You have a brand but what does it take to keep customers coming back or sticking with your product no matter what the price? As many of you know I am a big fan of Apple products. I was first exposed to Apple computers in my college journalism classes at Winthrop College (now University) back in the late 80’s. Compared to the other computers I had seen I was blown away but at the time they were much more expensive than they are now, especially on an average college students budget. By the time the mid 90’s rolled around and I was in the process of purchasing my first computer I sadly blew off Apple computers because the company definitely was in serious trouble. However, not long afterwards Apple brought back their founder and acquired his new company, NeXT and based their new operating system off the NeXT system. The situation with Apple has gotten better and better since then, especially in the realm of portable media with the iPods and iPhone.

I gave that little bit of history to show how I discovered a product and how it took many years to sell me on it. It’s not that I didn’t like Apple or their products. I found them distinctive and superior but around 1995 or 1996 I had a hard time trusting in them to stick around for the long haul. thankfully the Apple board saw the writing on the wall, brought back their founder who had changed during his “exile” and brought focus and innovation back to their product line. This woke me up and I followed them for a few year and eventually “bought” into the company by purchasing their products.

True loyalty is something that is earned. Yes, we can grow up in a culture where we eat a certain kind of food, use a certain insurance company etc. but will loyalties like that stand the test of time? I’m sure we all have foods or food brands in our culture that we stick to because we feel connected through family or community but even those loyalties can be lost when it’s revealed the products have negatives aspects. Health concerns like high fat, sugar, caffeine, etc. are already presenting a challenge to long held brands.

Are you keeping up with customer concerns? Brand loyalty builds on keeping relationships solid and listening to the customers. Sometimes the changes have to be radical.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 10:55 am and is filed under Compelling Content, Internet, Tips, branding, marketing, social networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.