Welcome to the supply chain, your marketing strategy

A few weeks ago my friend Carol DeVito told me that right now, the supply chain is marketing. That might sound unusual if you’re busy working on your content marketing or social media strategy, but nothing is impacting brand loyalty right now as much as product and labor shortages.

“Companies are struggling to keep products on the shelves,” she said. “They are reducing SKUs and putting off new product launches.”

By all measures, the supply chain disruptions that were exacerbated by the pandemic still persist, especially now that several China cities are in covid lock-down again.

This problem has gone on long enough now that it is starting to impact brand loyalty.

About a year ago, I predicted that this steep decline in customer experience would be the number one issue facing marketers, and now the numbers show this is true. A Brand Keys study found that consumers are in a “recession of brand loyalty.” It found that 38 percent of the categories it analyzed have already seen consumer brand loyalty begin to recede due to service issues.

Among the categories experiencing a recession in brand loyalty are ones tied to economics and/or supply chain issues:

• Airlines
• Appliances