Loyalty Isn’t Dead. You’re Just Chasing the Wrong Kind.

What Mary Portas Taught Me About Loyalty

I used to obsess over subscriber numbers.

Open rates. Retention curves. The dreaded unsubscribes.
I thought if I just delivered enough value, stayed consistent, and gave people what they wanted, they’d stick around.

But they didn’t.
Not always. Not predictably.

And that used to really sting.

Until I realised this:
👉 I was chasing the wrong kind of loyalty.

What Mary Portas Taught Me About Loyalty

Mary Portas talks a lot about the Kindness Economy—and in one of her recent videos, she said something that stopped me cold:

“Beware of lazy loyalty. It does more damage than good.”

And suddenly, so much made sense.

That ache when a subscriber leaves after a freebie.
The energy drain of over-giving to people who were never really committed.
The guilt I felt for not “retaining” everyone.

Lazy loyalty feels like success—until it doesn’t.

Because when it snaps, it snaps hard. And it always takes your confidence with it.

We Don’t Need Loyalty Programs. We Need Loyalty Principles.