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Emotional Branding

The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People

By Marc Gobé

Published by Allworth Press

ISBN 1581150784

2001

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Introduction

In today's hyper-competitive marketplace, goods or services alone are no longer enough to attract new customers or even maintain existing ones. Now it's the emotional aspects of products and their distribution systems that are the key factors in consumers' ultimate choice and the price they'll pay.

In this context, "emotional" means how a brand engages consumers on the level of the senses and emotions - how a brand comes to life for people and forges a deeper, lasting connection.

Understanding people's emotional needs and desires, therefore, is now the key to success. Companies today need to bring people the products they desire, exactly when they want them, through venues that are both inspiring and intimately responsive to their needs. That requires emotional branding, a dynamic cocktail of anthropology, creativity, sensory experiences and a visionary approach to change.

Emotional branding creates the means and methodology for connecting products to consumers in an emotionally profound way. It focuses on the most compelling aspect of the human character - the desire to transcend material satisfaction and experience emotional fulfillment. A brand is uniquely able to achieve this because it can tap into the aspirational drives that underlie human motivation.

There are four pillars to emotional branding:

• Relationship: Companies must become profoundly in touch with and show respect for their customers, developing relationships that give customers the emotional experiences they really want.

• Sensorial Experiences: Companies must provide customers with a sensorial experience of the brand, achieving a memorable emotional connection.

• Imagination: Imaginative approaches must be taken to product design, to delight customers.

• Vision: Companies must develop a strong, cohesive brand vision.

The Ascendance of the Individual

Emotional branding is a means of creating a personal dialogue with people. Consumers today expect their brands to know them - intimately and individually - with a solid understanding of their needs and cultural orientation. This is a greater challenge than ever before in today's increasingly complex marketplace, where we find global consumers with very different values. Brands will have to connect in future with innovative products that are culturally relevant and socially sensitive, with a presence at all points of contact in people's lives.

Traditionally, branding strategies have been propelled by the effort to get market share. Today the goal is "mind and emotions share."

The modes of distribution are starting to adapt to this new imperative - and the trend will only continue. Many malls, for example, are now suffering from a retail glut in which too many similar brands are being sold at highly competitive price points. However, the mall is in the process of being reinvented as an exciting community entertainment and cultural center. Examples are the Easton Town Center mall in Columbus, Ohio; the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.; and England's Bluewater mall. These are highly creative, imaginative entertainment complexes with theme parks, restaurants, aquariums, "learning centers," shows and concerts - you name it!

They understand that retail environments in the Internet age will have to become places to build brand images, not just places to sell products. Stores will have to bond emotionally with consumers through retail design and merchandising strategies that incorporate imaginative features, offering the kind of entertainment and sensory appeal that can't be found on the Web. In the stores of tomorrow, "buying" will be replaced by "the art of shopping," which is less about purchasing and more about experiencing brands.

From Branding to Emotional Branding

Over 3,000 new brands are introduced each year, not including e-brands. What's the difference between Ralph Lauren's new fragrance Romance and Estée Lauder's Pleasures? Between one cola and another? A particular sneaker and its competitor? The many different kinds of jeans, coffees or gas stations? In this ocean of offerings, the emotional connection is what makes the all-important difference.

Take Starbucks. Instead of building business through mass advertising, it went the emotional route, enchanting customers with the romance of coffee drinking. Evian created a waterdrop-shaped bottle to mark the millennium. It was about seeing water in a whole new way through groundbreaking design, taste, home decoration and by evoking a sensory experience with the water bottle.

Emotional branding is the conduit by which people connect subliminally with companies and their products in an emotionally profound way. Sony's innovation, France's romance, Gucci's sensual elegance, Vogue's insatiable glamour and Tiger Woods' amazing drive and spirit reach us emotionally by striking our imagination and offering promise of new realms.

The Ten Commandments of Emotional Branding

These rules illustrate the difference between traditional concepts of brand awareness and the emotional distinction a brand needs to express to become preferred.

