Turning customers into brand advocates: What’s the secret?
September 11, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Some brands create such strong customer communities that they are practically cults. Apple, the Grateful Dead, and Harley Davidson are a few good examples. The customers for these brands become part of a tribe - with its own culture and sense of belonging. The brands that succeed in creating such a strong connection among its customers and employees benefit from exceptionally high levels of loyalty, to the extent their customers rarely practice brand-switching – instead, they actually promote the brand actively – and often try to convert others into becoming "brand believers".
I am curious to see if anyone has any thoughts on how do companies create such strong affection for their brands that their customers are compelled to become active brand champions? Does this phenomenon happen on its own…or is there a secret to help it along? If so, what are the programs that are put in place? How are they run? What are the strategies and tactics that turn average customers into brand advocate superheroes? On the other hand, in your experience what have brands tried that simply does not work?
Your thoughts and ideas are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you!!!
Two words – Be Extraordinary.
And a few more:
Don’t just create a product or service, create a brand experience – one that is consistent at every single touchpoint. Create a brand story so compelling and so personal that it’s easy for a customer to put themselves in that story and re-tell it.
I just made this up but it sounds good to me.
“7 steps to an awesome cult”
1) Start with a great product or service that is not for everyone.
2) Track the 20% of customers that spend the most time interacting with you.
3) Invite those customers to a private newsletter and promote decision forming dialog.
4) Release news updates to them a week early from the public.
5) Give the top 10% of customers better discounts and/or free stuff.
6) Give the top 5% of customers a “Me Now” phone number or email at the front of the customer service line.
7) Adapt these exclusive offers to ALL return customers and NEVER advertise it.
The secret is to condition your customers to desire participating in brand decisions. Help your top customers own Brand Influence and let everyone else own the product or service.
Ask me more.
Chris Hill
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I’d say that it’s partially attributable to a rarely-erring focus on delivering products and services that echo not only the core tenants of the brand, but also repeatably delivering a user experience at or above what the customer base expects. Some companies (like Apple) have the ability to do this while continuing to push the product (and category) development envelope, giving the customers something that they didn’t even know they wanted/needed. I know that Steve Jobs has quoted Henry Ford’s famous statement “If I had asked the people what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’.”
Harley Davidson has delivered on my first point above. But, aside from a few products (such as the V-Rod), they have not pushed the product envelope much at all, instead using incremental development to refine the product, while marketing it primarily with the brand’s heritage. This approach also requires focus and a relentless commitment to the core fundamentals of the brand, BUT it additionally requires an interesting heritage and legacy (which HD has).
There’s certainly an amount of dumb luck involved (right place, right time), but a focused brand that is committed to a core set of values can engender trust with it’s customer base. That trust, built over time, creates an atmosphere which softens the “purchase-wall”. The customer is able to reach a decision on whether or not to purchase a product from the brand more quickly because the trust is already there that the product will be as promised, worth the effort to procure and satisfy a particular problem or issue in the customer’s life.
I read once that Apple has a customer loyalty program built into their products in the form of well thought out engineering that “just works”. If the product is good, and using it is pleasurable, then you don’t need to resort to gimmicky programs to improve customer loyalty. They’ll stick around because they know that you’ll always meet or exceed their expectations. Do that enough times, and you’re bound to gain a following.
I love the example of the Harley Davidson tribe. I can’t think of many other brands that have as many followers who have tattoos of the wordmark or logo on their bodies (tattoos are a great example of brand loyalty – especially given the fact that the etymology of “branding” is derived from the searing of a mark into items or livestock). To a lesser degree, people associate themselves with a tribe by wearing t-shirts with brands emblazoned on them, decorating their cars with bumper stickers or clicking a box to become a fan of a brand on Facebook. How does that happen?
Simply put, like successful relationships between people, relationships between consumers and companies can be cemented by maintaining rewarding experiences, keeping promises and developing trust. Companies must deliver on promises made by ensuring that the sensation of the product or experience is in line (or exceeds) expectations.
