How superbrands create meaningful brand loyalty; a market review

HOW SUPERBRANDS
CREATE MEANINGFUL
BRAND LOYALTY
A MARKET REVIEW BY KIERAN
MANSFIELD

© Copyright Cherry London 2013| November 2013

HOW SUPERBRANDS CREATE MEANINGFUL BRAND
LOYALTY
OVERVIEW
Executive Summary

3

INSIGHTS
Introduction

4

Case study 1: Topshop and Google+

5

Case study 2: Coke - Share My Coke

6

Case study 3: Gillette and Movember

7

THE FIVE PRINCIPLES
Tell a story

9

Personalise

10

Be new and unique

11

Give customers control

11

Connect offline with online

12

SUMMARY
Conclusion
Sources

© Copyright Cherry London 2013 | Kieran Mansfield| Nov 2013

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2

LOYALTY
Executive summary
Why are some brands more successful at building loyalty than others? Why do some
have ‘customers’, while others have devoted fans? And what can we marketers do to
turn a buying decision into a lifestyle choice?
What all the big brands have in common is a bunch of very loyal customers. And not
only are they loyal, they actually do, think and feel what the brand wants them to.
These brands do what seems like the impossible. But is it?
After doing some digging we’ve realised that customers are inspired to act not
because they have to, but because they want to. And this inspiration comes from a
deep emotional connection to the brand’s core purpose – an alignment of values.
They are connected to them at a deeper level, and this is the essence of true loyalty.
Loyalty is driven by long term relationships, therefore Loyalty can’t be a ‘programme’
to make people buy more products and services – it should flow from creating a brand
with clear values and delivering genuine experiences at every touch point. In fact
we’d go as far to say the most successful brands are storytellers. This then turns
customers into fans (hallelujah) in an authentic way.
The inherent difference between fans and customers is behavioural. Fans feel they are
part of the brand – fans go out of their way to buy and use a brand. They talk about
the brand for you, harnessing the power of story through word of mouth. They
position your brand better than you will. To your other customers they are the
authentic voice of the brand. At the essence of this is a deep positive feeling. A
feeling of passion - loving something and wanting to share their experience with
others. Being a fan means purchasing decisions are made in a different way – logical
decisions of cost vs. benefit take a back seat to those of values – it’s about buying
because the brand has become an extension of their lifestyle and personal identity.
The brand fans beliefs and feelings drive them to act.
This study endeavours to dig deeper into how and why these brands build loyal brand
fans, which are more likely to engage in action and behave in new ways. We’ve taken
the learnings from three of the stand-out marketing campaigns of 2013, two of which
use innovative brand partnerships as part of their strategy to support brands on their
journey, by leveraging strength for both brands.
What we discovered is that all these campaigns have five core parts that help them
deepen emotional connections with their customers, which therefore drive loyalty
and inspires them to action – and that this is all underpinned by how well they
understand them. You guessed it – it’s all about insight.
Kieran Mansfield
Account Director at Cherry London

3

LOYALTY
Introduction
Behaviour is driven by loyalty, and loyalty is driven by emotion. Customers are
loyal to brands because they feel a connection to them – their values, products
and communication methods. This feeling of loyalty is what drives behaviour. And
insight is essential in being able to understand these behaviours and the emotions
behind them. When combined with foresight, insight can be the foundation of
innovation – and innovation excites customers to act in new ways. With insight,
you can develop emotional connections, turn customers into fans, and inspire
them to act. The Topshop, Coke and Gillette campaigns are great examples of this
in action, using partnerships to create new brand positioning and tap into different
networks, platforms and communities.


4

LOYALTY
Topshop & Google+ - The future of the Fashion Show

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
Topshop developed a brand partnership with Google+ to create a series of digital innovations to engage consumers at its
London Fashion Week show at the Tate Modern. The campaign created a unique, interactive, multi-platform show experience which was designed to let audiences see the show from every point of view — from that of a model on the runway, to a makeup artist backstage, to the celebrity or buyer in the front row. The key insight that allowed Topshop to
connect with its audience was the idea of empowerment – they recognised that the fashion industry was outdated in its
elitist model of fashion shows, which essentially were out of sync with the retail cycle. They gave their customers control
and access to the event, plus influence over the collections and a voice to be able to share their experiences.
KEY CAMPAIGN ELEMENTS
Access:

