Question: The Secret Behind the World's Stickiest Brands: Why is brand stickiness important? Is it?
18 Oct 2022,1:16 AM
The Secret Behind the World's Stickiest Brands
Anton Siebert, Ahir Gopaldas, Andrew Lindridge and Cláudia Simões
How some breakthrough leisure brands hook users with vast catalogs of content and dynamic, unpredictable experiences
The world’s top leisure brands, such as CrossFit, Pokémon Go and Tinder, have built empires by creating sticky journeys that keep customers as addicted as possible. Athletes don’t just work out at CrossFit, they’re obsessed with it. Gamers don’t just play Pokémon Go for a little while, they’re hooked for hours on end. Singles on Tinder don’t just hunt for new partners, they’re addicted to the hunt itself. And from Netflix to Spotify to TikTok, a new generation of media companies has completely transformed the television, radio and video industry. Audiences are no longer willing to sit through formulaic shows such as NBC’s “Law & Order.” They want “Game of Thrones”-like drama—compelling, polarizing, hard-to-pull-away-from serials that shock, delight and frequently enrage their viewers.
The secret to the success of these breakthrough leisure brands is creating an insanely “sticky” journey that defies all the usual hyperrational rules of marketing. It’s not about creating consistently good customer experiences, but about creating intentionally chaotic, maddening and unpredictable ones. It’s also not about making services convenient, easy or satisfying, but instead about making them challenging, suspenseful and thrilling. The resulting customer journeys are exhilarating. We call these journeys sticky to emphasize that customers can’t seem to pull away. At the heart of these sticky journeys is an “involvement spiral”—a roller coaster ride of intensely good and bad experiences that keep customers riveted.
How Do These Leisure Brands Create Such Sticky Journeys?
The first step is providing customers with “rapid entry.” That means giving customers free, quick and easy access to the service as soon as they express interest, whether in person or online. These brands don’t bore customers with a lot of information or ask too many questions. And they don’t pressure customers to sign up for a monthly subscription—at least not at the beginning. Tinder does this first step particularly well. Unlike traditional matchmaking websites that begin with extensive compatibility questionnaires, the Tinder app asks customers for no more than their age, gender and distance preferences. Customers can also import their photos from Facebook, so they can dive into the Tinder dating pool immediately.
Key Takeaways
Breakthrough leisure brands create “sticky” journeys that defy all the usual hyperrational rules of marketing. It’s not at all about creating consistently good customer experiences, but about creating intentionally chaotic and unpredictable ones. The services are challenging, suspenseful and thrilling, rather than convenient, easy or satisfying. The resulting customer journeys are exhilarating, and consumers have trouble pulling away. At the core of sticky journeys is an “involvement spiral” of intensely good and bad experiences that keep customers riveted.
How Practitioners Can Put the Findings Into Action
The first step is providing customers with “rapid entry,” which means giving customers free, quick and easy access to the service as soon as they express interest, whether in person or online. The second step is providing customers with endless variation along the user experience journey—because the only way to keep customers excited is by creating unpredictable experiences. The third step is sparking new customer journeys as soon as the current ones begin to run out of steam.
What Comes Next
We’d love to see marketing professionals and researchers explore whether the sticky journey model can be used to motivate mindful lifestyles, good habits and healthy behaviors—think meditation, nutritious eating patterns, yoga, running or cycling. We hope the sticky journey model provides some fuel for their imagination.
The second step is providing customers with “endless variation” along the user experience journey. Whether we’re talking about dating, gaming, working out or something else, the only way to keep customers excited is by creating unpredictable experiences. Companies create such endless variation using a trio of techniques:
- Opening the service system to a massive number of service elements (e.g., the hundreds of possible exercises at CrossFit, virtual creatures in Pokémon Go or user profiles on Tinder).
- Making frequent additions, subtractions and changes to those elements.
- Offering unique configurations of those elements at each service encounter.
For instance, CrossFit changes workouts daily and makes them extraordinarily challenging. Drawing on various sports, fitness regimens and military drills, no two workouts are ever the same. Once customers are swept up in the endlessly varied customer journey, they are more eager to sign up for monthly memberships.
The third step is sparking new customer journeys as soon as the current ones begin to run out of steam. Leisure brands recognize that all journeys come to an end. Even the most exciting adventures can become familiar, exhausting or boring after a while. Eventually, brands must offer their customers new journeys. For example, Nintendo, the parent company behind the “Animal Crossing” game franchise, has launched an entirely new generation of the game every few years. CrossFit coaches invite advanced athletes to Barbell Clubs and CrossFit competitions. And recently, Tinder launched offshoots such as Swipe Night, an event that matches users based on their responses to an interactive movie.
Wondering how to get un-hooked? Some customers can keep their recreational addictions in check, but many others cannot. Maintaining daily self-discipline is just too difficult. For compulsive users, there’s only one answer: Cancel your subscription, delete the app and call a friend.
Most customers won’t do that, and leisure brands are counting on it.
https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/the-secret-behind-the-worlds-stickiest-brands/?MessageRunDetailID=3058852005&PostID=17617641&utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io
Questions:
- Why is brand stickiness important? Is it?
- For your Project brand, how do they try to be “sticky”?
- What digital marketing tools do you think that they might use to enhance this?
- What traditional promotional methods (ie non-digital ones) might you use to enhance stickiness?
Expert answer
Brand stickiness is important because it is a predictor of long-term success. Studies have shown that brands that are able to create high levels of stickiness are more likely to enjoy higher valuations and better financial performance over time.
There are three key factors that contribute to brand stickiness:1. The ability to create an emotional connection with consumers 2. A strong and differentiated identity 3. A clear and compelling purpose
Emotional connections are important because they create a deeper level of engagement with the brand. When consumers have an emotional connection with a brand, they are more likely to become loyal and advocate for the brand.
A strong and differentiated identity is important because it helps the brand to stand out in the marketplace and be remembered by consumers. A clear and compelling purpose is also important because it gives the brand a reason for being and makes it easy for consumers to understand what the brand stands for.
When all of these factors are present, brands are able to create a high level of stickiness that can lead to long-term success.
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