Building Habits and Loyalty - Review
Hello everyone hope you're kicking!
I know most of of have been in this reoccurring scenerio;
Let’s assume you want to get a replacement to an old gadget, you’ll probably get one you trust to serve you well than others. You’ll think back to your past experience with previous brands and would most likely patronize the one you’re currently enjoying. Even if they are slightly more expensive than the competition – you’ll probably head directly to the online or offline store for your replacement. This is loyalty!
The continuous positive customer experience and emotion boosts loyalty. Amidst increase in price or a decrease in quantity, your customers would still look for justifiable reasons to back up your action just to keep he patronage going.
Every brand pursues loyalty. It gives them the assurance that they would continually capture their customer’s attention and ensure a profitable relationship. Imagine we can tweak the human brain to form habits that would make them loyal to your brand.
Janet Robinson would always say “Repeat business or behavior can be bribed. But Loyalty has to be earned.”
Not every one who wants or desires to get loyalty for their brand eventually gets it. It takes a conscious effort, brainstorming,and diverse strategies to pursuing that loyalty goal.
I will be talking on ways businesses can create habit forming patterns that would form loyalty to the brand. With clear examples and models, I would clearly break down how people become loyal to certain brands and how you can easily replicate such model to fit your brand.
REWARD PROGRAMS AND LOYALTY RELATIONSHIP
Alright! reward programs are not the same as loyalty. Many firms tend to want to create a reward program in a bid to get loyalty. If not done well,it could lead to disaster! Reward programs can be used as a carrot iincentive to bring People to your site or store,after which they’ll encounter a superb customer experience. It lures them towards patronage. Just like modern Christian religion what people like( e.g; Sports, finance seminar, competitions,etc) to lure them towards their programs and services.
Reward makes a reinforcement of behavior like the dog-master relationship. There are various types of rewards;
1.FIXED REWARDS: For a reward to be fixed,it must be predictable, expected,and knowledge of how to get it should be enshrined. Just like telling customers that "every 5th snicker shoe patronage is 90% discounted" or "Every 10th coffee purchased is free". The effectiveness of fixed reward is crucibled on one law;
". The reward needs to come often enough so that there is reinforcement. At the same time, it can’t be too close,then It wouldn’t be meaningful."
Reward redemption increase reward seeking behavior. When you redeem your reward, people are more likely to repeat the process of getting a reward again.
2. VARIABLE REWARD: This involves surprise and delight,a random and unpredictable reward. For it to be relevant, it must be ; desirable and the requirements must be achievable else an infrequent customer may not find it fascinating.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR REWARD CAMPAIGNS
1. By using the goal gradient hypothesis: This can be summarize with a rat race. The close a rat gets to it's goal, the faster it'll run. Humans have been tested to behave in similitude. Starbucks knows how to use it to it's advantage. This understanding makes brand follow the next step well.
2. Show people their progress: The more you show people their progress, the more they'll want to continue and finish a task to get a reward. Make sure you make it seem their not starting from one. Eg; if you're having them fill a survey,make sure there is a progress bar already reading even before they started anything. This gives us the impression that we're not at the Rock bottom of the task. It deceives the brain to want to continue what it has started ( Even when it started nothing).
3. Be fair with rules: It is true that rules should guide the operations of your campaign, however every brand should make sure their not letting anyone who truly deserves a shot down. This alone can be a remarketing approach. It makea you look fake and not credible.
4. Remember that bad behaviors invokes revenge: Even the best firms make their customers angry atimes. What is the revenge? It could be no patronage, negative word of mouth,etc.
Daniel Riely conducted an experiment in Starbucks to have few people to answer a 5 minute survey question. He made sure to reward them with $5 for their time. During the process, he pretended to receive a call from his girlfriend,and was discussing irrelevant things with her which led to the elongation of the 5 minutes survey time. It was rather rude and disrespectful to the customers. After ending the call he handed them $8dollars to see if they'll return the 3 dollars extra.
At the end of the experiment,he noticed that a large percentage of people would naturally not feel the need to return the $3dollar bill because they felt it was a justification for him being rude.
He also noticed that a simple apology and not excuse would solve the problem to a very large extent. Thus, brands should always apologize to the market when they're found to be guilty of anything(not just in rewards).
HOW TO BUILD HABIT FORMING BRANDS
Habits are impulse to do a behavior with little or no conscious thought. Habits can be used in a good way . Everyone is loyal to his habit,else the need for breaking it.When talking of a template to follow in ensuring your brand offering is habit forming, Nir Eyal's best selling book must be used. In this book "HOOKED", The hooked model would be summarized. It explains how products become habits and while similar ones failed. The hook model is an experience designed to connect the user's problem with your solution with enough frequency to form a habit. I will be talking on the 4 steps to being hooked;
1. Trigger : Triggers tell us what to do at a given time. It can be external and internal.
External includes, word of mouth, notifications, good advertising, good packaging,CTA buttons, notifications,email newsletters,etc. Internal triggers tell the user's what to do due to association ( i remember writing a post about the popular conditioning of dogs with association). Naturally we would try to use our product to modulate the negative valence state of people. It's is forming an association with it and our brand. Like popular brands like ;Facebook(when you're lonely), Google( when you're unsure), Sports,news,gist blogs,(when you're bored), the aim is to position our products as the solution to those itch.
What are your customers itch?(trigger)
Instagram solves the problem of losing the moment ie, if you're in an exciting place, your desire to snap a pict6with your cell phone increases because of Instagram.
2. Action : This is the simplest behavior done in anticipation of an instant reward. According to B.J Fog, for any behaviour to happen, we need 4 variables ( I clearly explained it in one of my post on medium). B= motivation + Action + trigger.
Motivation- there are 6 factors that can motivate man; pleasure, Pain, Hope , Fear, Acceptance and Rejection. Everzy of a Brand's copy and general content should be positioned on line with a particular motivation they tend to fill.
Ability- your capacity to do something. Factors that increases ability are; money,time, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance,non routine.
3.REWARDS: The nucleus Accumbus activates our brain when we see something we like or crazy about. Man likes to anticipate Everytime. He anticipates for junk food, sex, technology, chemicals, etc. Is the purpose to stimulate pleasures? Contrary to what we've been thought to know about this part of the brain, it stimulates the stress of decision because FMRI shows that it activated before the rewaed. Brands needs to stimulate it well so that the persons can make the subscription decision.this part of the brain is triggered by variability (so variable reward would be a better option if you want to capture loyalty through habits)
4. Investment: When the user puts in something in anticipation of a future reward. You're building your value through some interaction with he product. That is why you value your social media account (because it took you time to gain followership). Your usage of your brand would become an investment for further patronage if you've done the first 3 well.
No rule says " the best product wins". The product that can create a mind Monopoly will always win.
Is this manipulation? Or are we using psychological techniques in an unethical way? Zig Ziglar(the most successful salesman summarized the concept of loyalty and persuation by saying " The most important persuation tool you have in your entire arsenal is your integrity"
The CXL’S minidegree program in digital psychology and persuation is gradually repositioning the way I see every aspect of life,not just Marketing. I am enjoying every bit of it.Thank you, see you next week!