Topshop TV and Model Cam – online teaser content and behind the scenes footage

Live ‘Red carpet’ arrivals - live on Google+ and YouTube

Models ‘digital diaries' from fittings to the catwalk

HD microcameras on runway models’ outfits and accessories

Show streamed via Topshop’s website, Google+ and Twitter plus a giant screen in the window of Topshop’s Oxford Street
store
Influence:

Be the buyer app—empowered fans to create their own mood boards

In-store Google+ ‘Be The Model’ photo booth

First to buy – exclusive access to order makeup/apparel/accessories before arrival in store
Voice:

Shoot & share – making content sharable via social networks

"Tweet Off" – best review of received VIP tickets to next season’s show






RESULTS
Video stream—4 million views across all platforms breaking previous records First five minutes of the show—200,000+ social
media shares using the "Shoot The Show" feature
200 million people exposed to images and content in the first three hours; several looks sold out within an hour
#TOPSHOP and #UNIQUE trended globally on Twitter Sunday
Topshop were the most talked about brand during London Fashion Week


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LOYALTY
Coke - Share My Coke

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
Coca-Cola launched its ‘biggest ever’ summer campaign,
replacing its branding with 150 of the UK’s most popular
names across 100 million packs, as it looked to reverse a
period of slow sales growth and drive positive uplift in to
brand perception. The core objective of the campaign
was to excite Coke’s core consumer, create interest in
the brand and drive value and volume. The key insight
here was around personalisation and the power of
sharing to allow people to make connections with each
other, and the brand as a facilitator of this.
Personal:

Bottles into unique, collectable gifts and
encourage user generated photos and videos to
share online

Pre-campaign personalised packs to drive intrigue

Online retail partnership with Ocado, and 100 free
Share A Coke bottle giveaway carrying the names
of its customers

Offline retail partnership with Tesco—plus a tour
complete with vending machine that dispensed
limited edition Share A Coke bottles printed with
any given name


Shareable:

On-pack hashtag #ShareACoke, encouraged
people to tell their friends about their discovery

Dedicated Share A Coke UK website or Facebook
app to create virtual cans with bespoke names

Integrated marketing campaign included a TV ad
featuring young people telling stories about
people they admire and are inspired by
RESULTS

Coca Cola outpaced Pepsi in the 3 months during
the campaign

Facebook UK community grew by 3.5% and
globally by 6.8%

Twitter hashtag used 29,000 times – 51% of UK
twitter users were exposed to a mention of Coca
Cola between 28 April and 12 May- this
represents a rise of 3% for the 2 weeks prior to
campaign launch

Coca-Cola’s UK Buzz ranking shot up from 25 to
number 7 in the league table

Coca-Cola’s Recommendation score has increased
from 3.7 to 12.7 (during the period of 1st of May
to 3rd of June based on YouGov BrandIndex data)

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LOYALTY
Gillette & Movember – The Best a Mo Can Get
CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
Gillette partnered with Movember to drive awareness and sales for its
new Fusion ProGlide Styler,whilst promoting Movember’s cause to
raise money for men’s health.The campaign adopted the bold strategy that the world’s biggest shaving brand would create a campaign
‘For’ facial hair. The mission was to turn the UK’s ‘men into gentlemen’.
This campaign was driven by the audience trend insight that more
men were starting to sport facial hair, and that immersive experiences
and a new approach to comms were a great way to shift brand perception and encourage trial of new product.

How Movember are making the
most of partnerships:

HP Sauce – limited edition label featuring a moustached
man

Toms – Limited edition collection of shoes – two for men
and one for women. Available
from Schuh – all proceeds to
Movember

Links Of London – limited edition cufflinks and charms

Eleven Paris – French brand is
creating two T Shirts featuring
moustache illustrations

Immersive experience:
Gentlemen’s Barbershop and Clubhouse—themed vintage barbershop and gentlemen’s clubhouse offering free shaves to ‘Mo Bros’
throughout Movember whilst downstairs, a gentleman’s clubhouse
was created, offering a place to relax during the day and be entertained by night at one of the regular events organised by Gillette
Innovative comms for Gillette:

Metro Cover Wrap and print campaign in newspapers and
mens magazines, mimicking a vintage newspaper with a series
of spoof moustache related stories

Absolute Radio ran Movember spotlights, broadcasting one of
their presenters enjoying a live Gillette shave

England rugby league team wore ‘Gillette & Movember’ emblazoned on their shirts, plus which TV coverage and interviews.
The partnership was also promoted through Sky’s Soccer Saturday TV show, website and Fantasy Football Club

On Pack Promotion – in store, men were met with vintage point
of sale and a behaviour changing promise of a donation to
Movember with every stickered pack

