Real brands. That’s our mantra. Brands that walk the walk, are built around the truth and are the same on the inside as the outside. Hopefully you’ve got that message by now!
Our belief is also that brands need to connect emotionally with their customers and not just talk about the functional benefits of whatever their product or service is.
But why? I hear you ask. Well, here’s the lowdown:
Any business that talks about what it does not why it does it will struggle to create customer loyalty. This is because talking about just the functional stuff you do can easily be mirrored by a competitor – and then the only differentiator becomes the price. This is where you start to commoditise your offering. If you are happy to remain in a market where you’re just banging on about price then:
a) you’ll be comfortable with a fickle consumer who can easily be nicked by someone up the road selling something cheaper
b) don’t expect to build any customer loyalty to your brand
c) you’ll never be a Glow client
80% of business decisions are made on rapport not technical merit. Fact. We’ve all travelled out of our way to visit the shop with the nice family running it or been too tolerant of a slightly shit hairdresser just because we love them. Most purchasing decisions are based on head not heart.
So many B2B brands think this stuff doesn’t apply to them. Particularly those of you in the tech world! There seems to be this belief that technical superiority is enough to win business but again… what happens when the people up the road build something even more superior? B2B brands have to create an end-to-end customer experience including support, client relationships and added value to create customer loyalty. And guess what people?… that all needs to be developed around a unique proposition (aka a brand!).
Finally, in a B2C world trust is the number one driver of brand choice. And to build trust you have to have a consistent offering, one that is built around really hearing and understanding the customer and then being seen to actually care about what happens to them.
Stating the bleeding obvious, but we all know that customer loyalty means retention and that’s a much more cost effective way of driving revenue than new business. And that these loving and loyal customers who believe that you understand what they need and are the only people who can meet it… are the ones who are going to tell other people about you. And of course that’s what drives growth in the most effective way.
