Do you think the natural human desire for joy, trust, anticipation, and surprise can be associated with a brand? What happens with a consumer has a strong emotion like love towards a brand? Do brands work towards generating positive emotions, and if yes, how? I will try to explain here with examples of how you can understand emotions for your brand and use it for brand building.
According to Entrepreneur magazine, branding is “The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.” In Emotional Branding, we try to create a strong emotional connection with the target market; as time passes, it gets more intense.
According to Psychologists, “First impressions form in less than a second.” Though we all consider ourselves modern human beings of the 21st century, most of our decisions are taken by the same ancient instinctive way of our subconscious. This does not mean that the quality of our decision is lowered. It means we still follow our heart and gut feeling in decision making most of the time.
Here are some examples of businesses that use Emotional Branding as one of their key elements of customer loyalty.
APPLE
Steve Jobs had pioneered the branding strategy at Apple by connecting to the people. He capitalized on the power of anticipation and desire to be part of something bigger. Instead of doing press releases, he created launch events for new releases, which his successors follow to the date. When we think about Apple, we think of a brand that is adventurous and innovating, and to this date, we wait in anticipation to know about the latest model of the iPhone. Even if sometimes Samsung has rolled down that feature before Apple, Samsung doesn’t get that much attention compared to Apple.
BMW
BMW has created a lifestyle brand by connecting to its customers on different emotions. BMW connects with people with the emotions of security and satisfaction. They have branded themselves as they don’t just build cars, but they build Lifestyles.
NIKE
The tag line of NIKE is “Just Do It.” Nike builds relationships with its customer by encouraging them to get past any barrier, build confidence, and be fit to achieve greatness in day-to-day life. Nike connects with its customer on the emotion of joy, thrill, and adventure. It has moved on from being just a fitness brand but a symbol of achieving great things.
For businesses struggling to create a loyal customer base should understand the emotional satisfaction the base is looking for and try to see if the brand’s core value aligns with those emotions. Then with carefully crafted marketing communications, try to instill those feelings in the target market—all for the most coveted prize of customer’s heart share.
Also read this to understand how creating brand persona can help in branding.