The recently published 27th edition of the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI) shows that fulfilling or surpassing customer expectations enables brands to transform their market share and customer loyalty into dominant positions within their categories and overall markets. These brands are known as Loyalty Juggernauts – their remarkable economic influence, derived from their capability to meet expectations, surpasses the impact of mere brand recognition.

The model is relevant to all industries and segments in which brands excel at meeting consumer expectations, resulting in significant consumer engagement and loyalty. This achievement can transform a brand into a powerful economic entity. In the current year, the following brands stand out as Loyalty Juggernauts, with accompanying percentages representing their ability to satisfy consumer expectations, benchmarked against the Ideal (100%) within their respective categories:

Airlines: Delta Air Lines (80%)

Car Rental: Enterprise (75%)

Gasoline: ExxonMobil (85%)

Hotel (Economy): America’s Best Value Inn (77%)

Hotel (Luxury): Ritz Carlton (89%)

Hotel (Mid-Level): Drury (82%)

Hotel (Upscale): Omni (88%)

On-Line Travel: Expedia (89%)

Ride Share: Uber (78%)

The landscape of loyalty has undergone significant transformation since the Cola Wars of the 1970s. In the present day, loyalty and consumer choice are no longer limited to binary options. Instead, loyalty is now determined by consumers’ deepest expectations and their perception of which brand best fulfills those expectations. According to industry analysts, customer behavior and brand loyalty are now primarily influenced by emotional values associated with expectations, which continually evolve. This year’s findings confirm that customer expectations serve as the most reliable and predictive indicators of loyalty, conclusively demonstrating that effectively meeting consumer expectations can transform ordinary brands into Loyalty Juggernauts.

The 2024 CLEI highlights that consumers are not willing to compromise. Measuring their emotional expectations is challenging, yet it is the most valuable aspect. According to this year’s survey, travel-related brands have witnessed a 40% increase in expectations compared to the previous year, but on average, most brands have only managed to meet a 7% increase. Loyalty Juggernauts bridge this gap by up to 50%, ensuring continued and unwavering customer loyalty.

As a Loyalty Juggernaut, brands transcend the focus on product dominance, distribution, advertising budgets, and even pricing. Essentially, being a Loyalty Juggernaut leads to category superiority. Meeting consumer expectations exceptionally well compared to competitors serves as the super glue of loyalty, fostering an unbreakable connection between brands and customers.

By understanding and fulfilling consumer expectations, your brand can become a powerhouse in building loyalty. This can lead to a sixfold increase in customer engagement, purchases, and repeat business. Additionally, customers are more likely to consider your brand first, pay closer attention to your marketing efforts and social media presence, and actively interact with your brand. According to the experts, this is the ultimate reward – achieving category dominance and implementing more impactful marketing strategies.

Several economic facts from 2024 provide evidence supporting the cost-effectiveness and efficiency 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.

The data from the 2024 CLEI present a tangible measure beyond mere point accumulation and reflect actual behavior in the marketplace. According to the experts, genuine loyalty is not as vague as one might assume. It is not a spontaneous occurrence for a brand and cannot be measured by awareness or satisfaction on a scale of 10 points. Relying on these metrics only enables brands to remain mediocre.

The complexity of loyalty has evolved alongside the increasing complexity of consumers and the marketplace. Loyalty refers to the connection between consumers and brands, serving as a link between emotional engagement and securing future purchases. From a measurement standpoint, it gauges how well a brand fulfills the expectations that consumers have for the ideal product or service within its category. Ultimately, it provides an answer to the question of whether a brand truly understands what consumers desire and how effectively it meets those expectations.