Despite everything we know about the benefits of fostering customer loyalty, most of our marketing is designed to change what people think or do in the short term. We change the label from white to yellow to get a millisecond more attention. We offer discounts on product lines we want to shift and when we run out of reasons for people to buy, we invent them.

If you’re playing the long game you have to dig deeper and think about changing how people feel—not just about your brand, but about themselves in its presence. A beloved brand aspires to change how people feel, not only to manipulate what people think and do.

People come back because they feel like it, not because we made them.

Image by Baily Cheng.