Brand and Brand Loyalty

Brand and Brand Loyalty

What is a brand?

A distinguishing symbol, mark, logos, name, word, sentence or a combination of these items that companies use to distinguish their product from others (SlideShare, 2012).

A brand is a name or symbol which identifies a product. A successful brand identifies a product as having sustainable, competitive advantage (McDonald, 1999).

A brand is not just a physical product but a relationship with the customer, a relationship that is personified either by the company’s name or by brand name on the product itself. ICI, IBM, BMW and Shell are examples of company brand names. Persil, Coca – Cola, Foster Lager, Dulux paint and Castrol GTX are examples of product brand names.

Most people are aware of the Coca – Cola/Pepsi – Cola blind taste test in which little difference was perceived when the colas were drunk ‘blind’. On revealing the labels, 65 per cent of consumers claimed to prefer Coca – Cola. Consumers who drunk Coca – Cola on a regular basis (brand loyalty) would be able to differentiate between Coca – Cola and Pepsi Cola (McDonald, 1999).

Brand Loyalty

In Marketing, brand loyalty refers to a consumers’ commitment to repurchase or continue using a particular brand by repeatedly buying a product or service (SlideShare, 2012).

Brand Awareness is the likelihood that consumers recognise the existence and availability of a company’s product or service (SlideShare, 2012).

Brand Equity is the value premium that a company realises from a product with a recognisable name as compared to its generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity for their product by making them memorable, easily recognisable and superior in quality and reliability. Marketing campaigns can also help to create brand equity (SlideShare, 2012).

How companies build brand loyalty?

There are a number of steps to building brand loyalty:

Step 1 – Focus on your customers

Building your business around your customers – known as brand lovers – instead of aimlessly drive sales. Apple is masterful at creating products especially for customers who love style, creativity and simplicity.

Step 2 – Listen to your customers

Listen to what your customers tell you, don’t be a transaction – making machine. Be a real person to serve your business to real people. Care about your customers and they might care about your business. For example, Southwest Airlines isn't just another airlines to its loyal customers who perceive Southwest as the ‘heart of the sky’.

Step 3 – Understand what makes your customers tick

Learn how customers think, fell and behave towards your brand this will build brand loyalty. Talk to your customers, read their comments about your company and your products on the web, read blog posts and most importantly listen to what your customers are saying.

Step 4 – Determine why your customers choose you

Why are your customers buying from you instead of your competitors? Knowing the answer to that question can define the future of your business and the level of brand loyalty you cultivate. Understand what drives your customer’s choices isn't easy as you need to know what motivates customer’s buying decisions.

Step 5 – Be relentless in giving the best service

Give loyal customers plenty of reasons to stay with you and minimise any reasons for your customers to use other competitors. Push your business, to continually find ways to make your customers’ lives easier and better. Brands like Amazon.com and Netflix are constantly finding ways to enhance the customer experience by refining algorithms to recommend products and movies their customers will enjoy.

Step 6 – Find ways to surprise your customers

Do something extraordinary and unexpected for your customers. Give your customers something worth talking about and word of mouth will happen naturally. For example, online retailer Zappos is masterful at producing the wow factor and providing free, surprise upgrades to overnight delivery, random gifts and hand – written notes to their customers.

Step 7 – Focus on what your brand does best

Be bold and unique, differentiate your brand around your strengths. Ritz Carlton is a hotels of ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Volkswagen Beetle has built a distinctive brand around a special little car.

Step 8 – Deliver on your brand’s promise

First, determine what your brand stand for, then become relentless in your dedication to deliver on your brand promise each and every day. Harley – Davidson customers love the free of the open road and the brand promises that freedom. Oprah stands for empowerment, hope, and the promise of a better tomorrow.

Source: (The cult branding company, 2013).

In conclusion, brand and brand loyalty is important to gain customers and keep them, the more recognised a brand is, the quality of products and services and the experience a customer gains from your company will keep customers coming back for more. Follow a few simple steps can help to improve a better connection with customers.

References:

McDonald, M. (1999). Marketing Plans (4th ed.). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

SlideShare. (2012). Brand Loyalty. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/jonsut/brand-loyalty-13975898.

The cult branding company. (2013). Eight Steps to Building Brand Loyalty. Retrieved from http://cultbranding.com/ceo/eight-steps-building-brand-loyalty/. 

Build your own Mercedes – Benz GLA on Instagram

In 2014, Mercedes – Benz USA said it was taking vehicle customisation “one step further” by bringing the experience to Instagram via the handle @GLA_Build_Your_Own, which allowed Instagram users to build their own version of the luxury SUV with a few simple taps in the app.

Instagram users just had to search for the user @GLA_Build_Your_Own and tap the image to start. With 132 possible combinations, users could choose the colour, wheels, roof and grille. Once users had completed building their dream Mercedes, an image of their vehicle would appear with a message “Take this pic to your local Mercedes – Benz dealer to get started”.

