Lovemarks Campus

Loyalty amongst shoppers is becoming more of a challenge for brands. In a study undertaken in January 2013, Deloitte found that nine in ten consumers have swapped national branded products for private-label brands at some time.

This paper looks at the impact of emotional branding on personal share of purchases amongst buyers. “It seems that advertising can generate the expectancy of strong, specific, emotional attachment, but very favorable brand usage experience must follow if this approach is to be successful.”

Ernst & Young recently polled more than 4,000 adults in the Middle East and North Africa and found that consumers in the region are more brand loyal than their global counterparts. Loyalty may be the key desire for many brands in the MENA market, but striving for love will protect them from the risk of commodization.

This study critiques the claim that Lovemarks like Nike do not score much higher in terms of brand loyalty compared to smaller brands due to the polygamous loyalty of buyers.

“This research examines how store-evoked affect, human personality, and brand personality influence consumers’ emotional attachments to brands.” Field studies are conducted in a wine tasting room and juice bar to measure the effects of store-evoked pleasure on brand attachment, brand loyalty and willing to pay a price premium.

This Master’s thesis studies the affects of product involvement on brand loyalty for cars and batteries. The research tested “factors for regression correlations to identify links between pleasure, sign and risk probability and brand loyalty for cars and interest/pleasure, sign, risk probability and risk importance for batteries.”

Though levels of fanboyism vary in intensity from higher than usual levels of enthusiasm to sheer obsession, what is consistent is the degree of devotion and fierce protectiveness these fans have for the brands they love. Fanboys, like sport-fanatics, get the concept of Loyalty Beyond Reason.

One of repercussions of lowering prices is the loss of brand loyalty. Shoppers who are constantly looking for bargains will make brand choices based on price. Here is where we make the case for Lovemarks as not only an approach to branding and advertising, but a smart business choice from a financial perspective.

How do you cultivate such levels of brand loyalty that consumers will sacrifice time and energy to participate in your brand? What makes a person drive for hours for a brand of bread, or tattoo themselves with their Lovemark’s logo? To quote Lisa Gates of Forbes magazine, “When you love something, you’ll negotiate like a ninja to get it.”

This study from the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research examines the effect that restaurant brand personality has on customer’s emotions. It identifies five different restaurant brand personality dimensions.