I compare branding to the process of contemporary dating!
It isn’t enough to say you love each other. You have to let others know how much you
love each other!
People want to know that their relationship with a brand is unique, so they tend to gravitate towards brands appropriate to their emotions/personal needs.
If you can find a way to show your audience how you understand them and do it uniquely, then there’s a good chance you will convert them into customers. The heart- brain connection is critical to brand appeal and how brands can connect with core stakeholders.
Even when they say that the wisest thing any company can do to protect itself is cultivating an image of transparency, there is still something more.
Successful companies worldwide aren’t necessarily the ones with the best product or services. Instead, they invest their energy into branding and connecting emotionally with people.
And, It’s something scientific too.
Marketing must focus on engaging your audience with emotions and facts later. Good marketing is emotional marketing. It is a fact of neurology.
The reptilian brain
When I say brands have to be seeded in people’s emotional heads, it is in their heads, nowhere else!
Have you heard about this reptilian brain of hoomans?
The oldest part of the brain is the reptilian area, which governs our instinct to survive and avoid pain. This area makes decisions for us!
So, you don’t necessarily have to threaten people’s lives to get their attention. If your brand can communicate better to solve their brain’s pain, the reptilian brain is potent and an instant way to connect with people.
Keep things simple: the reptilian brain can’t wrap its head around complexity.
People make emotional decisions when purchasing something. Your product, for example, might not be the cheapest, and customers will buy it based on emotion rather than rationality.
The reptilian brain doesn’t focus on details; it focuses on generalities and associated with things that make people happy, like warmth, family, and celebration.
Talking about the problems your product can solve is an essential part of selling to a potential customer. If you’re trying to get people to buy a piece of software, you’ll want to talk about how much time it can save them.
However, if you’re selling a more creative solution, you’ll want to focus on how much easier your product makes the creative process.
The point is, don’t just sell the product. Talk about why people should buy it and how it will naturally benefit them.
Several studies suggest that consumers have become mindless rather than mindful decision-makers. This is because their emotions have the power to cloud their thinking and their ability to evaluate or assess the options available to them.
When we see a product, brand or even service, we subconsciously assess whether it is good to buy or not. You may have needed to buy a new car or decide between two dresses. Of course, you want to trust your gut, but how can you? Why is that?
Some powerful psychological forces in decision-making make us go with our instincts rather than the rational thought process. It could result from a fascinating phenomenon in which people focus on emotional responses more than any other aspect of an expensive purchase.
Sure, it plays some role since the different layers often influence each other, but instincts are hard to ignore!!
Although you don’t have many competitors, customers can be difficult to please when they try to decipher what makes you different from them.
With this in mind, let’s talk about price. Price can be a strong selling point, but if you can prove the value your product or service will provide for customers, the cost will take a backseat as the primary consideration. With this approach, you’ll demonstrate why buying from you is an instinctually good move.
Even when you consider pricing, customer satisfaction and other factors, customers rely on their gut to make a final decision. We all have these mental mainframes that act like shortcuts that quickly lead us to a conclusion.
Talk about them.
Your audience and tribe are most likely thinking about themselves and their tribe. Why not give it a closer look?
Traditional advertising methods have become less and less effective. People are more concerned about how companies treat them as individuals rather than their experience with the brand.
Your consumers are more likely to concentrate if you talk about themselves.
When creating branding content, it’s super-important to consider how the product will benefit your target audience. Don’t assume that they know. Create a story and make them feel great.
Appealing to your emotional side while grounding it with facts and providing solutions is a powerful way to sell and market your service. People will want to know more; they will want to buy from you. The conversations will shift towards solving their real problems rather than figuring out how to be relevant.
You may be familiar with the cliched marketing phrase, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.” This quote is an important reminder for us marketers to stop talking specs and start talking benefits. People don’t care about your product, but they care about themselves. So it’s up to us to show them how they will feel when they have our product.
Branding is not about pushing your wares onto people. The key is to appeal to their emotional state and ground it with facts and relevant solutions.
