Tag: brand marketing

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Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

Branding Psychology Insights: How Consumers REALLY View Your Brand

If you read Brand Strategy: How To Fuel Consumer Motivation, then you’re well aware of the fact that consumers don’t buy the product, the service, or even the brand… they are buying the end result. They are buying the benefits and solutions.

The end result, the solutions, and the benefits are essentially feelings that humans desire on the deepest level – joy, fullness, satisfaction, happiness, confidence, acceptance, etc. Anything we really do, anything we pursue, we do it to experience some form of these positive feelings.

If we were to boil down brand marketing to the core…

It’s how well you can associate your brand, in the mind of your consumer, as being the BRIDGE to the end result they want.

Your brand is the face of the product or service that’s going to get them to those feelings. Just like we have physical bodies, made up of our inner biology which is capable of accomplishing many things… Our physical appearance, the way we present ourselves, our name, our tone and communication style… all of these are elements of our personal brand.

How well people associate your name with how well you can do something for them, is the strength of your personal brand. 

It’s not about amazing your service is. You could be the best lawyer in the world, but if you haven’t built your personal brand and no one can look at you and instantly become aware of their desired end result, then you’re depriving not only yourself of business, but also the world of your true capabilities.

The lawyer is the bridge to the settlement. It’s a painful bridge to cross for most people – one that costs money and time… and the experience to the end result is never really pleasant either. So in law firm marketing, the main focus is usually on the end result… never on the experience getting there – “We will win your case”.. etc.

So what does this REALLY mean for brand marketing?

In between your consumer and their desired end result, is a bridge. Your product or service is that bridge. Your brand is the promise of how quickly/effectively/inexpensively/pleasantly (depends on consumer needs)… will your consumer get to the end result. If they care about safety, your brand represents a safe passage to their end result.

If your consumer could have it their way, they would eliminate that bridge and get their desired end result INSTANTLY. Which makes sense. We all want instant gratification – for everything! We don’t like things out of our control – like spending time to get what we want and having to walk across those bridges. We view them as obstacles. Things that aren’t avoidable. Things that separate us from what we want.

Key Insight: Your product is your customer’s obstacle.

That might be difficult to digest. No matter how much you think your brand or your product is special because it does so much for your customer – it’s still the obstacle that the customer has to get around to get what they want. It’s a hassle.

Your consumer has to actually pay money for it. They have to give up their time as well, to cross that bridge. I’ve met a lot of brand and business owners who have grown to be so attached to their product or service that they associate their own sense of pride with it. It no longer becomes about finding the customer… it becomes about ‘the customer will find our product because it’s clearly amazing, and if they don’t want it, then that’s unfortunate for them’.

That’s probably the main reason why us brand consultants get clients. It’s because we don’t have any attachment to our clients’ business or their brand, so we see everything from a third person perspective, from the consumer’s perspective, and we strategize and advise accordingly.

If you could see the consumer’s perspective, marketing strategy would come naturally and logically. You wouldn’t need to hire consultants. Sharing that insight is probably not  in my best interest… but regardless, why is this concept extremely important for you to realize?!

Well once you understand the idea that your product isn’t this amazing gift to your consumer, that it’s actually an obstacle, NOW you can be much more strategic when you try to market it and present it in a way that your consumer will find appealing… because now you’re seeing THEIR perspective.

Now you’re in their mind with them. You can build a connection. You now have the ability to be their friend, not a salesperson. If you read Marketing Persuasion Strategy: The Deep Psychology of Consumer Persuasion, then you know that consumer’s don’t want to be sold, they want to buy. Friends shop together, they encourage each other to buy things that are GOOD for them, that will make them happy. They even ask each other’s opinion. Imagine the strength of your relationship with your consumer, if they’re asking YOUR opinion on what to buy.

Well the first step to building a strong brand-consumer relationship is realizing how your audience views your product. The next step is positioning your brand to be completely synonymous with the end result. If you have a bridge in front of you and can’t even see your destination, how likely would you be to cross it?

And you need to remember that consumers do have one thing in their control… and that’s the ability to choose from different OPTIONS. 

Enter brand competition.

We buy cars to take us places. Our goal isn’t the car… it’s the destinations the car will take us to. If we had the option of teleportation, we would happily choose it and never drive again. But since teleportation is not a current option, we need cars (the bridges to our goal).

The best thing we can do is hope that crossing the bridge will be a pleasant experience in itself.  We look for what can be the best in-car experience. That experience itself, can be a selling factor. So different car brands sell different experiences while driving. They target different feelings. Volvo targets the feeling of safety. Mercedes targets the feeling of prestige.

Something to think about: Knowing that your product is the obstacle, the bridge, to your consumer’s end result… what would define the best ‘bridge-crossing’ experience? What would define the most desired products or services?

I think the ultimate definition, the ultimate strategy, is that if you can create an experience for your consumer that is so pleasing as they travel to their end result… that your consumer actually FORGETS about the end result because they’re lost in the experience… that’s when you can quickly and easily rise to market leadership.

Make them want the experience of crossing the bridge, MORE than they want the end result it gives them. Make the end result a BONUS. Who really cares about the destination when they’re driving a Lamborghini? Who really cares about the health benefits of getting relevant vitamins when they’re chewing on a tasty gummy multi-vitamin candy?

Two rules:

1) Make your brand synonymous with the end result

2) Make the experience of your product or service (crossing the bridge) more appealing that (or just as appealing as) the end result

You have a sure winner if you employ both rules – but that’s not always possible. It depends on a lot of factors. BUT you can always employ one of them. Most companies employ can only employ one.

Eating at McDonald’s is about the experience, not the end result. The end result usually leaves most people feeling guilty. Same with drinking Coke, it’s about the experience. Drinking Diet Coke however, is about the experience, but it’s also positioned in a way that ‘it’s not that bad… don’t feel guilty… because it’s diet Coke!’.

Sometimes real-estate agents aren’t able to guarantee that their clients will get the house of their dreams, but if the clients know that the real-estate agent’s service is extremely pleasant and that he or she will try their best, etc…. if their clients know the experience dealing with the agent will be a comfortable process… that’s enough for the clients to give the agent their business. But what if the agent has a successful history and can promise the client what they want, PLUS promise a pleasant experience as they work together? How easy would it be for the agent to build his or her brand? Others would actually build it for them.

I started writing this post to explain the psychology behind how consumers view obstacles and what that means for your brand marketing strategy – but it took a little turn.  In the next post you’ll learn 2 ways consumer’s react to obstacles and how by knowing this, you can be sure to INSTANTLY and significantly prevent a reduction in brand equity.

More importantly, you will learn how to leverage human psychology to build a brand that lives in your consumer’s mind… because that’s what Brand Marketing Psychology is all about.

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Advertising Brand Differentiation Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

Marketing Persuasion Strategy: The Deep Psychology of Consumer Persuasion

Most people are convinced that marketing and selling is all about persuasion. It’s unfortunate however, the fact that ‘persuasion’ has such a negative stigma attached to it. We all want to avoid being persuaded. We run from sales people. Consumers run from advertisements. We change the channel when an ad comes on because those ads were created to ‘persuade’ us.

