How to Build Brand Friendship

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Friendship

Kerry Livgren, the creative genius behind the 1970s rock 'n' roll band Kansas, said it simply, and perhaps best: "The only way to have a friend is to be one." The great brands understand this. Starbucks (SBUX) has been picked on a lot lately, but it wouldn't be on such a pedestal if it didn't do a terrific job of making friends with its customers. For many people, their morning appointment with Starbucks is like visiting with a trusted old friend—familiar and comfortable.

I travel a lot, and whenever I take a morning flight out of the beautiful Albuquerque Sunport I grab a breakfast burrito from the La Hacienda kiosk inside security. Do I think about my "friendship" with this brand every time? Not at all. But whenever I go to the airport, I enjoy the familiar taste and friendly people behind the counter.

I feel the same way about my running shoes. I'm not a serious runner by any means, but I have tried a lot of different shoe brands over the years, and when I pull my trusted Avias out of the closet I know they'll do their part, as any friend would. The same is true of the little sandwich shop on the main drag in Cuba, N.M., where I take my kids to chop down our Christmas tree every year. These brands have been such good friends over the years that they now get my business almost without asking.

As with human friends, the brands we adopt as our own give us a sense of comfort and familiarity; we've come to know and trust them as opposed to the "stranger" that a competing brand represents. Our chosen brands have earned our trust through another essential aspect of branding: consistency.

Which brings up an important point—you can't force friendship. As a marketer, there's no way to compel people to feel comfortable with your brand. You can, however, take steps to initiate friendship (BusinessWeek.com, 7/13/06) and make sure that you're doing your part.

Dependability

Friendships that aren't stable aren't really friendships. Sure, all relationships have their ups and downs, but one of the definitions of a true friend is someone you can count on. In the same way, brands that prove themselves dependable over time win our loyalty. Remember the old saying, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM?" The truth of that statement was rooted in IBM's reputation for dependability. IBM (IBM) may have been boring, it may have been expensive, but it was dependable, and that was important.

American Express (AXP) is another brand long known for dependability—the reason you "don't leave home without it." Same with Hertz (HTZ) ("There's Hertz and there's 'not exactly'"). Honda (HMC), in my mind, fits into this category as well. I have owned several Honda automobiles over the years, and they've been the most dependable cars in my garage. In fact, I have two in my garage now (they're even the same color—how boring is that?) Many people would say the same thing about their Toyotas (TM).

Sometimes dependability manifests itself in surprising ways. Years ago my wife and I enjoyed a vacation in Jamaica. It's a beautiful island with beautiful people and wonderful food. But if you've ever spent much time in Jamaica you can get a little tired of allspice, a flavor that tends to dominate much of the cuisine. Imagine my delight on one of our excursions when we spotted a Burger King (BKC). I knew that no matter where in the world I was I could step up to that counter and get a familiar, dependable Whopper. (Burger King's "Whopper Freakout" campaign recently highlighted this principle, using a hidden camera to capture customers' reactions to news the Whopper had been discontinued.)