What is instant gratification? To give it to you quick, Instant Gratification is an emotional response to getting what we want. And the decision to buy is emotional. Instant gratification brings us pleasure, and naturally encourages us to seek out more pleasure. And when that pleasure is being triggered by making a purchase from your brand, then you are in an amazing position to create brand loyalty.
Remember, no matter what business you are in Brand Loyalty is your business plan.
We as consumers now see between 5,000 to 10,000 brand messages a day, and to help us wade through this wave of information, we’ve become professional deleters. Research shows that the average person automatically deletes from memory, around 99% of ads we see everyday. To Come Out of Nowhere and Become an Inspiration to Millions, a brand needs to be crystal clear about what they can offer their client RIGHT NOW. So without further ado, I give you:
Three Ways to Use Instant Gratification to Build Your Brand
1. Pass The Blink Test!
We can’t talk about Instant Gratification in Branding without talking about the first instant your Ideal Individuals encounter your brand. Your brand’s name, tagline, and logo has about 3-5 seconds of your Ideal Individual’s time, to either inspire them to dive in, or else you get deleted. This is called The Blink Test, because if your brand doesn’t grab them in that blink of an instant, then they are gone in a flash! Passing The Blink Test is hands-down the most vital imperative for any brand who wants to Come Out of Nowhere. There’s not a single brand on the Fortune 100 who hasn’t had to learn how to pass The Blink Test, and it’s so important for the ultimate success of any brand, that I’ve created an entire masterclass that is focused on helping brands just like yours to ace The Blink Test like crazy. But since this is an episode on Instant Gratification, I’m going to distill a few key points for you right here and now.
Okay, so Name, Tagline, Logo. Boom! It pops up into view in front of your Ideal Individual and Blink! What is the number #1 thing they need from your brand in that Instant? To FEEL something. The decision to buy is emotional.
When it comes to naming your brand, I always tell my clients to name the ONE emotion they most want to inspire in their Ideal Individual first, BEFORE they name their brand. Because that one emotion is going to become the guiding principle upon which every other aspect of their branding message must be built.
We are moving pretty quick here, and there is a strategy for determining what the best emotion for your brand community will be, and if you’d like me to make you an episode that hones in on that strategy, let me know by typing #OneEmotion in the comments below, and I will get right on it. For now, here’s what you need to know most. Whatever that one emotion is that you choose for your brand, to get your Name, Tagline, and Logo to pass The Blink Test, that one emotion needs to be consistently represented across all three. So basically in the blink of an instant, you use your Name, tagline, and logo to triple-down on inspiring a feeling within your ideal individual that triggers the desire to look closer.
2. Be a Rapid Responder.
This one is very straight forward, and it is rooted in customer service, but I’m not going to go into telling you about the importance of making returns fast and easy, getting tracking numbers sent out within the first 24 hours, or having 24/7 live customer service. But what I will tell you is that a recent study found that 87% of consumers measure ALL brands against just a handful of top brands, such as Amazon, Apple, or Starbucks.
So basically, a person can decide never to come back to your restaurant again, because their waiter wasn’t as accommodating as an Amazon customer service agent. Remember, Instant Gratification is now the expectation, especially when it comes to customer service. And you know what? I don’t need to tell you that, because you, yourself are a modern day consumer. And so you know from personal experience, how important it is to receive quick answers and simple solutions from live agents, and to have your satisfaction be regarded as an urgent priority by the brands you love.
But here’s an aspect of it that isn’t talked about quite as much: Being a rapid responder can also mean having an attentive online presence. Your ideal individuals will delight in having kind, helpful, and amusing discourse with your brand’s online personality. Remember when I told you that one emotion is going to be the guiding principle for every aspect of your branding message? Well, here’s a perfect example; your brand’s online personality.
A few brands who are really knocking this out of the ballpark would be Oreo, yeah—the cookies. Their online personality is an actual cookie. And that cookie responds personally to as many online questions and comments as it possibly can in one day. You maybe wouldn’t expect Oreo to have red hot online engagement, but do they ever! People want to know what that silly sweet cookie is gonna come up with next!
Another brand would be BarkBox. Their online personality is a puppy, and their brand loyalists engage on Barkbox’s social media platforms just to see what the puppy will say. And when the puppy responds to them directly, it’s an instant win.
One more great example is Wendy’s, who has 3.6 billion (with a B) followers on just Twitter alone. And that’s not all, the surly and often biting wit of Wendy’s online personality is also responsible for a 49.7% increase in profit since they began employing this tactic in 2017. Wow. Wendy’s has become infamous for taking jabs at their competitors, such as retweeting McDonalds with an added remark such as “When the tweets are as broken as the ice cream machines.” And for retweeting people who post criticisms of their competitors. And people love it. Now a sarcastic tone is certainly not right for every brand community, but a strong, consistent, and authentic personality that is aligned with your brand’s key emotion, IS right for every brand.
3. Make Big (Attainable) Promises
Instant gratification is a two part equation consisting of the desirable thing your brand is offering, and the immediate means to get it. Now if what your brand offers is the satisfaction that comes from owning a product itself, then you just need to make sure to ship it out ASAP. But achieving instant gratification can become trickier if what your brand offers is a product or service that must be used consistently over a period of time in order to achieve the desired outcome.
Guess where that points us back to? That one emotion that inspired them to buy in the first place, and delivering on that emotion again and again and again. So here’s where I stand on keeping big attainable promises, and where I’ve helped multi-million dollar companies break through the next level using the powerful emotional trigger of Instant Gratification: Have a higher purpose. When your brand is reaching out beyond the boundaries of your business to do good in the world, to ease human suffering, to help heal the planet, to make the world a better, kinder, cleaner place for future generations—than supporting your brand becomes synonymous with doing something beautiful and inspiring for humanity. Find out what is most important to your ideal individuals, the causes that are most dear to their hearts, and then contribute to those causes in their name. When your big attainable promise is to make the world a better place, then that promise is kept the moment their order is placed. And you’ve just made the buy itself, an instant win.
So there you have it. Three Ways to Use Instant Gratification to Build Your Brand. Pass the Blink Test, Be a Rapid Responder, and Make Big Attainable Promises. And because you stuck around, like a mastermind, to learn everything you can about How to Come Out of Nowhere, I’m going to go ahead and give you: The Answer Key for Passing the Blink Test.
I want you to use it to help your brand rise up to the ultimate make-it-or-break-it moment in branding: Those first 3-5 seconds they see your name, tagline and logo.
Thank you so much for joining me! Keep treating these articles as a masterclass for becoming an Inspiration to Millions with Branding and be sure to follow me on FB and YouTube so you don’t miss a single thing! And as always the way to becoming an Inspiration to Millions starts with our motto: Love What You Do and Love How You Do It.