Customer loyalty is the holy grail. It’s the product of a strong brand, and it’s what makes and keeps a brand strong. It gives them the room for errors and to be forgiven for them. When loyalty is earned, it provides the chance for the human-brand relationship to ascend to something beyond the transactional. To create a bond with the person on the other side and forge a connection more like that of a friend.

Loyalty from brand to human

That loyalty is what all brands want most from their bases. But in seeking it, approaches have to be re-evaluated. Customer loyalty is hard-earned and an ongoing process. Even after it’s earned, if it’s taken for granted it can disappear. It isn’t a one-way street from customer to brand — brands need to show loyalty to their customers. This means listening to them, talking to them directly and working to build real, mutually beneficial relationships.

Whether a customer arrives because of innovative products, reputation, price or anything else, what keeps them is the brand experience. That means crafting memorable moments, built with the person on the other side in mind more than the balance sheet, working to meet the needs that your brand fulfils. And that’s not a one-time occurrence.

Connecting and re-connecting

In 2021, Diet Coke announced an innovative switch in strategy. This involved connecting and deepening bonds with existing loyal customers, aiming to create a more ongoing dialogue. The key to it is their emphasis on listening to those already connected people, to best understand their needs and how Diet Coke could be best be a part of their lives. That basis of knowledge could then become their platform to try new strategies and products, built on a real knowledge of how they will play among the people who are most important to the brand’s success.

That’s the kind of approach that’s becoming more and more necessary. If we want those symbiotic, friend-like relationships, we have to think about what that needs. That means growing together, learning from one another, and remembering that without mutual maintenance, interaction and affection, it will disappear.

We dig into this and much more in our report, ‘Human Connection: The Beating Heart of Resilient Brands’.