The challenge is ensuring that the promise and follow through occur on all channels of interaction and communication that the customer is involved with; design, customer service, written and printed communications, in-store or online experience, outreach, fostering of core enthusiasts, advertising and more. Living up to or exceeding expectations delights us all, no matter the type of relationship. Tapping into that fundamental understanding of human nature is simple, yet in the everyday hustle of business is often overlooked. When nurtured, those relationships become legendary; take in the old story about the buyer who swore he bought his defective tires from Nordstrom (although Nordstrom didn’t sell tires, the clerk offered the gentleman a refund to maintain his loyalty). Musicians write songs about fond relationships with their cars and owner clubs meet to celebrate their vehicles. People get tattoos.
For a company, giving employees a sense of purpose so that they have a creed to act by, a true compass to guide them can be an important step. A meaningful set of goals dedicated to the development of customer relationships help employees at Zappos focus on providing excellent customer service. The famous “Dogma Manifesto” helps employees at Pedigree to know that they are more than a dog food company. It becomes a cultural guide by which employees, no matter the department can optimize their activities within their group to underscore the brand values and commitment to the relationship with the customer.
People develop affection when promises are met, when trust is built, and when expectations are surpassed. It is true with everyday items like soap (Pears soap purists were recently outraged when the “original Pears formula was changed – Pear’s reverted to the original formula) or big experiences like walking down Main Street USA at Disneyland for the very first time with your child. It may start as a platonic relationship, but pretty soon, people begin to realize the value of the relationship. What would life be like without “X”? When the prospect of life without “X” is a little sad, it’s the beginning of moving beyond the platonic – it’s love.
Sid Ramnarace | Vice President of SPARK : DESIGN EXPERIENCE & STRATEGY
Lifetime Brands, Inc.
E-mail: sidr@lifetimebrands.com
Be great. That’s all.
It’s not about programs, strategies, and tactics. Fans accrue to brands, musicians, and artists who unfailingly pursue their own clear definition of greatness, without compromise.
It’s also not about perfection. Fans are loyal, even through the occasional mishap, as long as the brand/musician/artist doesn’t seem to be arrogantly disregarding of the fans, or undedicated to the pursuit of that greatness that attracted them in the first place.
Be great, attract fans.
Try to manage fans you didn’t earn by being great– misplaced effort.
A brand is exactly a manifestation of the tribal Totem, only instead used for capitalist advancement of the clan (brand). A totem being: a natural object or animal believed by a particular society to have spiritual significance and adopted by it as an emblem. Durkheim said in /The Elementary Forms of Religious Life/ that “The totem is a design that corresponds to the heraldic emblems of the civilized nations, and each person is authorized to wear it as proof of the identity of the family to which he belongs.” A brand’s iconic emblem is a right of belonging to a sort of family- What brands like Apple and Nike do well is make it feel like being a part of their family (specifically by wearing their emblem, totem) is a privilege. A right of the inner circle wherein one can feel accepted, valuable, and special. Not everyone can “Be like Mike,” but if you wear his sneakers, you’re one step closer to jumping higher, running faster, and having cool friends.
The clan of the brand is really just business acting like family. Another example: In the gay community it’s common to refer to each other (other gay people) as “family”. Family being a group of people with whom you share the closest, tightest, most natural bond. With whom, theoretically, you can trust and rely on. Family understands you, believes in you, supports you, protects you, loves and accepts you. Family (still talking theoretical here) provides one of our most primal needs- belonging. And so, the most successful brands will be able to make their customers/their clan members feel like they belong. That they are accepted. That’s why we don’t ever really see Nike commercials promoting particular lines- instead, they promote ideals. They push their customers to push themselves to be better– because every time they put on those sneakers, they are now representatives of the brand. They wouldn’t want to shame their family, would they?
Dee Lieber
Identity Synergist/ Sol Identity
It starts with those who originally build the brand. That’s the employees. I include executives and managers…everyone who spends more time building a brand than they do with their families or sleeping. Create, inspire, engage to create them as your brand ambassadors. They’ll do the rest if you let them.
