Your brand needs to be emotional
The emotional connection people have with brands they love does not happen by accident.
What separates great brands from average brands is that great brands are authentic, and their customers can feel it. They interact with their customers in ways that are beyond being simply transactional. A transactional brand may have a great product or service; they can provide their customers with what they want, when they want it, but it ends there. You don’t see people taking selfies with their new bottle of Dasani water.
Look internally and externally
A connection needs two points. This translates into connecting internally with what you stand for to the external customer need or desire. Great brands ask themselves the hard questions. They think about their purpose, why they exist, and most importantly, how can they make their customers lives better. These brands go beyond the fundamentals of what it means to be in business and find ways to understand their customers, and not just give them what they want, but also help improve their lives in some small way. For some, that means being part of something bigger.
Socks and tumblers
Example brands that create strong emotional connections are Bombas and Yeti. People who love these brands often don’t think of looking at competitors. Bombas does an exemplary job of marrying product with purpose. They make great products and they have a powerful story that their customers can be a part of. For every Bombas item purchased, they donate one; such as socks, underwear, or t-shirts. They have donated over 75 million items. Launched in 2013, profitable by year 3, and now generate over $250 million in annual revenue. They started out with a philanthropic mission as part of their purpose and never lost sight of doing good as they grew—and that is what customers want to be a part of.
Yeti similarly has an extremely loyal customer base but through a different approach. Many companies make products that will keep your beverage hot or cold for a long time. A search on Amazon for “tumbler” will yield 20,000+ results. A similar product from a Yeti competitor can be found for half the price. Yet, Yeti alone makes up 7.5% of the U.S. market share in the approximate $3.6 billion drinkware segment.
How did Yeti do that? They created great content about amazing people that people search for and watch. Other companies create 30 or 60 second videos and hope that their metrics are better than some industry average as a measure of success. For Yeti, people will watch their films and can either associate themselves with the heroes or be inspired by them. It’s beyond advertising.
Take Yeti’s short film about Tootsie with Snow’s BBQ. She’s an 80+ year-old BBQ pit master in Texas https://youtu.be/y0WUHRAGJ6s. People (like me) will drive for hours to visit rural Lexington, TX. Many will arrive by 5AM or earlier. By 9AM, the line for Snow’s BBQ stretches a quarter mile down the street. And after that long wait, as you turn the corner, see the smoke billowing out of large pits, you will see Tootsie, just like in the Yeti film. The place is filled with locals and visitors from around the globe who form bonds and share stories with one another. By the end of the day, you realize it wasn’t really just about the BBQ, but it was all about being part of a large diverse community and having an experience to remember for the rest of their lives. The BBQ will be gone quickly, but the memories will live every time they use their Yeti.
Get to know your customer and find your way to make that connection
This doesn’t mean you have to hire a film company to connect with your customers. The best way to start is by talking with your customers. Not a survey. Have conversations. Learn about what they are like, what their lives are like, and just get to know them. It may sound like a very roundabout way to develop your marketing and messaging strategies, but this is the path to discovery that will identify ways your brand can interact with your customers in more meaningful ways. Consider this an opportunity to get to know your customers and have them join in with passionate brand loyalty.