#loyalty-penalty

#loyalty-penalty

The study surveyed 1,226 marketing decision-makers who work for businesses of different sizes and industries throughout the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada.

Fashion fans are more visible - and influential - than ever before. The Met Gala - often called fashion's Super Bowl - garnered more engagement across social media and press than the actual American football championship last year, according to Launchmetrics. Just like Swifties, fashion fanatics gather online in communities and comment sections on accounts like Gvishiani's to dissect collections, magazine covers and red carpets.

Performance has always been the foundation of commerce media because it tied spend to measurable behavior. From sponsored search to sponsored products, the category scaled by delivering outcomes that could be directly attributed to transactions. Automation, AI-driven optimization and closed-loop measurement accelerated that model and made outcomes-based buying the norm. Outcomes still matter. But as AI reduces friction and increases competition, outcomes alone no longer create separation.

Discounting has been part of retail's toolkit for decades, and it can be effective, especially during high-stakes shopping seasons. But as promotions become more frequent across the industry, companies are taking a closer look at the downside: Short-term sales gains don't always come with long-term loyalty or durable margins, and customers remember how a brand made them feel far more than what they saved at checkout.

Mike Pastore is the Head of Content & Media at Third Door Media, the publisher of the Martech and Search Engine Land websites and the producer of the SMX and MarTech Conferences. In nearly three decades in B2B marketing, Mike has worked as an editor, writer, and marketer. He first wrote about marketing in 1998 for internet.com (later Jupitermedia). He then worked with marketers at some of the best-known brands in B2B tech, creating content for marketing campaigns at both Jupitermedia and QuinStreet.

Beyond their spending, high-value clients typically engage regularly, remain loyal over time, and align with the company's core offerings. For example, a high-value client that engages regularly could be a regular shopper who purchases often but also always likes and comments on the business's social media posts. These comments and likes on social media can have a positive impact on the business, showing other potential consumers that the business is reputable and valued by others.

So the brand reinvents itself to pull in a younger segment of the market, often by borrowing ideas from cooler competitors to seem more "on-trend." But instead of younger and cooler, the rebrand comes off as insincere, stilted, or cringey. Worse, the brand's older, core customers, who liked the brand as it was, are irritated by the changes. Instead of spurring new growth, the effort drives off some of the existing customers, leaving the brand worse off than when it started.

To achieve ambitious targets during continued economic uncertainty, marketing strategies must evolve and adapt. This begs the question: how do we need to adjust our plans to better serve our consumer's needs? Let's first hone in on the biggest challenges we're currently facing as an industry. Understanding your customer and their needs Consumer shopping behavior is vastly different now than in 2019 and, while looking back on past data is still essential, we can't use it as robustly to predict trends.

Marketers spend billions trying to persuade consumers that a product is right for them. But our research shows that sometimes the most effective way to market something is to say that it isn't for them. In other words, effective marketing can mean discouraging the wrong customers rather than convincing everyone to buy. We call this "dissuasive framing." Instead of saying a product is perfect for everyone, a company is up front about who it might not be for.

The traditional customer funnel is quickly giving way to a more fragmented, dynamic and self-directed journey. Today's buyers move fluidly across platforms, channels and touchpoints-often gathering information, building trust and forming preferences long before brands realize they're in the picture. As AI, creator influence and real-time intent signals reshape how decisions are made, brands must rethink where trust is built and conversion truly happens.

Sensible businesses will be scrutinizing outgoings now more than ever. With clients looking to claw back profits eroded by spiralling inflation, marketing investment (not to mention your fees) will be up for debate, whether you like it or not. Frustratingly, validating the success of marketing investments is becoming more difficult. We're facing an attribution crisis, and many marketers are struggling to prove the value of each channel or campaign due to the numerous challenges brought about by increased privacy constraints,