Loyalty is a very tricky subject especially within the context of marketing. It’s often discussed but largely misunderstood. Some scholars such as Dr. Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we can affect brand loyalty. In fact, many don’t believe building loyalty is the purpose of marketing at all. Yes, loyalty is on the decline, but this does not mean that it’s out of reach for marketers. To deny loyalty as a goal undermines a key aspect of what marketing should be about. Please enjoy our white paper on how marketers need to redefine loyalty so we can start building real sustainable brand loyalty.

1. REDEFINING BRAND LOYALTY:
THE EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL
ASPECTS OF LOYALTY
Christopher Brace and Carlos Pinero

2. Loyalty is a very tricky subject especially within the context of marketing. It’s often discussed but largely
misunderstood. Some scholars such as Dr. Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute don’t think it’s reasonable
to assume we can affect brand loyalty. In fact, many don’t believe building loyalty is the purpose of marketing at all.
Yes, loyalty is on the decline, but this does not mean that it’s out of reach for marketers. To deny loyalty as a goal
undermines a key aspect of what marketing should be about.
Today, marketing’s sole purpose is to generate transactions that lead to the sale of goods and services. It is this
transactional mentality that drives brands and retailers to resort to cheap manipulation through price promotion
that, in the end, is anything but cheap. But what if marketing were about building deeply emotional relationships
that are then leveraged to sell goods and services? While this may seem like a small shift in words, it has serious
implications for how we should define brand loyalty.
Loyalty is often defined as an obligation and commitment (something you promised to do) or the active result of
love and trust. In other words, it’s seen as a behavior, which aligns with how we define it in marketing. We measure
brand loyalty based on past 3, 6, 12-month purchases and future 3, 6, 12-month purchase intent. We understand it as
a series of actions that form a buying pattern favorable to our brand, and we assume, that with the right approach
and tactics, it will continue in the future. But is this the correct definition of brand loyalty? In order to answer this
question, we must first understand loyalty in the context of interpersonal relationships.

3. There is a simple exercise we use with audiences that makes it clear we’re
defining loyalty incorrectly. We randomly select a volunteer from the audience
we’ve never met (let’s call him David) and give him the following scenario.
Here is how the exercise goes from there.
David: “No way!”
Me: “I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.”
David: “No.”
Me: “How about dinner at a nice steak house?”
David: “Still no.”
Me: “Okay, let’s get serious then, how about $1500.”
David: “You’re getting closer.”
Me: “Let’s get this done, $3000?”
David: “We have a deal!”
Me: “Great, so you will help me move if I pay you $3000?”
David: “Yes.”
Me: “Okay. Do you have a favorite brother or sister?”
David: “Yes, my brother Michael.”
Me: “If Michael were the one asking for your help, would you help him?”
David: “Yes, of course.”
Me: “Would he have to pay you $3000?”
David: “Of course not.”
Me: “Why do I have to pay you $3000 but not Michael?”
David: “Because he’s family.”
The reason Michael would not have to pay David $3000 but I would, comes
down to a difference in loyalty. David is loyal to Michael emotionally, while David
is loyal to me behaviorally. If David requires $3000 every time I need to move,
can I really call him loyal?
I’m moving this weekend and I need help hauling boxes and
furniture. Based on what you know about me (remember,
David and I just met), would you help me move?

