The Up-coming Significance of Brand Loyalty in Today’s

Marketing World.
Brand Loyalty is every marketer’s greatest goal: Having people who don’t mind
about moving distances to buy their favorite brand product, who don’t care about
other brands’ promotions, who are willing to wait in line for no matter how long, just
to get the latest brand product.

Brand Loyalty means to be devoted and committed to a specific brand, which is, to only buy
this brand’s products, instead of other brands. When there were no internet, or social
media, things were much harder for companies who wanted to sell their products, because
it was expensive and difficult to promote their stuff to buyers.

Only those who could pay for TV or radio commercials, banners, and brochures could
advertize their brand product to people, but again, it was too expensive.

Also, the companies could not understand the profiles of people who bought their products,
and they weren’t able to create groups of people who like the same stuff, so as to ask them
if they liked their products or not (In case you don’t know already, all these possibilities were
brought by social media).

But even then, you could hear about some people who were so devoted to a brand that they
would go off the edge to get what they wanted, for example they would travel distances to
taste their favorite ketchup or they wouldn’t taste Pepsi if they were of coca cola. And Apple
fans wouldn’t care to sit in lines just to get the latest I-phone, or if we want to be more
extreme, Atari fans waited for months till they get the latest game.

What Brand Loyalty Means in Today’s World.

Letting the customers know of what a company is all about, what they sell, who they are,
what they represent and who they can help, are all parts of advertising a brand. They have
to get the customer’s trust and for that they need time and they need to try hard to
understand what the customers need.

But in today’s marketing world, it needs much more effort form the companies to make their
brand popular. In this world of technology, the popularity of a brand depends on the brand’s
interaction with consumers, their efforts to solve any problems with consumers, and even
more, on the company’s attitude towards society, environment, gender issues, etc.

And if the company gets the customer to trust them, then the customer will be loyal to
them. This process can have a huge effect on customers and is built through problem-
solving. For example, a phone that is crashing, a restaurant that won’t have a great service, a
credit card that is overcharged, a flight that has been delayed and makes a mess on other
plans too.

These are the kinds of problems the companies need, so that they can have a chance to gain
their customers’ loyalty. And these are the types of situations that help them be useful to
their customers, especially when they need them the most. Even though social media may
help express those who complain about a product, they also help to express the brands that
respond to these problems. For example, if a brand takes too long to respond to a
complaint, or they delete one of them, they’re certainly on the wrong way of gaining the
customers’ trust.

All these marketing actions that are employed by brands, such as advertising their identity,
having commercials, expressing their position towards social issues, don’t mean anything
unless the company is trusted by people and does everything to keep this trust. And if the
brand is able to provide good services combined with a respectful identity, then these two
will lead to devotion to the brand. You can’t have brand loyalty without trust first, and these
two qualities can be achieved if the customer is satisfied with their overall experience, and if
the qualities of the brand are authentic.

Nike’s Example
Nike’s ground-breaking campaign titled ‘’Dream Crazy’’ in 2018 with the cooperation of the
football player Colin Kaepernick proved to be very edgy, since it lead to rage outbursts
against Nike. People destroyed and burned Nike’s products aggressively to express their
anger caused by the collaboration with the football player.

But Nike knew that the campaign was too risky and they wanted to test if their costumers
would understand the main idea behind the campaign, if they would remain loyal to them
and still admire their values and their brand’s philosophy. People who ripped Nike clothing
proved to be unfaithful to the company, after all, since they didn’t respect Nike’s philosophy.

Experts said Nike’s sales would drop, because people don’t want brands to get involved with
social issues or express their opinion on politics; that they would lose their crowd’s trust.
However, to their surprise, Nike’s sales increased and that was what the company’s
counselors expected.

Also, Nike’s campaign was awarded as an Outstanding Commercial at the Creative Arts
Emmy Awards, 16 years after their first award, in 2002.

Summary
The article explains how important it is for companies to be trusted by people, especially in
today’s marketing world. Being authentic and having good qualities is the key to being
trusted. Nowadays, when people are suffocated with advertisements and unlimited
marketing influences throughout the world, it is important for companies to have loyal
customers, and loyalty comes after having faith to the company.

The main goal for brands is to conserve people’s faith and to remain true to their values and
authentic to their interaction with people, while at the same time leveling up their
consumers from receivers of marketing information to actual defenders of the brand’s
quality.