So why do we run from being persuaded? Because it gets our guard up…

If somehow we do end up being persuaded, we have this fear that something will be taken from us. Company’s take our money. Sales people take our money. We don’t say we gave them our money, but they ‘took’ it. No one thinks about what they receive in return for their money. They focus on what they lost. Human beings are twice as more affected by the loss of something than they are by gaining something.

In any situation where something is about to be taken or is being taken from us, our guard goes up. Our inner defense system is triggered. Do you really want to trigger your consumer’s defense system? Obviously not. Unfortunately, a lot of companies lack the knowledge of leveraging consumer persuasion principles in marketing their product or service. This results in detrimental impact on the brand image because once a prospective customer’s guard is up, that’s an entire new barrier to converting them into an actual paying customer.

People will always be happy to spend. How much fun do you have when you’re out shopping for yourself – buying something that will essentially, in some way, make you feel better? Is buying something you want fun or not fun?

When we buy, we’re getting. When we’re being sold or persuaded, something is being taken from us.

Key Insight: Consumers love to buy, but hate to be sold.

A lot of marketing professionals will recall that insight. They must have heard it somewhere – perhaps in business school. So most marketers after reading that, will think they “already knew that”. Perhaps you did, but now you know the psychology behind why it works – and you’re about to see how deep that psychology can get in truly persuading your consumer.

Everyone has knowledge of a tree’s existence and everyone understands all the benefits that trees provide – but only once you understand and get to the roots of how a tree gets planted, that’s when you can really make some change and have the most impact on the environment. Knowing that consumer’s love to buy but hate to be sold, here are 3 applications every strategic brand marketer would make in their marketing campaigns:

1) Strategic brand marketers strive to create a ‘positive-feeling’ experience for their consumer before, during, and after their purchase of the product/service.

What does ‘positive-feeling’ really mean? Ideally, if you can get them to feel the benefit of using the product/service at any point before, during, or after their purchase, then you’re on-point. The earlier the better.

When you watch a trailer for a movie, the strategic trailers will make you feel the thrill and excitement of what it could be like to actually watch the whole movie. In that instant, you become a customer.

2) Strategic brand marketers tip the scale to the ‘I’m getting’ side as opposed to the ‘I’m giving’ side, in the mind of the consumer. 

They will position their product or service in a way that will convince the consumer that they are getting more value in return for the money that they’re spending.

Of course, that actually means to strive to make your product or service live up to that value, if you ever want them to trust you again.

3) Strategic brand marketers help consumers realize and truly feel like they are investing in themselves when they put their trust in a brand – enough trust to buy whatever that brand offers.

Side Note: The principles that Brand Marketing Psychology highlights can be used to unethically leverage the deep psychology of human behavior for the primary intention where you don’t have your consumer’s best interest in mind. It is my intention and hope that only those individuals who are committed to the greater development of their consumer’s life in some way, shape, or form, will benefit from this website… because at the end of the day, and you will realize this if you haven’t already, you can only truly win if your consumer wins.

Deeper Into the Psychology of Consumer Persuasion:

As much as we will hate to recognize this, persuasion happens on an unconscious level.

You can be persuaded without even being consciously aware of it… and so can your consumers.

Persuasion is the science of being influenced to take some action.

And to take action, you need to make the decision to do it. It all starts with making the decision to do something.

PERSUASION = DECISION –> ACTION

So wait, is persuasion just about influencing the decision to take action? Aren’t decisions made consciously?

I know I’m aware of ALL the decisions I make. I’m sure you are too. When was the last time you made a decision without knowing you’re making that decision? So if decisions must be conscious, how can persuasion be unconscious?

Something doesn’t add up here…

The reality is… decisions are also made unconsciously. We just have the illusion that we make every decision with our conscious mind.

In 2008, Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences conducted an experiment that revealed that decisions are made at least 7 seconds before we are consciously aware of it, by the unconscious brain.

“Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done.” – co-author John Dylan Haynes, neuroscientist at Max Planck.

The paper that discusses the experiment is called “Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain”. You can read it here.

Our unconscious mind is more powerful than we think. It can control our decisions. It can control our consumer’s decisions.

“The impression that we are able to freely choose between different possible courses of action is fundamental to our mental life. However, it has been suggested that this subjective experience of freedom is no more than an illusion and that our actions are initiated by unconscious mental processes long before we become of our intention to act.”

The New Age gurus of the world have constantly been talking about how we’re all “asleep” and how we need to “wake up”. I believe this is what they are talking about – the idea that we lack awareness. Awareness of how we truly work as humans.  That we make decisions without even knowing about it. That we’re basically robots…. and the thing with robots, is that they do everything mechanically.

Everything is routine. Everything in the life of the average individual, especially one living in the Western society, is routine. As humans, we are creatures of habit.

The unfortunate part is that we all think that we make decisions consciously. That we live our life with change and excitement. But even the excitement is routine!

We don’t look at the bigger picture. Going to the movies every Tuesday is not variety and doing something different, it’s routine. Going on a yearly vacation is routine.

We lack awareness, and that means our consumers lack awareness. Without awareness, our decisions are irrational.

This is where consumer irrationality comes from. People who study behavioural economics are realizing this more and more. New books about being ‘irrational’ and consumer irrationality are constantly being released.

You will notice from the majority of my posts that I constantly highlight irrational consumer choices and motivations.

Your Brand Marketing Psychology Strategy:

When it comes to the science of persuasion for us brand marketers, consumer irrationality is where all our power comes from.

The irrational mind is the leverage point for every marketer looking to persuade.

So how can your brand persuade your consumers that they’re actually buying and not being sold, by appealing to their irrational mind?  And then triggering the decision which motivates them to take action in favour of your brand?

There is one trigger of the decision to take action, that is stronger than anything else – and that is emotion.

We only act after we have felt. Emotions always come before action.

And if there is one thing we can be certain about, it’s that emotions rise from great irrationality. How? Let’s consider what triggers emotions – our thoughts and beliefs.

Sometimes it’s our logical thoughts and beliefs. However, usually it’s our imagination.

Imagination allows us to be in the sensory surrounding of what we want so we react as if it’s actually taking place. Combine this with the tendency of thinking of the worst case scenario… and you have extreme negative emotions that make no sense.

For example, often times when someone wants to try a new hobby, all they can imagine is themselves failing miserably at it or making a fool of themselves. They feel embarrassment, fear, anxiety, worry, and discouragement, even before they begin. What action does this trigger? The action to not even try the new hobby in the first place.

Before you drink that cold bottle of coke or eat that 1000-caloried heated up chocolate chip cookie, you can literally taste it in your mind through your imagination. The moment you’ve tasted it in your mind, there is no stopping you. We’ve all felt that. That craving to have it more than anything else. No rational explanation would be likely to stop you if you’ve imagined it enough.

This is a prime example of consumer irrationality. This is why everywhere you go, visuals of food are thrown at you from all directions – food companies have realized that if they do it repeatedly, it works, because sooner or later you’re going to be imagining having that angelically-evil chocolate chip cookie.

Make your consumer imagine with complete vividness, as best as you can, what embracing your brand will allow them to have. Nike does this beautifully. Same with Axe.

