Brand loyalty is the ultimate goal for businesses. It's what people think when they hear a brand's name and see the logo. It determines customer behaviour. Take me, for example: there are few things that get my heart racing and my palms sweating more than the delivery of an ASOS parcel, magazine or the mere sight of the logo, peeking out at me in all its lower case Century Gothic glory. And this happens because I am loyal to the brand. Brand loyalty excites me and reminds me that ASOS is the answer to every fashion emergency or craving I have.
Firstly, what is brand loyalty? Wikipedia summarises it as "positive feelings towards a brand and dedication to purchase the same product or service repeatedly now and in the future from the same brand". Hotson, who writes for Retention Science, says it is when people are loyal to a brand because they perceive it to have better products and service than others. Todd William from Reputation Rhino notes that "the best way to increase brand loyalty is to deliver outstanding service consistently". From these definitions, we can infer brand loyalty means trusting in and returning to a brand because you see it as offering reliably better products and service than its competitors.
How important is this for fashion businesses? Brand loyalty means that customers come to your company for a particular product or service, and don't stray anywhere else for it. They want your product. And much like a reliable friend, reliable customers are nearly always guaranteed to be receptive to new products and campaigns.
Social media is the ideal playground for building brand loyalty. Technological advances have made engaging with consumers easier. Topshop, for instance, raised the bar during London Fashion Week 2014 when they launched their Spring/Summer '15 collection on social media instead of the runway. Five prominent Instagrammers were chosen to build and share their views on the range, and broadcast them across Topshop's social media channels and in the flagship Oxford Circus store. The public were also encouraged to share their own looks using the hashtag #TOPSHOPWINDOW, which enabled them to be shown on interactive screens in the flagship store. The creativity and innovativeness of this campaign was eye-catching, and helped to set the foundations for brand loyalty in new customers. What other brand would campaign in such a way? What other brand would build a bridge between the real world and the virtual land of social media?
Because social media is so fast-paced, it has become increasingly difficult to gain even just a fraction of the social spotlight. According to Zac Johnson, who writes for RingCentral Blog, it's no longer purely about monitoring viewer levels, it's also about what you do as a brand. It's one thing to shop at a brand and recommend it to your friends. It's another to constantly refresh the Missguided website for an hour because it's down due to heavy traffic but you won't give up as you're hellbent on accessing their summer sale. And that's the difference between loyalty and liking a brand because they have nice clothes at reasonable prices.
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