A Brief on Customer Loyalty

Brand loyalty, often labeled “Customer Loyalty” is the ultimate goal of any brand. It means that your customers are choosing you over others. But how do you measure and improve your brand loyalty?

The Brand Pyramid by Millward Brown is a framework that helps leaders build strong and lasting relationships with their customers. It consists of five levels, each representing a different degree of customer loyalty and engagement. The Brand Pyramid by Millward Brown helps leaders understand where their brand stands in the market and how to move it up the pyramid to create more loyal and profitable customers.

Pyramid, five levels of Brand and Customer loyalty showing profit potential.

The Customer Loyalty Pyramid has five levels: 

Presence: How aware are your customers of your brand and its products or services? A key question for any business is how well its target audience knows and recognizes its brand and offerings. This is also known as brand awareness, and it can influence the purchase decisions and loyalty of potential and existing customers.

Relevance: How relevant is your brand to your customers’ needs and preferences? Your brand is more than just a logo or a slogan. It’s a promise to your customers that you understand their needs and preferences, and that you can deliver solutions that meet or exceed their expectations. Your brand is relevant when it resonates with your customers and creates a lasting impression in their minds.

Performance: How well does your brand deliver on its promises and benefits? Your brand’s reputation depends on how well you fulfill your promises and benefits to your customers. A strong brand delivers consistently and exceeds expectations, while a weak brand fails to meet them or creates confusion. To evaluate your brand performance, you need to measure how well you communicate your value proposition, how satisfied your customers are, and how loyal they are to your brand.

Advantage: How different and better is your brand compared to your competitors? To answer this question, you need to identify what makes your brand stand out from the rest. What are the benefits and features of your products or services that appeal to your target audience? How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors in terms of quality, value, innovation, or customer service? These are your unique selling propositions (USPs) and competitive advantages.

Bonding: How emotionally attached are your customers to your brand and how loyal are they? One of the most important aspects of customer satisfaction is how they feel about your brand and how connected they are to it. This question explores the emotional bond that customers have with your brand and how it influences their purchase decisions, retention, and advocacy.

The higher your brand is on the pyramid, the more loyal your customers are. The Brand Pyramid can help you identify strategies to move your brand up the pyramid and increase the number of returning customers.