How to build brand loyalty:

Building brand loyalty can be much like taking care of a pet. It has less to do with the brand you feed them, and more to do with the way you treat them. As long as you continue feeding and loving your pet he will return your love by loving you. As a company you will need both to provide the needed products to your consumers as well as keep your customers happy.

Providing the product is not only about creating a product you think is in demand, but it takes researching the market to find out what is in demand. If you have a product, or you know what it is that you will be producing than researching the market is still important. You must find out what is currently being offered in the market you are entering, what needs that product is meeting, and what needs it has left to meet.

By completing market research before releasing your product you will be able to make and release a better product. Once you are ready to release the product you will have to decide on a marketing strategy and how you are going to make your product well known to the public. You can choose between advertising agencies, direct marketing, and even public relations. All of these will bring attention to your product and business; it is for you to decide what kind of attention you are looking for.

After deciding how you will release your product, but before releasing the product, you will want to prepare for any negatives or road blocks you might encounter. One of the most important decisions you will need to make is how to handle negative feedback about your product (positive feedback doesn't need as much preparation).

One source of negative feedback you can always count on is going to be from your competitors. One guy always wants to win, and winning in this case would be selling more, or providing more service. To combat this negative feed back, and gain the respect of your consumers, you will need to know your competitors product well. What differentiates there product from yours? What main points are they focusing on that is helping there product to sell well?

We see this competitor negativity often in over the counter aches and pain medication. One popular company is known to be the, "headache," medicine. This company advertises that they can take away any type of headache including severe migraines. Their competitor's then use their advertising against this company by advertising that their pain medication will not only work on headaches, but on all bodily aches. You will find similar competition when entering the market and it is best to be prepared ahead of time.

Another source of negative feedback is negative feedback from your consumers. You cannot always count on exactly what they are not going to like before they use your product (or it would probably be best to fix it before putting it out in the market) but you can prepare your company for how you will handle this negative feedback.

A customer wants a company who will listen to their complaints and learn from them. They also want a company who is willing to fix their mistakes and make things right with the customer. Learning to do this as a company could be the single most important step you can take towards brand-loyalty. Often if products are similar the consumer will make their choice based on price, but more often if products are similar, the consumer will make their choice based on service.

A pet owner may set out food every day and it won't matter if it is chicken or steak he is setting out, if he doesn't respect the pet he will never have the respect of the pet. If a pet owner though lays out food every day and shows respect for the pet, it still won't matter the flavor of food being laid out, but that owner will win the respect of his pet and the pet will follow that owner not just because of the food he is fed.