Utilizing Brand Loyalty | Case Study: Machine Shop Marketing

I recently made a purchase I was VERY happy with. On September 14th, Linkin Park dropped its newest album, A Thousand Suns. In a world where I could have easily downloaded the track list off the internet and burnt myself a copy of the CD, I decided to spend my hard-earned cash to buy the actual album. Why you might ask, here’s why:

The available versions of Linkin Parks, A Thousand Suns on sale now include:

• A CD with enhanced features
• A well put together album art booklet
• Some packages include an album exclusive T-Shirt
• Some packages include an enhanced DVD
• Information about the Linkin Park Underground Fan club

The entire buying experience is rewarded with all the little extras you find as you explore your purchase. The pitch worked! I visited their website in a matter of hours, and signed up to receive email updates about a variety of things involving the band, and I’ve promoted the album twice by wearing my t-shirt.

One of the factors Linkin Park’s huge success is the firm they utilize to build hype and launch products for them, Machine Shop Marketing. Machine Shop Marketing is unlike most marketing firms out there, mainly in how they define success. In a case study explanation on their site, they describe their objectives when it came to Linkin Park Social Networking as: “To build a huge united online community for Linkin Park utilizing online social platforms.” Is the word huge in any of your success descriptions?

The team at M.S.M. realizes that in order to build the type of relationship that ends in a purchase is to build a close personal bond between their customers and their customers audience. In the case of Linkin Park, it was their fans engaging with the band online via social networks. In the case of the movie Zombieland, Machine Shop took a personal interaction angle. They organized massive “Zombiewalks” in 5 major cities to drive movie goers into theaters during opening week. The result, Zombieland opened at #1!

Bottom line, Machine Shop Marketing knows how to create a hit. Because they know that building a strong personal connection between their clients and consumers is more important than blindly stabbing at the masses through more conventional methods of marketing.

What do you do to invoke then utilize brand loyalty?