Exploring the connection between branding and customer loyalty

In today's competitive environment, to achieve long-term success, every business should remember two words: branding and loyalty. Branding is about creating a unique identity that sets you apart from your competitors and also it is one of the key elements of forming customer loyalty.

According to the research, it is believed that customers have a profound influence on a company's success. It is worth noting that its quality and satisfaction are definitely causing organizations and researchers to be concerned for them becoming the lynch pin of any organizations and an effective protection against competitors. The satisfaction is gained when an organization has a thorough understanding and fulfills customers' needs and wants. After that, the intention to repurchase the product it used to use has increased significantly. On the contrary, if a brand fails to retain its credibility and customer satisfaction, then there will be almost no future acquisition.

In this article you will explore the connection between Branding and Customer Loyalty and learn how to build a strong brand strategy for your business.

There is one common mistake that marketers and business owners often make: they make almost every effort to create the perfect product or service, while putting the brand image on the back burner. However, the quality of your product is not always the number one reason why a consumer can make a purchase. Of course, this is important, but in many cases it is your brand image that will encourage customers to stay here, make repeat purchases and tell their friends and relatives about it.

A brand is a well–formed and well-established set of associations that arises at the mention of one company name, product, or even territory. An association can be anything: pictures, sounds, smells, tastes, social status, lifestyle, style of dress, manner of communication, event, and so on.

For example, which associations do you have when you hear something about Tesla? - Premium electric vehicles and Elon Musk, I guess. And what about the invitation to "Taste the Rainbow"? It's likely one of the first things consumers think of the Skittles.

If you have problems with branding effectiveness try detuning from competitors. These are marketing campaigns or brand positioning in such a way as to stand out from other companies and attract consumer attention.

For example:

The Unilever brand used an "out of trend" positioning. As a rule, the heroes of advertising companies are successful, attractive people. Therefore, in 2016, Unilever launched advertising brands with the participation of ordinary women: thin, full, non-standard. This allowed us to increase the volume of business by 30% faster than planned.

Ikea is a recognized leader among companies that offer comprehensive solutions. There you can find a table, a chair, and a carpet that match each other in style. Buying at Ikea, everyone feels like an interior designer, because all the things from the same product line are perfect for each other. Perhaps that is why the number of Ikea stores exceeds 470, and 822 million customers visit them every year – that's every 9 people on the planet.

According to Edelman, 81% of consumers say they need to trust the brand whose products they buy. And as practice shows, more often people buy products of familiar brands.

We perceive brands as tools. With their help, we solve the problem, realize the functional qualities of the product. And an emotional task — we want to stand out in society, we want to feel pleasure, security, protection, and so on.

Companies should have a significant advantage over other market participants. Loyalty allows brands to have a permanent customer base that repeatedly selects various products and services. These benefits include:

• Repeat purchases mean sales growth for the company, and sales growth means profit growth.
• Competitors' marketing strategies are less likely to attract loyal customers.
• Brand loyalty provides a competitive advantage in the market.
• If brand loyalty is high, the company will face repeated purchases of its products by customers.
• Free brand advertising at the expense of satisfied, loyal customers. Customers promote products by word of mout

To increase brand recognition and promote it, companies can turn customers into brand ambassadors. It is a much different process. First, companies should know who their customers are. Then to form brand loyalty, you need to keep in mind three key elements: be authentic, engage your customers, provide social proof.

Brand ambassadors are a real way to attract potential customers, and they are best suited to achieve this goal. The way this is achieved is simple. Ambassadors promote and represent the brand, attract new customers and are rewarded with free goods, discounts and exclusive opportunities. Discounts encourage ambassadors to buy more products, increasing both lifetime value and brand loyalty.

Brand perception is a set of feelings, experiences and thoughts of the consumer that are associated with the company's product or service. This is what people think a brand is, not how it positions itself.

If customers perceive the brand positively, they become more loyal to it. It is no coincidence that Apple and Android fans are fighting in disputes about which brand is better. A person who wears Nike shoes usually does not wear Adidas. And it probably won't be easy to find Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the same refrigerator.

Customer experience is, first of all, interaction. It is based on the idea that every interaction between you and your customers helps to form a common impression and an emotional connection with your business. This connection contributes to customer retention and long-term business growth.

Every time a consumer or customer contacts your brand, the experience must meet their expectations - this ensures that their perception of you will be positive. Positive customer perception can influence whether your customers believe that your values are similar to theirs, and whether they can trust your brand to meet their needs. This may affect whether customers return for new purchases or choose a competitor.

The first impression of the product is created thanks to attractive and appropriate packaging, which has a significant impact on the perception of the buyer. Properly selected branding and packaging attract the attention of potential consumers. Based on the packaging of the product, customers have an idea about it.

One of the ways to increase customer loyalty is a brand story. It helps customers understand who you are and why your business exists. When customers know why, they are more likely to contact your brand and buy your products. Customers who feel connected to you and who like your product are more likely to become loyal customers.

