Barry Kirk, Vice President of Strategy at Maritz Loyalty

#187: How to Build Customer Loyalty Through a Shared Brand Narrative

#187: How to Build Customer Loyalty Through a Shared Brand Narrative

Two weeks ago, I bought a pair of black wingtip shoes from the Johnston and Murphy store at Scottsdale Fashion Square. I noticed a pair of blue dress shoes that I had bought in Chicago six months earlier were marked down by $40. I mentioned this in passing to the cashier. When she rang up my new pair, she knocked $40 off of them. I wasn’t looking for a deal. But she was empowered to give me one.

That was the best $40 Johnston and Murphy could’ve spent on advertising in that moment. Because I am now telling you, and they have a loyal customer in me.

We’ve heard customer loyalty discussed often, but it’s not associated with many modern-day brands. Therefore, on this week’s show we’re breaking down what customer loyalty really means and how you can build it with your brand story.

Our guide is an expert at exploring the power of a shared brand narrative in building customer loyalty. Barry Kirk is the vice president of strategy at Maritz Loyalty, a consultancy that uses behavioral and decisions sciences to build customer loyalty for their clients. Barry uses a multi-loyalty framework to create ritual use of your offering by your customers. And he’s sharing that with us, so you can use it too.

Barry will explore where values and loyalty go hand-in-hand and differentiates loyalty marketing from the 80’s versus today. Here’s a hint: people don’t choose based on the brand, but on the brand that provides the most compelling story.

Give employees the opportunity to be human with their customers. After all, it’s not all about having the best product, but on having the most compelling experience. —Barry Kirk

Find out how you can turn your customers’ loyalty from transactional to relational, and from passive to active. 

We’re also getting a bit tropical in this episode. Barry will lead you inside the cobwebs of a fixture in American history and culture, a tiki bar, to share how it may be the ultimate expression of storytelling in business. So grab a mai tai and tune in.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• What is loyalty marketing?
• Resistance to the competitive offer vs insistence on a brand
• What a moment with a “selfie value” looks like
• 4 human drives according to Dr. Paul Lawrence
• 2 binary dimensions of loyalty and how “peak and rule” works
• 4 types of loyalty from the multiple loyalty framework
• How tiki bars are the ultimate expression of storytelling in business

Resources & Links

• Johnston and Murphy Shoes
• Grass Skirt Tiki Bar
• How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices: 4 Human Drives by Paul Lawrence
• Blood and Sand: Restaurant in St. Louis
• Southwest Airlines
• How I Built This with Guy Raz – Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher
• The Peak-end Rule by Daniel Kahneman
• The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact: A Book by Chip and Dan Heath
• Undertow Phoenix
• Maritz Loyalty Website
• Barry Kirk’s LinkedIn
• Barry Kirk’s Twitter

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