By Remy Raitt

Nick Terry, CEO of TMARC defines brand loyalty as; “the level of trust combined with a propensity to purchase the brand often as a first choice”.

Basically, Terry says it amounts to this; “The more I buy ‘you’ and use ‘you’, the more I want to buy ‘you’ again, plus I tell others about ‘you’.”

Why you need it

Brand loyalty brings good business. It’s almost as simple as that. Terry explains that with brand loyalty comes positive growth, sustainability, and “future proofing against the competition”.

“It extends the longevity of a brand’s life,” says Clive Evans, partner at The Strategy Department. “The more loyal consumers are to a brand the more they will encourage and tell others to buy the brand. The more loyal customers you have the higher the potential to make a higher margin.”

How it’s cultivated

Terry says the use of the words “I love” towards a brand normally indicates a high level of loyalty. But, just like in any other relationship, those words aren’t uttered off the bat.

Continuing on the theme of love or allegiance, Evans likens brand loyalty to a marriage; “It takes time and effort,” he says. “Marketing and advertising have a big role to play in building and creating the emotional connection. Again, like a marriage,” he continues.

Terry agrees that time is an essential part of the process. He adds that brand loyalty is cultivated “through consistent delivery of the brand promise, through innovation, through marketing, through meeting consumer needs, through good story telling and by staying relevant”.

Brand Marketing Integration’s Suzanne Vara says marketers need to ask themselves these questions; Socially, how does your product fit into the consumers development and why should it?; and Why should they want to be a part of your brand and what will they gain? She believes there are six ways to win brand loyalty; focus on what you do better than anyone else, create a sense of belonging for your consumers, be credible, be accessible, be connected by learning about your audience, and then continue exercising the previous five steps.

The brand loyalty crusaders

Building brand loyalty requires input from all corners of the company. “The marketing professionals are no doubt at the front of building brand loyalty,” says Terry. “But, let’s not for one minute forget that every other department contributes to the overall brand loyalty – the people in manufacturing who made it to the required specification, the people in sales who made sure it had a sufficient distribution base. Everyone needs to understand the role they play in building and maintaining brand loyalty.”

South African hits and misses

Both Evans and Terry agree that loyalty and rewards programmes are favoured by South African consumers. “Loyalty is about building for the long term, you’ve got to stay with it, you can't dive in and out and swop to and from - particularly in the world of sponsorships or reward programmes,” Evans says.

Programmes like Discovery’s Vitality and the Woolworths W Rewards are creating loyal customers through visible benefits, discounts and savings, and the alignment of customer and brand ideals.

Terry says brand loyalty programmes that are bound to fail will involve gimmicks, unmet promises and long timelines before the customer recognises the rewards.

Terry says it’s important to be critical of the brand loyalty programmes you put into play. “The job of any marketer is to sell more stuff to more people more often and that must include the loyalty programme. If it does that, then carry on, but if it doesn’t then stop immediately and do something else.”

What have you done to create brand loyalty? Tell us in the comments section below.