Works Cited

"Adotas." Brand Loyalty: A Two-Way Street. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.                   <http://www.adotas.com/2012/09/brand-loyalty-a-two-way-street-2/>.

"Apple, Amazon Lead 2012 Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders." MediaPost Publications 10/25/2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/185844/apple-amazon-lead-2012-brand-keys-loyalty-leaders.html>.

"India Business News, Stock Market Personal Finance, Economy." Rediff. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct.              2012. <http://www.rediff.com/business/report/all-about-the-brand-loyalty-programmes/20121022.htm>.

MarketShare. "Is Brand Loyalty the Core to Apple's Success?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.     <http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2011/11/27/is-brand-loyalty-the-core-    to-apples-success-2/>.

"PBT Consulting." 9 PRINCIPLES FOR GREAT BRANDING BY THREE OF THE WORLD'S BEST PRODUCT DESIGNERS -. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://tommytoy.typepad.com/tommy-toy-pbt-consultin/2012/04/9-principles-for-great-branding-by-design.html>.

YouTube. Dir. John Thornton Chevrolet. YouTube. YouTube, 27 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVNUmrI4oqM>.

YouTube. Dir. Kortic13. YouTube. YouTube, 27 June 2007. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.             <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCL5UgxtoLs>.

YouTube. Dir. Njjchitown. YouTube. YouTube, 19 June 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.             <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jss4RxZr_Ok>.

Conclusion

After researching for days, and visiting many web sites I have decided that brand loyalty leads to success.  Companies know this as well.  Companies do everything that they can so that they can create loyalty.  Without loyalty companies have a really hard time competing.  They need loyalty because everyone makes mistakes.  When the company messes up they need the loyalty of their customers to be patient and wait for them to find the solution to the problem.  Brand loyalty is very important for companies and very hard to produce.  I have realized that many people are like my friend in the sense of being loyal to specific companies.  After all of the articles I read, I have discovered that many people become loyal and people want to be loyal.  People like only buying one brand.  It lessens the time that they have to spend looking for the right product.  If they know that this company is reliable and always sells reliable products, they will just go out and buy that product.  People hate spending time on things they don’t have to.  I didn’t expect people to want to become loyal, but I did expect companies to be trying their best to gain loyalty.  Brand loyalty leads to success.  People become loyal for the convenience, and for the product quality.  Good advertisements show the customers that they sell good products and they have been good for the past years they existed.  Brands create loyalty through emotional connections, good company designs, and good products.  Apple is the number one company for brand loyalty.    

How do Brands Create Loyalty?

In the top 10 brand loyalty list Apple is listed three times, and Amazon and Samsung is listed twice.  1. Apple tablets 2. Amazon tablets 3. Apple smart phones 4. Amazon online retail 5. Apple computers 6. Samsung tablets 7. Call of Duty video games 8. Samsung cell phones 9. Halo video games 10. Twitter social network.  All of these companies work very hard for brand loyalty.  Many of them improved from last year as well.  What this chart doesn’t tell us is the products and companies that have greatly improved from last year.  Ford improved 47 spots from #86 to #39 in the top 100.  General Motors went from not even being listed in the top 100 last year to being listed at #68.  A couple years ago the American car companies had to be bailed out of bankruptcy from the U.S. government.  Now they are doing better than ever before.  I would say that it’s because of their increase in brand loyalty.  Hyundai isn’t doing as well as it has been doing in the previous years, it is now ranked #25.  It was ranked #7 last year ("Apple").

Brands create loyalty in many ways.  One way is to create a rewards program.  When you use the reward program card you gain points that you can later use to buy things with those points.  These programs started with American Airlines in 1981 when they introduced their frequent flyer points.  When this is the case, why would you use any other product?  And that’s the point.  Companies want you to keep coming back to gain the reward points so that you can get “free” things later.  The fact is that in some cases it would be cheaper to go to other companies who don’t have reward programs – like Wal-Mart. ("PBT Consulting." ).

            Other ways to gain brand loyalty is to reach the customers on an emotional level.  Robert Brunner, an author of multiple books about brand loyalty, said, "We are all emotional beings and we have emotional relationships with brands we trust. Designers need to make that happen. A designer must take the values and assets of a company and transform them in a special way that connects with people emotionally ("PBT Consulting." )."  When people become emotionally attached to the brand they feel bad about not buying it, and that’s what every company tries to achieve.

