Building Brand Loyalty The Simon Sinek Way. Because customers don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.

If you’re not marketing minded, building a brand can sound like a complex mission and most people mistakenly focus on the wrong areas. For many, establishing a brand that customers are going to love means selling products that are better than everyone else’s - bigger, shinier -or providing a range of services that is larger than everyone else’s.  

And yes, to a certain extent that’s right. If you’re going to build a memorable brand you should be providing the very best products and offering a truly unbeatable service. But actually, building a brand, or more importantly, building brand loyalty, means you need to take on a slightly different focus. You need to look deeper - and remind yourself that it isn’t just ‘what’ you sell, but ‘how’ you sell it and ‘why’ you do it, that will bring customers back to your brand again and again.

In fact, motivational speaker, marketing consultant and author, Simon Sinek, believes that the “why” is the most important starting point for building an unbeatable brand loyalty amongst your customers. Sinek talks animatedly about the Golden Circle, his theory behind building an innovative and trustworthy brand. He believes that if you start with "why", your customers will find it easier to emotionally connect with you.

Take a quick look at the typical customer. 

As consumers in this day and age, we have the luxury of being surrounded by choice. Whether we’re looking for a particular product or considering a service, the likelihood is there are companies all around us offering products and services galore. Accessible 24 hours a day,7 days a week at the touch of a button, thanks to the Internet. There’s likely to be someone who can provide the products/services we need cheaper, faster or closer – so how can a business like yours make itself known? By building brand loyalty, of course.

So, what do we mean by brand loyalty? 

Well, brand loyalty is, essentially, the emotional relationship that your customers have with your business that Simon Sinek talks of.

This time, have a think about the brands that you love. Any product or service will do. Think about all the times you interact with them - is there a reason why you always come back to them? It’s unlikely to just be because they’re handily located or because they're cheaper than most. But something about them always makes you think of them first.

Perhaps you have been immersed in their history and you like the ethics behind the brand – you agree and identify with what they are trying to do. Perhaps you appreciate the personal touches they provide when you buy from them, the little extra touches make you smile. Whatever it is, you’ve returned to the brand time and time again and have started to build a relationship with it.

There’s a certain ‘feeling’ that you evoke when you engage with a brand that you love. You connect with them on an emotional level. And that emotion is what brand loyalty is all about.  So to build brand loyalty, you need to let your customers make an emotional connection with your business.

So, how do we do that, you may ask?

Actually, it’s quite simple and it starts with you.

As we briefly mentioned before, building a strong brand begins by establishing what it is we do, how we go about doing it and why we do it. Described by Simon Sinek as the Golden Circle, these three questions can provide the building blocks for a heart-centred brand, but they need to work together in a delicate balance to be truly successful.

Let’s begin with 'what’. Remember it’s not just about your business selling a product or providing a service. It could be about offering a solution to a problem, or about developing a new way of doing things.

Then, let's explore ‘how’ we do these things. This is about the approach you, and your staff, take to bringing your business alive. It can be how you interact with your customers, the extra step you and your team go to when providing your products or services. The attitude you have to dealing with customers, new and old. And it’s about being consistent. So that every interaction a customer has with you is the same – however many times they return (and if you’re doing it right, then hopefully they’ll return a lot!)

Finally, look at the ‘why’. And this one is important. It’s more than just wanting to bethe best, or to offer a great product at a low price. The ‘why’ is likely to bethe driving force that inspired you to start your business in the first place! The ‘why’ will always be with you, however long you are in business, and it will continue to drive you and your business to grow and develop.

Get these three things right and you’ve got the building blocks of a great brand.

But as a small business owner, when we say brand loyalty starts with you – it really does! Simon Sinek agrees that even as a small business owner you need to be the brand leader within your company. Great brands can only be built by those who are passionate about the work that they do.

Do you remember that teacher from years ago? You know, the one who made the subject you hated that little bit easier to understand because he or she was so excited about it? Or perhaps you were lucky enough to have an inspiring boss when you were starting out, someone who was so passionate about the work you were doing, that the passion rubbed off on pretty much anyone who came near them? Well, you need to be that person for your business.

Customers want to buy from, or work with, businesses that go that extra mile - businesses where team members be considered friends because they feel emotionally connected to the work you do or the products you sell. This is how relationships are built. But whatever the size of your company, the likelihood is you won’t always be on hand to deal with customers. That’s why you need to share your passion for the work you do with your staff, inspire your team and give them a reason to work hard for you and your brand.

And here we refer back to the reasons behind ‘why’ you do what you do.

Your staff - much like your customers - need to see and identify with the core reasons behind why you do the work you do. Many of your staff probably spend more hours of their week as a part of your business than they do at home.

Inspire them with your passion for the work and give them a reason to love their work too. After all, having customers is great, but having happy, motivated staff on hand to interact with them will help you build your brand and develop that emotional loyalty that will keep your customers coming back again and again.