Brands are pouring resources into relationship marketing, but loyalty remains elusive. Personalization, seamless omnichannel experiences, and trust are essential, yet even the top-performing brands in the latest Marigold Brand Rankings Report struggle to turn engagement into lasting brand loyalty.
What is causing this disconnect? The overlooked blind spots in the data tell a deeper story—one that could define competitive advantage in 2025.
Key Takeaways from the Report
The Marigold report highlights four critical pillars of relationship marketing:
Personalization – Consumers demand tailored experiences, yet 40% are frustrated by irrelevant content.
Omnichannel Experiences – Seamless engagement across platforms is expected, but only 24% of consumers say digital consistency matters more than price.
Trust – Consumers want confidence in how brands handle data, but only 49% feel comfortable with their favorite brand’s data usage.
Loyalty – Nearly seven in ten consumers will pay more for brands they are loyal to, yet 37% switched brands last year due to dissatisfaction.
Brands that dominate relationship marketing are optimizing personalization, rewarding loyalty, and creating seamless omnichannel engagement. However, several blind spots remain unaddressed but more on that later.
Trust vs. Loyalty: Understanding Brand Positioning
This scatter plot below visualizes the relationship between trust and loyalty for the top 50 brands. The x-axis represents trust, while the y-axis represents loyalty. The red dashed lines mark the average scores for trust and loyalty, dividing the chart into four quadrants that categorize brands based on their positioning relative to these averages.
(Note: The scatter plot isn’t a part of the report, but I used their data to visualize just the top 50 brands)
Strong Relationship Brands (Top-Right: High Trust, High Loyalty)
Brands in this quadrant, including Sam’s Club, CVS Pharmacy, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Boots, have built strong customer relationships over the years. These brands are trusted and enjoy high loyalty, meaning consumers actively engage and return to them.
Habit-Driven or Price-Based Loyalty (Top-Left: Low Trust, High Loyalty)
Brands like McDonald’s, Texas Roadhouse, and Chick-fil-A score high in loyalty despite having lower trust levels. Their consumers may return frequently out of habit, convenience, affordability, or strong emotional branding. Still, underlying trust concerns could be a vulnerability,
Trusted but Less Engaged Customers (Bottom-Right: High Trust, Low Loyalty)
Financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, and retailers like John Lewis fall into this category. These brands have earned consumer trust, but they struggle with frequent engagement, possibly due to the nature of their industry or increased competition. The challenge here is converting trust into repeat interactions (and sales) and deeper consumer relationships.
Brands such as Specsavers, H&M, In-N-Out, and BJ’s Wholesale Club sit in the most vulnerable quadrant. These companies face trust and loyalty issues, suggesting weak differentiation, inconsistent experiences, or reputational concerns. Scratching my head at In-N-Out, though, given that their drive-through lines are always around the block. Improving their positioning requires addressing brand perception, strengthening engagement, and refining customer experience strategies.
Blind Spots and Emerging Trends That Brands Must Address
1. The Personalization Gap Is Growing Wider
Brands are collecting vast amounts of customer data, yet nearly half of consumers feel they are receiving irrelevant content. Consumers expect more than their names in an email or a generic product recommendation.
Blind Spot: Many brands focus on behavioral data (past purchases, browsing history) but ignore emotional and contextual data like moods, motivations, and real-time intent. This is how relevance is achieved.
Strategic Insight: Brands must integrate zero-party data strategies, where consumers willingly share their interests, needs, and preferences in exchange for better experiences. Interactive quizzes, preference centers, AI-driven predictive personalization, and even social listening can help close the gap.
2. The Loyalty Illusion: More Consumers Are Leaving Than Staying
The report emphasizes that loyal consumers spend more, but it also reveals that over a third of customers switched brands last year. This contradiction signals that loyalty programs alone are not enough.
Blind Spot: Many loyalty programs reward transactions but fail to build emotional connections. Discounts and points are expected and appreciated when the economy is struggling but do not create true brand advocacy.
Strategic Insight: Gamification, surprise-and-delight strategies, and community-building initiatives (VIP forums, exclusive behind-the-scenes content) can turn passive customers into brand advocates. Perhaps shifting creator marketing budgets to advocacy programs would be a good move.
3. Trust Issues: Consumers Are More Skeptical Than Ever
Trust is critical in all relationships, and that includes marketing. However, only 49% of consumers feel their favorite brands use their data responsibly. With privacy concerns growing, brands must go beyond compliance and proactively build consumer confidence.
Blind Spot: Transparency efforts often come after data collection rather than before it. Many brands fail to make data-sharing benefits clear to consumers. This blind spot is particularly important for Gen Z audiences as they expect transparency from the brands they buy from.
Strategic Insight: Brands should adopt a transparency-first approach, using clear, real-time explanations of how consumer data improves their experience. A “privacy dashboard” that controls users’ data preferences can be a game-changer.
4. The Rise of Transactional Omnichannel Experiences
Consumers expect seamless cross-channel engagement, but many brands treat omnichannel as a sales funnel rather than a relationship-building tool.
Blind Spot: Most omnichannel experiences are transactional, focused on pushing conversions rather than fostering engagement. Consumers do not just want convenience—they want meaningful and memorable interactions.
Strategic Insight: Brands should blend commerce with content, integrating educational and interactive experiences across platforms. This means in-app livestream shopping, AI-powered style guides, and interactive customer service tools. The brands that turn omnichannel into an immersive experience will win in 2025.
5. The Neglected Power of Community-Driven Engagement
The report focuses on personalization and omnichannel strategies but overlooks community-driven engagement—one of the biggest drivers of modern consumer behavior.
Blind Spot: Most brands focus on one-to-one personalization but ignore peer-to-peer influence. Consumers trust recommendations from like-minded communities more than from brands themselves. Belonging to communities is a part of humanity and brands should not forget that.
Strategic Insight: Building brand-owned communities through forums, loyalty clubs, and social media groups fosters a deeper connection. Brands like Nike and Sephora have leveraged community-driven strategies to increase engagement and advocacy without relying solely on traditional marketing.
Final Thought: The Brands That Solve These Gaps Will Win
The Marigold report confirms what many marketers already know—personalization, omnichannel experiences, trust, and loyalty drive success. But the deeper challenge is in execution.
Consumers demand deeper personalization, emotional loyalty, proactive trust-building, immersive omnichannel experiences, and stronger community connections. The brands that go beyond transactional engagement and focus on human connections will lead the future of relationship marketing.
I’m a digital OG, but I’m always evolving. Battle-tested, but never complacent. Mamba mentality, every day. I believe that data-driven marketing and communications don’t just drive business results—they build real connections, increase customer lifetime value, and turn brands into something people genuinely care about. And the truth is simple: if you love your customers, they’ll love you back—and they’ll bring others with them. Learn more about me here, or connect with me on LinkedIn, Substack, or Twitter.
