Getting Sticky | Emotional attachment and profitable customer relationships
Roger Sant
Validating an emotional framework
Ipsos Loyalty conducted a study to validate the effectiveness of such an emotional framework . We conducted 8,000 interviews in the UK , Germany , France and USA across three sectors ( banking , automotive and smartphones ).
A functional dimension was created from attributes such as Meets My Needs , Is Reliable , and Satisfaction . Meanwhile a similar emotional dimension was created from attributes such as Trust , Forgiveness and Pride . We also asked a number of business metrics such as likelihood to continue , recommend and buy other products & services .
Our research showed that :
• We can quantify a level of emotional attachment
• Emotional and functional work together – but emotional attachment can only be built from a functional base
• The rewards for creating an emotional attachment are significant
A very important finding is that the functional and emotional dimensions are very inter-dependent .
“ It is possible to be satisfied without being attached , but it is not possible to be emotionally attached without being functionally satisfied ”
When we classify both the functional and emotional dimensions as ‘ High ’ or ‘ Low ’ and plot ‘ brand relationships ’ on a quadrant map , we can look at the distribution of different types of relationship that customers have with brands ( as defined by functional and emotional attributes ).
The top right-hand quadrant represents people who are both functionally satisfied and emotionally attached . They agree that the brand meets their needs in a reliable way , but also express a sense of pride in being a customer and even a willingness to forgive them if they make a mistake .
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