Minor Task

Within week 10’s lecture ‘Beyond the Brand’.Daniel set use another minor task that I had to complete based on brand value and respect.

My Task- find 3 brands/businesses that you respect and study how they form emotional relationships with their customers.

Research into emotional connections in brands

Why do people make and emotional connection to a brand?

People become emotionally connected to a brand for a number of reasons:

• The brand stands for something important to them. It shares values with them.
• The brand is intense and vibrant. It connects with people on multiple levels across several senses.
• The brand is unique.
• The brand is admirable.
• The brand consistently interacts with them. It never disappoints them.
• The brand makes them feel good.

Rolf Jensen wrote a book called The Dream Society and he makes the case for a shift from an information society to a dream society in which imagination and storytelling become the primary drivers of value. Within this book he identifies and discusses six emerging emotion-based markets:

1. Adventure
2. Community (togetherness, friendship, and love)
3. Providing and receiving care
4. Self-expression (“Who am I?”)
5. Peace of mind
6. Standing for something (convictions)

He states that any brand that seeks to create emotional connection should find ways to tap into these and other underlying human motives.

Brand 1- Oh Polly

The first brand that I have chosen to talk about it is Oh Polly, which is a retail store that sells clothes. In order to study how they in fact form an emotional relationship with their customers I began to have a deeper look at their online presence including their social media and website.

Screenshots of their Instagram

I have included screenshots of their Instagram page as I follow them and interact with this social media platform on a frequent basis. From studying their social media I can easily see how they form an emotional relationship with us (their customers) and they do this in a number of ways. The brand encourages frequent, habit-forming interaction, they post on their instagram several times a day informing customers of competitions, sales and what next newest collection is dropping. This is an approach that builds both trust (as the customer can rely that they will find out important information about the brand everyday on this platform) and loyalty as the highly active social media space creates a sense of community with the brand and their active users.

Straight away the tag line, that is in capitals within their Instagram bio reads- ‘FOR GIRLS, BY GIRLS’, this is triggering an emotional response in all females who read this as they feel like this brand is for them and they therefore can connect to it and relate to it as they are girls. This approach draws in the customers that this brand is made more and grabs their attention immediately. This tag line is persistently used throughout their online presence and even on their packaging, I have included an image below of my Oh Polly box that has their famous phrase printed on.

Oh Polly tells a story within their brand, that story is that every girl deserves the best clothes, they radiate luxury and trend setting vibes throughout their brand presence on all platforms. With their language, highly active social media feeds and even their packaging Oh Polly was definitely a good brand to show how to inject emotional connection into a brand.

Brand 2- Lush

Lush is a brand that I highly respect and value, this is because I know that they support a lot of important causes including global warming and cruelty free products. I know all of this without even having to start any research into this company because they heavily advertise this aspect of their brand, they make sure that every customer is aware that their products are clean and eco friendly. Since they do this so clearly this immediately evokes an emotional response in people, even people who don’t necessarily care about issues that include eco friendly products.

They use rely heavily on language to present this to the world and to show that they have good morals and are a clean brand, they include this information on posters and signs thought the store, on their website, leaflets and pamphlets and even packaging of the products. This is a great way to get their message across and present their strong belief and the high volume of repetition of their beliefs is again evoking more and more people to have an emotional connection and feel like they want to interact with this company because they have good strong morals and beliefs and the audience can relate to these feelings or beliefs.

Their website

I took a look at their website and straight away I was informed of  their brand image and beliefs, for example I was quickly met with the information that their make up is cruelty free,  the letters were bold and in my face and I was finding myself having an emotional reaction already and I had been on the site less that 30 seconds.

Lush’s beliefs are a huge part of their brand and their main way of evoking emotional relationships and responses is their conviction- the are standing for something very important, they want to give their customers the best, healthiest, eco friendly products. They belief that that is the right thing to do and they want everyone to know it!

Brand 3-  Amazon

The final brand that I wanted to include is Amazon, I am a very loyal Amazon customer, when I need something fast and relatively cheap Amazon is where I go. I have went back to this brands website and app to study how they create an emotional connection with me and I think that one of the main approaches is the Peace of Mind market, for me personally I know that when I order something from Amazon I have peace of mind and trust that I will get that package the next day, I am loyal to this brand because of its fast delivery and I know if I need something quick Amazon will follow through and I can trust that they one, have that item that I need and two , I will receive it very fast.

Amazon is known for their fast delivery and reliable customer service, as well as their wide variety of products that they sell world wide. Amazon has gained a lot of respect over the years and I think that another way that they form emotional connections is through their message that there is something for everyone, as seen in their logo the arrow goes from A to Z, this indicates that amazon have an extensive list of products that is available world wide and that they have products for everyones needs no matter how big or small. This evokes the emotion of inclusivity and Amazons customers feel like they are catered for and they feel important and included in this business.

Another way amazon excels at this is through the use of ‘Top picks for you’ sections, as highlighted in the image above. Amazon pick out items they think their consumer would like based on their previous purchase history, this feature makes the consumer feel appreciated and inclcuded within the brand.

What did I learn?

This exercise was very beneficial, I never really looked at the brands that I purchase from and use everyday in this particular way. It got me to think about how brands make emotional connections and that is something that consumers aren’t aware and they form these connections everyday without even realising it. This task was useful because I know now the importance of forming emotional connections to my consumers and how this can make or break a brand and its image.

How can I use this?

I need to make emotional connections between me and my consumers as this is evidently a huge part of a brands success. To do so I will reflect and take inspiration from the brands above and use their techniques that suit my brand and the beliefs that I have. This could include being very active on Instagram or using imagery that display my work, or using language that directly targets the type of people that I want my brand to attract.