Analyzing this approach for the presentation of the National Congress of Marketing for SMEs that was held on Valencia, the first thing that came was to make an analysis of the situation. The search for information, via the Internet, leads me to an interesting study published by The Logic Group and Ipsos under the title “Consumer Trends and Loyalty Programs”. From it extracted a series of data that directed its percentage to the axis of the head of the paper.

72% of claim to have had to cut their expenses due to the current situation. The biggest cuts have taken place in entertainment, vacations, luxury goods and clothing.

59% of the population under 34 is linked to one or more loyalty programs.

31% of respondents claim to belong to programs within the commerce sector.

12% of strategies and loyalty programs help the sale of the product.

36% are negative for commercialization and up to a dangerous 52% are inoperative.

This leads us to a necessary reflection, are the loyalty programs effective? The answer is clear, only in those cases in which the client perceives with clarity that he obtains from them what he really wants or needs.

So after the perception we introduce one more ingredient in the effectiveness of the loyalty; communication, since you will only perceive the benefit of the program if you know how to communicate

Are my customers loyal to my brand, my product? The brand as an element of loyalty. Pablo Adán Micó Elaborated presentation

Keys to understand the situation and adapt to it

There is a series of keys whose knowledge is necessary to be competitive, adapt to the new situation that has come to stay for a while. Times of change? Honestly, I think they begin to pass by, and that the new time is now a reality with a view to a reasonable time space in which to pose adaptation strategies.

Javier Rodríguez, director of Google, gave us some of his keys, which along with others of different vision and personal input we can summarize in the following 5:

1. Maintain customer balance ??] price ??] quality As fundamental axes for competitiveness and consumer satisfaction. Quality understood, of course, as a global strategy and business philosophy.

2. Capture and retain

Being the user increasingly demanding to have numerous alternatives, we know that maintaining a client costs much more than capturing a new one (it has always been said that 5 times, while there are already experts who increase it to 10). However, we must balance our marketing strategy between the destination of resources towards both fronts.

3. Think different It’s time to innovate and think creatively. It really is always, and yet new ideas, new projects and new products compete and are successful results every day. They say that 50% of the successful products of the next 10 years are still to be invented. It is really motivating!

4. Make brand

The benefits are many, and already this archi published in books, manuals and articles. but we can summarize them in:

• To differentiate
• To maintain image and reputation
• To convey emotions
• To generate value promise

5. Differentiate

Each time the brands are more similar and consumers are less and less like each other. It’s a phrase that I recently heard from Jaime Lobera, marketing director of Campofrío. Differentiate yourself, but in the right way: customization, adaptation to the client prior to your knowledge.

“The water is free, we charge for the packaging and the brand (Perrier)” is not a really electrifying statement?

The brand. Understand it

Imagine a drop of cologne. In essence, and beyond the floral and aromatic nuances, and the small differences in their chemical composition, it is practically the same element you put in the container that you put it. However, if this liquid element is in a container of Jacq’s, or Loewe, or Channel, and even more, if we appreciate it in the advertisement of a magazine, with Dolce Gabana, or the provocative proposals of Tom Ford, Now they do not seem so alike. Rather nothing.

What happened ? The fault lies with marketing. Marketing, to which some have already given their bye bye due to the lack of the fifth P, has defined an objective public, has endowed it with attributes, and has added some arguments and communication codes. It has taken personality, and it has differentiated; He has positioned himself.

The most accepted brand definition is “A combination of attributes, real and emotional, transmitted through a name or a symbol, that influences the thinking of a given audience and creates value. (…) ”

That value that the brand creates is found in the promise that the product or service offers. Promise of value, something fundamental as a strategic attribute of loyalty.

The brand is much more than a logo. It is a philosophy, an entrepreneurial attitude, far beyond the marketing department.

The brand is one of the most important assets of a company. Something that must be pampered, fed, taken care of, maintained.

The brands transmit, it is very clear. When we are in front of a Bmw, a Volvo, a Ferrari … each product, each brand transmits a different argument; quality, security, comfort, speed … The same happens if we are before an announcement of El Corte Inglés, or a Disney product, or Flex. Quality, security, rest … are promises of value

The emotional components in the brand image and the Promise of Value

To be or to seem? Both, without a doubt. The image is perception, it is associated to the use and value of the product, and this perception supposes a filter for the repurchase, for the loyalty.

This perception occupies a space in the consumer’s memory. And to deepen the memory we must know where brands live and work: in social memory. Joan Costa speaks of this.

The ultimate function of the brands, is to stabilize in the memory of a market and influence the acts of purchase and consumer loyalty. That is a reality, and to work on it we have to adopt a series of communication strategies:

1. Notoriety
2. Differentiation
3. Empathy
4. Satisfaction

The promise of value is a commitment of the brand with the product and with the consumer. Satisfaction is your goal, and we can base it on four arguments: Competence and trust, differential qualities, credibility and communication

Tools for loyalty

Before reaching the tactical possibilities for loyalty there is a series of questions that should be made a mark:

• What do I know about my clients? They are satisfied?
• What kind of products do they buy? How often?
• When was the last time I heard about them?
• And the sleeping ones, do I do something to activate them?

