Brand related emotions are mainly centered around the process of building a connection or relationship between a brand or product/service with a customer by reaching their emotions. Marketers usually reach these goals by making content that will touch the consumer’s emotional ego, needs, wants, and state. Brand related emotions go along with human natural desire to power, ego gratification, and love. They are all subconscious and can help brands tap into consumers emotions and trigger them through marketing strategies. This makes it easier to target customers and produce more effective advertisements for the brand to engage with their audience in an easier way. There are several steps to the brand relating to consumer emotions like capturing their attention, encouraging purchases, developing a relationship, developing consumer loyalty, making the brand a part of their life, and benefiting from word of mouth business.
First, capturing the audience’s attention, the brand needs to know who their target audience is, who they are trying to target, and what emotions those consumers will respond to. All of these will lead a brand to know who their target market is and how to build an emotional relationship with them.
Second, brands have to encourage purchases by understanding the primary emotions that will bring in their day to day consumer decisions. This is one of the essential elements in a store environment. In a store environment, brands have the chance to connect with their customer’s emotions and relate them to the brand overall. This helps influence engagement with the product or service, which can cause the consumer to buy on the spot or come back. For example, furniture stores create the layout for consumers to see and get inspiration from, which is called sensory marketing. Marketers think it’s one of the most effective ways to market to consumers.
Third, developing a relationship is making sure the consumers have made the right choice when they provide the brand with their money and business. In this stage, companies have to get to know their consumers and make sure their emotions toward the company are positive.
Next, businesses have to develop customer loyalty. They have to make that one-time purchase into a regular purchasing object to build their brand loyalty and help increase the lifetime value of the consumer. In this step, adding loyalty offers, cross-selling or up-selling the products to existing customers is an essential tool.
Making the company a part of customer life comes with the brand making and developing a deep and long engagement with the consumer. One that they will remember and will always think of when the product comes to their mind.
In the end, the brand will benefit from the word of mouth that the customer will provide. That is free marketing that the consumer is providing the brand like referrals and more potential loyal customers. This comes along with excellent customer service and a positive impact on their emotional memory. They need good memories and experiences from the brand to be able to remain loyal to them.
For the past four years, I have managed a local fitness studio, which has helped me experience brand-related emotions with consumers first-hand. At my studio, we build a relationship with the consumer from the beginning, by memorizing their name and greeting them as they walk in. We also make sure to cater to any needs they have, like if they need to use a towel, or need water, bring a friend for a free class or even need equipment for their workout. All of these tools help to keep the consumers happy and for them to spread the word about our business to friends and family. Every industry has different tactics they use to keep their loyal consumers and help them succeed in their market share. Relating to the consumer emotionally allows them to care for the brand more and see it more than just a company.