Every brand wants loyalty. Merchants have been chasing it since at least Ancient Egypt. Centuries later, Green Stamps and loyalty cards paved the way for large-scale loyalty efforts. Then in 1981, with the launch of AAdvantage for frequent flyers, American Airlines pioneered loyalty programs as we know them today.
And loyalty remains a key business priority. Forrester, one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world, reports that 67% of B2C marketing decision-makers plan to increase spending on loyalty and relationship marketing in 2026, with another 26% holding their investment steady. (Not bad for an idea that came of age alongside Nintendo’s Game Boy and jelly shoes.)
But loyalty is evolving, and the brands that will earn enduring relevance in the next decade must aim for something deeper: devotion.
That’s why The Lacek Group, in collaboration with our colleagues at Ogilvy, introduced Brand Devotion earlier this year—a new strategic framework that reflects the evolution of loyalty. It’s built on decades of work with the world’s most-loved brands and proprietary global research into how today’s consumer-brand relationships work.
The starting point is a simple but pivotal observation: Today’s consumer is “unbound.” Faced with infinite choices and historically low trust in institutions, media, and advertising, they’ve grown skeptical of traditional brand loyalty. Our research bears this out—only 53% of U.S. consumers believe their favorite brands consistently align with their values, and even fewer feel those brands help them grow (45%), connect with others (40%), or fit into their cultural world (43%).
The takeaway? People aren’t looking for brands to be loyal to. They’re seeking out brands that help them be loyal to themselves—to their values, their individual evolution, and their communities. Brand Devotion lives in that white space.
Let’s zoom in on one dimension of our Brand Devotion framework: potential. It’s my favorite—and the most underutilized—of the four dimensions we identify.
Brand Devotion describes the rich, mutually engaged relationship that emerges when a brand actively helps its customers pursue who they want to become. It rests on a foundation of four bonds (emotional, social, structural, and financial) that establish the relationship, and four dimensions that sustain it:
Think of it this way: The bonds create the beginning of a consumer and brand relationship, while the dimensions can make the relationship last.
When we use potential in this context, we don’t just mean growth or ambition, becoming a better version of yourself. Our quantitative research—a study of more than 3,500 consumers across seven countries—paints a more nuanced picture of potential.
Respondents were asked to think about a favorite brand in a category they cared about, and then to indicate how strongly they agreed with a series of statements about that brand. Among loyal customers globally, here’s how often they agreed with these statements that reflect on potential:
That first statement—“this brand entertains me and/or makes me feel good”—warrants a closer look. Entertainment has real value, of course, but the more durable half of the sentiment, and the part marketers should pay closest attention to, is “makes me feel good.” That’s quieter but longer lasting. For example, when I catch the signature scent of my favorite hotel, it signals vacation, unwind, exhale. Potential, in the sense of Brand Devotion, is built on emotional resonance that compounds over time.
Potential is a brand’s ability to improve how I feel, help me meet my goals, and help me define myself. It’s both emotional and practical; it’s visible in the memory of a good experience and it plays out over the longer arc of time.
Consumers are turning to brands for potential, at least in part, because so many of the institutions that used to deliver it—government, media, education, even employers—have lost public trust. Brands have a real opportunity, and a real responsibility, to show up in that gap to help people feel, and fuel, their sense of personal momentum.
The modern consumer has shifted from a transactional perspective to transformational aspiration. They’re less focused on practicalities and more centered on answering: Does this brand/product/service help me become the person I want to be?
U.S. consumers are asked about the brand they love most, only 45% feel it consistently helps them grow, improve their lives, and define themselves. That means more than half of even our most-loved brands are leaving potential on the table. The demand is enormous. The delivery is, at best, inconsistent. That gap is exactly where devoted customers are made—or lost.
Potential looks different for each person. For one customer, it’s career growth. For another, it’s becoming a better parent, a better cook, a better runner, a more confident creator … and so on. Brands have been claiming to be “customer-centric” for a long time, but most know their customers’ transactional behaviors far better than their customers’ aspirations. Closing that knowledge gap is vital to building customer relationships that build and maintain Brand Devotion.
