5 Types of Brand Loyalty Explained (With Examples)


Types of Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is a big part of consumer psychology. Consumers get emotionally attached to brands and use them to recreate the feelings of liking, trust, and security they had when they first encountered the product. Loyalty is especially strong with physical products where customers feel the benefits of purchases like comfort and happiness on the initial purchases and repeated purchases.

Brand loyalty is a very powerful force in our lives, and it is something that companies are desperately trying to tap into. The more you understand the psychology of branding, the easier it will be to recognize the loyalty in your specific brand and apply it to your business. This article will discuss what exactly brand loyalty is and the different types of brand loyalty in detail.

Brand loyalty implies a situation where a client repeatedly purchases products from a specific company instead of other firms. It results from consumer behavior, and a person’s preference affects it. In most cases, loyal customers will consistently buy products and services from their preferred brands, despite the price or convenience.

Firms will normally employ various marketing strategies to develop loyal customers through incentives and trials such as gifts and samples or loyalty programs such as reward programs.

In addition, businesses will manage to develop loyal customers and design the idea of having brand ambassadors. The brand ambassadors will involve consumers in marketing a specific brand and engaging in positive conversations with their friends or colleagues regarding the brand.

Types of Brand Loyalty

In this guide, you will learn more regarding the different types of brand loyalty.

Hard-core brand loyalty

Hard-core brand loyal customers are extremely overexcited regarding a particular brand and only positively associate with it. That means the customer has had an exceptional experience, meaning they recollect the brand with fondness.

Generally, a brand with hard-core customers will be characterized by the best innovative skills in their products such that they will impress a section of customers such that they cannot buy their products from other brands.

A company with hard-core customers can enjoy the following benefits:

  •  There is a limited likelihood of customers shifting to other brands due to minor issues.
  •  The customers act as the best resource for providing feedback to an organization.
  •  The customers are the best at spreading word of mouth.

One of the benefits of hard-core customers is that a business can achieve its target reach through inconsiderable motivation.

For instance, hard-core brand loyalty is reflected in Samsung when it launches a new mobile phone. Also, Apple exhibits hard care loyalty when it launches a new iPhone. Several people associated the brand with high quality, making the hard-core customers convince others to buy a similar product. Therefore, approximately half of the buzz creation work is achieved by loyal customers who patiently wait for a new iPhone to be launched.

Suppose you are fortunate to have hard-core loyal customers. In that case, you should consider developing a program to encourage you to continue spreading the ideas regarding your brand and appreciate them for their support.

 

Split loyal customers

Split customers refer to those who love more than one brand but limit their choice to two or three brands. Such customers make the best target base for most companies.

By incorporating a limited nudge and engaging such customers in their native language, an organization can easily turn them into hard-core customers. However, converting the customer can be challenging since most of them have choices.

One example of split royals can include American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines. In particular, a customer might have had the best experiences while they traveled with Delta Airlines. At the same time, they might have positive experiences with United Airlines and American Airlines. Therefore, the customer will not have any issues using any of the three airlines for international travel.

The features of the split loyal customers include:

  •  Generally, the customers select only the top-rated brands in the industry.
  •  The customers do become crazy with only one brand, since they are okay with two or three brands.
  • If you effectively target such customers, you can convert them into hard-core royals.

When you analyze the split of loyal customers, you can easily know and examine your closest competitors plus their strategies to attract more customers. In other words, as a company, you must impress the split customers to move them permanently into your brand.

 

Shifting loyal customers

The shifting loyal customers refer to the ones with a mixture of hard-core and split loyal customers. Generally, such customers will buy their products from one brand over a certain period and then change their loyalty to another brand. After that, they will remain loyal to the second brand.

One possible example of shifting customers can include the case of yogurt. In particular, customers might prefer to consume a particular brand of yogurt over an extended period, and they will remain loyal to that yogurt taste. However, after they have become used to such a taste, they might attempt other brands. Consequently, they will prefer the second company over the first one. Surprisingly, the customer will be loyal to both brands.

There are a few differences between shifting and splitting loyal customers.

First, the shifting loyal customers have more limited loyalty than the split loyalists. Second, when you consider examining the shifting loyal customer, you will realize that they can select any of the two or even five different types of yogurt brands at any time. In summation, the customers will keep on shifting their loyalty from one brand to another.

 

Switching customers

The switching customers are not loyal to a particular brand. For various reasons, the switchers will keep on buying their products from different brands.

For instance, if a customer brought an iPhone today and might love to buy an android phone when they shop next. That means such customers will want to experience new products every time they shop.

