How do you build customer loyalty? Give them Fruity Pebbles.

I recently finished Jeff Benedict's biography on Lebron James. It's full of insights into Lebron and the path he's followed to massive success both in basketball, in business, and in his personal life.

One of the stories that stuck out to me was his shoe contract. Initially, three of the big boy companies courted him: Reebok, Adidas, and Nike. Reebok met with him first, offering him an ungodly amount of money. In their meeting, the suits from Reebok even slid across the table a check to Lebron for $10 million. We're talking about when Lebron wasn't even playing in the NBA.

TEN. MILLION. DOLLARS. In one check. All he had to do to get it? Sign the deal.

But Lebron wasn't so trigger-happy. He knew others were waiting to meet with him. So he sat down next with Adidas who was tied closely with former Nike legend Sonny Vaccaro. Sonny expected Adidas to come with big dollars. And they did. Just not as much as Reebok. On top of that, Adidas placed stipulations on some of the money. Lebron would have to meet certain performance metrics to get all of it. Lebron was disappointed, though how down can anyone really get being offering tens of millions of dollars in a seven-year contract?

The third and final meeting was with Nike. The company featuring legendary athletes like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.

All three shoe giants built impressive campaigns centered around Lebron. They each wanted him to be the face of their basketball marketing. But Nike pulled out one interesting move: they put boxes of Fruity Pebbles on the table at the meeting.

Why? Nike had done its homework and they knew Lebron's favorite cereal was Fruity Pebbles.

Lebron was impressed. Nike wasn't offering as much guaranteed money as Reebok. But the touch of connecting with Lebron's personal side mattered. Of course the fact Nike was tied to some other big-name players didn't hurt. And I doubt anyone would say that rolling out a kid's cereal was the ultimate factor in Nike signing Lebron. But it's unquestionably something that he won't forget.

What does any of this have to do with what you and I do?

When we connect with people, especially in a business sense, it's often transactional. And that's fine. That's part of how things work. I give you money, you give me a product. You give me money, I provide a service. So on and so forth.

But the Nike/Fruity Pebbles example shows the possibilities of connecting with customers on a deeper level. It's one thing to sell a feature of your product. It's another thing to care enough about the customer to connect to a world that may not directly benefit you.

What's difficult about this is knowing what your customer's Fruity Pebbles is. In our increasingly remote world, casual conversations seem less frequent. We aren't dealing with celebrities who have likes and dislikes to uncover via a simple Google search. It takes some effort to uncover what they love. It takes pointed questions. It takes reading context clues and subtleties.

But I'd argue it's worth it. We'll remember the way businesses treated us long after their service/product is gone. And when we take an interest in customers personal likes/dislikes, we take an interest in them as people. And we all want to be treated as people, right? We're not just numbers. We're not just financial transactions.

So find out what their Fruity Pebbles is. Find out what makes them smile. What makes them laugh. Build a connection outside of the business transaction and, in turn, create loyalty.