The Importance of Emotional Investment in a Brand
Did you ever wonder what makes us subscribe to a political ideology? When people support one particular leader, they tend to support all their actions, even make excuses for their missteps. Why do you suppose this is? This is because emotions are involved here. When a person is emotionally invested in something, they tend to be very loyal to it. Brands are the same. If your brand messaging is able to get your customers emotionally invested in your brand, your brand will command lasting loyalty and allegiance. So how do you get that emotional response and what makes customers emotionally invested in a brand? Well, the answer has to do with the hearts of customers and not their heads.
The heads and hearts of your customers.
Emotional branding has to do with appealing to the hearts rather than the heads of people. So instead of telling them that a product has good features or is cost effective, you appeal to the emotions of a person. The brand messaging tells people that the brand shares values that are important to a person. The brand must come across as someone unique, admirable, and appealing at more than one level. This kind of branding depends upon making people feel. The brand has to be something that one identifies with, and very importantly wants to be seen to be identified with.
Take the L’Oréal tagline – You’re Worth It! It’s short, simple, and pithy but it carries with it a compelling message inviting a person to the brand. It implies that the product is the best and that only the best is good enough for you. It tells you that even if the price point is a little higher than other products in its class, you’re worthy or valuable enough to spend that little bit extra. The brand messaging appeals to the buyer’s self-worth here.
Remember that film Like a Girl made by a feminine hygiene products brand? It spoke about how gender roles are not instinctive but learned. It appealed to every woman who has suffered discrimination or bias because of these gender stereotypes – it made her identify with a brand that understood. Remember how Bill Gates released mosquitoes that he said were ‘malaria-infected’ into the audience he was addressing on behalf of the Gates Foundation? He wanted to send out the message about malaria still impacting millions. Here he used shock to get the attention of his audience. You can watch my video [INSERT LINK] to know what else he did to drive home his point in the most effective, emotional way.
We remember emotions.
Maybe you forgot where you kept your car keys ten minutes ago and maybe you’re not sure whether you had fish for lunch yesterday or the day before. These are not emotional issues. They didn’t involve more than one of your senses. They were too neutral to stick in your memory. On the other hand, you probably remember every detail of, say the day you got married or held your child in your arms for the first time: dates, the weather, what it smelt like, everything. Maybe a snatch of music connected with that day will forever be evocative for you.
As a branding expert, I recommend creating that ‘Wow’ moment to catch the attention and snag the emotions of your ideal audience. What are some ways to tailor your brand’s messaging? The first is to offer new or startling information — to arrest attention and provoke thought. Watch How to Get Customers Emotionally Invested in Your Brand https://youtu.be/zPIsq8TeCk8 where I dive deep into this and other surefire ways to make your brand unforgettable.