discovered FreshBooks a few years ago, I was intrigued. At the time, my client roster wasn't big enough to need the company's bigger plans, so I started with its free option.
As my business grew, my accounting needs did, too. But I
still wasn't big enough for all of the features wrapped into FreshBooks'
cheapest paid account. I needed something in between, so I did what a lot of
customers might do: I reached out to the company's support team.
Less than 30 minutes later, I got this response:
Fast response: Check.
Friendly, personal tone: Check.
Creative, thoughtful solution to a small customer's even
smaller problem: Check.
Because of just one email, I fell in love with everything
FreshBooks stood for, and I became a customer for life.
The Unsurprising Benefits of Brand Love
You've probably had a similar experience with one of your
favorite brands. Very generally, that sense of "love" can be defined
by the ways a particular brand makes you feel more engaged, upbeat, and
warmhearted.
Those tangible feelings constitute just one of the
psychological pillars that encapsulate brand admiration —a new concept
introduced by marketing researchers C. Whan Park, Deborah J. MacInnis, and
Andreas B. Eisingerich in their forthcoming book, Brand Admiration: The Exponential Effect of Brand Love, Trust, and
Respect.
In that book, the authors share findings from years of
research that confirm an interesting—if unsurprising—truth: Brands that manage
to evoke senses of warmth, empathy, and gratitude (psychological attributes
generally associated with love) create connections with people that can yield
very powerful competitive advantages.
Specifically, beloved brands often benefit from...
A higher tolerance for mistakes or
product failure
Faster adoption of new products or
services
Stronger and more organic customer
loyalty and advocacy
More engaged, inspired, and fulfilled
employees
A more diverse and more talented pool
of prospective employees
Very simply: when a brand is loved, its relationship with
the people who adore it becomes rooted in symbiotic mutualism—a state in which
two different parties directly benefit from (and thrive off of) the actions of
each other.
Brand Love in Action: Examples of How B2B and B2C Brands
Cultivate Love
Inspiring and evoking these feelings of love aren't
accidental. Cultivating and fostering love require a purposeful, methodical,
and strategic process that builds and develops meaningful relationships over
time.
A good—and somewhat unexpected—example of this strategic
process in action is Caterpillar's. Over the years, the industrial construction
machinery giant has made some interesting and unusual moves that have led to a
unique relationship with its independent dealers:
Dealers have the unique opportunity to schedule a meeting
with Caterpillar's CEO.
When dealers agree to sell Caterpillar's products, they
sign a short-term agreement with no expiration date, which goes against
industry standards and gives dealers greater flexibility.
To mitigate the concerns of independent, family-owned
dealers who might be concerned about continuity in the face of retirement,
Caterpillar organizes conferences and networking events to introduce the
children of dealership owners to the Caterpillar brand.
Collectively, those strategic actions go a long way toward
building relationships that are deeply rooted in mutual love, trust, and
respect (the latter two are also pillars of the brand admiration framework).
Caterpillar dealers love how they're treated, and they
respond to the brand with a kind of loyalty and commitment unmatched in the
industry.
Another great example of a beloved brand is Trader Joe's,
the popular California-based grocery chain.
Unlike most grocery stores, Trader Joe's prides itself on
an experience that feels more like a food discovery adventure than a
traditional grocery shopping trip. Employees roam the aisles to help customers
discover new items and share recipe ideas. The business sends out a monthly
direct-mail newsletter—the "Fearless Flyer” – that tells the story behind
new products in a fun, whimsical way. And the checkout process feels friendly,
intimate, and personal—a result, in part, of the company's commitment to paying
every employee a living wage.
Those efforts don't go unnoticed by customers. From 2012
to 2015, Trader Joe's was named America's favorite grocery store. And, in 2014,
one report found that Trader Joe's sold an average of $1,734 per square foot, a
number that dwarfs one of its biggest competitors: Whole Foods, which averages
sales of $390 per square foot.
How Can Your Brand Cultivate and Foster Unconditional
Love?
So, how can your brand foster the kind of unconditional
love that people feel for brands like Caterpillar and Trader Joe's?
Very simply, it starts with identifying the specific brand
attributes that define you and which will serve as the fuel for transformative
business results. More tangibly, your goal should be to look for opportunities
to...
Stimulate the senses and the mind: The more you
can enhance sensory and cognitive stimulation (as is the case with Trader
Joe's), the better your chances are of developing deep feelings of mutual love
among stakeholders.
Warm the heart: When your brand evokes feelings of
warmth, gratitude, and empathy, people respond in kind with feelings of
commitment, loyalty, and advocacy (consider the FreshBooks example).
Ultimately, your brand has something that makes...
-People want to work for it
-Customers buy
from it
-Partners want
to do business with it
Success happens when your entire team is on the same page
and when the principles behind brand admiration – including brand love—are
infused throughout your organization.
Written
by: Josh Zywien
Credit:
marketingprofs.com
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