Wondering how to move from abstract idea to action? Gather your team and examine where your brand actually lives in people’s lives and which areas of potential your brand can support. Then build a system to understand your customers’ aspirations:
Ideally, you want to create a continuous loop where a few customers provide deep and authentic insights that can be scaled, and then every campaign contributes new information to refine your team’s understanding.
Here are some of the brands I believe are quietly helping me become the next version of myself.
Peloton. Fitness matters, for sure, but what keeps me going back is variety (biking, running, strength training, meditation) and relationship (the instructors feel like people I know).
YouTube and Wet Paint, my local art store. Away from the office, I crave creativity without the pressure to excel. Painting is my outlet because I refuse to take it seriously. YouTube tutorials make me feel capable. The staff at Wet Paint get genuinely excited about a newbie’s questions, and they send me home a little braver than I came in.
The NYT Cooking app. When it’s my turn in the kitchen, the app gives me (an admittedly mediocre cook) what I lack on my own—fresh ideas and lots of variety.
Marriott. Most of my best travel memories—the adventures, the family moments, the rare luxurious pause—have involved a Marriott property. Westin’s White Tea and JW Marriott’s Expansion scents instantly transport me to a place of peace and beauty.
Most of these—aside from Peloton—aren’t “self-improvement” brands in the obvious sense. But each has an important place in my potential. I prize variety, creativity, fresh ideas, peace—and these brands keep showing up to provide it, cementing my Brand Devotion.
Each of these brands is embraced by other customers for other reasons. While Peloton satisfies my need for variety and entertainment, for other customers it fuels a competitive impulse. And that’s the point: When a brand understands what its customers are reaching toward, it can more effectively build emotional connections and a reciprocal relationship.
Brands nailing potential
Some brands whole proposition is transformation—e.g., Nike, Apple, MasterClass, Canva, and Duolingo—so potential in the Brand Devotion sense is built in. Other brands need to find ways to deliver potential. The brands that successfully pull it off usually leverage one of these tactics:
Reframe the category’s purpose around growth or progress.
Progressive doesn’t sell insurance, it sells “moving forward.” State Farm doesn’t sell policies, it helps you “realize your dreams.” Same product, but each brand is telling a bigger story that links directly to how customers want to feel about their lives.
Build a learning or growth platform around the product.
With an estimated 40% of current construction workers to retire by 2031, leaving 3.9 million jobs available in the next decade, The Home Depot’s Path to Pro workforce development platform aims to fill a gap in skilled tradespeople by offering free training and connecting skilled workers to jobs. Apple’s in-store workshops turn customers into photographers and coders. REI’s classes turn shoppers into hikers. These brands are making their products the basis of an ongoing aspiration.
Solve a real friction so customers can spend their energy elsewhere.
The 1Password subscription app tames the chaos of digital identity and apparently endless sign-ins. Gerber’s 24/7 expert help gives new parents someone to turn to at 3 a.m. These brands are clearing a path for customers to live the life they’re trying to build.
Sell the version that lets customers define themselves.
Dyson, KitchenAid, and Samsung Bespoke—makers of premium home products—want to inspire their customers to think: I’ve earned the good one, and I appreciate why it’s good. They, along with other premium brands, invite their customers to leverage their products as ways to define themselves.
Ultimately, customers build positive associations based on who your brand helps them become rather than what product they bought. That’s how potential channels customers to devotees. It’s how brand interactions move from simple transactions to being a transformational chapter in customers’ lives.
Are you fueling someone’s aspirations, helping them become the self they envision? Are you improving how your customers feel, encouraging them to define themselves, and helping them meet their goals—so that, over time, your brand becomes important to them?
Talk to your customers. Find out where your brand is showing up in their growth or missing it entirely. Then build a plan to be instrumental in each customer’s vision for their potential.
Michelle Wildenauer is The Lacek Group’s executive vice president, Client Services and Strategy. 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.