1. From Consumers to People. Consumers buy, people live. In communication circles, the consumer has often been approached as an enemy who must be attacked. But to create desire, it's best to use a win-win approach based on a relationship of mutual respect. After all, the consumer is your best source of information.

2. From Products to Experiences. Products fulfill needs, while experiences fulfill desires. Product or shopping experiences, such as REI stores' rock climbing walls or the Discovery Channel stores' myriad of "sound zones," have added value and will remain in the consumer's emotional memory as a connection made on a level far beyond need.

3. From Honesty to Trust. Honesty is expected. Trust is engaging and intimate. It needs to be earned. Trust is one of a brand's most important values and requires real effort from corporations. Trust shouldn't be difficult to understand - it's what you'd expect from a friend.

4. From Quality to Preference. Quality for the right price is a given today. Preference creates the sale. Preference for a brand is the real connection to success. Levi's is a quality brand but has lost its preferred status. Victoria's Secret, which has achieved an enviable and highly charged emotional connection with consumers, is revolutionizing a new category and redefining the hosiery and beauty businesses. There's no stopping a brand when it's preferred.

5. From Notoriety to Aspiration. Being known doesn't mean you're also loved. Notoriety gets you known. But if you want to be desired, you must convey something that's in keeping with the customer's aspirations. Beyond awareness, for example, what does AT&T really mean to consumers on an emotional level? Is there any real difference for people - emotional difference - between Exxon, Mobil and Texaco? Nike is still a very well-known brand, but is it as inspirational as it used to be?

6. From Identity to Personality. Identity is recognition. Personality is about character and charisma. Brand identities are unique and express a point of difference with the competition. But that's only the starting point. Brand personalities, on the other hand, are special. They have a charismatic character that provokes an emotional response. American Airlines has a strong identity but Virgin Airlines has personality.

7. From Function to Feel. The functionality of a product is about practical or superficial qualities only. Sensorial design is about experiences. Functionality can be trite if its appearance and usage aren't also designed for the senses. Many marketers design for maximum function or visibility and not for the real experience of the consumer. Design should present a new set of sensory experiences.

8. From Ubiquity to Presence. Ubiquity is seen. Emotional presence is felt. Brand presence can have quite an impact on the consumer. It can forge a permanent connection with people, especially if it's developed as a lifestyle program. Joe Boxer's wacky underwear vending machines that tell jokes and call out to passersby, "Hey, do you need some new underwear?" are an inventive way of standing out and making a connection.

9. From Communications to Dialogue. Communication is telling. Dialogue is sharing. Most advertising budgets still concentrate on approaching consumers with massive bomber-like attacks on the target audience. Instead, real dialogue implies a two-way street, a conversation with the consumer. Progress in digital media is now allowing this evolution to take place, and finally will help foster a rewarding partnership between people and corporations.

10. From Service to Relationships. Service is selling. Relationship is acknowledgment. Who doesn't feel special when someone in a store or restaurant welcomes them by their own name? Relationship means that the brand representatives really seek to understand and appreciate who their customers are. It's what you feel when you walk into a store and find that the music, decor and salespeople all speak the same language - the customer's.

Conclusion

Branding is a people-to-people business, not a factory-to-people business. A brand needs to have human qualities and emotional values - it needs personality, expressing corporate culture through imagery that engages people. If you can make consumers desire a partnership with your brand, you've created an emotional connection that spells long-term success.

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About the Author: Marc Gobé is president, CEO and executive creative director of Desgrippes Gobé, a brand image creation firm specializing in identity, product, packaging, retail and web design.

Related Reading

Any of these books can be ordered directly from Amazon (A), Barnes & Noble (B) or Chapters (C).

Emotional Branding: How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge, by Daryl Travis, Prima Publishing, 2000, ISBN 076152911X. A B C

Smart Things to Know About Brands and Branding, by John L. Mariotti, Capstone Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1841120391. A B C

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand, by Laura Ries and Al Ries, HarperCollins, 1998, ISBN 0887309372. A B C

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