List of Loyalty Juggernaut Brands Unveiled

Brand Keys (brandkeys.com), the global leader in loyalty and customer engagement, released its 27th annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI) assessments. 

“This year’s roster proves meeting or exceeding consumers’ expectations allows brands to transmute market-share and loyalty into category and market dominance. Those brands are ‘Loyalty Juggernautsbrands of such overwhelming economic force that their ability to meet expectations makes them far  more powerful than universal awareness alone,” noted Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys founder and president.

Some Top Industry Loyalty Juggernauts

The model applies to all sectors and categories where brands generate high levels of consumer engagement and loyalty by better meeting consumers’ expectations. Doing that can turn a brand into devastating economic force. This year, Loyalty Juggernauts include the following brands, with percentages indicating their ability to meet expectations consumers hold for the Ideal (100%) in their category:

• Automotive: Hyundai (89%), GEICO (72%), Uber (78%)
• Broadcast & Entertainment: Netflix (85%), Fox & Friends (83%), NFL (81%)
• CPG & Personal Products: Flonase (90%), Häagen-Dazs (92%), Chobani (86%)
• Digital & Online: Google (94%), Spotify (82%), TikTok (89%)
• Electronics: Apple (95%), Samsung (87%), Konica-Minolta (90%)
• Streaming Video: Netflix (85%)
• Evening News (Cable): Fox and MSNBC (85%)
• Evening News (Network): NBC (80%)
• Major League Sports: NFL (81%)
• Morning News (Cable): Fox and Friends (83%)
• Morning News (Network): Good Morning America (76%)
• Gaming: FIFA 23 & Hogwart’s Legacy (87%)
• Finance: Discover (88%), Chase (85%), PayPal (90%)
• Food & Beverage: Coca-Cola (87%), Tito’s (92%), Dunkin’ (93%)
• Restaurants: Domino’s (88%), Chipotle (85%), McDonald’s (91%)
• Retail: Amazon (96%), T.J. Maxx (79%), Walmart (82%)
• Technology: WhatsApp (88%), ChatGPT (96%), HP (80%)
• Travel: Delta (86%), Expedia (89%), Ritz-Carlton (89%)

Loyalty Works Differently Today

“The loyalty paradigm has changed dramatically since the Cola Wars of the ’70s,” observed Passikoff. Today, loyalty – and consumer choice – don’t come down to one-or-the-other options. Today’s loyalty bottom-line comes down to consumers’ deepest expectations, and how they feel which brand measuresup best. “Customer behavior and brand loyalty are now almost entirely governed by emotional values related to expectations, and expectations grow constantly,” noted Passikoff. This year’s results validat customer expectations as the most accurate and predictive loyalty indicators, proving conclusively that better addressing consumer expectations turn everyday-brands into “Loyalty Juggernauts.” 

This year’s CLEI also makes it clear that consumers will not simply settle. Their emotional expectations  are the hardest to measure, but that is why they are the most valuable. In this year’s survey, cross category expectations increased 34%, but most brands have only kept up on average by 8%. Loyalty Juggernauts reduce that gap up to 50%, thereby virtually guaranteeing ongoing and consistent customer loyalty.

The ‘Super Glue’ of Customer Loyalty

Being a Loyalty Juggernaut, moves brands beyond primacy-of-product, distribution, ad budgets, even pricing. Being a Loyalty Juggernaut essentially commands category leadership. “The ability to meeting those very high consumer expectations better than the competition acts like the ‘super glue’ of loyalty,”  said Passikoff. “Brands create a virtually unbreakable bond with customers.”

The Economics of Expectations

“Identify what consumers expect – create strategies, advertising and experiences that meet those expectations, and your brand can transform into a Loyalty Juggernaut. Customers will be six times more  likely to engage, buy and buy again. They are six times more likely to think of you first, pay more attention to your marketing and social networking activities and actively engage with your brand,” noted  Passikoff. “That’s the real payoff – blockbuster category leadership and more effective marketing.”

A few 2024 economic facts substantiate the cost-and-effort effectiveness of brand loyalty strategies:

• It costs 16 times more to recruit a new customer than keep an existing one.
• A 5% increase in loyalty lifts lifetime profits per customer as much as 78%.
• A 5% loyalty-increase is equal to a 12-21% across-the-board cost reduction program