Campaign made headlines in daily newspapers , men’s lifestyles
magazines, and influential urban blogs
RESULTS

£6.4m in sales of the ProGlide Style across Movember, making
it the No. 1 razor on the market

Movember achieved their most successful year ever with
363,000 moustaches grown raising over £20m for men’s health

Gillette significantly grew their razors and blades business by
increasing our overall market share by 6.5 percentage point

For every £1 spent on the campaign Gillette achieved £1.6 in
incremental sales


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LOYALTY

The five principles
Reviewing the Topshop, Coke and Gillette case studies, and activity from other superbrands such as Apple, Nike and Burberry, five key principles consistently emerge. They provide the foundation to how they operate on
both a brand and campaign level and if applied in the right way are a successful formula for building genuine
loyalty.
At the heart of each principle is emotion – once you connect with people on this level, you open up a whole
new dynamic of the brand-customer relationship. You inspire customers to become fans and create a strong
attachment that changes the nature of how buying decisions are made. Once in this position you can encourage action and behaviour change while making the customers feel good about their decisions. Genuis.


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LOYALTY
1. Tell A Story
What makes a great story?
The rise in popularity of immersive experiences that create deep emotional connections such as Secret Cinema
and Punch Drunk demonstrate the appetite for consumers to want to be part of a story. The recent ‘The Drowned
Man’ Hollywood fable by Punch Drunk in London which allows
people to freely explore the set and follow with the plot in
their own way has sold over 45,000 tickets and takes the
interactive experience of theatre to a new scale.

In the words of Seth Godin… “Great stories succeed because
they are able to capture the imagination of large or important
audiences... Great stories don’t appeal to logic, but they often
appeal to our senses. Most of all, great stories agree with our
world view. The best stories don’t teach people anything
new...they agree with what the audience already believes and
makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure
when reminded how right they were in the first place”.

Effective brand storytellers are able to intrigue, engage, and connect emotionally with consumers using the critical elements of fiction. Cristian Cussen, Google+'s European head of marketing,
says his background working in the film industry on Bond films helped the team edit ideas and
create a narrative for the Topshop partnership. And the partnership angle of this campaign
made this story more amazing by harnessing the different strengths of each brand. The best
partnerships are those where each brand can bring something unique to the table – the sum becomes greater than the parts.
The two brands created a narrative by building their content and communication strategy
around pre event, at event and post event activity. Five days before the show, the Google+ team
released a trailer that summarized the storyline that would unfold during the next few days of
the project, leading up to Sunday’s big catwalk moment. Each day, they released a portfolio of
interactive tools and behind the scenes coverage, all which helped build anticipation and excitement (Fast Co Create). Through this activity, Topshop moved away from selling products to selling experiences.
Creating a story through an immersive experience is another way to entice and engage customers, as demonstrated through the Gillette & Movember partnership. The flagship centrepiece of
the campaign was a themed vintage barbershop and gentlemen’s clubhouse just off Carnaby
Street in London that transported customers into a ‘place that time forgot’ – another world that
allowed the brand to create a deeper level of emotional engagement by involving the customer
in the theatre of the experience and trial their new ProGlide Styler product through their free
shaves to Mo Bros. This activity was driven from the insight more young men now like to sport
facial hair – and so Gillette needed to engage those customers and create a shift in perception of
its brand which has traditionally been associated with a clean shave. The benefits of the partnership were mutual – Movember gained huge reach, brand awareness, impact and most importantly donations. This shows how storytelling is a great way to take customers on a new journey with your brand.


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LOYALTY
2. Personalise
New targeting technologies have altered consumer’s behaviour as well as their expectations – people now expect
to be served communications and offers that are highly
targeted and relevant. 78% of consumers feel that brands
that create unique and personalised content are more
interested in building a relationship with them (HanleyWood Business Media, 2013). And relationships, not
transactions, are the key to building loyal fans.
An extension of this is customisation – an area that will
grow with 3D printing providing endless opportunities for
unique and personal products. We’re entering a new era
in which mass customization will lead a number of consumer product categories, creating value for buyers and
sellers alike (Mashable). The latest award winning collection by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen shows that
new 3D-printing technology is heading for the catwalk,
and eventually the high street, giving consumers the ability to have highly unique, bold and personal designs.
Key to the success of the Share My Coke campaign was
personalisation. And this was driven by the simple insight
the best way to spark a conversation with customers is by
using their first name. By allowing customers to connect
with friends and loved ones through sharing personalised
bottles, Coke created a new level of emotional engagement. Customers who feel they are treated as individuals
will be more satisfied with their experience and more
inclined to remain loyal.
The Coke campaign also demonstrates a trend in debranding which allows brands to connect with customers
on more of a personal and emotional level. Apple has just
done something very similar with a recent print campaign
where they use copy to tell a story with no logo – only
once you have read it do you realise its an Apple ad – by
which time you are fully engaged. This underlines the fact
a logo doesn't equal a brand. These days, brand experience is key and central to this is connecting with the customer emotionally (The Guardian).
New targeting technologies have also led a new approach
to marketing – it has marked a shift from demographics
targeting to behaviour targeting – making our web experiences highly personal. Traditionally, brands have segmented their markets using demographic

