Customer Loyalty Program

In the Customer based brand equity model (CBBE), high customer loyalty occurs at the level of brand resonance which is on top of the CBBE pyramid. To get highly involved and loyal customers, the firm (brand) needs to have good brand salience, brand imagery, strong brand performance and should be able to get positive brand judgments or feelings from the customer. Customer loyalty is a more reliable tool in predicting sales and financial growth than customer satisfaction because it has more sense of sureness about getting the repeat business at no or negligible extra cost.

The best loyalty program that I have come across is of Harley Davidson’s. The salient features are:

* HOGs (Harley Owner’s Group) program gives its customers exclusive benefits like getting private receptions at motorcycle events and insurance etc.

* Recognizing the value of engagement and reinforcing wind in the air lifestyle , they have started a program in association with Best Western Hotels naming Ride Rewards saying “book your next adventure with Harley Davidson and Best Western Hotels” to leverage smart partnering in order to increase customer loyalty.

* They create special events to foster memories which only a Harley owner can enjoy like  blessing for thousands of Harley riders.

* From Harley’s CIO to CEO participate in various bike riding events thereby increasing a great sense of being valued in the customers and in turn customer loyalty.

Presence on social media sites can influence what customers are purchasing but will not lead to a life-time customer loyalty. Promotions on social media sites can be effective in gaining customer’s attention but only once. Companies need to think about more innovative ways for customer loyalty and retention by doing market research about which social media site is popular for their kind of business and the respective age range.