Why Your Brand Needs to Get All Emotional

care-brand

It’s time to shift our thinking from “are they listening?” to “do they care?”

Consumer habits in our multi-platform world are changing, moving from a mass market mentality to a self-selected tribal approach. In magazine publishing, we see this in the increasing popularity of niche titles. In book publishing it’s evident in the burgeoning fan fiction arena. On just about any channel, the ability to choose our own path is becoming baked into the media.

This shift requires some careful rethinking of your promotional strategy, and a greater emphasis on creating content or ads that your customers care about. Whether you are a high end retailer creating gorgeous print ads or a consumer product aiming at a particular lifestyle with funny videos, the goal is to understand it’s no longer about interruption. It’s about making your audience care.

Shankar Gupta-Harrison, writing in Advertising Age, offers three good suggestions to making this shift.

Gaining stronger consumer insights is the first approach, followed by developing a strongly defined brand personality. What resonates most to me, though, is Gupta-Harrison’s third suggestion: “Go ahead, get all emotional.”

“This is a big shift in mindset for marketers that focus efforts on things like key message repetition and product romance shots. These communications often aren’t enough to break through and resonate with a disinterested and distracted consumer,” Gupta-Harrison notes.

“Figuring out that feeling for a brand and letting it lead communication is core to creating content that will draw people in.”

It starts with having a point of view that is unshakable, which comes down to having confidence in your brand and what you represent in the marketplace. Sure, the entire world won’t agree with you. And that’s okay.

“Figuring out that feeling for a brand and letting it lead communication is core to creating content that will draw people in,” Gupta-Harrison notes.

People don’t care about companies; they care about the things that matter to them. Tap into that mindset and your content will resonate with the tribe.