Imagination is the root of successful emotional branding. It is a major key in consumer persuasion. And now that you understand the  major elements in the deep psychology of consumer persuasion, leverage these insights to create a powerful, dominant, and demand-shifting brand that lives in your consumer’s mind…  because that’s our vision for your brand at Brand Marketing Psychology.com.

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Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Marketing Psychology Secrets: Building Brand-Consumer Relationships

One of the best known theories of motivation in psychology is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The hierarchy of needs is organized in a way where the most basic of needs are placed at the bottom and the more complex ones at the peak.

The Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid

hierarchy-of-needs
What I find most interesting about this theory of motivation is that its evidence is clearly reflected in our current lives as humans and as a society.

If you look at the bottom 3 most basic needs, we have physiological needs which are rooted in survival, safety needs which are rooted in security, and love/belonging needs which are rooted in social connection.

In business market terminology, these needs are:

  1. The ‘Health/Well-Being’ Market (physiological)
  2. The ‘Career/Wealth/Business’ Market (safety, security)
  3. The ‘Dating/Relationships’ Market (love/belonging/connection)

It’s no surprise that these 3 categories are responsible for over 80% of sales that take place online. When people are lacking in ANY one of these three basic needs, the mind is unable to really focus on anything else. The pain, urgency, and irrational passion to find a solution to the lacking need is the driving force behind many consumer decisions. It takes priority over anything else.

The order makes a lot of sense – Health & Wellness is the first most essential need because without food, an able body, a working mind, we are incapable of doing anything else or even considering any other need. That needs to be taken care of first. Career & Wealth is second because once we have our health, we need to maintain and ensure our continuous survival through having the security of a home, consistent food and water, etc. In today’s world, security means a source of income which enables us to maintain continuous growth in our life. Third is Relationship because once we have those basic needs covered, we automatically look to connecting with others, looking past ourselves, realizing the joy and growth that being part of a society, having friends, and family can bring to us.

I believe that we’re progressing on this hierarchy not as individuals, but as a species. We’re constantly evolving in every way. There was a time when our focus was on only our survival – we were hunters and focused on  trying to figure out where our next meal would come from. Once we had a firm grasp on that, we moved up with a focus on maintaining our security through our best known method – through an income – and this gave birth to time periods like the industrial revolution. As we continued to evolve, I believe we’re now focused on relationships and social connection – hence the uproar of all the social networks that dominate the internet and people’s time and attention. Whereas once upon a time, the human species time and attention was mainly focused on making money and creating an income which ensures safety – this is why the older generation’s viewpoints conflict with the younger generation. This is why parent’s still want their children to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, whereas children want to pursue whatever they are passionate about. The focus has shifted from Safety to Belonging & Connection. (Again, I’m talking about the human species as a whole and referring mainly to the developed countries.) I would argue that this shift in focus initially started with the rise of the internet, which enabled ‘connection’ on a massive, global level.  That connection has been improving in speed, ease, and convenience DRASTICALLY ever since. Today, we have access to global social connection 24/7… in our pockets.

What does this mean for marketers and business owners?

Well firstly, GET ON SOCIAL MEDIA if you haven’t already. But secondly, think about this:

If you can understand what the world currently values and better yet, what the world will value in the next 10 – 20 years, and if you can manufacture your marketing and brand strategy accordingly, what could that mean for the long-term success of your business?

For marketers and brand builders, it’s important to know about the basic needs that fuel our motivations, because we can leverage our consumer’s desire to fulfill these basic needs when creating our marketing strategy.

The 3rd Basic and Currently Most Important Need for Businesses to Leverage – Relationships/Connection

Establishing a relationship between your brand and your consumer is the first step to increasing brand equity and creating brand loyalty. The urge to be a part of something, to feel a sense of belonging and connection, is very deep-rooted in human nature. More importantly, the factors that create a sense of belonging and connection that lead to establishing relationships, are also deeply rooted in human nature. Therefore, if we’re going to be strategic, these are the factors we must leverage to enable our consumer’s to feel a sense of belonging and connection with our brand.

One Crucial Factor To Use In Your Strategy

Robert Cialdini identified an important concept that relates to relationship-building when he created his 6 key principles of influence:

The Concept of RECIPROCITY.

Professor Regan at Cornell University displayed the power of this concept when he conducted an experiment where different subjects were rating paintings with a ‘perceived’ partner (the research assistant). Throughout the experiment, the assistant would give some subjects a drink and wouldn’t give anything to other subjects. At the end of the interaction, the assistant would ask if the subjects were willing to buy raffle tickets from him, and of course, those subjects who received the gift of a drink were more willing to purchase tickets – even though the tickets were a lot more expensive than the drink itself!

Humans are naturally inclined to give back when they have been given FIRST. Rarely does anyone take the first step – but the one who does, creates a momentum. The act of giving and serving others inspires that behavior naturally. Which is why when people see others doing something good, they automatically feel the need to good as well. Giving creates a positive emotional momentum.

law-of-reciprocity

Leverage the Concept of Reciprocity

Leveraging this natural human tendency in your marketing strategy accomplishes two things for your business:

1. If you provide your customer with some form of value, they will be a lot more likely to provide you with their business – even if the value of their business is more than the value you provided to them! But also be strategic and keep in mind the ‘value’ of your ‘value’ that you provide. What does that mean? Let’s say you offer a free promotion of some kind and your company is the first to do so. You will do very well. That is until your competitors start doing the same thing. When everyone is doing it, the value of the ‘value’ you are providing, no longer fuels the principle of reciprocity.
Reciprocity-in-College-Advertising2. Creates a strong relationship between your brand and consumer. Relationships are strengthened through the act of service and the act of giving. (Enter free prizes and giveaways – Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim contest,  WestJet giving free stuff to passengers on Christmas, etc.)

Keep in Mind & Key Takeaway

Keep in mind that as humans, we are not only compelled to return the favor when we receive value, but we’re also inclined to not have to feel obligated and in-debt towards others. Therefore, as a business you should make it a point to always be the last to give something of value to your customer, so it’s on them to always take action in your favor. If your customer has already bought your product or service, give more value by sending an appreciation email, or by sending a follow-up bonus, or by having exceptional after-sales customer service. At the very least, a thank you in some shape or form is a no-brainer, because even ‘thank-you’ is reciprocated in the form of a ‘you’re welcome’. Even if the customer can no longer buy anything you, they WILL give back value through recommendations, referrals, likes on your Facebook page, etc., which is how your brand and your business grows. Understand your consumer, their psychology, their motivation and provide them with value to evoke their willingness to take action towards your brand – that is what brand marketing psychology is all about.

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Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

5 Underrated Channels to Build Brand Loyalty and Increase Consumer Engagement

Brand loyalty is about connecting with your consumer. It’s about having a brand story that communicates the personality and values of your brand. It’s about delivering on your brand promise. It’s about the impression your brand leaves on your consumer. It’s about the emotional engagement which drives repeat purchase decisions. At the very core of it all, it’s the experience your consumer has with your brand that will motivate them to become a repeat consumer and eventually, a loyal consumer.

Knowing this, have you ever thought about how on a physical level, your consumer experiences your brand? Logically, if we understood all the different channels through which consumers experience our brand, our product, or our service, we would make sure we cover EVERY channel to make sure we have the MOST impact on our consumer’s experience with us. But do most businesses and marketers really do that?

