Emotional loyalty—the personal connections and sentimental bonds consumers have with certain brands—is not about how often a customer visits or purchases, but rather about why they return to a brand again and again. In a two-part series, Shi Bu—one of The Lacek Group’s data leaders—reflects on emotional loyalty from her deep knowledge of data intelligence. In this first installment, Shi shares a personal experience to illustrate how brands can expand beyond the usual metrics to understand, amplify, and extend emotional loyalty.
Aggregated brand metrics like recency, frequency, and monetary value—widely known in loyalty marketing as RFM—dominate most assessments of customer loyalty. While those are important measures, they fail to reflect another critical part of the picture: the value of emotional loyalty, i.e., the emotional connections that drive customer behavior. Distinct from traditional assessments of customer value—which can be tracked, measured, and aggregated—emotional loyalty is saturated in personal narratives and individual experiences.
Emotional loyalty describes how human connections and feelings are the foundation of brand value. Put another way: A brand’s true worth lies in the hearts of its consumers. Although it requires a different spin on metrics, data that reflects customer emotional loyalty can be gathered and analyzed at the individual level.
How Panda Express won my heart
The Chinese Lunar New Year feast marks the end of one year and welcomes the arrival of a new year. For me, that means a trip to Panda Express—a restaurant I rarely visit the rest of the year. My yearly loyalty to Panda Express isn’t rooted in rational drivers like customer service or price point; it’s entirely emotional.
Six years ago, my parents and I shared a simple yet memorable meal at Panda Express during a journey along the West Coast. Visiting me from China—and craving familiar flavors after several days of eating Western cuisine—my parents settled into our hotel while I searched my phone for the closest Chinese restaurant. After I located a Panda Express within walking distance, we navigated the bustling streets of Los Angeles and were surprised to discover the Panda Express tucked inside the basement of a public library. As we entered the hushed library, we were greeted by security guards who urged us to hurry because the restaurant, along with the library, was about to close.
This Panda Express was, in contrast to most locations of the chain, a cozy, hidden nook. We were the only customers interrupting the employees’ end-of-day cleaning. Ordering everything still available, we enjoyed an unexpected feast. Watching my parents savor each dish was like watching kids experience a new delight. Their evident happiness and infectious smiles transformed each bite into a taste of home, a moment of pure joy. Even now, several years later, my parents still vividly recall that meal.
Since then, my connection with Panda Express has transcended conventional patronage. It’s a solitary annual ritual, born not out of convenience or craving but from a deep emotional bond I forged with the brand that evening in LA. Panda Express has become a bridge to my geographically distant parents, evoking fond memories of that shared moment. And on the eve of each Chinese Lunar New Year, I deeply miss them and wish to spend time with them during the New Year celebrations.
The value of stories
Experiences like the one my parents and I shared at that library-basement Panda Express fuel a special form of brand loyalty—beginning with feelings stimulated through personal experience building into brand trust. It’s an invisible bond that isn’t reflected in my visit frequency or total spend, two typical loyalty metrics.
I may not be Panda Express’s most loyal customer by traditional standards of value, but my connection to the brand is profound and deeply personal. It’s loyalty measured by quality rather than quantity, by heart rather than habit.
To uncover and nurture personal stories like mine, brands must first pinpoint the customers who matter most to them. This group might include members of the premier loyalty tier, those who offer genuine feedback on social media, or infrequent customers demonstrating distinct shopping patterns (as is the case with me and Panda Express). Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can uncover behavioral patterns that can help identify these pivotal customers.
The next step is uncovering the why behind the choices of a brand’s most-valued customers. Brands need to find creative strategies to capture the stories behind customers’ emotional bonds with them. These emotional narratives can then be leveraged to enhance engagement with specific customers and to shape the brand’s big-picture approach to cultivating similar emotional relationships with a broader audience.
Travel and emotions
Marriott Bonvoy Moments, a collection of exclusive experiences offered by Marriott International’s loyalty program, demonstrates how a brand can build emotional connections and leverage customers’ personal narratives to engage a wider audience.
With its embrace of memorable adventures and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, the leisure travel industry is built on emotional connections. Beyond the rational value of earning points, upgrades, and bonus nights, travelers often create emotional bonds with their preferred travel and hospitality brands as sites of special moments and cherished memories.
Marriott Bonvoy Moments celebrates and deepens those personal connections by offering Marriott Bonvoy members unparalleled access to unique and one-of-a-kind experiences tailored to their interests and tastes.
Program members can search curated experiences in four categories—culinary, arts and lifestyle, sports, entertainment—to find events based on their interests and then bid or redeem points for experiences. Events might include a dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant with a private kitchen tour, an underwater excursion with legendary oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau, Inner Circle tickets to the NFL Draft, or VIP passes and suite access to sought-after concerts and music festivals.
Members are invited to share their personal stories and photos from Moments experiences. The images and quotes are then featured on the brand website, entrenching participating members’ connection to the brand and appealing to other loyalty members.
The heart of loyalty
Emotional loyalty is the human side of commerce—a beating heart of enduring loyalty.
My Panda Express experience with my parents makes the quick-service chain more than just a dining destination. For me, it’s a vessel for family memories and a symbol of my connection with my parents. That’s a testament to the enduring potential of an emotional bond with a brand.
The responsibility to unearth these heartfelt connections lies with brands. Marketing teams can harness them to help shape brand identity and craft messaging that emotionally resonates with wider audiences. Ultimately, it’s these unique, human connections that can set your brand apart from the rest.
Shi Bu is senior vice president, Data Intelligence. 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 life cycles, personalize each relationship for optimal long-term results, and measure the true effectiveness of those efforts. The Lacek Group is an Ogilvy company.