In order to build the experience, the brand created hundreds of Instagram accounts, uploaded more than a thousand images, in order to target “digitally savvy constituency” meaning targeting a group of customers who support or who are likely to support something and customers who own high – tech such as IPhones and IPads. The campaign targets consumers who engage in internet activities including social media.

Mercedes’ GLA model launched in September 2014, Mercedes calls it “the success of” it #GLAPacked Instagram Campaign. According to Mark Aikman, department manager of digital marketing and CRM for Mercedes – Benz USA, that ‘success’ refers in part to the influencers who helped Mercedes flesh out the campaign including Pro golfer Rickie Fowler who helped the brand reach “ a tremendous number of people through their own channels”.

Mr. Aikman said “that would be one of the big successes we saw – people learning about cars and talking about cars”.

This campaign worked for a number of reasons: it’s was a great way to reach the target audience, it involved the idea of a familiar build your own web tool, it worked because it tells a visual story and because it allows buyers to essentially vision their own vehicle giving this campaign a personal touch. The campaign allows customers to interact and be involved in building their own car giving it a personalised touch.

http://www.momentology.com/2465-mercedes-is-using-instagram-to-woo-generation-y/

Coca-Cola: Small World Machines

'What unites us is stronger than what sets us apart

Coca – Cola seems to do some of the most creative advertising campaigns ever seen. What makes it even more rewarding is that it’s all about spreading happiness. Coca – Cola wanted to do something that would bring to life the brand’s beliefs in a real and tangible way.

In 2013, Coca – Cola made a campaign called “Small World Machines”, which provided live communications portal between people in India and Pakistan and showed that what unites us is strong than what sets us apart. The aim of this campaign was to engage people with each other through the machines by performing simple tasks, like touching hands, drawing peace, love and happiness symbols – together.

Coca – Cola partnered with Leo Burnett to produce this inspiring film and campaign. They set up two vending machines in two popular shopping malls in Lahore, Pakistan and New Delhi, India – two cities separated by only 325 miles, but seemingly worlds apart due to decades of political tension.

The campaign was meant to help bring together two strangers to share a moment and break the borders. Coke and Leo Burnett used first – of – its – kind 3D touchscreen technology to capture a live emotional exchange. The technology resembled the act of looking into a full – length webcam, face to face with another person. At the same time, people were encouraged to interact with the touchscreen animation. The campaign used emotions as the base of storytelling, creates meaningful role for products to play in every piece of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications).

10,000 people attended the live event and created 700 connections across the borders. The campaign reached more than 18 million Facebook and Twitter users. The video accomplished nearly 3 million Youtube views and counting. The campaign received 4,860 unique mentions on online outlets such as websites, TV broadcasts, blogs and forums. This helped increase Coca – Cola’s brand awareness and enhance Coca – Cola brand equity in the view of the public respective countries.

“The people of Pakistan and India share a lot of common passions and interests – from food and Bollywood movies, to Coke Studio music, to cricket,” said Saad Pall, Assistant Brand Manager for Coca-Cola in Pakistan. “What this project did was connect people who are not exposed to each other on a daily basis, enabling the common man in Lahore to see and interact with the common man in Delhi. It’s a small step we hope will signal what’s possible.”

Aldridge, G. (2013, June 07). THE BIG STORY BEHIND COKE’S SMALL WORLD MACHINES [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/the-big-story-behind-cokes-small-world-machines/. 

'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE

Starbucks: Sensory Marketing

Starbucks is the world's largest chain of coffee shops, with roughly 40 million visitors per day. A visit to Starbucks is more than just a cup of coffee. Starbucks uses a sensory marketing framework to create a deeper and more personal relationship with its customers. This is achieved by involving all five human senses, to offer the customer the total Starbucks sensory experience.

In 1980, Starbucks developed a strategy for creating and delivering a sensory experience to consumers as a way to strengthen the brand. 

The green and yellow interior, with pleasant lighting provides a relaxing visual experience. The music is carefully selected with precision to create the 'sound of Starbucks'. The sound of a coffee being prepared, the sound of the coffee machine and the pleasing sound of coffee beans. The human nose can identify and recall as many as 10,000 scents and 75 percent of human emotions are generated by what we smell. Coffee is known for it's delicious aroma, so Starbucks made sure that the smell was strong enough to draw customers in, as smell dominates your senses. Starbucks even stopped serving breakfasts because the smell of the eggs interfered with the smell of the fresh grinded coffee.

The success of Starbucks is due to the use of good sensory marketing. Starbucks creates memorable moments which relates to a customer's senses and naturally these senses are stored in the customers memory. Using all human senses makes a Starbucks experience hard to forget.