There are five physical channels through which we  humans experience the world in which we live – and you know already know this very well: it’s the five human senses. We experience things, places, people, and the world around us, through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The five senses are also how your consumers experience your brand. Yet, the majority of marketing strategies and plans that are created are mainly focused on engaging only two of our senses – sight and sound. We forget that ALL of our senses are our pathways to our emotions. Perhaps sight and sound are the easiest to leverage to trigger emotion, which is why most businesses only focus on them.

As I completed writing my previous post about Kellogg Special K’s brand revitalization strategy, I remembered another significant investment Kellogg has made – an investment in the sound of their cereal. Kellogg believes that the crunching sound their cereal makes when it is chewed, is one of the reasons for the success of the brand. This is the reason that the sound of the cereal is strongly emphasized in many of the Cornflakes ads.

Sound is definitely important. If it wasn’t, the easily identifiable and unique crunch sound Kellogg created for its cornflakes wouldn’t have led the brand to become even more successful. Kellogg wouldn’t have hired a sound lab to create the Kellogg’s crunch, and they wouldn’t have made the investment to go as far as getting a patent for the “crunch”. In 2011, it was noted that 74% of modern consumers associate the word “crunch” with the Kellogg’s Company.

There are many ways to use auditory stimulus as a strategy to engage with the consumer – think of jingles and background music in commercials. It’s common. I particularly like the Kellogg example because it’s unique and I think it’s innovative. I wouldn’t be surprised if Doritos and Pringles probably use a similar strategy.

Tangible Advertising

In a Millward Brown Case Study, researchers investigated how the brain processes physical marketing materials. The findings demonstrated that tangible advertising produces deeper engagement with the audience as it engages more senses. They noticed that brain activity was associated with the integration of senses that triggered stronger emotional responses by creating a deeper integration with personal thoughts and feelings.

Tangible advertising is appealing to the sense of sight and touch. As humans, we are wired to interpret the touch of everything around us. We communicate with each other through touch, whether we realize it or not. We feel more connected to someone if they touch us. In 2009, DePauw University psychologist Matthew Hertenstein demonstrated that we have an innate ability to decode emotions via touch. In a research experiment conducted in the late 70’s, clerks at a library returned library cards to students either with or without briefly touching the borrower’s hand – borrowers interviewed said that those who had been touched evaluated the clerk and the library a lot more favorably. The effect was true even when they hadn’t even noticed the touch. Further recent studies have found that slight touches to customers enable waitresses to receive bigger tips and because of a simple touch as a customer service gesture, people also tend to shop and buy more in stores.

What could this mean for your brand, in being able to connect with your consumer?

Touch is extremely important – think of Apple stores and how they happily allow customers to interact and ‘touch’ their products – and we all know how loyal most Apple consumers are. I can go on about the importance of touch forever and write a whole post on it – which I probably will – but you get the point.

Touch has the powerful ability to improve the desire to own a brand.

touch

Then we have smell which is unique in its own way because smell sprouts memories and evokes feelings without first being filtered by the brain.

All of our other senses are processed by the brain first. We’re all emotionally sensitive to the smell of a new car, or the smell of rain, or freshly baked cookies. I can’t help but feel a craving for fresh-baked bread every time I walk by a bakery. I don’t know if that is the bakery’s strategy or not, it’s probably an accidental strategy, but it definitely works. In order to identify a smell, you must be able to recall when you smelled it before. That is when you connect it to a visual image that occurred at that same time. A familiar childhood perfume brings back memories from those days, and the feelings associated with that time. Some research shows that absorbing information in the presence of a scent increases the vividness and intensity of that information when you smell that scent again.

If your product or service can incorporate a smell as your consumer is absorbing your brand’s experience, how likely do you think your customer is to recall with complete vividness, the emotions they felt in your brand’s presence? If the emotions were pleasant, how much would they crave that experience with your brand again?

SensesBuilding brands through leveraging all five senses is important and extremely beneficial. Not many companies have incorporated brand building strategies to appeal to all the senses. In some cases it calls for a lot of creativity and innovation. In other cases, it can be quite simple to do.

The brands that are succeeding today are taking into consideration how the consumer experiences their brand. At the end of the day it’s about consumer engagement. The more you can positively engage your consumer with your product and your brand through their different senses, the more easily your consumer will recall the feelings they felt with your brand when those senses are triggered again.

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Advertising Brand Differentiation Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Emotional Branding Marketing Psychology

Luxury Branding: Psychology of the Luxury Driven Consumer (Case Study: Coach)

A friend of mine just received this in the mail after she went shopping and bought a handbag from a Coach store:

Coach Note

If you’re unable to read it – here’s what it says:

“Thank you for shopping with me at Coach today. It was my great pleasure to help you select that beautiful bag. As a little something extra, I’ve included a $50.00 Appreciation card for you, which you can use toward any item in the store. The card expires on March 1st 2014.”

Did the employee actually send this to my friend from the goodness of his heart? Or is there something else going on here?

After some research, I found out that Coach is in the process of “redefining” its brand in North America. Coach was the leader in the North American handbag market. However, recently before the recession, brands like Michael Kors, Tory Burch, and Ralph Lauren Corp moved in and grasped margins exceeding 50 percent.

Coach then, came out with the new ‘Lifestyle Strategy’. But more on that later.

First, what is it that makes a luxury brand desirable?

In the world of luxury brand marketing, the main factor we tend to look at of our consumers is their income and their assets. While this tells us their ability to purchase the luxury product or service, we know nothing about their thought process and their motivations to spend their wealth on luxury products.

Luxury brand marketing is considerably different from traditional marketing where you would just consider the 4 P’s. Most marketers believe they understand the elements that make up the desirability of a luxury brand.

Common perceptions are:

  • High quality
  • High price
  • Exclusivity
  • Scarcity
  • Etc…

Although necessary, these are features that marketers and businesses would rely upon in the past. While these are all common elements of luxury brands, there is a deeper side to luxury branding.

The consumer’s of today are smarter spenders, more selective, more opinionated, and judge based on other elements as well. If you understand the psychology of the consumer, you can cater your resources to focus on bringing the consumer towards you, as opposed to spending your resources on sharpening the quality, price, exclusivity, scarcity, etc.. and HOPING your consumer moves towards you on their own. There is a difference between waiting for your consumer and inviting the consumer. When it comes to the luxury driven consumer, effective strategy entails inviting them and calling them to your brand.

Engage Your Consumer with Invitation

The wealthy are used to being invited. It’s attesting to their status.

