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I believe I am loyal to you. Comment on this newsletter at yastrow.com “We just gotta get our name out there.” “We need to create awareness in the target market.” “We need to capture some eyeballs.” These are, frequently, the stated aims of marketing efforts. These statements imply that merely passing your presence in front of customers, like a whiff of incense, is the key to winning their affection. It doesn’t work that way. The statements shown above are to marketing what mining iron ore is to manufacturing a Mercedes. A very, very early step. Customer behavior is driven by belief. If a customer’s beliefs about your company are so deep and so engrained that she doesn’t question them, and she considers your company an integral part of her life, she will devote a disproportionate amount of her attention, her business and her raves to you. What is belief? Here’s something that I think is really interesting: In ancient Hebrew, the words for belief, truth and loyalty are very closely related. If I have a deep belief about something – a belief that is so much a part of me that I do not question it – I am convinced that this belief is true. If my belief is so strong, I will act accordingly, and will be loyal to whatever it is my belief if about. Do most marketing and customer loyalty efforts recognize this? If your customers only believe in the deal... I just looked into the Trash folder of my email box. There are nine coupon-laden email offers from Borders that came last month. There are five from Barnes & Noble from the last nine days. Let’s assume that Borders and Barnes & Noble continue to send these email bribes because they are “working,” i.e., they are getting a positive return on investment on these efforts. What are they really accomplishing? Borders and Barnes & Noble are successfully teaching their customers to believe that the reason to buy books from their stores is because they can get a deal. (Their parallel efforts also teach customers that the two stores are interchangeable.) They are not helping their customers form deep, solid, unquestioned beliefs. They are teaching their customers to think of Borders and Barnes & Noble as places that offer discounts. Personally, I used to have deeper beliefs about both brands, especially Borders. I wrote most of my first book in the café of their local store and learned to depend on their broad selection for many gifts and personal purchases. After many visits, people in the store began to recognize me, and I actually got to know a few of the employees on a first name basis. Now, my beliefs about both stores have shifted. I go into my email Trash folder to retrieve a coupon if I decide to buy a book. I have become barely loyal. Help customers create meaningful beliefs about their relationships with you. True Loyalty isn’t an effort to steer a share of transactions your way from the “target market.” It is about creating real relationships with customers that encourage those customers to create deep, meaningful, unquestioning beliefs about their connection to your company in their minds. When a customer thinks, “I believe in you,” she is really thinking, “I believe in my relationship with you.” The deeper these beliefs are, the less she questions them and the more she lives by them. But … when you change the conversation from your relationship with her to the deal you are offering her, you risk encouraging her to question those deep beliefs. Promotional offers are, of course, valuable part of the marketing mix, especially in the early stages of a relationship with a customer, before she has had a chance to create deep beliefs. But, always remind yourself that a deal is only really valuable to you if it leads to a strong relationship with a customer. Be careful. Always question, “Am I trying to create transactional loyalty, or True Loyalty?” Believe in the difference. Take Notice Consider your beliefs about companies you buy from. How deep are your beliefs about various companies? Is there a correlation between how deep and questioning those beliefs are and how loyal you are to these companies? How do you compare? Now, consider the beliefs your customers have about your company. How frequently are their beliefs deep and unquestioning, focused on their relationship with you, and leading to True Loyalty? In contrast, how frequently are your customers’ beliefs about you more focused on your latest offer, resulting in transactional loyalty? Try this Ask 10 of your customers (preferably, have someone outside of your company ask 10 of your customers) a very simple, open-ended question: “So, what do you think of us?” Pay attention to the answers. Are the beliefs your customers describe superficial, and focused on individual transactions? Or, do many of them have beliefs that are deep, meaningful and unquestioning, leading to True Loyalty? Customers are not like billiard balls, reacting in predictable ways based on the stimuli you aim at them. Customers’ brains form beliefs about their world, and these beliefs guide their behavior. As the beliefs become more ingrained, with less ongoing conscious evaluation, the customer becomes more loyal. Focus less on targeting your customers, and more on helping them form powerful, relationship-based beliefs about your company.
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How to create relationship-building encounters, instead of relationship-eroding
transactions 
