Love Brand: make your customers fall in love!

We have all already had the experience, a few minutes before an appointment or a professional interview, of urgently looking for a mirror. We then run to the first mirror or the most reflective window to readjust our tie, straighten our hair and check that we don’t have a piece of salad stuck between our teeth.

We want to make a good impression and, since we are first and foremost human and the first sense on alert is sight, we take care of our presentation and this is a very good thing. Furthermore, communication is not essentially verbal, it begins through the tone of our voice, our gestures and our attitude.

We therefore know, with more or less skill depending on the person, to present ourselves in our best light when necessary and talk about our passions, our values ​​and what makes us us. Fortunately, in fact, we are not limited to the physical structure alone and what most characterizes us is hidden from view. Only those who really know us know what lies behind our appearance and never, during an interview or a first date, will you be able to honor what you have deep inside you.

As far as your brand, company, organization, it’s the same thing. For you who experience it from the inside, things are clear. Know your common thread, corporate identity, its valuesyou are deeply immersed in its DNA. You know the sleepless nights, all passionate about creating your product, you know the first failures and your secret victories. Do you know how much sweat and effort it cost you to create your project and your customers and potential customers I’m not aware of all this.

As consumers, whether B2B or B2C, we are first and foremost attracted to a brand through a productedited by announcement and from graphic paper. All this corresponds to our professional «interview», something a little informal, superficial and closer to the game of seduction. The brand wants to acquire the consumer.

But what will the consumer remember about this first meeting, how will the relationship with him develop and then be maintained? We focus a lot on lead acquisition and often not enough on customer retention. However, some brands sometimes reach the status of Brand of love. A Love Brand it is a brand that has been able to develop a strong romantic or emotional relationship between itself and its consumers/buyers. And in fact, the brand/consumer relationship could be compared to a romantic relationship : beyond the simple love at first sight, what remains? How do we keep this feeling alive?

Storytelling, Brand Content and Content Marketing to build a Love Brand

For a relationship to be solid, it must rest on a deep foundation. Therefore, a simple crush on a product is already a great hook, but it can quickly be swept away when a competitor produces a comparable or even superior product.

So, how to create a love brand, a long-lasting relationship, how to connect your customer to your storyto your values? You will have to agree to reveal yourself a little, to tell your story, what excites you, what drives you to get up every morning to go to work, what guides you in creating better products. Most of the time the customer is not interested in the technical data sheet. Don’t sell megapixels, sell the way to preserve your memories on paper. Don’t sell powerful processors and gigabytes of RAM, sell a user experience and a tool to develop creativity. This is what Apple understood in its communication.

Therefore, the essential levers to make your brand known to the consumer and allow him to join you are the following:

• The narration: tell your story. Hewlett Packard and Apple were born in a garage, it’s part of their history. Michel and Augustin cross the Atlantic to shake hands with the Starbucks boss and sell him biscuits and all their fans follow this story with interest and passion. Tell your story, your successes and also your failures. They help create a feeling of empathy for the brandto humanize it and to bring together consumers who find themselves on this journey around it. Be a source of inspiration on your journeymake the consumer dream and lead him to imagine how he could surpass himself by following your example. Some brands do not hesitate to build a storytelling invented from scratch, like the French brand Chevignon which played on the America of aviators and travel. However, I advise you to be real. Even if you don’t realize it, your story is fascinating but you have to know how to tell it! Contact me!
• The content of the brand : many brands have developed a media strategy. RedBull, with its extreme sports events and publications, Guinness beer brand and Book of Records, Michelin Guide, etc. Brand Content allows you to build a strong identity around the brand and highlight its values. Thus, Michelin and its guide invite you to travel around France, to discover nice restaurants (and wear out your gum at the same time). Red Bull, the energy drink, talks to us about surpassing ourselves. Consumers who identify with these behaviors or values ​​will naturally become attached to the brand. Of course, these values ​​u200bu200bwill not please everyone, but it is illusory to believe that we can please everyone !
• Content Marketing : you will also be able to build a Content marketing strategy with which you will interest your reader. Because of this, design content that is useful to them. In fact, instead of being disruptive as advertising can be, you will be there for the consumer when they need you. You don’t interrupt him, he comes to you. Provide them with advice and tips in your business sector or your product. Blogs and video blogs from home improvement stores, camera brands and digital communications agencies are interesting examples. Let’s talk less about ourselves and put the consumer’s needs first. They will generally prefer to return to a brand that has provided them with useful content and by which they feel supported.

In the game of seduction there is not only the physical aspect and fortunately (for me!) Your erudition, your humor, your personality, your extravagance or your moderation, all this gives you charm. This charm doesn’t work on everyone, some will be sensitive to it, others less so and some may even be annoyed by it. Remember: you can’t please everyone.

However, create a personality, develop your differentiation. As a brand it seems necessary to work on this too. I’m not just talking about the content, but the tone of the content and what will help shape the company’s personality. The humor of the packaging of the “Michel & Augustin”, “Sodebo” or “Innocent” brands or the refined look of those of Apple, the sweet madness of the Oasis creations, the luxurious and artistic look of some cosmetic brand advertisements, all this contributes to your differentiation and building your brand image. We could then build the graph below to study the personality of our brand by interviewing a panel of customers.

Social Media for listening, forgiveness and reconciliation

We know that passionate relationships can sometimes be tumultuous, even for a love brand! And this is where Social Media comes into play. When we meet the one who could be the love of our life, we could listen to him talk for hours and hours. And then, a few days later, we wish we could place one and have the impression that he or she is interested in us too.

Therefore, 93% of French people regret that their loyalty to a brand is no longer rewarded. Social networks therefore seem to be the ideal tool for making consumers’ voices heard. At least on paper, because in reality, if the French are consumers of new media and increasingly through their mobile devices, the customer satisfaction rate after contacting brands via social networks is only 60%.

Your presence on social networks must allow you to reach and bring together your customers, generate leads but also listen to their voices and respond to their requests. Your Community Manager will therefore be the conduit of their expectations and the echo of their voices internally. Always remember that receiving negative feedback on your page is not necessarily a bad thing. You will be able to turn a bad experience and a dissatisfied customer into a brand ambassador.

Furthermore, if we have seen above that the content of the brand is important, Social networks will allow you to highlight community-generated content. Testimonials, product tests, blog articles, visual creation, etc. We all like to connect with a community, be part of a group, the need to belong guides us towards each other around values ​​that are similar to us. Promote your community, this will build loyalty and make others want to join you.

To get content created by your community, start by asking for it. A simple post asking for customer testimonials can bring out some interesting things. You can also offer on-brand visual creation contests. There is a lot to do, but don’t wait for the community to do it, be proactive, invite them to build your story together with you.

Give gifts

You fell in love at first sight, you know each other well and the time has come to get used to it. How to renew passion from the beginning, how to banish the habit? Shake up the daily routine, propose promotional offers and reward loyalty. It costs most companies more to acquire a new customer than to retain existing ones.

With the data that the company collects around the consumer today, it becomes possible to propose attractive and personalized offers based on the habits of each customer. We know their route, their favorite products, purchasing periods and sometimes even provide their geolocation via a mobile application. Make sure this data is collected in a useful way and always with the aim of further satisfying your customer.

Conclusion

In our marketing processes, we too often put emotions aside. However, they are the ones who motivate our every action, we are irremediably guided by our feelings. Rather than fear them, brands should use these emotions, not to manipulate them as marketing too often tries to do, but rather to build a real relationship with this customer. The attention we pay to our customers is certainly one of the best resources for becoming a love brand.