The Yellow Brick Road to Loyalty

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Loyalty

This Marketing Profs article is entertaining and makes some good points. It makes clear something that I believe- that traditional marketing is dying.

We can no longer impress, cajole or delude our audience into remaining loyal. Today, our audience assumes we have great features and benefits and quality. And they assume that we have a positive image, competitive salary and benefits and a positive working environment… and lions and tigers and bears… oh my!

So now what? How do we get our audience to return to our show? How do we foster loyalty in a world full of product and price parity, and full of skeptics, cynics and other “freethinkers”?

In answering these questions, the author also illustrates the value of the customer feeling as if they are member of a community (online or off):

This feeling of “affiliation” has been mastered by companies such as Harley-Davidson, Oprah, Starbucks and Apple, not to mention many emerging online communities. When I snap up the leather, hop on my Harley, and click my boots three times, I am transformed. I feel like a member of a special tribe. It’s not about horsepower and gas mileage; it’s about… feelings! A Harley executive was quoted as saying, “What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.” Forget altruism, forget deals, forget fear. This is about identity. There is no stronger bond.

So true.

Via: Business Pundit