Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Brand Loyalty part one

I have to get on the stick and prepare a lecture on "Brand Loyalty" for my classes this coming semester. First time I've ever talked about it. I don't know why. Let me plead temporary cluelessness.

Why do marketers care about brand loyalty?
  • Because their companies spend loads of money on trademark prosecution. Consider this article from Wired magazine, which delineates the recent increase in trademarks applied for. The US Patent and Trademark Office is a busy place. Too busy.
  • Their companies also spend loads of money on trademark defense. And in recent years trademark defense has started to go off the deep end. This article from the LA Times is just one of many on the Smuckers peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich issue.
  • They perceive that a strong brand is worth obscene loads of money, though really strong brands are few.
William Shatner for Priceline, possibly with Leonard NimoySo what helps to maintain brand loyalty?
    Strong ad campaigns. Online travel is a market with room for many strong brands, it would seem. Nancy Wong Bryan writes about Travelocity and Expedia, for instance, and not long ago Priceline was stronger than either, behind spokesman William Shatner (pictured). His terrible singing was practically a brand in itself.
  • Multiple markets. Consider Virgin Galactic -- Richard Branson is gambling that your familiarity with his other Virgin services, and the probability of your being happy with those services, will make you remember Virgin first when it's time to take a ride into space.
  • The right mouthpiece. Consider Nike paying $90M for LeBron James to be its spokesman. (China banned this ad campaign. But that's another story.)
And what drives brand loyalty away?
  • Empty brands. Consider the letter to the editor of Wired, in which Tide's old claim of "gets dirt out" is compared to its recent claim of "works wonders." Rather than doing what it's supposed to do -- clean your laundry -- Tide now is trying to do what Ernest Angley does instead.
  • Large price increases. Especially with no improvement in product or service. Consider identical Hershey's milk chocolate bars -- except one is six ounces, the other seven. Which will be there a year from now?
  • The appearance of apathy toward customer concerns. Though Dow Chemical still admits no responsibility for the Bhopal accident -- and I can understand why they don't (it could lead to mammoth lawsuits if they did) -- they still post a "tribute" to Bhopal.

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posted by Ron @ 10:07 AM

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