We know the importance of a brand story. For the luxury conscious consumer, the story plays a huge role in engaging the consumer. Through engaging them, you INVITE them to join your brand’s journey. Luxury brands have a rich history, a uniqueness, a legendary story which contributes to the brand’s personality. Joining that brand’s community is enticing. Joining Coco Chanel when she started her business in 1913 to becoming a revolutionary couturier, is enticing. Joining Tom Ford in his journey from being a common man, from struggling for achievement, to triumphing in his masculine destiny, is enticing. Both Chanel and Tom Ford consistently leverage its brand personality and uniqueness in their marketing strategies. Usually with the help of celebrities.

tom ford

The Fourth P

One of the few rational arguments that would prevent consumers from making a purchase would be the price – sometimes for some consumers, price can precede everything, no matter how much you position your brand strategically. However, although price communicates perceived value of the product, luxury brands cater to a consumer that can buy almost any material thing that he or she wants. The product or service itself, then becomes secondary.Therefore, the main rational argument that could be a barrier in your consumer purchasing from you, is gone. What’s important now is how you position your product to appeal to the emotional brain of your consumer. Focus your resources on your emotional strategy, especially when marketing luxury brands. Burberry consumers want to feel ‘authenticity’ and ‘timelessness’. Tom Ford consumers want to feel ‘triumphant’. Tiffany consumers want to feel ‘love’.

Struggle Is Part of A Brand’s Journey

So back to Coach and their new ‘Lifestyle Strategy’.

Do you think Coach is on the right path to regaining its market share?

Here is an excerpt from an article that speaks to their new strategy:

 “Coach’s new direction is rooted in the desire to speak to the consumer from an “emotional way” rather than a “functional one,” according to Reed Krakoff, the brand’s president and executive creative director, who informs the design of the collection and store layout.”

“Instead of designing accessories to fill a need, we’re thinking more about the woman, who she is, where she goes, what is her life like and how does it feel, to move Coach from…where you think of a Coach bag, to now when you think of Coach, you will think of a woman or a man and you think of their lifestyle,” Krakoff said. “You think of their lifestyle and you think of all aspects of that sense of style and that sense of how they live their life.”

Frankfort added: “By doing this, and impacting our windows, our store environments, Internet, marketing, all consumer-facing elements, it’s going to have a profound impact on consumers’ perceptions of Coach because it’s unexpected.”

Click here for the full article.

A marketing strategy as simple as mailing the consumer with a $50.00 gift card and a personal note is extremely effective because:

  • My friend is now guaranteed and motivated to visit the Coach store again and spend more of her own money because $50 probably doesn’t even make up 25% the cost of majority of products in the store
  • The note ENGAGES my friend on a very personal level; the note is hand-written, it mentions the salesperson and her experience together, it has a ‘gift’ which is a HUGE sign of caring. This entire gesture is oozing with the message that COACH cares about YOU.
  • The card has an expiry date which creates a sense of urgency
  • It’s packaging speaks to the brand’s personality
  • The gesture hits the consumer on an emotional level – gives them a feeling of “special-ness” and exclusivity

And lastly…

  • What else comes in the mail directly to someone in an envelope, in a card-like format? How about an invitation?

By implementing this simple, sophisticated  marketing strategy, it’s pretty evident that Coach understands their luxury-conscious consumer.

Struggle is a part of every brand’s journey. It’s how you adapt and differentiate yourself that makes the difference. More importantly, and especially when it comes to luxury branding, it’s when you think of your consumer, their thoughts, their values, their psychology, that you can create the most effective strategies to rise to market leadership.

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Advertising Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Online Branding

Marketing Psychology Magic: How to Capture Consumer Attention and Influence Perception

Before psychologists and brain scientists began diving deep into the workings of the human mind, there existed a set of individuals who were well-established experts in behavioral economics.

These individuals still exist today. They are able to manipulate our expectations, overwhelm us with sensory stimulation, provide us with false confidence, and essentially influence the reality we perceive.

They have the ability to astonish us and connect with us by making us feel as though they are reading our mind.

They are the magicians of our world.

I have always been fascinated by magic. During my elementary years I would love to perform magical feats for my friends and family. As I began paving my career in marketing, I began understanding where this fascination with magic stemmed from.

As a magician or as a marketer, I’m naturally curious about the mechanisms of thought and perception.

Magicians and marketers share one thing in common – the drive to manage expectations and influence perceptions. Both involve understanding the psychology of the prospect.

The difference is that brand marketers don’t do it to perform and impress, but to strengthen brands. Anything that allows brand marketers to manage expectations and influence perceptions can be extremely powerful in creating effective brand marketing strategy.

For example, an interesting phenomenon of human behaviour that is very well-known in the world of magic and psychology is:

INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS, also known as ‘Selective Attention’.

Every magician is aware of the effects of inattentional blindness and its influence on their audience.

Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon discovered by psychologists Arien Mack and the late Irvin Rock.

Inattentional blindness is the inability of the human mind to process anything that is not the specific and direct focus of attention at that moment.

Mack and Rock conducted experiments which proved that people who had their attention focused on one thing often failed to notice an unexpected object, even when it appeared right in the middle of their field of vision!

Test out how susceptible you are to inattentional blindness by taking the selective attention test below. This video had gone viral some time ago so you may have already seen it. Regardless, it will give you a better understanding of this phenomenon:

After conducting these selective test experiments, Mack was noted for stating “there is no conscious perception without attention.”

As marketers, we want to ensure our audience doesn’t fall victim to inattentional blindness when we are trying to get our marketing message across.

Our brains are on autopilot 85% of the time – yet marketers are writing ads and marketing messages to their consumer as if they’re paying attention all the time. This is resulting in companies spending money and resources to not only create ineffective ads, but even placing them in the wrong places.

By now, we’re all immune to banner ads on the homepages that we’re trying to surf. They can no longer command our focus and attention. In fact, I would argue that the majority of people don’t even realize banner ads are even present anymore – this is all due to inattentional blindness.

It’s no surprise that ad click-through rates have dropped drastically in recent years. The same goes for ads everywhere – billboards, bus stops, etc. Ads, especially banner ads, have literally become non-existent to the vast majority of people.

Your consumer is making choices about what to read, what website to go on, what to buy and what not to buy, mainly with his or her unconscious brain – which is completely out of his or her awareness. The unconscious mind is an amazing tool for us because it lets us instantly make decisions on what’s good or bad, what we should avoid, or what we should further investigate.

The more we think, the more energy we use up. Therefore, the unconscious mind wants to limit our thinking as much as possible – thus, we  go on autopilot.

In his book, The Buying Brain, A.K. Pradeep mentions that the brain is frustrated by clutter and messages that distract or don’t apply. It will ignore anything and everything it can, that is irrelevant.

Selective attention is the main reason why customers often begin ignoring a company’s latest news, offers, and ads. Especially when it comes to online marketing.

Our goal as marketers, should be to maintain and capture our consumer’s attention to our marketing message.

So how can we combat this phenomenon in our online and offline marketing initiatives?

Here are 4 suggestions:

1. Attract your audience’s attention when they are not doing anything important

When people are surfing online and are zoned into finding something specific, they become blind to everything else. They are more focused than ever at this point. Therefore, invest in advertising where you know your audience is more likely to see your message. This is why TV ads will always be an effective form of advertising. Same with the YouTube ads that run before playing the video. People are always more likely to pay attention when they’re not doing something important.

2. Use your ad to help your customer – make your ad RELEVANT

When your customer is focused in on finding something online, he or she won’t be blind to something that could be of value to their mission. Be creative in your online advertising.

There are too many times when I see banner ads that aren’t at all relevant to the website they’re placed on.

A simple example is if an ad is focused on selling guitar lessons, the placement of that ad would work best on guitar websites or forums. That’s a logical, but often forgotten example.

