Congrats for climbing the corporate hierarchy to become the Chief Marketing Officer. You deserved it, after all the hard work that was poured. Now I offer my condolence. Until you step into the shoes of Chief Loyalty Officer, you’ll sooner or later be by replaced by someone else.
Am I sounding preposterous? Here is the best proof. Apple that dominates the smartphone market. Their all-time record breaking earnings released officially last year show that more than 87% of their revenues are generated by the sale of their iPhones. Although they come up with dazzling products such as Apple HealthKit, Apple Pay and Apple watch, disruptive technology and ideas, but our loyalty will always tilt towards the iPhone. Come in any polished iOS version or starts the preordering of a new iPhone and either we or some of our friends pre-order them before even its entry into the market. What sort of loyalty does Apple garner? The sale of 74.5 million brand new phones with least efforts in marketing and advertising! Apple’s marketing and advertising simply constitutes a few TV ads and bill-boards.
Yes I know very well that not every company wields power and dexterity equivalent to Apple and allowing the product to be the sole story-teller is a luxury very few brands can afford. But the lesson every brand can learn is: Try concentrating on building a solid customer loyalty rather than pouring in all efforts over traditional and modern marketing.
Almost every other person I ask derives the figurative meaning of marketing as selling a product. However it’s a one-sided endeavor where marketers are given the sole responsibility of selling the product. This may have worked previously, but social media has transformed the consumers into the sole advocates of a brand, their voice and opinion more influential than the traditional marketing.
While buying something, wouldn’t you prefer a brand which you’re more loyal to then going in for the one that has excellent marketing? Yes initially influential marketing plays a small role but it doesn’t always lead to inculcating loyalty. People are more inclined to choosing a brand whose brand values they want to be affiliated with. With a plethora of options available in the market why will a person choose your brand over the others? Does the brand resonate with the priorities and beliefs of the audience? So here comes the nagging question, how to build a brand powered by loyalty? A simple answer, curate or deliver content that is so specific that is defines the users/ consumers and the brand itself.
Another example, Chipotle, the good junk food brand with healthier meat that is antibiotic and hormones free, cheese obtained from pasture-raised cattle and produces that are local resonate a very high level of loyalty among fans. They are socially conscious, conveying their ideology that a person’s meal is not merely just food, it’s more than that. They come up with campaigns, one among them was “Cultivating Thoughts”, with writers such as Malcolm Gladwell coming up with small texts to appear on their cups and they have a dedicated microsite for them. Such ideas do not come from the marketing team’s cubicle or a PR’s agency, one fine day Jonathan Safran Foer was out of stuff to read at Chipotle. All these efforts are directed towards building loyalty. These efforts or resources won’t make direct money for the company, but sheds light on the efforts to build good faith, perfectly tailored for their customers.
What makes fans come repeatedly to brands such as Apple and Chipotle? It is their assurance at being a kind of person their target audience wants them to be. Apart from the convenience of transaction, people desire to understand the meaning behind a brand. A marketer’s words are merely a jumble of disorganized sentences aiming to make the customer buy a product that often bounces off the brain walls of the audience. While building loyalty involves loving the users, knowing them and interacting with them every single day. Each of these interaction should emancipate passion and a hunger to know the users deeply and their way of interacting with your brand or product. So what is the role of a Chief Loyalty Officer? To concentrate more on “What should our brand be?” rather than focusing their efforts on thinking about “What should our brand say?”