Marketing and Customer Loyalty

What Keeps Your Customers Loyal To You And Your Brand?

Can You Apply That To Your Medium Readers?

Changing Your Laundry Product Pales Into Insignificance When Compared To Customer Loyalty For Machine Brands.

During forty years of washing clothes for kids and working husbands, I, too, had been been persuaded by the power of advertising to try new laundry products or change my brand.

It is fascinating to think about the advertising strategies of detergent manufacturers who want us to change brands — change to THEIR brand; to get consumers to switch from a competitor. Though now I often exclaim “I wash no man’s socks or jocks”, the truth is I have worked my way through many a packet of soap powder!

Back in 2011, https://stealingshare.com/ wrote about working in a mature market. (1)

A winning brand strategy is all about sharing emotional attachment and attribution. Own their heart and you not only get their business, but you also get their loyalty, too. Stealing market share — and keeping it through four purchase cycles — is possible only when the brand reflects the values and aspirations of the consumer.

They need to feel more complete because of their choice. Are they smarter? Are they kinder? Are they better parents? Are they cooler? These are the questions your brand needs to answer. Remember, brand is about your customer. It is never about soap powder.”

The key point about “four purchase cycles” attracted my attention

When I first read the article, the key point which attracted my attention was the idea of “keeping it (market share) through four purchase cycles”.

That and other notes about making it easier for women to shop, by relieving them of making the decision on which soap powder they buy. Make their decision to buy yours a foregone conclusion.

Purchase Loyalty and Loyalty Moderators

Although it is generally accepted all brands have a four stage life cycle, it is a completely different discussion to the one around the four stage purchase cycle. Oliver’s 1995 loyalty model proposed a four-stage purchase cycle based on belief, affect, intentions, and action. (2)

Adding the Loyalty Moderator Effect — and its Affects on Consumers

These four purchase cycles were the result of Oliver’s research published in 1997, but the concept of the “loyalty moderator” effect has since been thoroughly researched to confirm its place in the buying cycle.

The influence of the moderators needed to be added to the discussion, which can influence your buying decisions. These are

• switching costs, • social benefits, and • the attractiveness of alternatives

That brought my mind back to buying our washing machines — and thinking about the “four purchase cycles” and what moderation effects may have influenced the buying decision each time, if any.

Married, with a copper and a glass washboard.

I started my married life in 1963 with a copper, a copper stick, a glass washboard and a scrubbing brush.

We had no power in our first house on a wheat and sheep farm in Western Australia. During a short stint in civilisation, my first powered washing machine was an old Simpson with a power wringer that was donated to us by someone in the family .

A move to another farm in early 1965, with no power, meant it was a luxury short lived. It was back to boiling the copper and using the copper stick before sloshing the washing into the first rinsing trough and then winding it through the hand wringer into the second rinse. Not even a power wringer on that old beast.

My first foray into the Buying Cycle. Buying Cycle Stage 1 was a Hoover.

Eventually we were able to buy a Hoover single tub washing machine with a wringer, which could be run at night when the generator was working.

Which is interesting, because I chose not to buy a Simpson! The Simpson was notorious for removing buttons from shirts!

Decision Moderators and Their Affects.

This is where it is relevant to consider the moderators which can influence your buying decisions. These are

• switching costs, • social benefits, and • the attractiveness of alternatives

For example, my Mother had a Hoover — and my familiarity with the brand and its reliability had a definite influence on our buying decision. The social benefits of the brand revolved around my being comfortable using it, and there was no need to learn how to use it. I certainly did not want to repeat my experience with the Simpson.

Buying Cycle Stage 2.

We changed farms, lived in a small country town for a short while and then we moved back to the city. We lived in South Fremantle for a time, and we bought a Hoover Twin Tub to replace the single tub with the hand wringer.

Based on the amount of work it had to do, the moderator effect was definitely the attractiveness of alternatives.

With two small boys and their father working at two jobs, bread carting and doing a lawn mowing round, that Hoover Twin Tub got a pretty hard workout. It made my time in the laundry much shorter.

The moderator effect of attractiveness of alternatives.

Somewhere around mid-1971, the three children and I became a single parent family, and we bought a new washing machine.

In Buying Cycle Stage 3, our choice was a Hoover Top Loader that could be loaded before I went to work, turned on by the children (usually Warren) after school and the clothes would be ready for me to hang out when I got home.

The possibility of deferred action was a key factor in its choice. Clearly an attractive alternative. That machine lasted my family and then me alone right through the next ten or twelve years.

Buying Cycles 4 and 5.

Robbie and I married in 1985 and entered buying Cycle 4. We bought a Hoover. Are you surprised?

Given our long history of successful usage, we were absolutely brand loyal. In the fourteen years until our next purchase, the most we had to do was to have the filters replaced by a service technician.

Our last washing machine purchase (Hoover) in 1999 was several years before he died in June 2002, except that in this instance, we did exercise a moderator effect: switching costs.

Market competition had driven major price changes with Hoover

There had been a huge marketing war over the previous five years to counter the effect of Fisher & Paykel’s growth in the Australian market. By the time we needed to buy, a fully branded Hoover had become quite expensive and was retailing its products alongside the originals under a subsidiary brand name: Admiral.

Industry watchers say the appearance of Admiral in Australia is part of Maytag’s globalisation program. But Hoover Australia executives say the decision to launch the brand here was made locally.

Hoover marketing services manager John Kelly said: “Email sells several refrigerator brands. We are positioning Hoover as the alternative whitegoods manufacturer, so we need to be able to offer retailers and consumers a variety of brand names. To boost volume and match Email’s many-brand strategy, we need new brands.”

The Four Stage Market Cycle Had Overcome Several Manufacturers

That Hoover alternative brand washing machine lasted me until 2022 — over twenty years — and when I came to replace it last year, Fisher & Paykel had been overtaken by Haier.

In this instance, given my own age and financial circumstances, the moderator effect which applied to my purchase was the switching cost. I have to hope this one lasts for twenty years, too.

Keeping a loyal customer for a low-involvement product.

There is no doubt in my mind that the inherent quality in the product is what kept me as a loyal customer for over sixty years, along with being able to repurchase at an affordable price.

Buying a washing machine is a low-involvement product. All being well, it’s a decision you only need to make once every ten years or so.

To Tell The Truth, Medium Is A Low-Involvement Product.

Our readers are highly subject to moderator effects and we need to consider these when we write. Not just we as individual authors on the platform, but to be aware of the competition that exists for their time and attention in the inline world.

• switching costs, • social benefits, and • the attractiveness of alternatives

……………..all these mean writing the most compelling stories that we can; never forgetting we need to keep them engaged to the very end of our stories, if we want them to be loyal readers.

“…..analysis shows that affective experience became more important over time and had the highest impact on retailer loyalty………. Affective experience is particularly impactful online and for retailers of hedonic or low-involvement products…..” (4)

What About You? Are You A Loyal Reader? Are Your Readers Loyal To You?

What is it that keeps you as a loyal reader of your favourite writers?

What is it that keeps your readers loyal to you?

As the marketers say, “brand is about your customer. It is never about soap powder.”

Footnotes:

(1) sorry, the original is no longer available online

(2) Oliver, R. L. (1999). Whence Consumer Loyalty? Journal of Marketing, 63(4_suppl1), 33–44.

(3) Oliver (1997) suggested a four-stage loyalty model proposing that loyalty consists of belief, affect, intentions, and action.

(4)What drives retailer loyalty? A meta-analysis of the role of cognitive, affective, and social factors across five decades.

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