Digital Reasons to Believe

A couple months ago I gave a presentation to one of my clients on branding. We were specifically looking at brands people care about - brands people are loyal towards, and how digital initiatives can help foster that loyalty. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be giving this presentation, and the preparation for it gave me the inspiration to start my blog! 

But back to the topic at hand - creating brand loyalty through digital initiatives. As with all things brand related, everything starts from the core - the brand purpose - what do we stand for and why does it matter to our employees, customers, etc. However, to make this purpose a reality, there needs to be actions substantiating the purpose. These consistent actions begin to foster trust and belief in the brand, becoming reasons to believe. Additionally, these actions must not be, solely, a one way dialogue, rather they need to be an engaging and memorable experience. Benjamin Franklin once said: 

Tell me and I'll forget

Show me and I might remember

Involve me and I'll understand

By involving customers in a brand experience, they will better understand the brand's purpose and begin to feel more attached to it themselves.  In 2000, Gallup performed a study that indicated if the brand experience stood out from all the competition, customers were 10-20 times more likely to choose the same brand for their next purchase (Brands & Branding, Pg 97). In fact, Harley Davidson has found that the members of its Harley Owners Group (HOG) tend to spend 30% more that other Harley owners. This indicates that if customers are engaged with a unique brand experience, they become more loyal to that brand. 

These days, we see an increase in importance in the digital medium because of it's ability to engage the customer in the brand purpose, rather than just tell them about it. And a lot of brands, today, are creating not just reasons to believe, but digital reasons to believe. A couple examples I looked at in my presentation were IKEA, Starbucks, Nike, Apple & Google. For the purpose of this post, I will talk about IKEA & Nike.

IKEA's brand purpose is Democratic Design. Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA's founder, believed that everyone should be able to have a home they love, and what was best for the customer was inevitably best for IKEA. While maintaining their purpose for democracy, it was imperative that IKEA provided its customers with as much information as possible, so they could make educated buying decisions. In keeping with this philosophy, IKEA has done an amazing job translating their successful store format and catalogue onto a digital platform - its website. IKEA has also created new tools for customers that allows them to make an even more educated buying decision - such as the  3-D Room Planners, that enable customers to know, exactly, how everything is going to look in their home before they buy a single product. However, I do think IKEA could be doing even more to foster a dialogue with its customers, possibly enabling a voting system, customer reviews etc. These would only further IKEA's brand purpose creating more digital reasons to believe.

Another example I referred to was Nike. Nike has been a big believer in the digital space, and it has paid off. Their brand value has been on the increase because of its use of digital initiatives. Nike's brand purpose is Authentic Athletic Performance. One of Nike's co-founders, Bill Bowerman, believed that if you had a body you were an athlete - meaning that anyone could be an athlete. Nike is in the business of making athletes! 

Over the years, Nike has imbedded itself in sports culture, so much so that the two - Sports & Nike - go hand in hand. With the brilliant launch of Nike+, Nike was not becoming a part of running culture - they created a NEW running culture. They took an extremely individual sport and made it a community. Today,Nike+ is the world's largest running club! It is giving anyone the ability and encouragement to be the best runner they want to be - Nike is creating athletes! In addition to Nike+,  Nike has developed a digital personal trainer tool. This tool can be a desktop widget or iPhone application, but it is designed to help people reach their desired athletic performance from anywhere they are - giving them the motivation and guidance needed to achieve their goals. Everything Nike does is done with its brand purpose in mind. And it's this dedication to the brand purpose that has people so devoted to their Nike shoes, that they feel they won't perform as well without them. 

So, by involving and engaging customers through unique digital experiences, the brand is creating more reasons to believe in the brand purpose fostering greater levels of brand loyalty.