Combine logic with creativity however, and you’re sure to have a winning online marketing strategy.

3. Use contrast

Bright colors, loud patterns, and things that are in motion, are all eye-catching features. Use these elements in your ads to make your ads stand out from the redundant, plain, and steady context and vibe of the webpage.

Don’t make it over the top and annoying – just enough to grab attention.

4. Leverage multichannel marketing

Don’t just aim to reach your audience through one approach. Having one message or one ad on the top or in the middle of your homepage is not enough to ensure that people will see it. Use all different means to reach your potential customers – email marketing, social media, mobile marketing, etc.

Magic, like marketing, has the ability to bring its audience enjoyment, marvel, and surprise because of its deep roots in understanding how the human mind works and the ways in which our experiences are shaped through our expectations and perceptions.

We’re not only marketers, we’re also the magicians of the business world.

Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and subscribe to the Brand Marketing Psychology email list so I can keep you up to date and informed on the latest psychology-enveloped marketing magic-tricks and spells…

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Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology

How to Leverage Pricing Psychology to Influence Consumer Buying Decisions

Understanding your consumer to build a strong marketing strategy is fundamentally about:

  1. Understanding the psychology behind how your consumers make use of their time and money
  2. Understanding the psychology of where your consumers focus their attention

The amount of aspects which influence someone’s choices are endless.  The more we understand them, the more we as marketers are capable of influencing their purchasing decisions. It doesn’t help that consumers are horrible at explaining their choices. So asking them is rather pointless. They often find it rather difficult to explain why they choose one option over another.

decision-making

Traditionally, marketers use discrete choice modelling, conjoint analysis, or concept test to deduce decision drivers. However, if we can understand key psychology principles on how the human mind works, we can employ creative strategies to build brand equity by influencing the consumer’s decision in favor of your brand.

If we know anything about consumer psychology, it’s that consumers generally make irrational decisions. The human mind is fascinatingly irrational. Humans rarely make choices in unconditional terms. Understanding this idea can hold great benefits for marketers in employing strategies in each of the four P’s of marketing – especially when it comes to PRICING strategy. Why particularly pricing? Because as consumers, we don’t have an internal value measure that tells us how much things are worth. Instead we focus on the comparative advantage of one thing over another and assess value accordingly.

We see this pricing strategy in effect on a regular basis when we constantly observe the fuel price. There was a point in Canada when $1.20/L was considered expensive. But for the past two weeks, when the price jumped to $1.30/L, the amount of drivers completely filling up their tanks decreased, and the amount of people draining their gas meter to its limit increased. Two weeks later, after the PERCEIVED over-priced gas ‘fell’ from $1.30 to $1.25/L, gas stations were swarming with cars. I was one of them. I filled up a full tank of gas and I actually felt good about it! I felt like I was actually saving money. Why does this happen? We don’t know how much the actual price of gas ‘should’ be, but we know that RELATIVE to what it was before, it’s cheaper now, therefore I’m getting more value and I’m saving money.

The same thing happens when people are out looking to buy a car and end up spending more than they intend to, simply because the more expensive car has a greater overall discount. You can save 25% by buying the more expensive car, or save 10% when you buy the cheaper one. The one people generally choose costs more, but consumer’s are prone to not look the other way when they see more value for their money. It’s very true that as consumers, we don’t always make choices that are in our best interest.

Consumers are increasingly developing a need to attain the feeling that they are intelligent shoppers, that they know how to get the most for their money, that they know value when they see it. This is the reason why over the past few years, companies such as Groupon, Livingsocial, and TeamBuy are becoming more popular. Getting a deal makes the consumer feel good. Marketers are using these services by offering deep discounts, primarily to encourage people to go ahead and try their spas, restaurants, etc. They’re hoping for repeat customers. There is no doubt that this strategy is effective, especially in a time of economic downturn where price-sensitivity is rising and people are craving new experiences for a reasonable price. However, brand equity can be seriously hurt in the long-term, if companies continually rely on employing price-promotion strategies and continuous discounts.

There are much better strategies to enhance the perceived value of your brand, without having to offer deep discounts. My favourite is by using a COMPARATIVE strategy.

Take a look at the following diagram:

relativity

 

The middle circle in this picture doesn’t appear to be staying the same size;  when the middle circle is placed in between smaller circles, it grows bigger. When it’s placed in between bigger circles, it seems smaller. In both positions, the middle circle is the same size. Our mind creates the illusion of its altering size because we look at it in comparison to what’s around it.

Humans are always comparing. We compare our friends, jobs, relationships, and especially our POSSESSIONS (our cars, homes, wines, cell phones, etc.) Most of these possessions are branded. And for most brand-conscious consumers, the brand they choose is a reflection of who they are; their status, their personality, etc. Thus after making comparisons, consumers always want to feel good about their possessions by knowing that they have the thing with the higher value because that reflects high value in their sense of self. So how can we as marketers, leverage the comparative nature of humans to reinforce higher value in the mind of our consumer?

An easy way is by creating the expectancy of a higher future price. Like in the example with the gas prices. I figured that gas prices will go back up in a few days, therefore most people and I were more than happy to fill up gas as soon as possible.

Another way is by creating STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES. These alternatives are placed beside the intended sell to serve as a subtle influence. There are two essential methods to employing the strategic alternatives strategy. The first is by presenting an extremely unattractive alternative and the second is by presenting an incredibly high priced alternative.

Remember when Apple came out with the iPod Touch? This was their pricing strategy:

pricing strategy

  •  16GB for $229, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399
  •  The extra features are only available in the upgraded options (32GB & 64GB)

Which option would you choose? The majority of consumers would conclude that they attain the best value from the 32GB option. Some would buy the 16GB. Few would buy the 64GB.

The extra features on the upgrades makes the 16GB incredibly unattractive, especially when the next upgrade only has a $70 difference with double the storage capacity! The 64GB has no added features, but doubles the storage for $100 difference.

So the 16GB is unattractive and the 64GB is not ‘worth’ the value. This is the STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVE strategy in action. Which Ipod Touch do you think Apple was aiming to be its main sell?

Knowing these strategies can not only make you more strategic as a marketer, but more aware as a consumer.

Marketers should realize that coupons and discounts aren’t always the answer to establishing a certain value to influence consumer purchasing decisions. A lot of innovation and creativity goes into promotional, placement, and product strategy. Innovation in pricing strategy isn’t something that should be overlooked.Your brand can appeal to the mind of your consumer by understanding how their mind leads to the purchase decisions they make.

Understand your consumer’s psychology to build powerful, demand-shifting, and creative brand marketing strategies – that’s what Brand Marketing Psychology is all about.

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Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Promise Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Emotional Branding

Emotional Branding Psychology: Creating Brand Trust in the Mind of Your Consumer

Brand Love Emotion is the most powerful motivational force known to humans. Emotions stem from the subconscious mind and they are the real reason why brands exist, and will continue to do so.

The previous post emphasized the importance of drawing emotion from your consumers for your brand. When trying to connect with your consumer, it’s essential to build a relationship between your brand and your consumer that fosters high love and high respect – i.e. it’s essential to make your brand a ‘LoveMark‘.