data to identify groups of people with shared values or interests.
The opportunity now is to take things onto a more individual
footing.
One-to-one personalisation and targeting, being able to tailor the
product to every individual's wants and needs. We’re all unique,
multi-dimensional people who consume different content in different contexts – marketing that recognises this and targets based on
actual rather than assumed behaviour is far more like to engage
customers to action.
Topshop’s partnership with Google+ demonstrates how brands can
build smart platforms that use data and insight to personalise. They
created tools such as the ‘Be The Buyer’ app that allowed people to
customise their experience. The platform created was then mined
for customer insights that could drive future product planning –
and increased targeting and sales opportunities around new collections. This was enhanced by the partnership – Topshop bringing
fashion credentials and Google+ its tech expertise and network.
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LOYALTY
3. Be new and unique
Innovation creates excitement and optimism. Innovation is future facing and opens up new possibilities –
which creates strong positive feelings. And the best innovation is often an evolution of ideas. This can be
something old done in a new way, or something new done in a fresh way.
Apple wasn’t the first into home computers, or MP3 players, or smartphones, or tablets – but in each instance they disrupted and led the market by putting design at the heart of their products and relentlessly
focusing on simple, intuitive user experiences. They evolved ideas that already existed and stayed true to
a defined, compelling approach.
Similarly, Topshop’s digital catwalk was not completely new – Burberry had already led the way but they
gave the idea a twist by partnering with Google and making the experience more interactive and accessible. And this was driven by insight - that the fashion industry model was outdated in two key ways. Firstly,
fashion shows were wildly out of sync with the retail cycle in a digital age when customers demand instant gratification. Secondly, fashion shows were closed off and elitist – giving customers access to an aspirational event would open up new levels of engagement.

4. Give customers control
Giving customers control is about more than empowerment. It’s about co-creation, giving customers a
voice and letting them set the direction.
As shown with the growth in crowd sourcing sites such as Kickstarter (the site is on course to collect $1
billion in pledges in 2013), there is a rising trend in ‘custowners’: consumers who move from passively
consuming a product towards investing in the brands they buy from. These increasingly business-savvy
consumers are often looking for both a financial and an emotional return, and therefore only brands that
are open, friendly, honest, trusted, transparent, and somewhat ‘human’ will prove able to attract them
(Trend Watching).
The Share My Coke campaign gave customers control by making them feel an integral part of the brand
story. The brand connected with customers, and allowed customers to connect with each other, using
personal identity and social sharing as key emotional drivers that enticed customers to take action, and
become more loyal through a feeling of attachment.
Topshop were able to take the idea of co-creation to a new level through their interactive digital tools –
which they were able to develop with the expertise and capability of Google+. By giving customers the
opportunity to customise their experience, feel what its like to ‘Be the Model’ and ‘Be the Buyer’, and
creating platforms for them to share their content and opinions, they not only gave customers a voice but
they gave them influence – the ability to set the direction of future fashion season collections. Having
influence creates a powerful emotional experience, and customers who have inputted into the process
are more likely to buy and want to be part of the ongoing story.


