A Brand’s Love Story: How Customers Fall in Love with a Brand (4/5)
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Chapter 4: Relationship
For all the brands that are in this stage with customers: congratulations! The brands are so close to the highest level of their relationship journey with the customer. This is not the end of the journey, the brands still have one more step to complete, but they are in a great place.
If you have been following our recent articles on Customer Journey you will know that we are now in stage 4 out of 5 in the customer journey. We have seen how the relationship from a brand with a customer evolved from awareness, to consideration, and then conversion. After conversion, customers enter this new stage that we call as “relationship”, or in a human relationship: marriage. And just like what a marriage looks like for people, this stage represents a long-term commitment between the customer and the brand.
The customer now knows for sure that they are a good match with the brand. They know the brand is THE ONE for them. They want to be committed with the brand for a very long time. They don’t want to try and get to know other brands, they have made up their minds. When it comes to what they need, the brand will be the first that comes to their minds.
The customer is now convinced that the brand is THE ONE.
They believe in the brand and they feel like the brand gets them, like the brand believes in them. There is something about what this brand has to offer that they cannot find in other brands, and they love it! It’s like someone who purchased an Apple computer and decided to never buy computers and phones from other brands ever again. Every time they need a new computer or tablet or phone, they will come back to Apple—over and over again. It’s like a marriage, the brand becomes a part of the customer and the customer doesn’t want to live without the brand.
Customers that stay loyal to a brand perceives the brand as worthy of their trust and it is the brand’s responsibility to not break that trust.
The challenge for brands now is to make sure that they are consistently reliable. Brands need to maintain the trust of the customers because any hint of inconsistency will hurt this trust. Just like in relationships, the closer you are with someone, the higher the expectations you will have. This means that the bigger the impact will be if that person disappoints us. The same principle applies to the relationship between a customer and a brand. If the brand suddenly flops and does something that communicates a completely different message to the customers and doesn’t fix the breach, it will cause a big damage to the customer’s trust. When customers lose trust in the brand, the relationship between the brand and the customer will be broken. No brands want this to happen.
So here’s a tip for brand strategists to remember: this is not the time for brands to sit still and stop working. This is the time for brands to keep delivering the same message and keep upgrading the value they bring to the customers. The stakes are so much higher in this stage compared to the previous ones, so brands need to fight for their relationship all the more. Customers that stay loyal to a brand perceives the brand as worthy of their trust and it is the brand’s responsibility to not break that trust.
Fourth stage is complete. Next up - Chapter 5: Advocacy.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!