            Another way to gain brand loyalty is to have a good brand design.  Brunner also said, "Design can make a difference in how we live.  Take sustainability. A lot of what is done in that area is 'making bad, better.' We're taking wasteful things and seeing how we can make them not so bad. We need to start thinking about how we can use our design tools to encourage people to change. You do that by making 'doing better' also be fun, interesting and (importantly) the path of least resistance. And you do it in an encouraging, not controlling, way. Design needs to do that in order to reach a larger audience than just the small group that is socially driven."  If people see that you are making the world a better place they will feel more comfortable buying that product ("PBT Consulting." ). 

            Companies do a lot to try to influence brand loyalty.

What are Good Advertisements to Influence Brand Loyalty?

Good advertisements that influence brand loyalty are the ones that show how good a company is, rather than just a product.  Loyalty advertisements need to show the consumer that the company has been around for a long time, is better than their opponents, and is trustworthy.  The commercials need to influence the prospective consumers to trust their company ("India").  I have three commercials to show examples of good brand loyalty commercials.  There is a Sam Adams, Chevrolet, and Apple commercial.  The Sam Adams commercial shows how pure their product is and how they make it.  It shows the prospective consumers that they take pride in making their product and that they make the best product out there.  The Chevrolet commercial shows that Chevrolet has been there since the beginning.  It shows that Chevrolet has been around for a very long time and that it plans on being around a lot longer.  This commercial shows that Chevrolet runs in the family and that it will always be there.  It tells the consumers that they can always rely on them.  The Apple commercial shows that it’s better than its competitors.  In the computer market you can either buy a Microsoft computer or an Apple computer.  This commercial, in an indirect way, tells the prospective consumers that it is a lot better than Microsoft.  It also shows that Apple is more relaxed, more young compared to Microsoft.  Apple is wearing very relaxing, hip clothes while Microsoft is wearing as suit and looking very formal.  Apple takes pride in being young and hip, and that’s where most of its business comes from. 

            Commercials are very important in developing brand loyalty.  And the commercials shown above are great examples.

Is Branding Important?

Branding is very important.  According to Forbes.com Apple’s success is due to its brand loyalists.  Whenever you enter an Apple store anywhere in the world it is almost always crowded. Why? Because everyone knows who Apple is and through their commercials and their consumers everyone knows that Apple makes good products.  Apple is so successful because their stores are always crowded.  They let all of the customers play on t he newest Mac books, iPads, iPhones, and their newest products for free.  What is their goal?  With letting these people play on their newest devises it influences the costumers to buy them.  Apple prides themselves with their customer loyalty, and customers are loyal because of how Apple treats them.  When the new iPhone 4s came out it had a lot of bugs and took a while to fix them all.  Instead of its customers just leaving Apple and going to get another phone that was better, the customers waited very patiently till the bugs were fixed ("Market Share").  According to Forbes, the consumers only waited because it was Apple and they trusted Apple.  If it was any other company that company would had lost a lot of business.  Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world.  Apple is number one with brand loyalty.  Is there a connection between these facts?  Many people say yes.

How Important is Branding to Success?

I chose this topic because I was very curious about it.  I watch the Super Bowl every year and always wonder why companies would spend millions of dollars for a 30 second commercial.  My family isn’t huge on brand loyalty; of course we have some companies that we only buy from, but that’s because that brand always has the best products.  In contrast to my family I have a friend, yes Ms. Reimer I know that might be a little surprising, and he is a 100% brand loyalist for almost everything that he buys.  He will only buy American products.  He spends a lot more money than I do for the same products, just one is made in America and the other is made in a foreign country.  Because of this split opinions between myself and my friend, I wanted to do my project on brand loyalty to find out if there are other people out there like my friend, or if most people are like me.  I want to know if companies spend their millions of dollars on a 30 second commercial to try to get brand loyalty or to just get their name out there.  Is brand loyalty really successful?  Why do people become loyal?  What are good advertisements to influence brand loyalty?  How do brands create loyalty?  What brands are the most popular for loyalty?  These are the questions I ask myself, and these are the questions that I want to find answers to.