.... Loyalty in the world of brands can be a one way street. Brands are rarely loyal to those same customers, unless in a heavily disguised self serving fashion.

But... can loyalty ever be a two way street? …..  That’s where we start to talk about people.

Once the accountants take our advice and give up trying to place a value on a brand, we all revert to the same truth … hackneyed maybe, but blindingly obvious… people are our best (and most valuable) asset. Every business in the world incorporates a variation of this truth somewhere in their values.  not all of them live it. For most businesses their people are the beating heart of the company.. From the CEO at the bottom of the inverted pyramid to the front line service team at the top.

We expect loyalty from our people. They should work hard, go the extra mile, be the embodiment of our business, care about customers, add value and never think of leaving us to go some place else. To some degree businesses use the same tricks as brands. Fear of trying something new, lock-ins, incentives to stay, lower salaries for the loyal. But the loyalty of people can be fragile and like a fine china vase, once broken it's hard to piece back together again.

What if loyalty was a two way street? What would happen if people stayed, not only because we treated then well, invested in them, and gave them a great environment to work in (these should be non negotiable in every business by the way). What if businesses were loyal to their people…..

When times are hard for them or us, what if we stayed with them:  Had their backs when adversity struck, looked after them in the lean times when they needed us…. Helped them to cope with life and family challenges.  Picked them up when they were down. …. To payback the times when we needed them. Then the depth of loyalty would be off the scale... because it was mutual.

What if we those pesky accountants could place a value on people loyalty. Well what they would find is that like many brands, a little investment can go a long way. So next time you get some loyalty from your people (which is every day) then give it back.

Because it’s the greatest investment you can make.