The Science Behind Creating Brand Loyalty that Every Marketer Needs to Know
Matt Bowen • April 4, 2022
Achieving widespread, continuous brand loyalty is the ultimate objective for any company. Whether a B2B or B2C, having a customer base that enthusiastically and consistently chooses your brand over your competitors’ brands is what will elevate you—and keep you—ahead of the pack.
While this may seem obvious, the truth is that “brand loyalty” often doesn’t make the list of a corporation’s goals. Increased revenues? Check. Increased market share? Sure. Increased profit margins? Absolutely.
Increased brand loyalty? Crickets
While most marketing folks will certainly claim that brand loyalty is of utmost importance, turning that into tangible action is very often a different story. Of course, some industries have long ago figured out that brand loyalty is critical. On the consumer front, loyalty cards, points, frequent flyer miles, etc., are all intended to create loyalty. But do they really? I have, and use, a CVS card, but does that actually make me loyal to CVS? Hardly. I go to CVS because it’s convenient for me and sure, I’ll be happy to save $2 off my next toothpaste purchase.
Ana Andjelic, who runs the newsletter The Sociology of Business, describes loyalty programs like these exactly as they are: bribery schemes that have nothing to do with loyalty at all. They are only about driving economic transactions rather than true affinity for the brand.
To really understand what’s behind loyalty, it’s important to first break it down to what it actually means. Brand loyalty is typically equated to customer satisfaction. Yet in reality, while the two are related, they are distinctly different measures.
True brand loyalty transcends mere satisfaction and motivates customers to want to promote your brand for you.
They tell friends and colleagues. They talk about it on social media. If your product isn’t readily available for some reason, they’ll forego buying it rather than settling for a competitor’s offering. That’s the brand loyalty litmus test.
Customer satisfaction on the other hand is driven by consistently delivering on the functional benefits of your product. That is to say, your offering does what you’ve said it will. Brand loyalty is not driven by delivering the functional benefits of your product or service. Even if you do a stellar job of consistently delivering these benefits, it will not drive loyalty, because loyalty requires more than just doing what your customers already expect your products and services to do. If what you offer doesn’t perform as advertised, then you have no business offering it in the first place. Not to mention, it’s a safe bet that some of your competitors’ products perform just as well as yours.
In what we call a Data Conscious methodology to brand strategy, we think of these in terms of brand value drivers. Some are expected—these are the functional benefits, some are critical, a step above and specific to their needs, and then you have value drivers that are delighters. Delighters are at the heart of brand loyalty.
But before you can even get to brand loyalty, an important precursor needs to take place: customer commitment. Studies show that customer commitment comes in two forms: economic commitment and affective commitment. Economic commitment is when a customer keeps buying a certain product or service because there simply aren’t other good options or the cost of switching is too high. A good example would be the binding contracts that mobile phone or cable suppliers require (here’s looking at you, Comcast). But economic commitment is false loyalty. Many of these customers would bolt in a heartbeat if better pricing and terms were available elsewhere.
Affective commitment is a whole different animal because it’s based on an emotional connection. Customers with an affective commitment stick with certain brands because they are emotionally connected to them. They seek out and choose those brands time and time again.
Here’s an example of affective commitment: I live in a small city just north of Boston and like everyplace, the year of Covid put a lot of small businesses in a very tough place. A local restaurant, The Paddle Inn, was trying to understand how it could remain relevant and created what I would call a perfect affective commitment move. Every Tuesday they do what they call curb-side cooking school. Each online class focuses on one dish and they provide you all the ingredients you need in a bag that you pick up the day before. Then, at 5:30 on Tuesday, you jump into a Zoom cooking class with dozens of other people while their chef walks everyone through, step by step (often in a very humorous way), how to prepare that dish in real time. It’s more than just a lot of fun, it’s community. I will forever be loyal to this restaurant because of all of the surprisingly fun and memorable experiences they’ve created. And you can bet I’ve told a lot of other people about it too.
Did they create this as a loyalty program? I doubt it. They likely were just trying to drum up cash flow on typically slow Tuesday nights. But as a result of creating over and above highly memorable customer experiences they are building a loyal community of customers for the long haul.
There’s a key psychological component at play here. What we are really talking about in brand loyalty is actually memory. When we have an exceptional brand experience it gets lodged into our memory. This in turn gets translated into an emotional connection that all positive memories create. While important, the functional benefits of your product or service just don’t cut it when it comes to creating emotional connections. We don’t record functional benefits into memory, and therefore don’t make an emotional connection.
In other words, when you deliver on just what you are supposed to deliver on with your brand, it’s quickly forgotten. But your brand goes beyond what’s expected and create an exceptional customer experience, it gets lodged into memory. It’s that lodging in the memory that is the spark that drives loyalty.