Example:

The founder of Topical grew up not seeing her skin type in TV commercials and advertisements. This led her to believe that her skin, which is not related to the "ideal" skin type, is not perfect. The brand was built on this experience, and the interpretation of its history is given below.

The state of affairs:

Hundreds of brands offer skin care products and advertise them to people who want to improve their skin care.

The problem:

Millions of people use advertised skin care products, but most commercials describe specific skin types or skin color, which leads to unrealistic expectations of viewers about their skin.

Decision:

Thanks to a scientifically proven product line offering consumers superior skin care products and paying special attention to mental health, viewers will learn that there is no "ideal" skin type or skin model and that good skin only means that a person feels comfortable in their skin.

3 loyalty indicators - customer satisfaction, the likelihood of a recommendation, and the likelihood of a repeat purchase - may depend on how the customer perceives you.

There are 5 key strategies that will help you to build a brand loyalty:

1. Communicate with consumers and act on feedback

Social networks are a great tool for building relationships with potential and existing customers. These channels of constant and consistent communication with consumers are a great way to build loyalty. For example, digital communities such as LinkedIn and Facebook groups and forums are a great place to interact and discuss topics of interest to users. Make sure you're acting on their feedback.

2. Create your brand image

It's all about understanding your brand's values, following them, and finding the right target audience that sees your brand's purpose and content appealing. Results from a survey show that 84.3% of customers agree that if a brand's values align with theirs, they are more likely to become loyal.

3. Be authentic

One of the best ways to build loyalty among customers is to fulfill their promises and sincerity. In this case, customers will understand what they can get from your company and feel confident enough to buy from you.


4. Use a CRM to Help Increase Customer Loyalty for Your Business

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management - the main purpose is to increase customer satisfaction and improve their service in your company. CRM allows you to better understand the target customer base, its main problems and requirements.

5. Turn Customers Into Brand Advocates Through Referrals

Customers like to mention great products to their friends, and what could be better to encourage those action? According to the Nelson report, 83% of people say they trust product recommendations received from family members, friends and colleagues. If you encourage customers who recommend your brand to others, then they will become your loyal supporters, and eventually everyone will benefit from it.

Nowadays companies have had to come up with innovative ideas and a fresh approach to achieving greater customer satisfaction. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, and big data, are just some of the technologies that businesses have begun to make excellent use of, and include in their strategies to build and maintain customer loyalty.

One of the approvements of technology importance is that technology helps companies get to know their clients better. The right technologies allow companies to collect, analyze and process large amounts of information about their customers. In this sense, advanced analytics and big data technologies help companies gain valuable insights by processing large amounts of data in real time and gaining a clear understanding of how customers interact with their brands.

Also businesses can use technologies to enhance customer support and customer experience. For example, chatbots based on artificial intelligence are used to provide round-the-clock support to consumers, allowing them to receive answers to questions and help in solving various problems at any time of the day or night, which is very appreciated by customers.

Artificial intelligence-based digital assistants can provide consumers with personalized product offers and recommendations, which leads to increased sales and, of course, to strengthening the relationship between brands and customers.

Another technology that companies should pay attention to is virtual reality. This technology can radically change the way consumers interact with companies, helping them to establish emotional contact with customers. As an example, let's look at how virtual reality helps customers make purchases. Buyers can virtually try on clothes and accessories, see how furniture fits into their home, and even get virtual help in real time.

Personalization

The task of the brand is how to develop programs that identity differences between customers and respond to them. The data provided by the user will help in this. Brands can track users' in-chain data to gain insight into their transactions, or use interactive data collection methods such as questionnaires, surveys and quizzes to encourage users to provide "zero data", starting with basic data such as name and email address, and ending with more detailed information such as interests.

Gamification

It has been proven that the inclusion of game design dynamics in your loyalty program increases engagement and attractiveness for young customers.

Reward customers for performing certain actions (completing quests, inviting a friend), award different membership levels, create leaderboards to raise the competitive spirit and encourage people to share their achievements on social networks.

Community

By creating a strong community, your most loyal customers become your best advocates and ambassadors. You can improve your loyalty program by offering exclusive benefits and activities to community members, or open access to the community in a playful way by earning certain achievement badges.

Interoperability

This is the most important achievement of Web 3. It is about genuine data interaction between brands and other stakeholders. Brands now have the opportunity to transform isolated communities and loyalty programs into loyalty ecosystems where complementary brands and authors collaborate and improve each other, resulting in an improved end user experience. In other words, supporting multi-user loyalty means attracting new creators and additional brands with their own engaged audience, which expands the overall targeted market for brands.

If you're looking to build customer loyalty for your business, developing a strong brand identity is essential. A well-thought-out brand helps to create a unique image of the company that will be associated with its products or services, can evoke emotions and create an emotional connection with customers. This emotional connection is the key to building customer loyalty and increasing sales over time.