With companies tightening their marketing budgets in response to mixed (and shifting) economic signals, brands need to find ways to increase engagement that don’t require spending more. Meanwhile, consumers appear to be responding to the perceived economic uncertainty by changing their financial behaviors.
A recent McKinsey survey shows 43% of consumers cite rising prices as their biggest worry, and 29% point directly to tariffs. More than half of U.S. consumers (60%) say they have changed or plan to adjust their spending habits based on the current state of the economy.
Given that economic landscape, brands need to move beyond discounts and provide value that benefits consumers and boosts bottom lines. But offering consumers more doesn't necessarily mean bloated spending. Consider leaning into creative loyalty strategies instead.
High-quality customer content doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does need to be relevant and engaging. Robust loyalty programs bring value when they balance their offerings across the four bonds of loyalty: emotional, social, financial, and structural.
Let’s explore how your brand can activate these four loyalty bonds.
Cultivating emotional bonds
Brands must live their values, not just market them.
Customers want to support brands that live out the values they claim to champion. For example, a 2025 Ogilvy One global survey of more than 3,500 people found that 85% are loyal to brands that behave in ways they respect. Similarly, most people say how brands handle a crisis matters to them. According to an Edelman survey, 65% of respondents said a brand's response to crisis impacts whether they'll buy from it again.
Brands successfully use various strategies to build durable and meaningful emotional bonds with their customers. Some focus on the warm glow of nostalgia, while others create personalized experiences or build a sense of shared community.
In its February 2026 e-newsletter, AllTrails—a digital platform dedicated to helping people discover and enjoy outdoor adventures—honors Black History Month and emphasizes that outdoor experiences are for everyone. The message spotlights two partner organizations that foster diversity among outdoor enthusiasts and announces a new resource: a list of 10 trails on public lands that help tell the story of Black history in America. The message reflects the mission and values of AllTrails while nourishing a sense of community.
Bombas, a popular apparel brand, helps those experiencing homelessness with donations of new socks, underwear, and t-shirts to partner organizations that distribute them to people in need. The company highlights its one-purchased, one-donated model on its website—and created short, behind-the-scenes videos for social channels. This charitable mission humanizes the brand, and sharing the details of the process builds trust through transparency.
🔥 Embrace authenticity and transparency. Your brand’s customers are savvy. A genuine commitment to brand values, demonstrated through sustained action, builds lasting trust. Then find engaging ways to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your team’s passion for that commitment. Maybe you spotlight a small, local initiative your brand supports on social media, or maybe you create a day-in-the-life video featuring an employee that demonstrates your brand values in action. Authenticity costs nothing.
Weaving structural bonds
Best-case customer perspective: "This brand improves my life.”
A frictionless experience adds value and reinforces a brand’s role in each customer’s journey. The vast majority of consumers surveyed (83%) say they want brands to improve their lives and they expect a seamless experience across all digital and physical channels (78%).
To meet customers’ ongoing and high expectations for a smooth, life-enriching experience, brands use various strategies, including:
- offering subscriptions
- delivering the right message at the right time
- bundling products and services
- suggesting auto-replenishment services
- creating educational hubs and exclusive learning communities
In November 2025, quick-service restaurant leader Chipotle pitched its customers a holiday hosting hack: catering a Friendsgiving meal. They eased the logistics of bringing together a group of friends, reminding customers of the emotional underpinning of the season—but set their offer apart by highlighting an alternative (or addition) to a traditional Thanksgiving.
Peloton, known for its in-home exercise equipment, expanded its subscription model in 2025. In addition to live and on-demand fitness classes, the fitness company began sharing access to exclusive learning communities where members can participate in forums to share wellness tips, connect with trainers, and discuss fitness goals. The strategy reinforces the appeal of Peloton’s recurring subscription revenue by shoring up a sense of belonging and shared personal growth among members.
Online pet retailer Chewy sends surprise, original paintings of pets to some of its members. The portraits sometimes celebrate milestones or serve as memorials for pets that have passed. The free portraits can’t be requested; they just show up one day, tugging at pet parents’ heartstrings. This ongoing strategy builds goodwill and emotional connections, contributing to lasting loyalty.
