Thinking BrandResiliency scaled

Fostering brand resiliency is paramount to maintaining success it today’s competitive marketplace. By focusing on Affinity, Loyalty, and Advocacy, brands can not only endure economic turbulence but also thrive in it.

To ensure sustained success, businesses must adopt resilience as both an opportunity and an imperative. This is not a practice exclusive to sales and marketing; brand resiliency is something that each business function should learn in order to build fortified resilience, making it an integral part of the organizational DNA. Shifting to long-term decision-making empowers businesses not only to minimize risks but also to unlock opportunities for enduring value.


Building brand resiliency as an everyday practice ensures brands are not only prepared for turbulent economic times but are ready for the next disruption with a continuity strategy to maintain customer loyalty and protect against any aftermath attributed to a crisis. It’s crucial to distinguish between business resilience and continuity, where the former prepares a business to anticipate risks, respond effectively, and secure long-term success.

Brand Resiliency > Uncertainty

Understanding Resilience: Brand resilience is key to navigating uncertain economic times and establishing a foundation for managing risk and redefining growth. But resilience goes far beyond weathering storms of uncertainty — it thrives amidst them. It’s about strengthening loyalty, cultivating genuine advocacy, and fortifying affinity to form a foundation for brand resilience. The key to enduring brand success is in the symbiotic balance of Affinity, Loyalty, and Advocacy.

Here’s a closer look at these three pillars in action.

1. Nurturing Affinity

Brands that cultivate genuine emotional connections with their customers often outperform competitors. An authentic approach that exceeds expectations can engender unprecedented brand loyalty. Consider every business function—from supply chain, business intelligence to training—as opportunities to differentiate your brand through behavior. During crises, customers frequently become brand ambassadors, choosing your product over alternatives. Prioritizing acts of appreciation and generosity proves essential in solidifying customer loyalty.

2. Promoting Loyalty

Loyal customers evolve into powerful advocates. Energize this loyalty: surpass simplistic metrics like Net Promoter Scores by actively promoting and rewarding advocacy assertively and generously. Dedicated customer engagement can encompass activities such as rewarding social media shares, thank you notes for product reviews or post-purchase follow-ups. Such actions cement brand loyalty and create a virtuous cycle of positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

3. Building Advocacy

Advocacy arises from genuine affinity, leading to passionate customers who amplify your brand voluntarily.  Fostering advocacy requires an understanding of the audience and their motivations. Brands can leverage social listening tools to identify key influencers and build relationships with them. By empowering advocates with exclusive content, sneak peeks, or early access to products, brands can further nurture their loyalty and strengthen brand resilience.

In times of economic hardship, strategic efforts aimed at growing Affinity, Loyalty, and Advocacy become critical for brand resilience. Brands that authentically connect with customers, demonstrate unwavering support, and foster passionate advocacy not only survive but thrive. 

Mastering this resilience formula is crucial for brands aiming to lead.

Emphasizing Value in the Price-Value Equation

In business, helping customers to focus on the value of a product or service over the price they paid for it is key. And in times of economic downturns, where shoppers are scrutinizing every penny they spend, this is especially important. There are some critical aspects regarding the interplay between price and value designed to help brands not only weather tough times, but to emerge stronger than ever. Here is a deeper look at strategies to help you build a resilient brand.

The Balanced Model Prevails

In stable economic conditions, the balanced price-value model prevails, creating a harmonious interplay between cost and benefit. “Good value” finds its place on the curve, ensuring that customer expectations align with the perceived value of a product or service. Maintaining this equilibrium is a foundational element for sustained success.

The balanced price-value model is one that is sustainable in normal economic times. “Good value” sits on the curve and “What I pay” and “What I get” are in equilibrium.

When brands face the risk of value imbalance, some may be tempted to ask customers to pay more for the same item or service or offer less for the same price. However, the long-term implications of creating a price-value imbalance can be considerable.

Shrinkflation: The Pitfall of Value Diminishment

Amid economic challenges, brands must avoid practices that diminish perceived value, such as “shrinkflation”—reducing product size or quantity while maintaining the same price. This tactic can severely impair the customer experience by removing critical aspects of value. Maintaining product integrity and delivering clear value are imperative to avoid the pitfalls of shrinkflation.

Value Reciprocity and Brand Affinity

The reality is, customers rarely expect something for truly nothing. They respect that there’s a win-win to a balanced equation. 

Authenticity in generosity elevates brand affinity. Offers should be uniquely helpful to customers, based on past insights and current products, aiming to foster enduring loyalty. Demonstrating authentic reciprocity signals a commitment to mutual success, fundamentally altering the value conversation in favor of the brand.

Emphasizing Value

Where would your brand be plotted on the price-value model? Ask yourself: How does your brand deliver value to customers beyond the sticker price?

To resonate in challenging economies, brands must emphasize value in the price-value model. The risk of neglecting this equilibrium is a brand that fails to show up when customers need it the most and highest propensity to notice you making a positive difference in the competitive set. Actively managing the price-value equation is key to long-term customer stickiness.

The most resilient brands are those that actively manage the price-value equation.

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The price-value equilibrium tool set is robust – from customer loyalty evolution to competitive pricing to sales monitoring. Wondering how your brand might do it better? Let Moontide dig into it with you. Your brand will be more resilient for it.