In an ideal world, all your customers would be loyal to your brand. Loyalty means a customer is willing to come back to your brand for multiple purchases and experiences, forgoing your competitors’ — even if those competitors are offering lower prices or similar incentives.
Some studies (and opinions) suggest that brand loyalty is a concept that’s dying; for example, 79 percent of the millennials polled in one survey ranked quality as their most important purchasing decision, rather than the name brand involved. In this current “Information Age,” where information on thousands of competitor products is instantly available, it’s no wonder that so many people believe brand loyalty is on its way out.
But that’s not the final word, apparently, because other evidence suggests that brand loyalty is as strong as it’s ever been: Fully 77 percent of consumers in one survey, for instance, said they return to the same brands over and over again, with 37 percent of them qualifying as “brand loyalists” — the segment of customers who will stay true to a brand even if offered a superior product from a competitor.
So, if you go with the latter research, what are the psychological factors that might be responsible for this overwhelming manifestation of loyalty?
Novelty
First, there needs to be some degree of novelty to catch consumer attention. The world is full of different brands similar to yours; therefore, if you want a shot at winning a new customer, you either have to offer a product that’s never been offered before, or make a compelling, persuasive pitch that can potentially attract loyalists from other existing brands.
On top of that, novelty is linked to stronger memories, which, upon repeated customer exposure, can instill familiarity and positive feelings.
Brand loyalty doesn’t depend on novelty to sustain itself, but it is a necessary first ingredient.
Associations and positive reinforcement
Much of human psychology is built around the concept of associations; when we eat something sweet, we experience a release of feel-good chemicalsm like dopamine; that way, we learn to associate sweet foods with a pleasant…
