How to Create Brand Love
Creating brand love is not an easy task.
Think about it. How many brands do you really love? Personally, I can only come up with a handful. Here’s a quick exercise you can do. Write down the 3-5 brands you love. Then step back and think about why you love them. For me, my answers are:
They stand for a higher purpose, while also providing me with a product I love and can get behind. Patagonia.
They solve a problem for me and treat me well. They put the customer first. Nordstrom.
They deliver a great product and a great experience. They have a love of the craft and inspire people that work there to provide a great experience. Philz Coffee.
In summary: Be good. Be great.
We wrote a white paper about “The New Brand Manifesto: 5 ways to rethink your brand platform and marketing to meet today’s consumers’ higher standards.” This covers the “Be good” part.
Times have been calling for a new brand order, one driven by consumers seeking elevated brands that meet a higher standard. The premise is based on the fact that businesses and brands have an opportunity to step up and fill a void that is being created with a lack of trust in institutions. Consumers are looking for steadying and organizations that take responsibility and action. They want to see that businesses care about people and society beyond just their shareholders. The term being batted around lately is a new stakeholder economy.
You can read the paper here for more details, but at a high-level these were the actions we believe a brand owner should take to build “the good” into their brand and business:
Stand for and do more, getting beyond the bottom line.
Build trust through human-centricity and transparency in product design and development.
Deliver more responsible communications focused on motivations vs. expectations.
Ensure a fair exchange between consumers and companies through richer experiences.
Act with an authentic brand character—have a sense of self and execute with integrity.
But what we also know from our own experiences noted above and learned in our “The Millennial Brand for Good Report,” is that being good alone won’t get consumers to buy you and to create brand love.
You also have to have a killer product and/or a great product experience. Being good will get you into the consideration set and will keep consumers engaged, but to drive purchase you have to meet a need, solve a problem, offer a great experience, deliver on a great value proposition. You need to serve your customer by deeply understanding them as people, what’s important to them and their lives, what they value, what would be helpful to them. This is the “be great” side.
All brand marketers want to create brand love. Are you addressing both sides of the equation that will build that love with today’s consumers? Aspire to be both good and great.
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The Agency Oneto is a disciplined yet agile business and brand strategy agency whose mission is to partner with leaders to make a positive impact on their business and brands and for their consumers and teams, unlocking potential.
We help you build and grow your brand or help you make a positive change to your business. We offer services in Business Strategy, Brand Strategy, Portfolio Strategy, Brand & Product Positioning, Brand Architecture, Marketing Strategy, Content Strategy, Innovation Strategy & Process, Consumer Insights, and Trend Analysis.
We also lead workshops and facilitate strategy and business planning sessions, provide advisory services, and offer Executive Coaching.