Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty exists when consumers repeat-purchase your brand rather than swapping and switching between brands. It is widely agreed that it is far more expensive to have to find a new customer than to keep existing ones happy, so brand loyalty is crucial for achieving high-profit margins. For charities, it is important to set a marketing objective of improving brand loyalty. If existing donors can be persuaded to set up a direct debit to the charity, its cash flow will improve significantly.

To enhance, or reposition a brand’s image Although some brands stay fresh for generations (Marmite is over 100 years old) others become jaded due to changes in consumer tastes and lifestyles. At this point, the firms need to refresh the brand image to keep the products relevant to the target market. A clear objective must be set. For instance: what brand attributes do we want to create? What do we want the brand to stand for? Repositioning This occurs when a firm aims to a change a brand's image, so that the brand appeals to a new target market. Twelve years into its life cycle, McVitie’s decided to reposition its Hobnobs biscuit brand. Hobnobs had been positioned as a homely, quite healthy biscuit for middle-aged consumers.

Research pointed McVitie’s in a new direction: younger, more male, and less dull. So new packaging was designed and then launched in conjunction with a new, brighter advertising campaign. In 2013 Hobnobs sales were worth 36 million pounds, 9 percent up on the previous year.