The number one proof of Brand loyalty is repeat purchases. Customers are Brand loyalists when they keep coming back for your goods / services. Some even pass down the loyalty to their children, friends, relatives and every other persons they can influence. They often become Brand advocates.
There is a tendency for Brand owners at this stage to want to relax and become complacent;after all they have amassed a good number of Brand loyalists, the figures are looking good and Business is just fine.
Have you however thought of the reasons why the customers are loyal to your brand? Could it be because you enjoy a monopoly or near monopoly and the customers don’t just have very many choices? Maybe we should cast our mind back to the advent of mobile telecoms in Nigeria in 2001.We could only choose between Econet and MTN and those guys really took advantage of the near monopoly. However, when other networks came on board, so many of the erstwhile loyalists jumped ships.
Can we also cast our mind back to the case of Hypo and Jik? It was a total knockout for Jik ;a brand that was hitherto more or less synonymous with bleach and had loyalists across different generations.
Think about that yellow cab guy who you patronized for years and had more or less become part of your family. What happened when Uber and Taxify came? You dumped him, right? You have found more convenience and your loyalty has been tested.
I am sure you can already look back to a few years ago and the products and services you were more or less addicted to. What has become of them today? You have simply embraced some other alternatives with superior offerings.
Does your brand have a weakness that your competitors can explore to create better alternatives? Do you think competing brands can come up with alternatives and offerings that your loyalists won’t be able to resist? Is your sector being threatened by disruption through technology?
Repeat purchasers are good. Brand loyalty is great and desirable, but brand owners should not be complacent.
Seye Olurotimi is an SME Branding Expert, a fellow of the Institute of Brand Management, Nigeria, and a certified trainer with an International Award in Delivering Training (IADT) from TQUK (Training Qualifications United Kingdom). He is equally a versatile learning facilitator, business coach and professional with expertise in the area of Brand Management, Marketing Communications, Business Communications, Business development, Strategy, and Customer Service.