Consequently, most new marketers target such a group of customers since they are driven by innovativeness. Generally, the switching customers form a significant segment of traffic.

Unfortunately, there are limited chances of controlling such customers since there are no specific reasons why they leave your brand and switch to others.

The best action you can do against the switchers is to treat them appropriately when buying from your brand. In other words, you should attempt to evoke some sense of satisfaction in the customers through your behavior and service. After all, an outstanding customer experience is a critical differentiator in nurturing brand loyalty.

 

Need-based loyal customers

The customers in this category are driven towards a particular brand by a specific need.

For instance, if you provide a product close to what they need, they will end up buying it from you. On the contrary, the desire for the product could arrive because of different reasons including an absolute price point, a specific need, or occasion.

In reality, it can be challenging to retain such clients because they are entirely driven by convenience and need. However, you can win them into your brand through careful and personal handling from the salespeople.

Such a case can be true, especially among companies with physical stores. In other words, you can make the customers loyal to your brand if you offer them a service that they can access through online-based stores.

 

How to Build Brand Loyalty?

The marketing industry calls it brand loyalty. When a person is so enamored by a brand that they will only buy that brand time and time again, no matter what the price.

If you own and operate a business, one of your top goals should be to build brand loyalty. However, many businesses do not know how to accomplish this on a consistent basis.

Building brand loyalty is hard to do in the modern marketing atmosphere with so many brands fighting for your attention through books, TV spots, online videos, radio ads, billboards, and special offers.

In today’s world, you have to be able to create brand loyalty quickly or you’ll find yourself simply falling by the wayside and being replaced by one of your competitors who will work harder and succeed.

The following section will discuss several tips that will help you in the quest of building brand loyalty among your customers.

 

Maintain high-quality products 

Depending on the product price, the customer expects a certain level of quality within the marketplace. Therefore, you should strive to stay consistent with the quality of your goods and services to prevent customers from going back to brands they know cannot let them down. It is also critical to focus on a product that you think is the best for your brand.

 

Engaging customers

You should keep in touch with your target audience on a consistent and frequent basis. In particular, you should inform the customer regarding any new and intriguing developments in your business and future expectations.

You should also establish momentum through regular communications and enabling the customers to feel part of the strategies that you undertake within your brand.

Further, you should consistently deliver your services according to your brand promise and gather meaningful customer feedback. That can assist you in improving your services and have a deeper understanding of the customers.

At the same time, you should focus on developing an effective content strategy that educates, informs, engages the target customers.

 

Focus on the best customers

You should try to establish your business with the best customers referred to as brand lovers, instead of attempting to drive your sales aimlessly. Then, with time, you can return to marketing, and your innovation efforts will increase.

For instance, Apple has mastered the art of developing products for customers who love simplicity, creativity, and style.

 

Providing discounts for returning customers

All customers get attracted to good deals.

Therefore, if a customer returns to your brand, it is best to reward them for making an effort to shop again at your company. The reward can be an extensive discount or a percent of their bill. Most importantly, you should ensure that the customer receives the same feeling for every repetitive purchase.

In other words, the customer should be confident that your brand will continue to deliver the same product every time as you promised them earlier.

 

Providing rewards for references

Providing current customers with rewards can be one of the best ways to demonstrate that you appreciate their loyalty towards your brand. It can also assist in establishing your customer database within a short period.

 

Providing updates

As a brand, you should post your business updates on social media pages, including Twitter and Facebook. That will make the customer feel as if they understand the brand better.

In particular, the customers will have a deeper understanding of the behind-the-scenes look or inside scoop of what your brand is handling every day.

As a consequence, you will become more humane to the customers. Such a situation is critical, since appearing humane in customers’ eyes instead of a cold, large, or heartless brand plays a critical role relationship building.

Analyzing the different types of brand loyalty can help establish and change the marketing strategy that a company uses.

For instance, a company can know its strengths through loyal customers. Also, split loyalty can help you to know your major competitors whom your customers prefer while shifting loyalists will enable you to unearth the weaknesses you have in your products.

 

Conclusion: Types of Brand Loyalty

In this post, you learned about 5 types of brand loyalty and a few useful tips on how to build strong brand loyalty that will help your company build a better relationship with its customers and give back to the community in return.

Brand loyalty is a complicated concept – but we’ve done our best to distill it into something you can easily understand. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

Remember, brand loyalty is a very fundamental and powerful aspect of marketing. It affects how customers perceive a brand, approaches its products and services.

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