With shrinking attention spans and endless choices, building brand love is vital in growing your customer base. It can turn a transaction into a connection and a shopper into a fan. It’s the ultimate competitive advantage, when brands become something people don’t just choose, but champion.

What’s at its heart?

• An emotional bond that transcends transactional relationships
• A dynamic connection that evolves over time
• Driven by three facts: Relevance, Desire and Trust
  

How does it make us feel as consumers?

• Passionate (or at the very least affectionate)
• Creates cravings and desire
• Potential separation anxiety
• Savvy for being ‘in the know’ and having great taste
• Strong loyalty and advocacy

What does it deliver for business?

• Improves acceptance of premium prices
• Accelerates adoption of brand innovations and extensions
• Enhances brand durability
• Builds brand equity
• Works as a multiplier for your marketing campaigns

Brands that make us fall in love

Airbnb

Focusing on reasons to love its brand is paying off for Airbnb, the global digital accommodation platform.

The company refocused its marketing on the brand to reduce reliance on paid search engine results – an impressive 90% of traffic is now direct or unpaid.

It is also easier for the company to educate consumers about new features such as Airbnb categories (a way to find one-off and unique features, from Chef’s Kitchens to Shepherd’s Huts), Airbnb experiences (on-the-ground activities) and AirCover insurance for hosts.

Bookings are up 25%, the value of bookings is up 31% and overall revenue is up 29%.

Tony’s Chocolonely

Tony’s is on a mission to make chocolate 100% free of human exploitation. The activist brand’s madcap marketing divides consumers – their bars are divided into different-sized as a physical reminder that profits in the chocolate industry are unequally divided. People sometimes complain they can’t share them fairly – but that’s the point. Similarly, their Holiday Calendar had no chocolate behind Window No8.

But the people who love Tony’s, really love Tony’s. On 4 February the company reported 33% growth for 2023/4, with an 86% increase in business in the US post launches in giant retailers like Walmart. A fierce desire to do good and a wicked sense of humour is loveable in a person, so why not a brand?

Seven qualities of a loveable brand

1. Personality

Every brand should define a personality at the intersection of itself and what is most appealing to its target audience. Your personality should be clearly defined and consistently communicated, coming to life in everything you do, inside and out.

2. Purpose

As with Tony’s, social conscience is a highly attractive attribute for a brand, even for commercial brands and especially if they do good in their community, adding to their love rating.

3. Authenticity

Brand authenticity is a great way to (among other things) create a framework for selecting, hiring and training employees who will be effective brand ambassadors. The best brands encourage employees to be themselves while creating an engaging brand experience.

4. Trust

Trust is crucial for brands, especially if you want to be loved. And keeping your promises is the most important element in building trust. Branding is described as the ‘promise you make’ about your product or service. It’s natural to break promises from time to time, but if you do everything you can to keep them and are serious about it, your brand will be resilient. This is doubly true for popular brands.

5. Passion

Whether it’s attracting talent excited about what makes your brand exceptional or the ripple effect of sharing your passion with your customer community, passion is about sharing.

6. Unique Experience

The harder you try to create a unique brand experience for your customers, the more likely it is to differentiate you from your competitors. Sounds obvious, but can you create something so unique it puts you in a category of one? World-class customer experience should not be the domain of luxury brands only.

7. A Great Story

Stories have always been deeply rooted place in our lives.  Brands that tell wonderful stories have a powerful tool to build lasting connections with their audience – and even love.

Where is the love in your brand? Get in touch here.