Based on the brand loyalty of consumers, consumers can be divided into four types: dedicated loyalists, potential loyalists, slow loyalists and lack of loyalty.
① Dedicated loyalists: The highest level of these four types is the most important part of the customer base. For example, Swiss multipurpose knife enthusiasts will constantly tell their friends and neighbors about the benefits and uses of this knife and how often they use it every day, every week, and every month. These dedicated loyalists will become free promoters of the brand and constantly recommend it to others. For any company, this is their most welcome type of customer.
② Potential loyalists: The combination of high customer preference and low repetitive purchases means potential loyalty. For example, there is a standard Chinese food fan in the United States, and there is a Chinese restaurant near her home that she likes very much. But her husband is not interested in Chinese food, so she only visits this Chinese restaurant occasionally. If the restaurant understands these situations of potential loyalists, it can adopt some coping strategies. For example, the restaurant can consider adding some American meals to attract customers like her husband who are not interested in Chinese food.
③ Inert loyalists: The combination of low customer preference and high repetition purchase forms inert loyalty. The reason for this type of customer’s purchase is not preference, but “because we use it often” or “because it is convenient”. Most customers who buy products frequently belong to this type. For example, someone always buys daily necessities on one street, dry cleans clothes at a dry cleaner on another street, and repairs shoes at the nearest store next to his home. If you can actively win over such customers, improve the quality of your products or services, and form your own characteristics, such customers may be transformed from inert loyalists to highly loyal ones.
④ Lack of loyalty: For different reasons, some customers will not be loyal to certain brands. Generally speaking, companies should avoid setting goals for customers who lack loyalty, because they will never become sincere customers and they will contribute little to the development of the company.