How Loyalty works?

This beautiful and simple infographic (created by the brand new Portugese branding agency "WHY") shows the two parts Consumer Loyalty is composed of:

Some experts will add, in the part of the company "duties", its behavior (Call it Responsibility, Ethics, Authenticity...) and some others think that loyalty doesn't exist in a market where most consumers just care about the price.

All this depends on the actual behavior of the consumers. Do consumers care about what's behind the companies they buy from? And even more important: Are consumers aware of how powerful their purchasing decicions are?

INSPIRATION. (Volume 1: TED)

My brother taught me once that learning by listening was way better than by bungling when talking. Then I started realizing how easy and useful it is to listen actively to people: Most of the time they know more than me about the subject and, anyway, they always bring a different perspective that enriches my own idea about it.

Since then I love to get informed about topics I am interested in by any means of verbal communication (the radio, talks, speeches, classes, conferences, debates…). I’m very fond of nice conversations in cafés.

And then, just last year, I discovered a marvelous invention called TED.

TED (Acronym for “Technology, Entertainment, Design”) is an NGO dedicated to spread great discussions and conferences on a variety of different subjects.  The talks are lead by all kinds of different people that are always full of innovative ideas that can change world.

It was created in the 80’s, but went fully on-line in 2006. And it’s on the net, and under a Creative Commons License, that their mission got real strength, because the Speeches started to be available for free all around the world.

On TED I found brilliant discussions about Marketing, such as a very comical speech by Rory Sutherland about how advertising can change the consumers’ perception of the value of a product and further how real and important this value becomes:

TED consolidated my ideas about the huge power and responsibility that consumers have on discussions such as the one given by John Gerzema. Just one of the many stirring speeches about Consumer Behavior and Market Research that can be found flicking through the Tags’ listing on TED’s App for Android and iPhone:

But also thanks to TED, I’ve discovered how a social stigma (like mental illnesses) can be fought and altered with humor. The comedian Ruby Wax shows how in this very intelligent speech (Or should it be called stand-up comedy?):

TED even provided me with an easy way to answer when friends ask me “but what’s this thing about meditation?”, because I could never explain it better than Andy Puddicombe in his own words:

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Business educator Eddie Obeng taught me in his electrifying speech that Problem Solving should be, nowadays, Problem Forecasting. He says that getting something wrong is not always failing because in our world “after midnight” there’s certainly not enough to make safe decisions:

And last but not least, TED has reminded me how crucial positive thinking on life and work is. For instance, in this hilarious speech by Shawn Achor I learned that the Competitive Advantage is not as important as the “Happiness Advantage”:

So, when I decided to create a series of Posts about the things that inspire me, I knew that TED was going to be the first one. Because all my favorite speeches on TED give me hints how to evaluate the present and also how I want things to be in the future. And that is, as I see it, pure inspiration.

BRAND (part 1 of 2)

What is a Brand?

Nowadays, there is still many people that would say that a Brand is the name (and the logo) of a particular product. But this definition is as shallow as saying that your lucky shirt is just a piece of Fabric.

The same way this shirt is not only its physical components, a brand is not just a name and a logo. The proof is that, even when it seems that both are really important, logos of many brands have changed during its history, and even the names of some of them. And their essence (the feelings that they trigger inside us) remain the same.

So, can we conclude that the important part of a brand is its “essence”, that is, the ideas that surround it in our mind?

Continues in the 2nd PART >>

BRAND (part 2 of 2)

Regarding a lucky T-Shirt, obviously the important part is its “essence”. The moment when you got it, whom you got it from, the important moment when you was wearing it… in short, the confidence that you feel, and the memories you recall when you wear it.

But it happens that, one day, the shirt starts getting old, the cloth wears out and the print becomes blurred... and even when you have a big engagement with your Shirt after all those years, it’s not enough to keep wearing it in the important moments. And this can result even before the shirt gets old if you find a new shirt that you like better.

The same happens with a brand, consumers’ love can dilute, or can be replaced with something else. The difference is that brand managers are aware of this and, when it comes the time when the brand stops being a good Casanova, they just carry out a great brand makeover, changing this “essence” which seemed the cornerstone of the brand.

So, if neither its “tangible” elements nor its values and ideas are the brand’s soul, since they can be changed. Which is the key piece of the brand jigsaw?

Precisely that, the change, the flexibility to be what they want to be for whom they want to be loved by. The same as the best products are those that understand their market better, the best brands are those that understand their target better.