Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world’s leading creative agencies, in his book ‘Lovemarks’ introduces a marketing concept whose intention is to replace brands as key components of consumerism and business. This concept argues that owing to the revolution of consumer habits, products need to develop from brands because brands only command respect. However, products that command both respect and love become Lovemarks which goes beyond trademark and brand.
Both Brands and Lovemarks may deliver beyond expectations of great performance in terms of quality products and services; however Lovemarks reach consumers’ hearts and minds, creating an intimate, emotional connection that they cannot live without. In his book Roberts claims, “Brands are running out of juice”. He considers that love is what is needed to rescue brands. Roberts explains the relationship between lovemarks and other selling concepts through a simple schematic based on respect and love.
The full schema is as follows: mere products (commodities) command neither love nor respect. Fads attract love, but without respect this love is just a passing infatuation. Brands attract respect, even lasting respect, but without love. Lovemarks, explains Roberts, command both respect and love. He suggests that lovemarks are made of a sort of ‘holy’ trinity of: Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy. According to him, mystery is all those great stories: past, present and future about the brand, that taps into the dreams, myths and icons; and inspiration of consumers.
On the other hand, sensuality is about giving a sensory connections sound, sight, smell, touch, and taste between the brand consumers, while intimacy is all about commitment, empathy, and passion for the things that consumers care about. While the concept may be debatable it is important to look at consumer trends particularly brand loyalty which traverses across product functionality, design, availability, price to mention but a few.
There are products that have been in the market for centuries and have been consumed from generation to generation ranging from self care products to cars, mobile phones and so on. Different people are loyal to particular products for a myriad of reasons. For example, some use certain products because they grew up with them, others for functionality, affordability, availability or simply because that is what they love.
Building Wealth; Five Ugandan Entrepreneurs Democratizing Access to Investments.What is evidently clear on the Ugandan market is the fact that people tend to be more loyal to international brands more than local ones. To better understand the subject under discussion, The CEO Magazine brings you what some of Uganda’s top corporate heads are loyal to and their general understanding of brand loyalty, its significance in business and how we can get more Ugandans consume more local products.
Patrick Bitature, Simba Telecom
According to Roberts, it is easy to change a consumer’s loyalty to a product or a service by enticing them with a better offer but it is nearly impossible to change a consumer’s loyalty to a Lovemark because once an emotional connection is involved, then it goes deeper than loyalty. Right now I must admit that I am quite loyal to the brand Samsung because the gadgets are easy to customize, user friendly, Play Store is amazing and functional.
Samsung has an attractive design and they have small details that make all the difference for example; a user can customize every detail of their visual experience, from fonts to speech bubbles on SMSs. Commenting about the Simba Telecom brand, Bitature, who has earned himself the name serial entrepreneur has this to say: “I wouldn’t like to give away all my trade secrets but our customers have stayed loyal to our products first because Simba telecom is a household name known to provide genuine products. Everyone knows that if you want to get an original handset, there is only one place to go, all our products have warranty and the brands which we sell are certified by UCC (Uganda Communication Commission).
