Consumers Are No Longer Brand Loyal

In today’s diverse new world of growing consumer demands, fueled by changing demographics and the cultural shift in the market, brands have some work to do to say the least. In the rush of business necessity and the desire to meet quarterly financial requirements from Wall Street, branding has become less about solving specific needs – and more an attempt to quickly create new revenue streams by promoting solutions for needs that don’t exist.

According to Armando Azarloza, President of The Axis Agency, “This is bound to fail because it doesn’t support lasting and meaningful engagement. It’s “moment marketing” – and it will not allow you to become part of your consumers’ reality and experiences.”

He continues: “Moment marketing does little to develop a brand or give consumers permission to interact with them. Brands must have purpose by producing goods and services that improve the lives of consumers and enhance quality of life. With today’s savvy consumer, it’s imperative that brands focus on how to better interact with them, how to build stronger relationships, and how to ensure that those relationships generate trust and meaningful engagement over time.”

Brands must begin to authentically engage with consumers who are not only becoming more diverse, but wiser about their purchasing habits and more mindful of living healthier lifestyles. Stimulated by sensationalism, social media trends and a generational force that is changing how brands earn loyalty and trust, consumers have become more critical and cynical.
“Brands earn trust by being authentic, and by being seen to be authentic,” says Robert Wolcott, Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Kellogg Innovation Network and a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management. “They earn loyalty by creating meaningful experiences across all contacts in ways that matter to customers.”

Brands like JCPenney, Sears, Blackberry, SPAM and Kodak that were once household names are today being challenged to survive, let alone compete. Innovators in their day, they became complacent and stopped defining trends, believing that their value proposition would withstand the test of time. But as today’s marketplace has taught us all, brands must be fully engaged and actively involved in allowing their brands to grow into relevant destinations for consumers looking to solve particular needs – these are the ones that will win market share and continue to grow.

Consumers are no longer brand loyal. They may be loyal to the engagement experience that a particular brand offers. Once the experiential elements of brand engagement disappear, in many cases, so does the emotional connection consumers have with the brand that was providing them that unique experience.
We live in an experience-driven world. Consumers gravitate toward those experiences that provide them with the stimulation they are looking for. People have become sensitive about how they spend their time and what inspires them to do so. If a brand focuses more on trying to sell consumers their products/services rather than finding ways to creatively engage with them and solve a need, their brand will be short-lived.

You don’t have to look much further than your own family to know that this is true. For example, my niece and her friend recently mentioned that they liked the Steve Madden brand – but if the clothes or shoes are not trending, they will quickly move-on to the brand that is. She was quick to point out that it was more about the dress that is trending than it was about the brand itself.
Consumers today are having difficulty trusting a brand’s intentions. They want to know what a brand stands for and what they value and they want that brand to live it every day – in everything they do and how they do it. If a brand stands for quality, a consumer expects it at all times. When brands begin to cut-corners, quality suffers and it is reflected in how a product tastes, smells, feels – and this is when the consumer begins to feel slighted.