This is my 100th column for Customerland. Coincidently it’s the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s first major book, In Our Time. A collection of his short stories. It’s worth a read. Hemingway’s book, I meant, but my column too. Mr. Hemingway’s writing style has been described as spare. Meant to be writing that revealed minimal detail on the surface, with deeper meaning hiding below. That was his domain. His ‘Lost Generation, minimalistic writing style continues to influence writers and is often emulated.
For more than a decade Harry’s Bar & American Grill in Los Angeles – named after the iconic Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy, Mr. Hemingway’s preferred watering hole – sponsored an annual International Imitation Hemingway Competition. Until it got too popular (they were getting more than 6,000 entries a year) and too expensive (the winning entrant won dinner for two at Harry’s Bar in Italy, plus round-trip air fare). So, the competition went to that big corrida in the sky. But not, thankfully, the Hemingway style.
Re-reading some Hemingway stories, admiring his concise, tight, prose, got me wondering how Mr. Hemingway might have treated brand loyalty (my domain) and the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, released in January. So, with apologies to “Papa” in advance, here’s my 100th column, an homage to him. And brand loyalty. 
The sun was setting over the city. Casting long shadows across the streets where people walked. The market was noisy. Full of vendors shouting, buyers bargaining, and the relentless hum of a world that never stopped. In the distance, the stores glowed with the neon signs of brands that had earned their place, brands that had learned what mattered. They had learned what made customers loyal. Not because of the price, not because of the product, but because of something deeper, something invisible that tied them to the brand. This was loyalty. This was engagement.
The Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index was the thing to understand. It was the map to the land of loyalty, where emotion ruled. The index, like an old sailor’s log, recorded the weather of the market — what worked, what didn’t, and where the wind was blowing. But this wasn’t just about numbers. It was about people. About the way they felt. About how they trusted a brand, how a certain logo could remind them of better days, of good things. It was more than a purchase — it was a bond, a promise made and kept.
The numbers on the report weren’t just cold digits. They were the pulse of the people. You could see, in the rows and columns, the brands that were weathering the storm. The ones that had earned their place in the hearts of customers. The ones that met expectations best. They had done more than sell a product — they had connected. They had stirred something inside their customers. They understood what customers wanted, what they feared, what they loved. And they gave it to them. Or as close as they could get.
The index was a guide, a compass in a world of noise. It told you where you stood, what you had to do to get ahead, and what mistakes to avoid. But it wasn’t just about learning from your mistakes. It was about seeing the world for what it was — a place full of people who needed more than just a product. More than awareness. They needed meaning. They needed to feel something. They needed something that delivered on their desires.
The great brands understood this. They didn’t just sell — they engaged. They didn’t just offer a service — they offered a part of themselves. And that was what a Brand Keys report gave you — the knowledge of how to build that connection. The kind of loyalty that doesn’t come from discounts or flashy ads, but from understanding what people really expect.
In the end, the market wasn’t just a place of competition — it was a place of understanding. The brands that understood the people won. They always did. The report was the key to that understanding, the thing that could open the door to something lasting. The key to loyalty was simple — it was about being real, about being part of someone’s life in a way that meant something.
And that was what the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index told you. It told you what you needed to know, how to do it right, and how to stay ahead.
Because in a world of noise, it’s the quiet connection that matters most.
Hemingway, genius-writer, boxer, big game hunter and sport fisherman, soldier of fortune, and raconteur won the Pulitzer for Fiction in 1953 and the Nobel Prize the next year. He left this world in 1961, thirty-four years before commercial websites appeared. Brand Keys has one. For more about loyalty, go there: www.brandkeys.com. It’s worth a read.