Every relationship comes with obligations which require both parties to take some form of effort-based action. Maintaining your friendships, family relations, and spousal relations, require effort on both parts. Maintaining the relationship between the brand and the consumer, requires effort on both parts. The moment the emotions disappear, the desire to fulfill obligations and to take action also disappears. And that’s when the relationship starts to deteriorate.

Brand’s live in the mind, but they cause ACTION from the heart.

As brand owners, you want your consumers to make the effort to take action towards your brand. You want them to buy your product or service. You want them to speak of your brand. You want them seek out your brand wherever they go. In the same way, your consumer expects your brand to fulfill its own obligations as well. Why? Because the relationship can’t be one-sided. Because at the end of the day, your consumers will only take action towards your product or service if they’re driven by emotion.

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So what are the obligations that are expected of your brand, by your consumer?

A quick psychology lesson:

In evolutionary psychology, one of the fundamental human needs that we have developed is the need for a sense of control. This need is perhaps the deepest need people have. It’s related to survival and is sustained by the need to predict and have a sense of certainty. From an evolutionary standpoint, if we are in control of our environment, then we have a better chance of survival. One of the ways we acquire a sense of control, is by giving it to others who we TRUST. Trust and control support one another. Not only does trust give control, but the need for a sense of control drives us to seek trust. If you trust a close friend with your car keys, your need for a sense of control is satisfied because you can comfortably predict and know that your car is safe and will be returned to you.

Now what does this mean for your consumer’s relationship with your brand? Through our close relationships, we are able to satisfy this need of a sense of control because we tend to highly trust those individuals whom we LOVE and RESPECT, the LoveMark’s of our lives. Thus, the way to create love and respect for your brand, the way to create a LoveMark brand, is through maintaining and creating TRUST for your brand in your consumer’s mind. 

Consumers want to be able to know with great conviction, what will be the outcome for them if they take the action that you are requesting. “What will happen after I buy your product?” “How can I believe you?” “Why should I believe you?”

Brands need to communicate these things to their consumers. Your brand needs to communicate what consumers can expect if they choose your brand. Answering these questions is the opportunity for a brand to build trust with its consumers, because trust enables prediction.

So how can a brand build long-lasting trust with its consumers? As a brand owner, how can you ensure that the fulfillment of your consumer’s deepest evolutionary need is associated with your brand? The answer is through the BRAND PROMISE.

A company’s brand is a promise. Successful brands consistently deliver on their promises which is how they create brand value and brand trust. Just like with any relationship, trust is stable as long as promises aren’t broken. If you break a promise, you are cutting into the ‘evolutionary’ needs of an individual, which will naturally lead to STRONG negative emotional reactions.

Examples of successful promises kept:

FedEx – Your package will get there overnight. Guaranteed.

Apple – You can own the coolest, easiest-to-use cutting-edge computers and electronics.

Coors Light – “The World’s Most Refreshing Beer”

Geico – “15 Minutes of Less can save you 15% or More on Car Insurance”

coke1

Examples of false promises: Just checkout this blog called Alphaila, where brands have made numerous false promises to their consumers. Although these promises are visual-based advertisements, I don’t get how fast food companies don’t realize that creating such fantasy based ads is more detrimental than beneficial. Promises matter to consumers.

It’s amazing when once in a while, a brand like Volkswagen releases an honest, genuine, and sometimes even self-deprecating ad. Is it really surprising that those are the ads that effectively gain our trust? Is it really surprising that when we actually try their product or service, we realize it’s actually pretty good? Authentic ads demonstrate the brand’s self-confidence. Consumer’s recognize this on a deeper level – there must be a reason for someone to be so confident.

How do you deliver on your brand promise?

In the next few posts I will write on creating effective brand promises and brand promise strategy.

For now, it’s important to realize that brands need to build trust through minor promises. This is one strategy that is sure to work. Trust is built through reliability – this is extremely true for consumers. The more reliable a brand is, the more confidence consumer’s will have in it, and the more trust will be built in the brand-consumer relationship. As promises are consistently and repeatedly kept, over time trust is guaranteed to increase.

Feel free to contact me with your thoughts, questions, and ideas.

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Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Branding Psychology Emotional Branding

Emotional Branding Psychology: Deep Decoding of the Brand-Consumer Relationship

images (1)

Life would be a lot easier for us brand marketers if consumers made their purchases on a logical basis. The average business owner often assumes that because humans are rational people, consumers make their buying decisions by weighing the pros and cons of each product. We assume that the physical properties and functional benefits which consists of and define a brand, are the most important factors for consumers when they make their selections. We assume that consumers view brands as ‘things’. For consumers, whether they realize it or not, brands are a lot more than just objects – they care about what a brand represents to them on the highest emotional level. Human beings are driven by emotions, not by rational thought.

6a00d83451b74a69e20120a7fb47e3970b-pi

So how do we as brand builders, trigger the highest emotional point in our customers? How can you create the kind of emotions that fuel inspiration, laughter, and tears? By understanding that your brand and your consumer need to form a relationship, a bond. Think of your brand as your consumer’s mentor, motivator, friend, sibling, life-long partner, or even parent. These are all relationships that spark immense emotions in the average individual. By establishing a strong bond between your brand and your consumer, your brand can create that deep connection that all of these relationships entail. Almost all research on relationships produce the same two essential qualities that need to be present in a successful and strong relationship; LOVE and RESPECT. As brand builders, if we can establish love and respect for our brand in the mind of our consumer, we have then created a strong relationship. And with every strong relationship, emotions fly high. When the highest level of emotions are triggered, we create a long-lasting, loyal, and powerful bond between our consumers and our brand.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Creative Director at Badillo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, explained this idea exquisitely when he said:

“… Love is based on inspiration. We are inspired by brands for the same reason we’re inspired by the people we love, because they have principles and treat me like a human being who is intelligent and has feelings. They show empathy and bring joy to my life.”

There are those products and brands in our lives, that if they were to disappear, we would easily find an alternate. But the moment something we’ve formed a deep relationship with disappears, we object and do all that we can for its return. When a strong bond is formed between your brand and your customer, your brand becomes IRREPLACEABLE. Strive to make your brand irreplaceable.

Kevin Roberts, CEO of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, came up with the marketing concept called Lovemarks. Through the Lovemarks concept, the Love/Respect Axis was born. It demonstrates the difference between those brands that are meaningless to consumers, and those that are irreplaceable, that are LOVEMARKS. The Love/Respect Axis:

love respect axis

A regular brand scores high in RESPECT – where you have trust but no emotional connection. A fad scores high in LOVE – where you have emotional connection but no trust. But a Lovemark scores high in both. Coca-Cola scores high in both. Apple scores high in both. And with the recent viral marketing campaign, WestJet is scoring high in both. It’s no surprise that the recent “WestJet Christmas Miracle” ad is going viral – 8 MILLION VIEWS IN 3 DAYS. If you haven’t seen it, watch it below and get ready to have all of your positive emotions triggered. The next time you fly, you’ll be sure to think of WestJet. Through this branding strategy, WestJet is well on its way to becoming a Lovemark, if it isn’t already one.

