Brand love combines engagement, loyalty and outstanding customer service into one incredibly powerful marketing strategy.
It’s based on building an emotional connection with your customers that goes beyond simply filling a need. Instead they form a deep and compelling connection with your brand.
Connecting with your customers is essential
Although most people like to think they make logical purchase decisions, the reality is that emotions play a big part. Purchases are often influenced by a brand’s values and how customers connect with them.
Making connections with others is intrinsic to human nature. Research by insights companies such as APCO Insights has shown that some consumers make connections with brands that are as deep as the relationships they have with other people.
If you can form close connections with your customers and turn them into loyal advocates, you’ll have an army of fans who are more than happy to recommend your products or services to others. And who doesn’t want that?
Where does brand love come from?
There’s an old saying that goes “You can’t make anyone love you without loving yourself first.” This is true for both people and brands.
To truly inspire brand love in your customers, you must first inspire brand love in your employees. And not just in your senior management or marketing teams, you need to inspire love in every employee whatever their role in your business.
Your employees are the physical embodiment of your brand. Whether, it’s on the phone, over email or in person, their behaviour will have the biggest impact on your customer’s perception of your brand and their relationship with it.
Happy, valued employees equals happy valued customers. So make sure you have the internal systems in place that help foster a positive, nurturing atmosphere for your workforce. This starts at the recruitment process and goes all the way through to remuneration and recognition systems.
Some examples of the best loved brands
Some brands, both global and home grown in New Zealand, consistently top polls for the most trusted and loved brands. To get you started on how you can inspire brand love, here’s some food for thought on a couple of well known and loved brands:
Apple – they consistently produce ground breaking products that people think will substantially improve their lives. Their products are technologically cutting edge and known for their ease of use and slick style. All of these factors combine to make Apple fans feel part of a group that is stylish and elite. Die hard Apple fans are known to purchase anything and everything that the company produces whether they need an upgrade or not.
Whittakers Chocolate – Whittakers is a home grown Kiwi success story, they’ve been voted the Colmar Brunton “New Zealand’s most love brand” 8 years in a row. They use a combination of high profile partnerships (e.g. Nigella Lawson and Tip Top), effective brand advertising and innovative new products (e.g. Garage Project chocolate beer and L&P chocolate) to build their brand equity with customers. New product releases are highly anticipated, trending on social media and making news reports.
Inspiring brand love and trust in your customers one of the best things you can do to build customer loyalty. Customers who love and trust your business will return time and time again, consistently choosing you over your competitors.
To sum up
If you would like help on your brand love journey, get in touch with us, our experts can solve the toughest brand challenges and get your business on the way to becoming one of New Zealand’s best loved brands. Or for more information on brand love, check out our blog on the 5 steps of the brand love journey.
This article was featured on BusinessPlus which is brought to you by the EMA. Visit BusinessPlus to get the latest New Zealand business news in HR, finance, technology and marketing.
