Bon Brand

Triumph, the heritage motorcycle marque has Lord Digby Jones as Chairman.
According to the Guardian Jones ‘cites Triumph’s strong brand, new products and a big push at domestic and overseas sales’ as a reason for succeeding post receivership. Add to that the benefit of currency movements, particular the Yen. and you will know why 80% of sales are now exports.

Keep your eye on currency movements to aid purchasing and selling strategies.

Do not expect a Harley Davidson motorbike owner to switch to another brand it won’t happen. Similarly Apple mac users are loyal to the brand, company and products. Apple and Harley enjoy high brand loyalty indicated by customer retention rates. An average firm will loose 50% of it’s customers in five years but this may be only 10-15% with a loyal brand.

Banks and financial organisations have relied on indifference and inertia to support pseudo loyalty which seems very one way at the moment. Only spurious loyalty is created by contracts, tie ins and market failure. As the insurance companies found out via comparison web sites loyalty works both ways and it is counter productive to offer better deals to new customer than existing ones.

Loyalty is a feeling and commitment towards a brand and goes deeper than a repurchasing of the brand. Loyalty needs to be worked on as a part of your intellectual asset strategy. In some sectors the ability to get good referrals or testimonials from happy customers is key to brand success, in others the maintenance market or after sales margins may be driven higher by high loyalty.

Extending your brand extends your risks. Harley Davidson financial services division that just reported losses of $25m for the quarter. Great aspirational brands are not allowed to disappear but their struggle can cause a lot of personal grief. An MBO saved Harley from going under in 1981, lets hope it won’t come to that again.

You learn from history that you don’t learn from history.