In this post I covered the ‘WHY’ and the ‘WHAT’, in terms of the importance of forming a relationship to fuel emotional responses. In the next post I will cover HOW we can successfully and strategically do this. Emotional branding is a huge topic in brand marketing psychology. There is a lot to cover, especially if we leverage the psychology of consumers to understand ideas that create that emotional bond. By completely understanding how emotions are triggered in your consumer, your brand strategy’s effectiveness is guaranteed to evolve.  

“The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” – Neurologist Donald Calne

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Brand Building Brand Differentiation Brand Management Brand Positioning Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology Consumer Psychology Marketing Psychology

Brand Competition Psychology: How Consumer Choices Effect Demand and Why You Should Appreciate Your Competitors

pc vs mac

The goal of every brand marketer should be to build brand equity. What exactly is brand equity? It’s the ability of your brand to shift consumer demand. Consumers have a vast array of choices these days. Today, we walk into a supermarket and are actually confused by all the different choices we are bombarded with! Whereas not too long ago, we would be hoping for more products and as consumers, find ourselves disappointed with things that don’t really serve our needs. Today, brand strategy is not so much about creating demand than it is about shifting your consumer’s demand to YOUR brand.

Fact: Higher demand of your brand leads to higher market share.

Now logically, there are two ways to increase market share and become a market leader:

1)      Eliminate competition

“Well if I don’t have competition and I’m the only choice for my consumer, then I can have all or most of the market share.”

2)      Enhance brand equity

“I will make it so that my brand will shift consumer demand from my competitors to me.”

It’s surprising how the majority of companies today, choose Option 1.

Greed is not good, when your aim is to shift consumer demand.

The leading brand in a category habitually tries to stretch its appeal in order to seize every last bit of market share. What they fail to recognize is that when you stretch your brand, it deteriorates and weakens. The leading brand should endure competitors and also appreciate them. 

The entrance of Pepsi-Cola, was probably one the best things to have happened for Coca-Cola. Why? The competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola makes customers more aware of Cola. The Cola category has been growing ever since this rivalry erupted.

april-fool- ad

If you want to build market share, understand the consumer’s mind, where your brand lives, and leverage that beautiful asset to create a strong brand building strategy. How consumers respond to competition and choices is crucial for any brand marketer to understand.

Customers always have choices, even when no competition exists. They can make the decisions to choose beer, apple juice, or water to drink instead of cola. The reason is because increased competition grabs more attention of customers and has the habit of increasing sales in the category.

Choice fuels demand.

Choice is seen as a huge benefit. Without choice, customers begin questioning the category itself. For instance, customers begin questioning the price point, in wonder if they’re paying too much – “How can I judge the price if I don’t have anything to compare it with?”

The psychology of most brand marketers and companies is that they want to have an unfair advantage over their competitors. They can’t handle the idea of having an even playing field. So they come to the conclusion, that the only way to keep as much of the market share as possible, is to drive out the competition. That’s when they end up making horrible branding decisions and decide to expand, extend their line, etc., which only further weakens the brand.

Appreciate your competitors. Competition leads to increased choices.

There is however, a limit to how much choice there should be for a consumer in a particular category. Having too much choice can definitely be detrimental. Having too many brands can lead to having too much variety, which leads to greater confusion for the consumer.

What’s the right amount of competition? Two seems to be the best number – Coca Cola/Pepsi, Nintendo/PlayStation, Duracell/Energizer, etc. Too much choice leads to reduced consumption.

In the consumer’s mind, if there isn’t any competition they often think that companies could take advantage of them and rip them off. This is why we usually see competing businesses clustered in one area. We’ve all seen it – how similar businesses are usually grouped together in one neighborhood. This is especially evident in large cities. These business clusters attract more customers because now customers have more than one store to shop at, in one trip. Time is limited these days for the average individual. Moreover, customers can now easily make comparisons.

Healthy competition is good. No brand can ever be capable of dominating the entire market. Anything greater than 50% is extremely rare. If your aim is to gain market share greater than 50%, it’s more efficient to consider creating several independent brands (not line extensions).

Image Credit

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Brand Building Brand Management Brand Strategy Brand Strategy for Start-Ups Branding Psychology

Luxury Branding Psychology: How to Implant “High-Quality” in the Mind of the Consumer

Is building a better quality product the same as building a better brand?

One would think so – and it’s not uncommon for new marketers to think so. But when creating a strong brand marketing strategy, this is not the case. There are almost no correlations between best quality and most successful brands. We’ve seen it many times –  where the most preferred brand, is not the leading one.

Why is the Pepsi Taste Challenge so successful? People enjoy Pepsi a lot more, yet Coca Cola is the leading brand. The reason is because the idea of quality is something that resides in the mind of the consumer. The idea of quality is something that is implanted in the mind of the consumer.

One of the surest ways to do this is through further constricting the focus of your brand. This is something I will cover in depth in a future article. For now, what you need to know is that by becoming an expert and by becoming focused on one thing as opposed to many, your brand becomes perceived as being of higher quality.

If you’re creating a soccer team, would you choose the athlete who plays every sport or would you choose the athlete who plays only soccer? Obviously the soccer player. That’s how consumers view brands.

A brand that claims to do everything is less trustworthy, than the brand who claims they are the best at one thing.

Be the best at one thing. 

Be a big fish in a small pond, not a small fish in a big one.

Another way to build the perception of the quality of your brand in your consumer’s mind is through high-pricing – something you may have already realized to some degree.

Below are examples of a few brands that the average individual would associate with being ‘high-quality’. These are also brands which profit immensely from their high price:

  • Mercedes
  • Montblanc
  • Jack Daniel’s
  • Rolex
  • Rolls-Royce

What often happens is that brand owners either feel that their brand should be a high-quality brand but are afraid to make the price equivalent to what they think their brand is worth… OR some brand owners feel that their brand is a high quality brand but in reality it isn’t, yet they still charge the higher price.

Before even considering charging a higher price, you need to be confident in the high quality of your brand. Quality comes first. 

If your brand has products and services with a high price but has a low or average quality perception of a brand, that will discourage consumers from sticking around for very long. That violates the idea of brand consistency. But if your quality is on higher level, don’t be afraid to charge a higher price for your brand. Having a higher price on your brand, can in fact be a benefit to the consumer. By buying a product of brand that is associated with high quality, consumers feel a certain level of satisfaction from the purchase.

The individual who purchases a Movado, doesn’t do so to tell time better, but to make others aware that he or she can afford it. There’s a quote I heard somewhere ; it goes something like… “if your watch costs more than $50,000, it’s no longer a time-telling device, it’s jewelry.” Also, don’t rely only on quality to develop a successful brand. At the end of the day, it is the brand with the better strategy that wins.

The other most important thing to think about when employing high quality strategy, is how you will justify the increase in price of your product or service? What can you emphasize? You need to pick one thing that you can be the best at and be a leader in – this comes back to the idea of constricting the focus of your brand.

Take a look at Whole Foods, who earns most of its profits in prepared foods, where the price premium is very high, with operating margins of approximately 7%. They justified their premium price by emphasizing luxury with organic food, sophisticated in store presentation, and knowledgeable staff. That was enough to convince customers to pay a higher price for prepared food.

Leverage the psychology of how consumers think to build your brand – that’s what Brand Marketing Psychology is all about.