Tropes
One of the more annoying tropes in commerce is the one that begins with “today’s consumer.”
There are many ways to round out the statement—be it that they’re busier than ever, have more choice than ever, or are less loyal than ever.
None of these are helpful to a brand (in fact, they’re more helpful to consultants and vendors looking to sell a brand something), and, to us, the most annoying version of this has to do with loyalty.
The concept of a wholly loyal customer is is—and has been—a bit of a pipe dream for ages. As Andrew Ehrenberg wrote more than 20 years ago: “your customers are really other people's customers who occasionally buy from you.”
Yet when marketers talk about loyalty, they often talk about this relationship opposite the way Ehrenberg described it. A brand, nearly by default, views a customer as “our customer,” not as being “the customer’s brand of choice.”
Notice the difference here?
The nuance is simple, but important. It’s one of power dynamics. (Hence why the trope still gets used…)
If the consumer really does hold the power—and they do—then brands are better off acknowledging this, and building marketing that works to continually press for becoming or maintaining a “brand of choice” status.
This largely happens by becoming more aware of one’s position in market, and adjusting mindsets accordingly. As we’ve previously written:
Retention-focused mindset: I am not competing in market for my existing customer, because my customer is committed to my brand and illustrates that commitment through her/his behavior and emotional reactions to my brand’s message. It will take something significant for me to lose that commitment from the customer.
Reacquisition-focused mindset: I am in a competitive market and my customer has a lot of choices. My customer likes my brand and uses it, but also knows better products and better deals may exist (and probably takes advantage of them on occasion), and is not averse to change. It takes very little for me to lose that customer.
Most brands—even those at true scale—benefit most from the second mindset. And if “today’s consumers” do, in fact, “have more choices than ever” and “are less loyal than ever,” then, actually, a brand has no choice but to adopt the second.
The again, that’s not really any different than it’s ever been.