I’m hardly a fashionista, but once in a while—usually when I decide that au courant toes no longer justify the pain—I buy a new pair of shoes. And I always buy them from Maryland Square, a mail-order house that carries every brand imaginable, ships promptly, and most important, inundates me with catalogues and e-mail. I’m what a marketer would call an active loyalist.
I also buy books from Amazon. Do I appreciate their e-mails and Web site lists of more books I might like? Of course. And who doesn’t love Angie’s List for helping to protect us from the vast array of scams in our capitalist paradise? I especially like Amazon and Angie’s List because they know what matters to me. Angie’s List wants to know how I felt about the vendors I found on their list and wants me to add ratings.
With marketing communications media as diverse as they are today, smart companies target active loyalists any way they can. A particularly good way is to sense their pain and alleviate it. Hyundai, for instance, allows customers to return their cars if they lose their jobs. How much more loyalty could you possibly engender? Sure enough, Hyundai’s market share is growing.
No less an authority than consulting firm McKinsey & Company urges marketers to make expanding their base of active loyalists a priority. “Developing a deep knowledge of how consumers make decisions is the first step,” say their authors in a recent article.
So who are your most loyal customers? If you think about it, you can probably persuade others to join the club.
