Deep Emotional Connections – Part II
Realizing you need to drive deep emotional connections with your consumers is the easy part; HOW you drive deep emotional connections is a bit more challenging. I just read a Forrester Research study that said 89% of respondents felt no personal connection to the brands they buy.
What? Really? Is there so much status quo marketing out there that consumers buy products they don’t feel emotionally connected with? Doesn’t that mean that most brands have a HUGE opportunity to steal market share? Any one remember what Apple did to Blackberry?
So, how do you make sure your brand doesn’t become status quo or even worse, obsolete? You gotta get emotional! Emotional in your focus on your consumer and their needs. You must have a customer first mentality and drive all decisions and communications on making them happy when they think about your products. You have to show them your value and build an experience that clearly shows your product’s superiority and make sure its memorable.
Consumers are going to use rational and emotional thinking when making buying decisions and the tie breaker is always emotional. You must ask yourself questions like: What pain does your brand solve? What value does it have to its user? Does it save time, money or energy? How does it make their lives easier?
Consistent communication by telling your story is key here and you want your consumer to think you are only talking to them. Figure out (by asking) what connection keeps your customers coming back; ask what makes you different and listen for the emotional triggers as well as the rational ones and your goal here is to get to their heart, not their head. You are looking for that wow that connects your brand to them emotionally.
We’ve seen a lot of deep emotional connections in our years as experiential marketing specialists. We’ve experienced consumer brand tattoos on our Bosch Mobile Marketing Tour, people dressing up as Spiderman at our Sony Spiderman movie tour at Wal-Mart and an entire Duck Tape® Festival with 40,000 attendees dressed up, decorated and everything else you can believe for our client Duck Tape®.
Create the wow, make your brand memorable and focus 100% on your customer and his needs and you will be on your way to building that deep emotional connection that leads to lifelong relationships.
photo credit: A Very Excited Puppy via photopin (license)
original version of this article published on Feb. 6, 2014.