Rosina Webb, founder and Brand Director of Energise, explores the concept of Brand Love in this article, highlighting its significance as a powerful marketing strategy. She discusses how building an emotional connection with customers through trust, engagement, and loyalty fosters long-term brand loyalty. Rosina also emphasises the importance of cultivating Brand Love internally among employees to inspire the same feelings in customers, using examples like Apple and Whittakers Chocolate to demonstrate the impact of this approach. Read below to learn more.

Think about all the times you’ve said or heard, “I love that brand!” and what’s driven that feeling. More than likely, that brand you love is cultivating your connection, and with good reason.

Brand Love is an incredibly powerful marketing strategy that focuses on building an emotional connection with customers. The strategy combines engagement, loyalty, and outstanding customer service. It goes well beyond simply filling a need, rather causing customers to form a deep connection with a brand.

Building connection with your customers

Emotions play a huge part in purchase decisions. Whether consciously or not, customers are often influenced by an alignment with a brand’s values and purchases are driven by the trust and connection that alignment builds. Edelman’s 2023 Trust Barometer reports that 71% of people say that trust in a brand is more important than ever, while Forbes states that 76% of people will buy from a brand they feel connected to, over a competitor.

If you can form close connections with your customers and turn them into loyal advocates, you’ll have an army of fans who are more than happy to recommend your products or services to others.  And who doesn’t want that?

Where does brand love come from?

There’s an old saying that goes: “You can’t make anyone love you without loving yourself first.” This is true for both people and brands.

To truly inspire brand love in your customers, you must first inspire brand love in your employees. And not just in your senior management or marketing teams, you need to inspire love in every employee whatever their role in your business.

Your employees are the physical embodiment of your brand. Whether, it’s on the phone, over email or in person, their behaviour will have the biggest impact on your customer’s perception of your brand and their relationship with it.

Happy, valued employees breed happy, valued customers, so make sure you have the internal systems in place that help foster a positive, nurturing atmosphere for your staff. This starts at the recruitment process and goes all the way through to remuneration and recognition systems. 

Some examples of the best loved brands

Some brands, both global and homegrown, consistently top polls for the most trusted and loved brands. To get you started on how you can inspire brand love, here’s some food for thought on two well-loved brands:

Apple – Recognised as the world’s most loved brand for the third consecutive year, they consistently produce innovative products that people trust to improve their lives. Their products are known for their leading tech, ease of use, and slick style. All of these factors combine to make Apple fans feel part of a group that is stylish and elite. Die-hard Apple fans are known to purchase anything and everything that the company produces whether they need an upgrade or not.

Whittakers Chocolate – Whittakers is a homegrown Kiwi success story, having been voted New Zealand’s Most Loved Brand eight years running. They use a combination of high-profile partnerships (e.g. Nigella Lawson and Tip Top), effective brand advertising, and innovative new products (e.g. Garage Project chocolate beer and L&P chocolate) to build their brand equity with customers. New product releases are highly anticipated, trending on social media and making news reports.

Inspiring brand love and trust in your customers is one of the best things you can do to build customer retention. Customers who love and trust your business will return time and time again, consistently choosing you over your competitors.

To sum up

If you would like help on your brand love journey, get in touch with us, our experts can solve the toughest brand challenges and get your business on the way to becoming one of New Zealand’s best loved brands. Or for more information on brand love, check out our blog on the 5 steps of the brand love journey.

Source: Rosina Webb, 10 September 2024