Vive La Difference: Building/killing brand loyalty

Photo: Whole Wheat Toast (Flickr)

Want to raid a few brand loyalists from the competition? Here's how. Focus on the similarities between your product and theirs. If you want to keep your fans loyal, focus on how you are different.

New research in the Journal of Consumer Research explores the differences between consumers who have strong brand loyalty and those that show very little commitment. It finds that loyalists focus on differences betweeen their preferred product and its competition whereas the non-commital focus on the similarities. The study also finds that it's possible to disrupt someone's typical way of processing information about products. By asking brand loyalists to focus on the similarities between "their" brand and another and asking the non-brand loyal to focus on the differences, the researchers were able to influence the perceptions of both groups.

Interesting to think about Private Label strategy in light of these findings. The me-too approach of many Private Label brands (like Wal-Tussin) is very much in line with the idea of emphasizing similarity. By making their product as similar to the better-known brands as possible, they aim to eat away at those brands' loyal user commitment. However, more recent initiatives appear to be going in the other direction. Perhaps reflecting that the Private Label brands now have a critical mass of their own loyalists?

Meanwhile, there's an AdAge story today about how Private Label is winning the battle of the brands. One of the points it makes is that national brands are helping the cause of Private Label brands by focusing on price discounting. In essence, they are helping make the Private Label brands case that they are similar.

Details:
The Effect of Brand Commitment on the Evaluation of Nonpreferred Brands: A Disconfirmation Process by Sekar Raju, H. Rao Unnava, and Nicole Votolato Montgomery in the Journal of Consumer Research vol. 35, no.5 (February 2009)

Why I fly United Airlines

There's really just one reason: I have Premier status on United and I don't have status on any other airline.

That means, for example, that when I fly United I get to board early, grab some overhead cabin space and sit in one of the extra-leg-room seats (no contortion required). Whereas, when I fly any of the other major airlines, I'm waiting around for seating zone 4 or higher, at the back of the bus sitting close to the toilet seat.

But does this make me a loyal United customer? I guess it depends on your definition but "no" if that definition includes any emotional attachment.

Tom Peters thinks that the word "loyalty" has been kidnapped. In a post: "A bribe is not a relationship" he says: "Hey, there's nothing wrong with multiple purchases, but return visits don't necessarily correlate with true, meaningful loyalty. This kind of tit-for-tat transactional loyalty can be fleeting. Purchase intent one week doesn't automatically lead to purchase intent the next week, if a competitor offers a better sale price or promotion. This is the kind of loyalty that can evaporate quickly when another company offers better incentives."

From this perspective, United's frequent flyer program is not so much of a loyalty program as it is a switching cost management program that has succeeded (very well) in raising my cost to use other airlines (except those that are in the Star Alliance).

Contrast my relationship with United to the relationship one of my colleagues has with American Airlines. I traveled with her to LA last week and she invited me in to the Admiral's Club where she knew all of the people behind the desk and was telling me the stories about how so-and-so used to work in a ticket office in the city (remember those?) and how so-and-so had helped her out when she was stuck somewhere and on and on and on!

Now that seems to be the kind of loyalty Tom is talking about.