What do bunnies and eggs really have to do with Jesus?
As I hoard sugar like Griselda Blanco Restrepo hoarded drugs in Narcos I did stop in my tracks and wonder why I am looking eagerly to feeding my brood more sugar than their yearly intake and celebrating a bunny rabbit when I can’t even convince them to get a dog.
Holding onto traditions make us feel more grounded. Like brand loyalty if we feel we know what is going to happen and when, they make us feel in control. Knowing when we open that Heinz Baked Beans can we are going to get a certain flavour, that might not be replicated if we open another brand can makes us feel secure in our purchase.
Like most families we have created our own traditions – from cake in bed on birthdays (you can see a theme here can’t you?) to having Christmas Day at my sisters’ house, this is what our kids now expect on those special occasions. So what is it that has made these ‘traditions’ just that and how do we cement behaviour and drive customer loyality in our customers?
Repetition and consistency. If we had only had cake in bed for the first ever birthday of our first born 17 years ago, he wouldn’t have remembered and our kids that followed after him would never have known the pleasure of sticky caked fingers and breakfast in bed. The fact we have repeated this experience for the last 17 years means it is now their go-to on a birthday morning in our family.
Setting out your stall and sticking by it. We have established our stall for birthdays in the order we do things. The cake comes first, followed by presents with all of us clambered on the bed, regardless of age and body weight. Everyone knows this is how we do things. This is how we have always done it. If we tried to do it differently, some of the sparkle of birthdays would be rubbed off what we do. In brand terms, this is hard. If you have associated an event or an activity with your brand – whether that’s Wimbledon with Pimms or Robinson Barley Water (dependent on your tipple) or Barclays with the Premier League you need to add to your experience rather than diminish from it if you want your customers to remain engaged and not disappointed.
Living by your brand values. We have tried to instil in a sense of fun and special occasion on family birthdays. We like to think the cake in bed tradition is us living by these brand values. If we suddenly introduced no present opening and celebrations until post school, our kids would feel something was missing. Brand values build up over time can of course evolve but they changed overnight seem inauthentic. We are sure over time, when our youngest decides to start their birthday at midday rather than the crack of dawn, then our tradition might evolve, but this is the customer changing the goalposts, not us.
Brand loyalty is backed by brand advocacy. Finally you need advocates as part of your brand story. In our house, these are our children who of course advocate for us to continue to eat cake in bed as many mornings as possible. Not only do they feel this is their tradition but it is in their interest to continue this tradition. Back to Easter, the advocates of retaining the tradition of Easter Eggs comes from both the chocolate suppliers and the pester power of those children receiving them.
So back to my thoughts on Easter. It is interesting that over time bunny rabbits and chocolate eggs have become more associated with Easter than the story of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. Although originally only a symbol of Jesus’ rebirth and fertility, the Easter bunny and Easter eggs have now taken over the brand of Easter. The message has been consistent – how many supermarkets have you gone into recently where chocolate Easter eggs are not on the gondola ends? -, reinforcement of their brand values – Easter is fun and for the family – and advocacy – in the form of those children (and perhaps grown up children) with their expectations of what happens of Easter firmly cemented.
Image: Photo with thanks by @czapp_arpad at Unsplash