Who would have ever thought that an ancient Rolling Stones song would become the consumer and business mantra of the present day?!
Back in those Stone-age days of the 1960's, brand-loyalty was king. Car-buying males were described as Ford-men or Chevy-men. There were about a dozen brands of breakfast cereal - and only one kind of each (none of this apple-nut, mocha-mint brand-variation stuff). Shoes were purchased at a shoe store - not at Costco, Target or Old Navy. (Heck, those stores didn't even exist then.) When you walked into a coffee shop, there was only one kind of coffee. (Starbucks didn't exist then either.) Cadillacs were always plush barges with fins - you couldn't buy a small Cadillac, a sporty Cadillac or a Cadillac truck.
Today - a lot of brand-loyalty has gone out the window. The proliferation of brands and brand-variations has confused and alienated customers. In the '60s, the typical supermarket stocked about 4,000 different products. Today, many supermarkets have more than 50,000 different products to manage. If your perception of what Cheerios really is muddied by all of the different kinds of Cheerios (ditto for Coke, Colgate toothpaste, Right Guard deodorant and Lay's Potato Chips), then maybe you'll consider changing to another breakfast cereal (or soft drink, toothpaste, deodorant or snack). Your old-time brand loyalty is up for grabs.
Lexus was a nowhere brand in 1989, but it answered the call of Cadillac owners (who didn't know what a Cadillac was anymore - or did know and didn't like it) and Mercedes owners (who had paid big bucks, in those unfavorable-exchange-rate days, for a big 500 series only to be stopped at a light next to a smelly, cheap, little diesel Mercedes). Lexus, ironically, developed its own brand loyalty because of lost loyalty from other brands. Lexus is now one of the top-selling luxury brands of automobile in the United States.
Why aren't we satisfied with Cadillacs or Cheerios? Because we're never satisfied. We don't need to be. The marketplace continually serves up improved products and services for us to sample and switch to. Even in the world of small business, customers are never-satisfied. They're always open to do business with a new supplier who can do things faster or better than their present supplier. That's true whether the small business is a restaurant, a cabinet shop, an advertising agency or a manufacturer of metal stampings.
Many big brands (like Cadillac) lost market share because they lost touch with their present customers and with the market (prospective customers). In your business, don't lose touch with customers or the market. Keep calling on customers and prospects so that you can be on the lookout for new offerings by competitors and for shifting loyalties in your marketplace. Then you can respond quickly, making changes in your business to keep your customers satisfied. And to attract new ones who aren't being satisfied by others in your field.
Keep giving people satisfaction - and you'll earn and keep their loyalty.