So true brand loyalty is a result of first creating affective commitment. How do you do this? Well, for starters, all brand experiences need to align with the brand positioning itself. Experiences are a physical extension of what your brand stands for and why it is distinct. If your brand is solid in both of those aspects, then you can deconstruct the entire customer experience the way it is now and determine where it can be elevated to something that is exceptional, surprising and meaningful.
If, however, your brand positioning and differentiation is murky, you have to first start there and build from that. Trying to create exceptional brand experiences on a brand that isn’t clearly positioned will likely add more confusion and be a waste of valuable budget.
And speaking of budget, this is where marketers need to rethink how they allocate funds across all of their initiatives. A true brand loyalty strategy based on the principals above means that you need to transition a good portion of your focus from communicating expected functional and technical benefits to creating these exceptional experiences for your customers. This requires a reallocation of the budget; In general, I recommend at least 15-20% of your efforts and budget should focus just on your brand loyalty strategy.
Research can help you further fine tune this by first understanding your reputation. For example, if research shows that your brand has a great reputation for delivering on things that are expected (or worse, unimportant), you can reallocate your budget to focus on improving your brand’s performance and perceptions on delivering experiences that delight which will ultimately will be at the heart of your brand loyalty strategy.
Unless you’re in hospitality, chances are creating over-and-above customer experiences that delight could be revolutionary in your industry. It’s an exceptional way to differentiate your brand.
A few tips to help get you started:
If you aren’t delivering the basics consistently (i.e., the functional benefits of your products or services), you have to start there. You need to do that just to avoid dissatisfaction, and you can’t build affective commitment if you don’t meet the basic requirements your customer base expects.
At the core of affective commitment is the practice of creating over-and-above experiences that generate emotional responses that, in turn, get recorded into memory. What this means to your brand depends on the relationship you have with your customers, but the baseline is true, regardless. Ask yourself, what can you do for your customers that will go beyond their expectations? How can you surprise them? How can you anticipate their needs even before they do? How can you personalize their experience? How can you make them smile?
But remember, and this is the kicker, creating affective commitment is NOT about offering deals and discounts. Those might create economic commitment, but the benefits are short lived and will not lead to loyalty.
Creating affective commitment and, consequently, brand loyalty, should be a top focus of most every marketing department. The financial returns can be significant not just from your existing customer base, but the new customers in their circle they undoubtedly will tell about the crazy great experience they had with your brand. Even better, it should rise above that and be a top corporate objective. Creating true loyalty––and then turning that conviction into a marketing channel in its own right––is what makes some brands so cleverly successful.
For many companies, the fourth quarter is both a sprint and a launchpad. You’re closing out revenue goals, but you’re also laying the groundwork for the year ahead. The brands that finish strong and start fast aren’t lucky — they’re intentional. They know their customers, they have a clear positioning strategy, and they operationalize that strategy across every part of the business. There are currently a lot of economic factors that need to be considered – from consumer uncertainty to tariffs. If you want your brand to stand out in 2026, here’s your Q4 readiness checklist, built on the principles we use at Brandigo: deep customer insight, data-conscious positioning, and smart use of tools — including AI — to make your marketing more effective and scalable. 1. Revisit Your Customer Research Why it matters: Markets shift quickly. According to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Action : Review customer and prospect data from the last 12 months. Conduct a quick pulse survey or a set of short customer interviews to understand evolving needs, priorities, and challenges. Look for gaps between what you think your customers want and what they’re actually telling you. 2. Audit Your Brand Positioning Why it matters: Even the most powerful creative loses steam if it’s not anchored in a clear, differentiated brand position. McKinsey research shows companies with strong, consistent brand positioning achieve up to 20% higher profitability than competitors. Action: Review your current positioning statement and messaging pillars. Ask: Are we still saying something truly unique? Is it backed by proof points customers care about? Test your positioning with a sample of your target audience before rolling into new campaigns. 3. Align the Organization Around the Brand Why it matters: A brand strategy that only lives in the marketing department won’t move the needle. Operationalizing your brand means integrating it into sales conversations, customer service interactions, hiring practices, and product development. Action : Host a Q4 “brand alignment” session with leaders from every department. Provide a simple one-page “brand playbook” that outlines tone of voice, value propositions, and core messaging. Encourage each department to share how they’ll bring the brand to life in their own work. 4. Review and Refresh Content for Q4 Campaigns Why it matters: The end of the year is noisy. To stand out, you need content that’s relevant, timely, and connected to your brand story. HubSpot reports that companies publishing 16+ blog posts per month generate about 3.5 times more traffic than those publishing 0–4. Action: Map your content to both year-end offers and early-year positioning. Refresh high-performing evergreen content with updated data, visuals, or CTAs. Plan for post-holiday engagement — not just pre-holiday promotions. 5. Embrace AI to Accelerate Marketing Workflows Why it matters: AI isn’t replacing brand strategy — it’s amplifying it. According to PwC, 86% of CEOs say AI is a “mainstay” in their offices, with the biggest gains coming from productivity and personalization. Action : Identify 1–2 AI tools that can help you speed up specific workflows, like content drafting, image creation, or data analysis. Set clear rules for how AI will support — not replace — your team’s strategic and creative decision-making. Train your team to use AI ethically, ensuring your brand’s authenticity is never compromised. 6. Set Measurable Goals for the New Year Why it matters: The best time to plan Q1 is before Q4 ends. Brands that start January with clarity waste less time “warming up” and more time gaining market share. Action : Define key brand metrics for Q1: awareness, consideration, engagement, and conversion. Align these with broader business goals, ensuring they’re measurable and trackable from day one. Set up dashboards or reporting tools so progress is transparent across the organization. In Short… Your Q4 is more than just the final quarter of the year — it’s your brand’s launchpad into the next. By combining deep customer insight, differentiated positioning, internal alignment, and the smart use of tools (including AI), you can finish strong, start stronger, and keep your brand ahead of the curve.
