Rooted and Revered: How Authenticity and Purpose Build Travel Brand Loyalty
Breaking through the noise to meaningfully connect with your travel brand’s target consumers has never been more difficult. Daily, we’re bombarded with ads, LinkedIn messages, package deliveries, email threads, social media notifications, and last-minute homework projects… it’s hard enough to get a word in. It’s even harder to make that word stick, spur engagement, and spark loyalty with your brand.
At the same time, it’s more vital than ever. After all, one-time transactions don’t cut it for establishing relationships that foster financial success. But in an era of messaging overload and fleeting attention spans, what’s a loyalty seeking destination to do?
The answer: Live and breathe the core values of your brand. It’s no longer enough to talk about what your brand believes in or exists to do. You must ensure every touchpoint aligns with your values, purpose, and mission if you want to earn initial consumer attention, sustain their interest post-purchase, and inspire re-engagement again and again.
In today’s do-it-all, see-it-all, tell-it-all consumer landscape, cultivating a loyal customer relationship with your brand takes a holistically authentic, totally you approach.
Your Brand’s Purpose is a Loyalty Generating Superpower
It can be easy to get distracted with newfangled tools like AI or trends to inform your brand’s strategy. But getting distracted by the new shiny thing (that seems like a good idea at the moment) won’t help your brand cultivate much-needed long-term relationships with your customers. So what will? Your values and purpose.
Purpose is a superpower that steers a brand into the forefront of their target consumers’ minds. When invested in and established, your brand’s purpose attracts customers who believe what you believe, establishing a deeply personal connection that fosters immense loyalty and repeat business over the long term.
Whether your tourism brand promotes eco-conscious travel destinations, designs sustainable activewear that eliminates environmentally harmful sourcing, or supports the growth potential of their own employees and provides a better living wage, that purpose inspires. It inspires a higher calling for consumers to be part of something greater.
It’s more than spending money. It’s who they’re spending it with and what they’re spending it on. 96% of U.S. consumers report trying to behave in ways that protect the planet, its people, and its resources, with no significant difference in behavior across socio-economic, geographic or gender divides. Purpose establishes an affinity that transcends the transactional.
Your Brand’s Purpose in an Increasingly AI-Driven World
While innovations like ChatGPT and Midjourney have demonstrated AI's potential to transform how we work, it can’t replace your brand's underlying purpose and reason for being. A clearly defined why remains central to creating meaningful human connections and sustaining a competitive edge.
This means spotlighting your brand's guiding values, central mission, and approach to ethical business. When these foundational beliefs shine through, consumers forge emotional bonds that hold more weight against considerations like pricing or convenience, even in economically uncertain times.
Locking in this loyalty is worth it: According to Acquia, 59 percent of U.S. consumers report that once they are loyal to a brand, the brand has their loyalty for life. How you live out your brand's authentic purpose today has the potential to pay dividends for decades down the road.
Embrace Authenticity If Your Brand Doesn’t Have a Deep Purpose
Authenticity was the Merriam-Webster word of 2023. There's a reason for that. Authenticity is nothing new, but thanks to advancements in tech (Hi, OpenAI!), the real deal carries more weight than whatever new shiny object is taking center stage. If the goal is to bring your consumers back, drive repeat purchases, and keep them actively engaged with a brand, practicing human authenticity is paramount.
Let’s look at the master of authenticity: Disney. It’s not just a universally beloved immersive theme park that guests love. It isn’t just far-off lands, thrilling rides, dancing music, and household name characters that have earned the brand its vast legion of ambassadors. It’s the seamless service and organization, the nostalgia and continued pop culture relevance, and the inclusive experiences outside the park’s gates that have kept generations coming back for more. Ask anyone who owns a pair of Mickey Mouse ears why they’re a fan of the brand, and they’ll likely answer with positive attributes like imagination, optimism, or childhood wonder.
Of course, Disney is a for-profit company. But it upholds positive values and leads with authenticity. True, it’s taken decades for Disney to build its brand to be the behemoth it is today. But it will be a long time before it is dethroned as the case study on how to build brand loyalty. And for good reason.
Authenticity isn’t intangible. And with today’s savvy consumers, it’s not hard to spot. It’s throughout your customer experience. It’s in the ways you approach customer service issues. It’s baked into who you partner with, where you source your products, and how you communicate internally and externally. It’s in the personalization details that take a ho-hum experience and make it memorable. Every detail and touchpoint of your brand is an opportunity to tie itself back to your brand’s identity to offer one holistic experience that is yours to own.
Cultivate Advocates With Authentic Approaches That Stick
Cementing a single purchase is nice. But it’s not enough. Loyal customers spend 67 percent more on average than new customers. What’s more, brands typically spend five to ten times more to attract a new customer than to woo a loyal fan.
There are a few things you can do to ensure that your brand identity speaks truth to what you’re all about while increasing the likelihood of loyalty that can sustain your brand for years to come.
Conduct an audit. Gather data from your target audience as well as your existing loyal ambassadors. Do they have an awareness of your brand’s purpose or what makes you authentic? What’s working and what isn’t? See if you can find patterns that identify opportunities to infuse your purpose or expand on your authenticity. You’ll never know unless you get outside of your own familiar bubble and put yourself in your audience’s seat.
Keep your values top of mind for your most loyal fans. Every offering, sale, direct message, and loyalty perk is an opportunity to encourage loyalty and further investment in your brand. It’s also an opportunity to live out your values and authenticity. Because these systems are already in place, you can ensure each touchpoint has brand love-building potential. Each interaction and detail counts positively toward your purpose and authenticity. You’ll know you’re doing it right when:
Your offerings are holistically driven by your purpose.
Your customer service process is streamlined and infused with empathy.
Everyone on your staff is aligned on your values and purpose and how to practice them internally and externally.
If this all sounds daunting, don’t worry. You don’t have to make a big splash or overhaul your entire brand strategy to live and breathe your brand’s purpose or authenticity overnight. Make changes where you can, when you can. Maybe that’s improving your signage and marketing collateral one quarter and focusing on your programming the next. Or perhaps it’s starting with amplifying your social proof and fostering brand advocates who have a greater influence.
In today’s fast-paced, dizzying world, isn’t it refreshing to come across something real? Your customers think so, too. So infuse that authenticity and purpose into your brand and watch as customers become more than that. They become loyal consumers with whom you’ve built an emotional connection and who won’t give a second thought to putting you at the top of their to-book list.