Customer Loyalty. Think back to when you were a kid and that feeling of longing for a particular pair of sneakers.

You’d probably never even owned a pair before.

And knew nothing about their durability or performance, but that mattered squat.

You needed them, but most of all, you wanted that little brand logo stitched on the side!

Fast forward to adulthood, and we still do it.

Perhaps it’s your car, laptop, or phone.

Maybe it’s still that brand you loved as a kid!

Sure, now we base our decisions on functionality and performance.

Or so we tell ourselves!

Deep down, we all love our brands, and some stay with us for life!

This post will look at recent statistics and proven reasons why brand image is essential for customer loyalty.

Let’s start by answering two questions

What is customer loyalty?

Customer loyalty is a continuous voluntary relationship between a customer and a brand.

It’s why your customers choose you over a competitor, even when they’re providing a similar product, service, or benefit. And loyal customers stay longer and buy more products, all while recommending them to friends and family.

Why Is It Important?

Money and marketing.

Loyal customers generally spend more and pay more for products with brands they support, but where you’ll really make money is by saving it.

Just look at these statistics:

• Acquiring new customers can cost up to five times more than retaining existing ones.
• Increasing your customer retention by only 5% can increase profits to 95%.
• Your chances of selling to new customers are between 5-20%; these jumps to 60-70 for existing ones.

Convincing financial statistics, right?

But word-of-mouth marketing is just as profitable for your brand. And having happy customers posting positive reviews and sharing their experiences across social media, well, that’s priceless.

Why Your Brand Image Has To Impression

“The first impression is the last impression.”

William Hazlitt wrote the phrase over 170 years ago, but it’s just as relative today.

Because consumers form opinions on brands quicker than the blink of an eye. And Google research tells us when it comes to your brand’s website, they do it even quicker, taking only 17-50 milliseconds to judge it. And considering it takes around 200 milliseconds to blink your eye, that’s pretty fast.

But do you get a second chance to impress?

U.S journalist Pam Moore reports:

• It takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand.

Fortunately, when it comes to branding, it seems we do.

However, if your branding fails to impress from day one, you’ll waste time and effort due to failed engagements and conversions. A better approach is to create branding that evokes a positive, memorable first impression from the very beginning.

But to achieve that, your branding must be of the highest quality and consistent throughout all your platforms. One company that can help you is Tailor Brands. I like their platform because it’s easy to create branding for multiple marketing campaigns, including social media, all from one website. And as you’re only using one platform, it’s consistent.

Why You Need To Be Recognized

With 1.3 billion websites and the average American seeing up to 10,000 adverts a day, you can’t just show up and expect consumers to recognize your brand.

The fact is, brand image creates recognition, it’s why even with the slightest glimpse, we instantly know a red can with white writing means Coca-Cola, but it doesn’t happen by chance.

Your brand image is more than just a logo and tagline; it encompasses every element of your business. It’s what consumers associate with your brand, from product quality and reliability, delivery speed, and customer service.

But if you don’t consistently maintain a positive brand image throughout every consumer interaction, you’ll have big problems establishing an easily recognizable brand.

Here’s what a Global banking & Finance survey told us:

• 71% of consumers said it was essential that they recognize a brand before making a purchase.

If you’re struggling with brand recognition, companies like BrandTuitive can help you reveal your brand’s true identity. And encapsulate it using taglines, captivating names, and messaging that can engage your target audience’s attention.

Why You Must Be Trustworthy

Think of a brand you continuously use; do you trust it?

Of course, you do; it’s why you’re loyal.

And your brand’s image is equally essential for building credibility with your potential customers; that’s why you must consistently maintain a positive one.

An Edelman survey in 2019 found:

• That 81 percent of consumers said that they need to trust the brand to buy from them.
• 59% of shoppers prefer to purchase new products from the brands they trust.

Brands create loyalty by making promises, whether it’s organically sourced produce, workers’ equality, sustainable packaging, or unequaled service. The more often you deliver on your promise, the more credible you’ll become, and the more your consumers will trust you.

But to convince consumers to buy into your brand, they first have to know you, and that’s where word-of-mouth is crucial:

Why Word-Of-Mouth Is Crucial

User-generated content is proven to be a highly effective form of marketing. And companies with a strong brand image consistently create brand advocates, and it’s these loyal customers that regularly perform word-of-mouth marketing.

We all know that bad news spreads quicker than good; it’s why you have to encourage users to leave reviews. One way of ensuring customers do is by having an automated review request process in place.

Invesp tells us that:

• Word-of-mouth marketing results in 5 times more sales than paid media marketing and folks are over 90% more likely to trust a brand that’s recommended by a friend.

And as we’re a visual species, we find videos more engaging and memorable, resulting in recent video review popularity. YouTube alone had 50,000 + hours of video reviews viewed in the last two years!

You can encourage your consumers to do the same on your website and all your social media platforms by using Glimpse video to engage customers and create testimonials with soundtrack backgrounds and a call to action.

The Importance Of Transparency and Customer Service

We’ve looked at why a brand image is essential for customer loyalty and how it will benefit your brand.

However, two ways of obtaining customer loyalty consistently outrank all others.

Customer support

Curatti’s branding statistics reported:

• 73% of consumers stay loyal because of excellent customer service.

Customer service has always been of the utmost importance because we’re human, and even when a brand’s product has let us down, if they sincerely look after us, we forgive them. And quite often, the negative experience turns into a positive.

Transparency

Label Insight.com recently proved:

• 94% of customers show loyalty to transparent brands.

Transparency, however, has shown to be increasing in importance over recent years. With increased access to information, we’re now aware of company practices. It’s our beliefs and the ability to take action by communicating with an online global audience that’s called out this transparency.

Conclusion

We’ve covered all the reasons a brand image is essential for customer loyalty.

And there are many.

All worth-while investing in.

It stands to reason, if you’re going to create a brand, you may as well make a memorable one that’s loved by its customers.

And by always putting them first, they’ll remain loyal for life.