According to the June 2025 Consumer Economic Pulse study from Angus Reid , Americans are starting to see glimmers of hope in the economic landscape. Positive sentiment about the U.S. economy has reached its second-highest level since early 2023, and fewer people now expect the situation to worsen in the next six months. That’s the good news. But dig a little deeper, and a more complex story unfolds. While economic outlook is trending upward, consumer behavior reveals lingering caution, financial stress, and a pullback on spending. Half of Americans have switched brands to save money this year. Three-quarters have cut back on dining, entertainment, and other non-essential spending. Nearly one in three is accumulating more personal debt. And 41% have scaled back or cancelled summer travel plans due to economic concerns. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for marketers. In this liminal moment—where hope is rising but hardship remains—brands must evolve how they speak, sell, and serve. Value Is Non-Negotiable In today’s marketplace, value doesn’t just mean low prices. It means helping consumers feel smart, secure, and seen. The fact that more than half of consumers are switching brands to save money signals that brand loyalty is fragile. People aren’t abandoning brands out of disinterest—they’re doing it out of necessity. This creates an opening for smart challengers and private labels to win on value, transparency, and quality. But it also gives established brands a chance to double down on relevance. Marketers should resist the temptation to race to the bottom on price. Instead, consider how to enhance perceived value—through bundling, loyalty rewards, subscription offers, or stronger emotional positioning. People are willing to invest in brands that align with their values, solve real problems, and offer tangible, repeatable benefits. Empathy Is the New Differentiator Brands that acknowledge the consumer’s reality—without exploiting it—will earn trust. With 77% of Americans cutting discretionary spending and 49% saying their debt is growing or stagnant, there’s a prevailing sense of financial fatigue. Tone-deaf or overly aspirational messaging risks alienating your audience. Instead, brand communications should reflect humility, optimism, and empathy. Think: practical luxury, not excess. Thoughtful convenience, not indulgence. Hopeful messaging grounded in the now—not the fantasy of pre-2020 normalcy. Brands that humanize the experience—by showing they understand and are here to help—can become beacons in uncertain times. Strategic Adjustments to Brand Positioning In light of this shifting sentiment, here are four strategic pivots marketers should consider: Reassess Category Role: Is your product a necessity, an affordable indulgence, or a delayed purchase? Adjust the way you frame your offering accordingly. Shift Messaging from Aspiration to Empowerment : Replace glossy perfection with realistic outcomes. Focus on how your brand helps people solve a problem, save time, or make smarter decisions. Lean into Purpose—but Make It Practical: Consumers still care about sustainability, inclusivity, and social impact—but they’re also watching their wallets. Connect your brand purpose to tangible, everyday outcomes. Elevate Financial Fluency: In categories like financial services, consumer goods, and health & wellness, brands that help consumers make confident financial choices will gain favor. Educational content, budget calculators, or simplified comparison tools can differentiate your offering. A Note on Travel and Experience Spending Interestingly, while travel budgets are being adjusted, 41% of Americans still plan to take a vacation this summer. Domestic destinations are thriving, and international travel is slowly rebounding. For hospitality, entertainment, and CPG brands, this signals an opportunity to tap into the consumer’s desire for escapism—just with a tighter grip on spending. Brands in these sectors should emphasize ease, affordability, and memory-making. Offer flexible packages, small indulgences, or community-focused experiences. Even small upgrades—like “staycation bundles” or “budget-friendly luxury”—can go a long way. As We Always Say: Top Into The Functional & The Emotional In uncertain times, consumers are not seeking perfection. They are seeking dependability. Brands that offer security—emotional, functional, or financial—will win. Now is the time to audit every consumer touchpoint and ask: Are we building trust? Are we helping our customers feel in control? Are we making life easier or harder? Because if we’ve learned anything from the latest Consumer Economic Pulse, it’s this: people are ready to believe again. But they need brands to meet them halfway—with clarity, compassion, and value they can count on.