HEY NOW: Consumers with an emotional connection to a brand have a 306% higher customer lifetime value, stay with a brand for an average of 5.1 years vs. 3.4 years, and will recommend brands at a much higher rate (71% vs. 45%) according to Retail TouchPoints but they don’t have the emotional bandwidth tor every brand.
I love my breakfast burritos but I don’t, by any means, have an emotional connection to them or the grocery store where I purchase them. As long as they are good and affordable I will keep buying them. On the other hand I do love my Trek bikes and have been a Subaru customer for over 20 years. I do feel an emotional connection to both of those brands. Marketers have to understand that a lot of products we purchase are not deeply ingrained in an emotional connection.
In an era of “fake news”, rising consumer anger and increasing private panel label salespeople want brands to perform at their basic level: satisfy my needs. If I purchase a frozen pizza or some yogurt, I want them to be priced fairly and stop my hunger. I’m not about to follow them on social media or cuddle them. If they let me down, I’ll drop them like a bad habit.
Here are some facts about brand loyalty:
1ne: 77 percent of all consumers admitted they now retract their loyalty more quickly than they did three years ago.
2wo: 61 percent switched some or all of their business from one brand or provider to another in the last year.
What this tells me is that consumers have high expectations while brands continue to talk at people instead of listening to them. Does this mean your brand can’t have an emotional connection? Absolutely not. What it means is you need to better understand WHY your customers are buying from you.
One of the reasons private label us ring so fast is because shoppers don’t have emotional attachments to brands. They want value and brands can’t match the promise if some private label brands.
The other problem that I see is too many MBAs trying to quantify consumer behavior when it can’t be quantified. The first thing I learned as a marketer is that consumers don’t necessarily make logical choices when purchasing products.
Emotional connections my ass…