4. Let’s assume an alternate scenario in which I know in June I’ll be
moving in December. In this situation, I’m going to split the $3000 into
two accounts of $1500 each. Knowing I will need help in six months, I
start building a relationship with David using the money from one of
the accounts. I take him to dinners, golfing, and to a few ball games;
in other words, we build an emotional relationship. Chances are, at
the end of that $1500, David will be willing to help me move with no
additional payment, saving me the other $1500. This is the approach
to loyalty we need in marketing.
The point of this exercise is to show that loyalty is an emotion that
triggers behavior, it is not solely a behavior. It’s a social construct we
pulled into marketing, the definition of which we changed to suit our
own purpose. As we explore the need to evolve the very mission of
marketing in order for brands to be successful in the future, we must
also return the definition of loyalty back to its social roots.
“Consider the construct of ‘brand loyalty.’ It means one thing
when it refers to a person’s repeatedly buying a product -
behavior that could simply reflect habit or passivity. It means
something totally different when it refers to a person’s going
out of his way to find a specific brand or deferring a purchase
until he finds it, a behavior that suggests dedication.”
—Gerald Zaltman, How Customers Think
“What distinguishes loyalty is that it is deeply
affective and not primarily rational. (…) The
emotional character of loyalty also sets it apart
from obligation. If obligation is rule driven,
loyalty is motivated by the entire personality
of the person…”
—Judith N. Shklar, Political Theorist,
Harvard University

5. To best accomplish this, we must better understand the five key aspects of loyalty in a social context and how they
translate to brand relationships. As you can see in Table 1, each of the key aspects has a direct and easily applicable
correlation to building brand loyalty; therefore, we should approach building brand loyalty almost exactly as we
build loyalty in a personal relationship.
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS BRANDS RELATIONSHIPS
SOCIAL
CONSTRUCT
DRIVES
BEHAVIOR
CONTRIBUTES
TO IDENTITY
CONTAINS
LAYERS
IS TESTED
Built and maintained through repeated
social interaction with others based on
shared emotional beliefs.
Built and maintained through repeated
interaction with a brand based on shared
emotional beliefs.
Ongoing interactions and acts of loyalty
strengthen the relationship, deepening
the loyalty.
Ongoing interactions and acts of loyalty
(usage, purchase, advocacy) strengthen
the relationship, deepening the loyalty.
People’s identities are shaped by our
social connections and the strength of
those connections.
Consumer and shoppers’ identities are
expressed through the brands with whom
they emotionally connect.
People have several layers of loyalty that
shape their lives.
These layers help shape shoppers’
purchase decisions.
Our loyalty layers are tested by coming
into conflict with one another.
Consumer/shopper loyalty is tested by
competitors and breaches of trust.
TABLE 1
“It could help to conceptualize that loyalty is a connection emotion which operates to link [people].”
—James Conner, The Sociology of Loyalty

6. Christopher Brace founded Syntegrate Consulting in 2006, and as CEO leads all client
projects. He can be reached at brace@syntegrate-consulting.com.
Carlos Pinero is a Marketing Assistant at Syntegrate Consulting and leads the
company’s social and digital marketing and assists on client projects. He can be reached
at carlos@syntegrate-consulting.com.
Syntegrate Consulting is an insight-based strategic consulting firm that specializes in
helping clients build better brands, communications, and go-to-market strategies that
create new value in the marketplace through syntegration: the bringing together of
dissimilar research, knowledge, insights, and people to create something completely new.
Please visit our website at www.syntegrate-consulting.com.
In both cases, collaborative exchanges form an emotional
bond that keeps the relationship stable no matter the tenor
of the interactions – negative or positive – that might arise
over time. If marketers spent more time and resources on
building emotional loyalty up front, then we wouldn’t have to
spend so much money trying to trigger behavioral loyalty on
the back end. The stability of this type of bond anchors the
brand, allowing it to better transcend the ups and downs of a
relationship with consumers and shoppers.
While brand loyalty is elusive to most marketers, we should
not abandon all hope of acquiring it. In returning loyalty to its
original social roots, we can go about achieving brand loyalty
more successfully. Rather than focusing on behaviors, brands
and retailers need to keep their efforts and dollars focused on
developing emotional loyalty. The more emotionally loyal your
consumer, the less money you will have to spend to get the
shopper to purchase your brand. Just because you have a loyal
shopper does not mean you have a loyal consumer, but if your
consumer is loyal, your shopper most likely will be as well.