Charming Your Way into Their Hearts

Spring is here (so they say) which means only one thing.

Love is in the air.

Everyone knows the kind of consumer who is in love with their preferred brand. The folks who won’t drink any coffee if it’s not Starbucks or eat ketchup if it’s not Heinz. For many of us, our favourite products and services have become habits ingrained in their daily life, rather than mere brands.

Brands like Starbucks, Heinz, and let’s not forget Apple, have charmed their way into people’s hearts, so what is their secret? How, exactly, do you make your customers fall in love with your brand?

The following infographic will give you some insight into how this relationship is built between businesses and consumers, and some of the traits truly speak to how you treat that special someone in your personal life, in terms of listening, going the extra mile and open communication.

 

Did anything surprise you about the statistics you read above? How can you include emotional content in your brand? I look forward to your comments below!

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Why Your Brand Matters

Many businesses feel that “branding” is just a marketing term and that it really does not matter what your brand is as long as you can offer clients what they want.

I find this view ironic, as branding is exactly that: making sure you offer the client what they want. Branding is the step before you make an offer to a client.  It establishes an identity, stirs feelings and makes a connection between those feelings and that identity.  Whether B2B or B2C, your brand resides in the hearts and minds of customers and prospects.

As I’ve mentioned many times in the blog, your brand is much more than a trademark or slogan.

Making customers feel good about your product or service is the key to breaking through the cluttered marketplace of products and messages.

Branding helps customers build loyalty to your company and its offerings.

I have listed below what I feel are the top tips you’ll need to establish a strong brand:

1. Cut through your own clutter and everyone else’s
2. Improve the perception of “worth”
3. Position YOU as the preferred solution to a perceived need
4. Attract and retain customers to YOU

You might want to enlist the help of a third party, marketing expert to help you get a perspective on your brand’s worth, but if followed, once you know who you are, and what your value is to your customers, so too will they and that is when you can realize your brand’s true worth.

Do you feel branding is a bunch of bunk?  How do you communicate your company’s value to your customers without a brand?  Please share with me your thoughts on branding.  I look forward to igniting an interesting discussion.