Published on December 5, 2009 in Uncategorized. Closed
In order to develop your brand’s lovable characteristics, you’ll need a set of values for guidance. I believe the best frame of reference for this task is the concept of ‘friendship’.
You’ve heard the saying… “To have a friend, first you have to be one”. This clarifies everything! To have any chance of developing long term, mutually beneficial relationships with our employees, suppliers, customers and prospects, we need to treat them in the same manner we would treat a dear friend.
All we need to do when considering an existing or new brand characteristic is to ‘Friend Frame’ it. We need to ask ourselves the question… “Is this a characteristic I would want my customer to experience if that customer was a dear friend?”
Would I over-promise or bend the truth in any way? Never. Would I insist on a ‘no cash refund’ policy and only offer a store credit if my dear friend was not satisfied? Definitely not. Would I want to know if my dear friend was happy with their purchase? Definitely.
Can you see and feel the power of this ‘friend framing’ paradigm? It’s an extremely potent, all encompassing ‘true north’ concept for shaping a lovable brand.
So why should we measure and strive for lovability?
Well, we’ve known for a long time that people are mainly influenced by emotion when deciding whether to support a product, service or entity. So, from a branding perspective, it makes sense for us to focus on this human trait and wrap our offerings in a thick layer of positive emotions.
Consider these 3 potential advantages…
Lovability leads to efficiency. Think about it. The more lovable your brand, the higher the percentage of prospects who’ll want what you have to offer. There will be less friction when trying to turn these prospects into customers. You’ll get more referrals, more free publicity. Your cost per lead and cost per conversion will fall. These real cost savings will transfer to your bottom line.
Love [the experience often caused by being lovable], is usually the basis for a lasting relationship. That’s because when love is in the air, breaking up is hard to do. So if we want long term, lasting relationships with our customers, it’s a no brainer. We must continually look for ways to make our brands more lovable.
When people are in love, they’re more likely to be loyal. Therefore, becoming more lovable in order to attract ‘loving’ supporters is definitely worth the effort. If people love your brand, they’re more likely to support your brand at a higher level.
It took a bit longer than planned, however I’ve now finished the manifesto I alluded to in my last post. I’ll upload it in sections over the coming weeks. It’s called… Love Cap.
Love Cap [luv kap] – Shortened form of Love Capital
Noun. Informal.
Definition… A form of wealth. A measure of the total love felt for a brand by its customers, prospects, shareholders and other stakeholders. In this definition, the word love represents any of the 35 odd positive (primary, secondary and tertiary) emotions humans are capable of feeling about a product, service or entity.
Love Capital is a newly defined asset class, the value of which can predict the future potential of your brand. It‘s the measure of the love felt for your brand by all stakeholders.
Consider your brand or the brand you represent. If your brand was a person, would you be instantly drawn to them? Would they have characteristics that are more appealing and magnetic than all the other people you know? Would they be the type of person you’d like to have as a dear friend?
In the vast majority of cases, the answer to these three questions is no.
Most brands (possibly your brand), have few characteristics that are significantly more attractive, more magnetic or more lovable than competing brands. Most brands are just brands with inadequate Love Capital.
I can’t think of a better way to begin helping you with your marketing than to draw your attention to what I believe to be a near perfect example of ‘trust-centric’ marketing.
On the 14 of October 2008, Apple announced the release of their new MacBook and MacBook Pro. The release was supported by the publishing of a trust-building video that does an excellent job of ‘making the invisible visible’.
If you’re up for a quick lesson on how to build trust, credibility and value into a product or service quickly… I strongly recommend you watch this video below.
Better still… Create one of your own and build more trust in your brand.