Zigging over Zag

I just reread Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands, a terrific book for anyone who wants to know more about how to build a brand. The author, Marty Neumeier is absolutely brilliant at communicating the concepts that make for a successful brand.  He also provides some incredible, nuanced insights into the nature of customer loyalty – an understanding that customer loyalty begins by being loyal to your customers and is only truly acheived after the customers have gone through a process of their own. They begin with a mere acquaintance with your brand, become a customer, and eventually reach a state where they begin to feel they deserve the loyalty they are being consistently given by your company.  At that point the loyalty becomes a two-way street because a “belonging” mindset has been achieved.  However if loyalty is not what you are consistently giving your customers you will be teaching them other behaviors and a very different mindset toward your company.

What are you teaching your customers?