Do brands feel my love?
March 30, 2008 | 4 Comments
Recently I have been pondering how brands treat their consumers and measure their own successes given that it is now harder than ever for a brands to really command any brand loyalty. It is a thought that I have been discussing in person with some of my fellow likeminded Twitterers (Joseph Jaffe, John Dodds, Mark McGuinness to name a few), as although of course I would love to think of myself as the font of all knowledge, I am interested to hear other peoples views on this subject. Kevin Roberts describes consumers showing their loyalty to a brand in Lovemarks, where a consumer will happily buy a product because they love the brand. However what I would like to know is, are any brands starting to look at a consumers Lovemark when it is not associated back to a sale?
So to put it into context here is an example. If I had a choice I would prefer not to drink Becks beer. I find it too bitter and I don’t really like the taste so in that respect Becks would not acknowledge me as a consumer. However, Becks created Becks Fusions a really great series of events covering music and the arts. This series enabled me to see The Chemical Brothers (i’m a big fan) play a gig in Trafalgar Square. My feelings for the brand in creating these experiences although I never had any real negative thoughts towards it, changed. The brand speaks to me in my areas of interest and at my level, therefore my feelings for the brand are very strong and I will happliy place my Lovemark against it for creating these rewarding experiences for me. Although Becks do not see my love within their sales, they will see it through secondary sources for example; I excitedly shared my feelings and recruited new lovers to the Becks brand by telling a lot of people within my network (Becks audience) about the great experience. I purchased Becks at the events and didn’t mind drinking it as they had already won me over. I will always be on the look out for future events that Becks lay on and will undoubtedly want to be a part of it and show Becks how I love them so. I am now openly endorsing them within my own blog.
So what do I mean to Becks? I would hazard a guess at `bugger all’ since I probably wouldn’t feature within their marketing presentations showing sales going up on a colorful bar chart, but should this be the case? Do brands quantify their success based purely on direct sales or, do they actually look at their Net Promoter Score to see who is recommending the brand? Are they reading what is being said about them amongst consumers?
As we start to see more and more brands fighting to win us over by entering into new territory and offering us experiences as a way of saying “thank you”, is the outcome of these experiences being measured and fed back into the organisations long term objectives? I have given this topic much thought and would really love to hear your views so over to you. Photo
