Unity, fraternity, loyalty (page 2 of 2)

And guess what. None of them seem to be offering the smiles I remember so happily from my return flight.

So, where does this get us? The importance of involving your customers in everything you do. And I don't just mean setting up chat rooms. Jones Soda, a well-known soda producer, surprised me with a sponsorship program in which it supports ordinary people doing special things. Visit the company's site and you'll see that more than 10,000 people have created a "Jones Soda Label." The result is you can find labels created by the product's own customers. The Jones Soda brand is no longer owned by Jones Soda but by its customers, a fact that inevitably has had a substantial influence on the company's decisions, image, and attitude.

That last word is crucial. Brands that really want to survive need to sell more than nice products. They need to sell attitude! They need to sell opinions and feelings. When I drink a Jones Soda, I don't drink what's inside the bottle; I drink the label. And I drink what I see on the company's site and in stores. Sure, a brand's spirit might be reflected on bulletin boards, chat rooms, chain email letters, peer-to-peer programs, and general creative thinking. But what's common among truly successful brands is a strong idea. Jones Soda's marketing execs haven't established a chat room just because the marketing manual prescribes it. They haven't done anything just because of any formula. They've created and fostered a strong idea that's gained potency from a community of understanding among the brand's customers. Only then have they used chat rooms, bulletin boards, and peer-to-peer programs to fortify and promulgate the solidly founded brand idea.

I still remember Jones Soda, not because of its taste (because, if I have to be honest, I barely remember what it was like), but because of its attitude. There's the crux. That's exactly what's behind long-term customer loyalty to brands: sharing feelings with users by revealing the real people and ideas that compose the brand's community.