Brand Loyalty, Creative Processes

Few look beyond the world of commerce for answers. Why, after performing for over 30 years, do the Rolling Stones continue to sell out venues around the world? How has Elton John been able to have a top 10 hit each year for 30 consecutive years? And how is Neil Diamond able to sell out concerts with minimal PR and advertising expenditures night after night? The answer is band loyalty-the fanatical devotion and propensity to spend that rock and roll followers have to a specific performer or band.

How bands create loyalty and devotion in their fans is the focus of this article. The article is designed to help unlock the secrets of how to build emotional connections between your brand or company and your customers similar to those associated with legendary rock androll acts and their fans. It will take you behind the music and reveal branding and marketing lessons that can boost creative thinking, increase market share, enhance the longevity and success of a brand, and create a brand that becomes a cultural icon.

The artists, however, are the first to admit that some of their successes were not necessarily by design. In retrospect, the process of examining why some bands have increased in popularity, remained commercially successful, and increased their fan bases for several decades yields tactics that marketers might use to boost their brand loyalty.

Analyzing the phenomenon of band loyalty is not for the closeminded. It requires marketers and managers to abandon the language and corporate based thinking they probably engage in day in, day out at work and escape into the wild, fun, larger than life world of music and entertainment. Marketers must look beyond the values of bands that they may not personally endorse and open their minds to the ideas and creative processes used in the entertainment arena to cultivate long term, die hard fans. Only then can they understand band loyalty and the lessons they can apply to enhance their own brand loyalty.