Without the knowledge of the client, especially of his behavior towards our brands and products, little or nothing we will be able to advance. If I do not have answers to these questions I will have to look for them, and put the means, that there are and we all know, to obtain the information. If I have perfect answers, we can move on to the next phase: What is the consumer looking for in loyalty programs?

The client seeks economic benefits, discounts on products and services, but above all seeks to participate in actions that fit with their needs and lifestyle. And I do not say it. Consumers are like that.

Thus, and maintaining this line, we can gather in three large groups the tools and tactical loyalty actions:

1. Membership
actions 2. Relationship
actions 3. Management
actions 4. Joint actions

Among the first ones already known to all: Loyalty clubs, incentive trips and raffles …

Between the second, the training, the after-sales service or the Networking actions and the favoring of the management of contacts and the search for synergies among the clients themselves

Among the management, telephone lines, suggestion boxes, complaints and claims, online services and in general all those that involve direct and continuous contact.

And among the latter, the joint actions that involve relationships with other brands and products that avoid the leakage due to the occasional purchase of our own customers, among which we can mention the cross-selling, the shared shares and the own actions of CSR.

And above all, a proud and vigilant flight: the brand, necessary for the sustainability and credibility of our promise of value.

Are the customers loyal to my brand? Strategic actions to make it happen

Information, knowledge and personalization. There are three aspects without which we have no chance of success. We have already mentioned it.

There are enough measurement tools, we know them, but do we use them? The already known CRM, Customer Panel, Control Sheets, Studies and surveys … anyone that adapts to our business and our client’s profile can be valid. Not using any is unforgivable.

The data obtained will be crucial to build our action plan and the decision-making process.

• Frequency of purchase
• Amount spent
• Percentage of expense
• Business fee
• Probability of repurchase

Is information power? Not always, only information is power if it generates action, if it is not a waste of time and opportunities.

Our brand is alive, it is a reality, and in your life you find its value:

1. Generates benefits : For consumers, manufacturers and sellers. Kotler already said it. It informs, facilitates the introduction of new products, gives consistency to the product, difference of competitors and other products. These are things that we already know and that should become part of our brand awareness.

2. It grants responsibilities in its management . We have to make it grow, and provide it with content, values, arguments of quality, and credibility in its promise of value.

3. Strategy and attitude . Keep it active in the market, adapt it to new markets and publics. White marks. .Brands or not ??] Brands?

Regarding the White Marks in relation to loyalty we can ask ourselves this question :. Are white brands an attack on the concept of a brand? In my opinion, it is not always the case. Currently represent a growth of 31.8% of the share compared to the Traditional Brand (TNS Worldpanel), and we can not abstract to the fact that many consumers find in them, for very diverse reasons, their more than respectable satisfaction of purchase.

Who can do it? I believe that there is always a Corporate Brand above the product brand. A Co-productive brand that assumes the role of representing, and of fulfilling, with the Promise of Value It can also be done by those brands of companies with a high index of consumer loyalty. There’s the Hacendado case.

• It is a brand perceived in quality
• It is a brand with a great availability
• It has a competitive price
• Corporate Brand Image: Mercadona
• Local / national product
• Promise of Value: price and quality for the good of the consumer.

So white marks are potential brands. Converting them into solid and reliable brands will depend on the actions of the marketing (the four pes; product, promotion, price, point of sale, plus the fifth dimension of marketing, people).

Consum has just launched almost half a million personalized offers to its partners. This is marketing with five pes.

What if the brand dies?

The brand, like any product, has its life cycle. And the time of his death may come. Sooner or later it will arrive. Many successful brands a few decades ago have completely disappeared from the commercial field, although some may have remained in our memory (Mirinda and Tonic Finley refreshments, Talbot cars, Cheiw chewing gum, Airgam Boys dolls, Solar water …).

However, it is very possible that something we have done wrong. There are a number of very common causes in this premature death, strategic errors that kill or can kill brands:

• We have copied. We have imported aesthetic aspects, product design, name and brand. However, we have left something essential; the personality, the attributes, the values, the promise of value. There are Japanese motorcycles with Harley aesthetics. For bikers, concepts impossible to mix.
• There is confusion in the promise. We do not give the promised, we compromise a quality that does not correspond to the real quality, the announced after-sales service does not work. This case has been the protagonist of exception in the last years of the real estate boom, for the misfortune of many
• We have not adapted to the new times, the new markets, the new consumers. Do not evolve. Featured case Don Algodón, leader in the 80s, almost nonexistent in the 90s, in the current adaptation process.
• We have extended the line badly. It was the case, for example, of the range extension that Levi’s carried out towards a casual line, Dockers.

Of course there are many more origins in the premature death of brands, and marketing will not always be to blame as we have been able to confirm throughout this paper.

Well, what tomorrow?

Well tomorrow we can start by reviewing the values ​​of our company, our brand, and the knowledge we have of our consumer.

I propose 8 steps to analyze in what situation we are and we can undertake loyalty actions through our brand.

1º. We will review the
2nd corporate values . We will examine the
3rd brand portfolio . We will analyze your promise of value
4th. We will study the
5th customer . We will implement
6th fidelity measurement systems . We will take care of the marks above all
7th. We will define the most appropriate loyalty strategy.
8th We will continue caring for and nourishing the brand above all