Are there any practical downsides to just assuming that brand loyalty doesn’t exist?

We could stop being distracted by shiny new objects from dubious loyalty gurus.

We could drop expensive quests to create super-fans who may well jump in a bin fire for our brand, but seldom contribute much to our overall revenue.

We wouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking people have an “emotional connection” to our business only to be shocked if they stop buying.

We could abandon a trove of questionable metrics and the statistical contortions needed to prove their links to growth.


We’d also avoid launching profit-sapping loyalty schemes.


Instead, we’d develop a heathy paranoia that customers might leave, and with that:

a) Work harder to acquire new customers, helping our business grow
b) Constantly find new ways to create more value for customers, giving them tangible reasons to keep buying
c) Assume we're only as good as our last job and provide consistently better service
d) Focus more on structural opportunities to retain customers — like building ecosystems, etc.

Best of all, if people did turn out to show us some kind of loyalty, we'd get a positive surprise, rather than yet more disappointment caused by too much hype and too few results!

See this post on LinkedIn