The Neuroscience of Humanistic Brand Loyalty
Key points of the neuroscience of humanistic brand loyalty:
When it comes to loyalty, most brands focus on transactional programs such as loyalty cards.
However, these are largely ineffective since they are non-proprietary, and do not give consumers a feeling of trust and dedication
Instead, brands can tap into humanistic-based loyalty, which harnesses the neuroscience of warmth
Each year, hundreds of people get the Harley Davidson logo tattooed on their bodies. You may not be a tattoo person, but you can appreciate the love and dedication that a decision like this requires. Fundamentally, this comes down to the holy grail of branding: brand loyalty.
Brands that are high on loyalty procure higher lifetime value from consumers, benefit from glowing word-of-mouth referrals, and as a result, spend much less on customer acquisition.
There are no guaranteed formulas for brand loyalty, and there’s no quick intervention that will make customers immediately rush out and get a tattoo of your brand’s logo. However, understanding key insights from neuroscience can produce a unique form of customer dedication known as humanistic brand loyalty. Let’s dive in
Loyalty cards: Transactional brand loyalty
Before we get there, let’s start with the status quo. When you think about brand loyalty, the first thing that likely comes to mind is loyalty programs. These are things like a special loyalty card to use at the supermarket, an account with an online brand, or a mileage number with an airline company. They are everywhere. But do they work? Largely, no.
There are two main issues with loyalty programs. The first is that there is nothing proprietary about them. Any competitor can offer a loyalty program. And if you come up with some really great perk, your competitor can quickly copy it. They’re ubiquitous and so they don’t really help differentiate the brand.
The second issue is more crucial: brand loyalty programs are transactional in nature. At their core, you’re telling your customer - if you do this, I’ll do this. If you buy this, we’ll give you this perk.
While this might be fair, transactional dynamics do not inspire feelings of long-term trust, bonding, and loyalty. And in fact, some of the most beloved brands - from Trader Joe’s to Southwest Airlines, have seldom used a formalized loyalty program.
The neuroscience of humanistic loyalty
For these more enduring connections, you need your customers to think of you in the same way that they think of a close friend or family member. This comes down to the psychology of reciprocity, and how your brain processes simple social interactions.
Imagine that when a close friend calls you up and needs to vent about something for 10 minutes, you start by telling them, “OK, since you just vented for 10 minutes, that means I get to commiserate with you for 10 minutes at a later date.” Sounds pretty silly, right?
So instead of a transactional dynamic, what you really want to strive for is one that is humanistic and robust. It goes beyond a mere exchange, and taps into the neuroscience of warmth.
It means being invested in the long-term well-being of the customer above and beyond the immediate sale. It means treating the consumer - at every touchpoint, as a red-blooded human whose needs you actually care about. Just as you would a close friend.
The e-commerce shoe company Zappos made this approach famous in the call center, where employees would talk to customers not just about their deliveries, but about whatever they’d like. The record for the longest phone call with a customer? Over 9 hours, a sale wasn’t even made.
The pet supply company Chewy.com distinguished itself during the pandemic, by telling consumers that instead of returning products they didn’t want, to donate them to a needy family instead. These consumers were reimbursed for these returns just the same. In both of these cases, the focus is on the well-being of the customer at the expense of the sale.
Going Beyond Loyalty Programs
Overall, loyalty is a key aim for all brands. But the path to achieving it means going beyond the simple, transactional systems like loyalty cards and point systems. These are commodified, ubiquitous, and above all, cold. Instead, think about how a more humanistic loyalty approach can be implemented, and in doing so, how the brand can exude warmth towards its consumers.
Long term, it's this approach that will provide more opportunities to develop feelings of trust and dedication. And in some cases, even a brand logo tattoo.
Photo by Clay Banks via UnSplash
About the author
Matt Johnson, PhD is a researcher, writer, and consumer neuroscientist focusing on the application of psychology to branding. He is the author of the best-selling consumer psychology book Blindsight, and Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). Contact Matt for speaking engagements, workshops, or just to say hello
