The popular revolts that swept away regimes in the Middle East remind us that loyalty can be fleeting. While it seems a stretch to suggest that political and brand loyalty might intersect, there is one point of convergence to emphasize – the importance of ritual to loyalty.
What drove those in rebellion was not social media, headlines notwithstanding, but the ideas and plans developed and taught to many activists by Gene Sharp, a scholar of rebellion now retired from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Sharp argues that rulers have power only if people allow themselves to be ruled. Once people refuse to obey, governments lose all authority. So, says Sharp, all you have to do to topple a regime is persuade people to stop obeying.
In practice, it’s so simple. Governments know this because they cloak themselves in rituals, ceremonies, histories and mythologies to instill a psychology of allegiance. As long as these rituals hold sway, it is hard for people to see that power is not vested inherently in authority or that they are not bound by some natural law to obey.
The tactics Sharp teaches challenge ritual because once the psychological grip of ritual is broken, people become emboldened and regimes lose their hold on power. Some regimes respond with brutal repression, which often has the effect of further undermining the perceived legitimacy of government.
Without digging any deeper into Sharp’s ideas, parallels for brand strategy are apparent. Ritual binds people to authority or an object of devotion. So creating these rituals is the essence of building a brand. Ritual forges the grip a brand holds on loyalty.
For several decades, traditional advertising was the altar of brand ritual. Images, icons and jingles constituted the rituals of connection and loyalty. But in recent years these rituals have been weakened by new media, ad clutter, the Internet and the light-speed transmission of negative word-of-mouth.
Many brands have stayed alive by becoming pushier on pricing or service, but this has come at the expense of a feeling of loyalty and contentment that would allow them more flexibility and opportunity in the marketplace. Just as with political regimes, overly aggressive behaviors only fuel the cycle of discontent.
Heretofore, brands have been in control of ritual, but no longer. Instead, ritual is no longer constructed by brands but by consumers themselves. The strategic imperative for brands is to start rewarding consumers for new rituals. This strategic objective demands less dictation of the storyline and more collaboration in the scripting.
The same is true in the Middle East. Governments there will survive by enabling people to reconstruct their own rituals of allegiance, or they will not survive at all. Brands take heed.
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