Top tips to inspire brand loyalty

In an industry that moves at break-neck speed, cultivating brand loyalty is no simple matter, writes Tony Enoch, creative partner at Nude Brand Creation.

These are Nude Brand Creation’s top tips to inspire brand loyalty in spirits

It’s not just that tastes and trends move on in the time it takes to snap your fingers: people do too. According to recruitment consultants Spencer Stuart, the average tenure of a top 100 brand company’s marketing director is now just 22 months, while brand managers frequently come and go even more rapidly.

In 1984, the average length of a client-agency relationship was seven years and two months; today, says the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, it is just two and a half years.

Yet, even as company portfolios grow and staff come and go, we are all trying to persuade the consumer to take the time to get to know and love our brands, and to cultivate a long-term loyalty that seems to belong to a different, slower era.

How do we reconcile these two very different forms of behaviour? Click through the following pages to see our top 10 tips to inspire brand loyalty.

The importance of spirit

The first priority is the spirit of the brand. Unless your brand has a core character that never changes, it will be impossible to persuade the consumer that their feelings for that brand shouldn’t change, either.

The spirit of a brand is so much more than logo or packaging. It’s the history, the story, the essence that made that brand what it is today – those elements that have won the consumer’s trust, inspired purchasers to pay a premium, the part that must never, come what may, change: not even when a new brand manager arrives, eager to make their mark. 

This doesn’t mean playing safe…

This isn’t to say that new management, or a new agency, can’t get creative with a brand refresh or the introduction of a new brand element – far from it. The changes could be quite dramatic; they just need to be assessed sensitively, according to what is in the brand’s best interest. Make changes that send a message to the consumer that you don’t really believe in your brand, and the answer will come back loud and clear: If you don’t believe in it, why should I?

Much loved liqueur Baileys has been the subject of numerous redesigns in recent years, mainly trying to rectify the mistakes made with a radical overhaul in 2004 removing the traditional landscape scene and replacing it with a generic “flowing swirls” motif. This redesign was aimed at achieving a more modern, stylish feel, yet to its audience, the redesign felt more akin to FMCG rather than luxury – what they’d expect from a drinking chocolate or chocolate bar rather than an indulgent, creamy, premium liqueur.

Don’t make space for the competition

Ironically, the removal of the “landscape” was part of an attempt to step away from copycat designs, yet this was what was so associated with the brand and the new look was too far removed from the original (a liqueur which holds a nostalgic place in the hearts of many, with associations of family time and seasonal celebrations). The image of the “perfect Irish vale” helped reinforce the strong craft and provenance that Baileys owned with its rich Irish heritage. The generic swirl removed this brand truth and with it the sense of place and nostalgia the brand’s audience could trust.

The most recent redesign brought back the classic feel, reworking the idyllic landscape scene so associated with the brand and balancing this by giving more prominence to the logo. Elevating the double, interlocking gold “B” – representing the Celtic knot – ensured reinforced Irish provenance, helping it stand out against the copy cats. The word “original” is also given more space. The latest redesign is a nod to say that there is only one Baileys, often copied but never equalled. Take away what makes a brand “special” and you take away customer loyalty and other brands are ready and waiting to move into that space you once occupied.

Every brand needs a guardian

How does a brand promote and retain consistency when, as is increasingly the case, it is one of a large portfolio, with a rotating series of brand managers who are working their way up the corporate ladder?

Large corporations can’t leave ambitious managers in the same place for too long, or they’ll lose them. So the best brand guardian is surely a creative agency – one that remains in place long enough to truly understand the brand and its history – and one that has the clout to see and prevent the kind of errors that a brand new brand manager, keen to make their mark, is liable to commit. 

A good agency is a repository of brand knowledge

Design itself is the manifestation of the spirit and values of the brand and one can only do this successfully if one had a deep understanding of what the brand represents, where it has come from and the journey.

Havana Club has for decades has been unmistakably and proudly Cuban. The brand is imbued with the spirit of the island and its vibrant capital city. It has always been important that this should be reflected in the packaging.

So, when we were appointed in 2008 to work on Havana Club Cuban Barrel Proof we invested time in understanding the essence of the brand. We interviewed bar owners and bartenders to understand what makes the brand, special, uniquely Cuban, as opposed to Caribbean, rum. We gained an understanding of the way the brand epitomises the art of Cuban rum, and therefore renamed and repositioned it as Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros.

Nude’s goal was to promote the flavour, craftsmanship and provenance of the brand’s status, beyond just style alone. Our designs highlighted brand truths, such as the story of the Maestro Roneros for example, and downplayed less relevant messages, such as “Cuban Barrel Proof”. In this way we always ensured there was genuine product meaning.

The product should be the hero

Staying true to the spirit of a brand is no simple matter, and that’s particularly clear with limited editions. If they are cheap bolt-ons, brand perception will suffer and consumers won’t pay the premium for a one-off that doesn’t feel worth it. Brand extensions have to bring depth as well as breadth to the mother-brand. They must always add to the brand experience and never compromise or take away from that experience.

In an international marketplace, it’s important that a product plays to the cultural assumptions of their target audience – which may be very different – as happens when a premium Scotch malt whisky aims for the lucrative Asian market, where the bottle often functions as a gift.

The new purchaser is the holy grail: every brand needs new adopters, especially in the spirit market, which is all about trial and discovery. Yet attracting these people must be done sensitively, without alienating the loyal consumer who may buy only one bottle a year, but buys that bottle every year. Only an agency with a deep and broad understanding of that brand, one that lives with it and has truly taken the time to re-evaluate it, can offer the kind of tactful creativity that will grab attention without destroying trust.

A stable place in a fast-moving world

These days, a change to a brand can win approval – or spell disaster – within minutes, thanks to social media. We live in a world that moves at bewildering speed, and brands need to be aware of that at all times. But even this can work in their favour. In a world where news arrives on your screen within seconds, and where your new phone is out of date in a month and out of commission in a year, there’s a longing for stability, for experiences that truly fulfil rather than just providing a quick fix.

Craft, tradition, heritage and above all respect, have become cool again and this is a great advantage for brands that have longevity, that speak of a long, carefully crafted past, and a product that requires time, care and experience to bring it to its fullest expression.