Customer loyalty is one of the most important marketing concepts jewelry marketers can address in 2010. As a marketing concept, customer loyalty is the totality of customer attitudes, feelings and behaviors that incline a customer to be committed to repeat purchasing jewelry products or services from the same jewelry company or brand. Customer loyalty is critical to the business success and profitability of every jewelry business. The objective of jewelry marketers is to increase the loyalty of customers and stakeholders in support of exceeding financial and marketing and sales objectives. Improved customer loyalty increases customer retention. In fact, only a 5 % increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profitability of 25% and more. Understanding which customers to target for retention is an example of business intelligence. Increased customer loyalty has a direct relationship to improved profits. Loyal jewelry customers tend to refer their favorite jewelry stores and brands more often to their family and friends. Gaining referrals through loyal customers is one of the most effective forms of marketing today.These recently reported statics displays the importance of customer loyalty:
š75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. (Yankelovich)
š75% of women say ads on social networks don’t encourage them to purchase (Media Post News, September 2009)
šThe average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers. (John Moore, WOMMA, 2010)
š90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)

Designing marketing strategies and creating added value services that increase customer loyalty are keys to success in 2010. Today, marketing strategies need to be reviewed one customer at a time. Analyzing customers’ relationship costs with revenue can demonstrate which customers should be targeted for loyalty programs.

JCK