Lovemarks Campus

“Will people stand by the brands they love during tough times?” That is the question asked by Angela Lee, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Marketing, Monika Lisjak, a doctoral candidate at the Kellogg School, and Wendi Gardner, an associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University.

There has been much written and reported on the nature of people’s relationships with their mobile phones as the technology becomes secondary to how we function socially and emotionally. What motivates such strong feelings of loyalty to a brand of mobile phone?

The New Year has rung in announcements of the foreclosure of some famous brands. What does being a Lovemark mean in a volatile financial environment? Does being a Lovemark protect a brand from economic uncertainty?

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.”

A study from the Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California, Imperial College London and Vanderbilt University reveals that traditional measurement of brand attitude strength does not completely explain consumer brand attachment. Rather, what we refer to as ‘Loyalty Beyond Reason’ is a better indicator of consumer behavior.