Where is your brand loyalty? For some folks it’s cars. For others it’s apparel. For some it’s travel decisions. I know people who return back to the same brands over and over and never even consider that maybe something better, bigger, stronger, faster, more unique, less costly, or dare I say MORE FUN is out there!
We all know how important it is for a brand to have customer loyalty. A buddy of mine was a BMW guy forever. There were always two in the driveway. Then one day I’m meeting him and his wife for dinner and they pull up in a (Hyundai) Genesis! I remember him telling me it offered equal comfort, was less costly to repair, handled great, had all or more of the same luxuries and options. And for a heck of a lot less. I will also tell you it wasn’t a money thing. He recently bought his second Genesis.
While I am loyal to some brands I don’t feel that I owe anyone my loyalty. I was a Nike sneaker guy for a long time because of two amazing over the top service experiences. I’m a Wahoo bike computer guy right now because of an over the top warranty experience. I’ve purchased or leased 12 vehicles (so far) in my life. No brand repeats. In all three examples I loved the product. Okay, except for the Subaru. I think I might be the only person on the planet who hated theirs.
Recently I was in the market for a new bicycle. I’m a cyclist. I shoot for about 7,000 miles per year. I spend a fair amount of time in the saddle. I wanted a purple bicycle. That was my number one criteria. Color. Not equipment. Not something that might be faster. Not technology. And not brand. It was color. Plain and simple. I wanted a purple bicycle.
There’s a lot of great bicycle brands out there. Most of them offer low, mid and high level performance machines. There’s most likely a bicycle within one brand that is very comparable to bicycles in several other brands. Frame, material, components, aerodynamics, etc. So while I loved both my previous brands – Scott and Trek – I didn’t feel I needed to be loyal.
Last week I found three purple bicycles. Three different brands. And then my Goldilocks moment happened.
One was too aggressive for me, my riding style, and my severe scoliosis. The employee at that bike shop talked me out of it. Even though he had nothing else to sell me. But honesty would get me to shop there in the future for the often needed accessories. Or who knows, maybe an additional bike. The second was just waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than I wanted to spend. If I was 30 years younger and a racer, maybe. And the third, featured here in this post, was the winner. Meet my new BMC (PURPLE) Roadmachine – or as I call it, the PurpCicle
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So while I believe brand loyalty and customer loyalty are very important, I also believe that losing a customer can be some tiny customer preference – and not anything you did wrong or the typical reasons – price, competition, alternatives. Don’t get crazy when a customer goes away. Sometimes it just happens for reasons completely out of your control. And who knows, they may be back some day.