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LOYALTY
5. Connect offline with online
As technology continues to change the way the world develops and communicates, connecting with savvy consumers means recognising that digital is no longer just a channel
within the marketing mix – it’s become interconnected to our physical world and should
be integrated into customer experience in the same way. Burberry is a great example
of a brand putting digital at the heart of the brand. They have led the way within the
fashion industry through live-streamed catwalk shows, viral social media campaigns and
online communities (it’s the most followed fashion brand online with 16 million Facebook likes). And more recently its flagship Regent street store has been designed like a
website - offering an e-tail experience that makes a bridge between the online and
offline world. The store itself is designed to echo how visitors navigate the website and
features a number of technological innovations including click to buy while in store, digital tags in labels and mirrors that change into screens to stream content related to the
clothes you are trying on. This has created theatre and excitement around the experience of the Burberry brand – which in turn drives positive feelings and ultimately sales –
the brand is now worth £7bn.
Mobiles have become the ‘remote control’ control to people’s lives. Mobile phone users
have their phones within arm’s reach 14 hours per day, checking it 150 times a day with
average use 2hrs 8mins per day and increasing. Mobile is the most important screen for
18-34 year olds. And with the potential growth of wearable technology such as smart
watches and Google Glass, and with ‘visual’ search The Next Big Thing, the physical and
digital worlds will become even more connected and a central part of people’s lives.
Given the advanced data and targeting technologies available, a key part of this is connecting to the right customer at the right time in the right way and digital as an enabler
of this. It comes back to the principles of personalisation, relevancy and a tailored approach to comms.
Despite being a fundamentally digital proposition, Topshop’s campaign ensured it still
connected with its offline world by installing ‘Be the Model’ photo booths in store which
allowed customers to take photos and share content online – a great way to utilise and
integrate all their channels. This was enhanced by using Google+’s technology and social
platform. In a more simple but still effective way, Coke’s social media activity linked with
on pack promotions to bridge the gap between physical product and online sharing.
So in order to entice and engage with customers, brands need to align with their increasingly digital lifestyles. And in doing so, they can deepen emotional connections and
inspire them to act.


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LOYALTY
Conclusion

So the reason some brands are more successful at
building loyalty than others ultimately comes down to
the way they develop deep emotional connections and
meaningful relationships, with consumers. This isn’t
about a tactical approach to marketing, it’s about taking a long-term view and being authentic. It’s about
having values and making every touch point to the
brand deliver on those values by creating a genuine
experience for the customer.
Being inspirational is central to this approach. Getting
customers to follow your brand not because they have
to, but because they want to is the key. It’s about inspiring and exciting them to act in new ways that
makes them feel good – creating those warm positive
associations with your brand.
The five key principles outlined here are how superbrands have really mastered the art of creating those
emotional connections. And to be effective, they’ve

underpinned everything they say and do with insight.
Insight is needed to know what stories to tell, to understand customer behaviour and the emotions that drive
it, to evolve ideas, know what the customer wants and
when they want it. Insight improves your ability to
have a deep and meaningful conversation with customers. We’re human beings, people like to be heard and
understood – to have their point of view of the world
confirmed as true.
By combining insight with the five key emotional drivers, brands can build long lasting relationships as customers become more attached to the brand. Partnerships can be a highly effective way to deliver this. By
each brand delivering something unique, this makes
the proposition even more compelling and turns customers into the all-important fans. Partnerships can
create new associations on an emotional level. And this
is what we believe creates meaningful brand loyalty.
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LOYALTY
SOURCES
Topshop
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1682445/how-google-and-topshop-co-created-london-fashion-weeks-most-interactiveshow#1
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1170727/topshop-ties-google-london-fashion-week-content-innovation
http://mashable.com/2013/02/13/topshop-google-london-fashion-week/
http://www.businessoffashion.com/2011/11/addressing-fashions-communications-conundrum.html
http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/02/fashion-2-0-topshop-and-google-plan-data-savvy-digital-runway.html
Coke
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/aug/06/coke-debranding-name-dropping
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jul/24/share-coke-teach-brands
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/ocado-partners-share-a-coke-campaign/4007611.article
Gillette
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/10/24/gillette-open-best-mo-can-get-barbershop-part-movember-campaign
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/gillette-prepares-movember-campaign/4004314.article
https://www.marketingsociety.co.uk/sites/default/files/thelibrary/Gillette%20Turning%20Men%20into%20Gentlemen%
20-%20Public.pdf
Burberry
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2013-03/05/christopher-bailey-burberry-designer-interview
Storytelling
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2013/02/05/5-secrets-to-using-storytelling-for-brand-marketingsuccess/
http://newbrandstories.com/2013/04/21/building-brand-fans-with-storytelling/


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LOYALTY
Personalisation & Customisation
http://mashable.com/2011/04/13/mass-customization/
http://mashable.com/2011/04/26/behavioral-targeting/
http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/10trends2013/?presumers
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/15/3d-printed-fashion-couture-catwalk
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/strategies-and-tactics/personalisation-walk-the-line/4006925.article
General - Books
Start with Why – Simon Sinek (2009)


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