The conference was packed with inspiration, and we won’t be able to share everything with you in just one article. In this first article, we’ll start off gently: we’ll look at how to make people love your company. Next time, we’ll share tips on how to carry out a complete rebranding and choose a brand name or a name for a new product.
Customers are indifferent to brands, but they might remember you
A brand is usually far more important to marketers than to customers. This sad truth was discussed at the Marketing Festival, and we wrote about it here. Nevertheless
, you can find a way into customers’ hearts. The trick is simple, in the words of writer and activist Maya Angelou:
“People may not remember what you said or what you did. But they will always remember how you made them feel.”
At Brandstorming, the quote was recalled by people from the Pábení agency, albeit with a slight paraphrase. After all, there is no such thing as “always” in marketing. We wrote about this after the Marketing Festival and we’ll say it again: the key is to make your customer feel cared for.
It’s just like in our personal lives; we’ve all experienced it first-hand. But we leave exactly the same impression on people through our brand. This applies in any industry, even in the B2B sector: customer service is what a company stands or falls on. Everyone wants to sell; stand out from the crowd.
Surveys can be misleading
Hollandia knows a thing or two about how disloyal customers can be to a brand. You may have noticed the rebrand in shops, or perhaps you’ve read about it. The original Czech brand launched with Dutch product designs and mills. It began promoting its products with slogans that emphasised quality. For example: ‘I’m no sweet tooth’ or ‘My mum was a cow’.
© Hollandia, Source: National Advertising Gallery
In surveys, mums (who are the main target group) would claim that they support local products and brands. But these surveys often lie. Hollandia compared the results with actual purchasing behaviour. Mums say one thing about what they’d like to do, but end up doing something else entirely. In reality, they buy yoghurt that’s on offer, or that they’ve had a good experience with before, and don’t give a second thought to where it was made.
Behavioural research has shown that most customers simply don’t care whether a product is Czech, German or Dutch. The focus, therefore, was not on patriotism, but on health. According to the survey, this is the issue that mothers are most interested in.
If you want to change any aspect of your brand or services, first check three times whether customers actually want it, or are just saying so. Very often, respondents try to present themselves in a better light. It’s much more classy to say: ‘I buy Czech brands,’ than ‘well, you know, children are expensive, I often buy on special offer.’
How to get someone to get your brand tattooed on their arse
A spot on the forehead (or another part of the body) of some lover of extravagance can be bought at a high price. The Forbidden brand has presented an alternative approach.
Performance-based campaigns are ceasing to work for a whole host of companies, or are becoming very expensive. As soon as they stop working for you too, it’s time to start planning changes and innovating your brand. Many brand managers find this hard to take and come up with rebranding strategies and other drastic measures. But there’s no need to change the name; it’s enough to update the brand’s content and better define the target groups. It’s possible that the desires of the customers the brand was responding to have changed. It’s always necessary to verify the reasons for rebranding and only then look for other avenues.
A brand that people are happy to have tattooed on themselves can inspire people, pushing them beyond their limits. Or it can awaken a desire in customers to create art. Well, perhaps not get it tattooed, but they’ll be happy to show it off on social media. Pushing boundaries is something you see mainly with sports brands, whilst cosmetic brands, for example, try to appeal to the artistic soul.