🔥 Seek ways to enhance your customers’ lives. One of the best ways to do that is to identify a common pain point in your customers’ journey and brainstorm a simple solution that reduces friction. Even relatively low-investment efforts—e.g., a personalized gift—can make a significant difference.
Balancing financial bonds with a cultural fit
Discounts can grab attention, but cultivating a brand that fits into their world engages customers.
Discounts remain a strong tactic to drive engagement in the short-term. But the more valuable and lasting attachment, brand devotion, hinges on a reflexive, emotion-based connection with customers. And tactics that build brand devotion don’t have to break the bank. For example, two-thirds (67%) of respondents in the global Ogilvy One survey view exclusive access to goods or services as valuable.
To boost lasting loyalty among your brands’ customers, consider augmenting traditional loyalty tactics (earning and redeeming points or rewards, targeted promotions, referral bonuses, or early-bird discounts) with innovative efforts that reflect a shared humor, mindset, or social sentiment (collaborations with resonant influencers or local artists, or geographically based campaigns that echo regional affinities).
The eco-friendly toilet paper brand Who Gives a Crap offered an unexpected crossover: World Dump Day, February 13 (the day before Valentine’s Day). The brand, noting that they’re kind of “dump experts,” offered its help creating a break-up letter to help participants “get rid of that stinker” in their lives. Toilet paper isn’t exactly where customers are expecting to find playfulness (or relationship—or “sh*tuationship”—help), but the Who Gives a Crap team found a way to extend its brand beyond the expected … transaction.
🔥 Look for opportunities to extend your brand past the usual expectations. Not every brand will benefit from pun-filled potty humor, but when your product is an everyday, overlooked essential like TP, why not? Point is, sometimes finding unexpected, even sideways approaches—maybe micro-influencer collaborations or user-generated content campaigns—that naturally align with your brand’s unique culture and values can help cement lasting brand connections.
Fostering social bonds to build community
Most consumers (76%) value brands that help them connect with others.
Social media remains a core community connector for consumers. Your brand can leverage that by encouraging user-generated content and employee-generated content, contests, testimonials, games, interactive live streams, and other strategies.
In December 2025, The Home Depot Creator portal launched. The new feature is a hub designed to connect digital content creators to opportunities with the home-improvement store brand—and its network of suppliers and products. Creators can find inspiration, opportunities, and expertise to help them share posts focused on home improvement, home décor, and DIY projects. With thousands already enrolled, the portal nurtures a community of creators around the available resources. The new initiative is designed to drive product recommendations and sales for The Home Depot while offering creators opportunities to monetize their content, maximize their visibility, and find inspiration for future partnerships.
Community, fellowship, human bonds—they’re about as old-school as it gets. Explore what other time-tested methods could nurture community among your customers, e.g., peer-to-peer groups, exclusive membership clubs, in-person events, and opportunities for customers to offer input on new products.
Headspace, a popular digital company that focuses on mental health, blends the old and the new with push notifications that build members’ sense of shared experience. By tabulating the cumulative hours its members spent meditating on a single day and sharing that number with members, Headspace encouraged individuals to join this wellness-focused community and enhanced members’ sense of belonging and impact.
Exploring engagement opportunities that build connections
And—good news—that doesn’t have to mean big-budget campaigns.
Today’s winning loyalty strategies need to factor in how values and emotion drive customer behavior. Brands that authentically connect are more likely to build lasting relationships with customers that will pay off in the long term. In fact, in today’s economic climate, authenticity can be more impactful than lavish spending.
For more on this topic, check out:
Navigating Turbulent Times: Growing Brand Devotion Is Your Best Investment
Brenna Hodge is a senior manager, Strategic Services, at The Lacek Group. For more than 30 years, The Lacek Group has been perfecting the art and algorithms of brand devotion. We help world-class brands identify their highest-potential customers, engage them across channels throughout their lifecycles, personalize each relationship for optimal long-term results, and measure the true effectiveness of those efforts. The Lacek Group is an Ogilvy One company.
