No two brands are created equal. Countless hours of market research, insights, and planning go into setting the stage for a memorable brand. Great brands aren’t born overnight, they are nurtured and evolved through the hands that purchase, use, consume or wear them. Household names that stand the test of time all have two things in common: trust and value.
Trust + Value = Brand Appeal
While value can be measured in both emotional and tangible dollar amounts, trust is primarily emotion. Trust is the single most difficult concept to market, yet it is what we all use to guide us through the purchasing process. For example, we want the detergent we can rely on to get our clothes clean — the same feeling we want when we send our children off to college — a school that will take care of our most loved extensions of ourselves. Trust is earned.
Many brands have navigated around trust but few have hit it straight on. Core values such as quality, professionalism, integrity, value, or reliability are common traits across many industries are not unique to a particular services or product. The more specific you are, the more you set yourself apart from your competitor.
When you completely align yourself with a brand’s core values and the brand’s product or service has rewarded you, you’re in love. If any of these factors vary, the likelihood of your recommending that product or service to a friend is questionable. This is a difference between liking and loving a brand.
To like a brand implies that you can be persuaded where as loving a brand suggests loyalty. Brand loyalty stems from trusting that the brand delivers on its promises each and every time — it performs at or above your expectations and, therefore, deserves your attention whether you are at the supermarket or a shopping mall.
The key to crossing the threshold from like to love is telling a good story. And great storytelling would take many more words than I can get into in this 350-word article.
Storytelling {Trust + Value} = Brand Loyalty
About Brand Poets
Brand Poets, founded by Tana M. Llinas, is a collective of strategists, storytellers, and modern day digital artisans, crafting smart, poignant campaigns that command attention.
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