I think that brand enthusiasts are created by what Marty Neumeier calls a “charismatic brand”. Be something so different, so remarkably different that your organization is irreplaceable. People will want your product or be apart of your organization and will be passionate about it because of its big difference. Brands that are charasmatic offer something so great, something so special, that its worth speaking about.
I agree with Gavin. Be great and keep it simple.
Based on my 20 years of experience, it seems that everything has become to complex trying to find the secret to success. We tend to over think things and that can make its way into the customer experience and then we lose. I’ve seen to much guessing get in the way of gut level conviction to end up with Frankenstein products.
Be great, be passionate, be honest, and keep it simple. People will flock to authenticity. Being transparent company is ZAG!
Great Feedback! Some of the findings: simplicity, great products, strong authentic & unique message, engaging in an open and honest dialog with customers and truly “living” the culture you communicate as a brand….. are key elements in creating brand advocates.
Thanks everybody for your insights. Jesse Kearney, Liquid Agency
So…I guess we are all in agreement, for a brand to be successful, it must offer something great. “Great” means unique and innovative, relevant, well-made, etc. Yet, I believe that building a fanatical following it’s not a simple as just that.
Well.. I;m not so sure that’s all it takes. Some brands are simply more successful than others in creating “tribes” (regardless of the actual products). Why?
The reason I used Harley Davidson as an example is that there are other venerable brands in the category that don’t seem to have quite the same level of fanatical following that Harley Davidson has spawned. I am not a motorcycle expert…but I don’t think that Harley is necessarily known for innovation, performance, reliability or service.
Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, Yamaha and Triumph make really good bikes. Each of these brands is quite successful. Each has a great story to tell, each has captured a good share of the market by making good products, and each scores well in terms of customer satisfaction.
According to this article in VisorDown about the Best Selling Motorcycles in 2010 (so far)
(http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news-industry/2010s-best-selling-motorcycles-so-far/13325.html)
“Yamaha and Honda dominate the top three, but BMW also have a solid footing in the top 10”.
There certainly are lots of BMW Motorcycle Clubs whose members are clearly passionate about their favorite bike brand…but these organizations don’t seem to have the level of fanatical commitment that is a hallmark of the Harley-Davidson brand. I can’t remember seeing anyone sporting a “BMW” tattoo.
The Harley brand has become synonymous with a sense of open rebellion and an unbridled love for the open road…and it reflects a unique American character. Obviously, Harley customers come in many sizes and shapes…but for many the brand represents a way of life…not just a ride.
According to a paper authored by Evans Smith, MBA Candidate at Belmont University in Nashville, TN
(http://forum.belmont.edu/business/2008/02/harleydavidson_master_hogs_of.html) Harley Davidson puts a lot of work into the relationship with its customers.
“Each customer that purchases a Harley Davidson motorcycle receives a free 1-year membership in the Harley Owners Group (HOG < http://www.hog.com> ). The HOG motto is “To ride and have fun” and with over 295,000 members WW it is the epitome of brand loyalty. This organization organizes hundreds of activities every year designed to promote the spirit of the brand and continue to build upon the sense of “tribe”. HOG sponsors State, National, and even International rallies for that span across all 50 states and 6 continents. Live bands, parades, bike shows, and games are just a few of the activities that take place during these events at every planned stopping point.”
So…in my opinion, every great brand starts with a great products…but it takes a lot of work to foster and support the kind of community that leads to amazing brand loyalty. I believe it takes a commitment from the brand to engage actively with it customers, to build relationships through activities and programs that get people actively involved. The brand must play a role in people’s lives and the brand’s customers must start associating their values with the brand’s values….and at that point they become one and the same. That’s when people say “I’m a Harley guy”…and would not ever be caught dead on a BMW.
I interviewed hundreds of members of cults, cult-like organizations and cult brands to decode why people become committed: why they believe and belong. It resulted in a book call ‘The Culting of Brands: how to turn customers into true believers’. You might find some useful insights there.
http://www.amazon.com/Culting-Brands-Customers-Become-Believers/dp/B000CC496W/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1259077296&sr=8-1
Douglas