Influencing People’s Opinions and Emotions To Market Your Brand

marketing a brand by influence

How to make people feel like this when they see your brand? Read on.

We form opinions of people instantly.

But what about brands?

When you see a brand for the first time, you ask questions.

“Do I like this brand? What do they do? Why should I care about them? Do I trust them?”

The answers to these questions form your opinion.

When people first see your brand/logo/business name, they’re forming an opinion. This is also the case for those who know about your business but haven’t actually done business with you.

What can you do to influence people’s opinion of your brand? Read this post of course!

We Are Customers Too

 
I was reluctant to write this post today. The reason? Because I wonder if customers actually care about brand images. But I’m a customer. You’re a customer. I care. Do you care?

Many times you can answer your own marketing questions by seeing what influences you. Recall what it is about a certain business that makes you loyal to them.

I was reading John Morgan’s book “Brand Against The Machine” last night.

One quote confirmed I needed to go ahead with this post.

“Every marketing piece someone comes in contact with leaves an impression on your brand. Even those who aren’t purchasing your product are forming an opinion of you.”

That really sums up this post quite nicely.

The natural tendency when marketing, branding or advertising is to slap your logo everywhere. More awareness means more sales right?

Wrong.

Those businesses that create value and an emotional connection through their branding and marketing are going to be the ones who stand out from the competition.

Not those whose logos are everywhere.

My case in point is our friends over at Star Toilet Paper whom I talked about in my last post.

I’ll repeat John’s quote.

“Even those who aren’t purchasing your product are forming an opinion of you.”

When those people are wiping their bottoms, their doing so with with someone’s brand. Obviously they’re forming a pretty crappy opinion of that brand.

I certainly hope those businesses wake up and start to value their own brand more. Would you really want your brand to be aligned with crap?

If you’re reading this post and my site, I doubt it. This is all about Meaningful Marketing after all.

But hey, some businesses are taking advantage of the low cost to advertise on toilet paper. They’re thinking short term not long term however. Customer loyalty is built on value and service. They may get a few people in the door redeeming (can you imagine yourself saving toilet paper to redeem at a store?) toilet paper coupons but are coupon redeemers what you’re after?

Coupon clippers do not turn into loyal customers.

Ok I’ve made my point loud and clear about advertising on toilet paper. I give props to the Brian and Jordan who started the business.

But we can do better.

Consistent Brand Image

 
When influencing people to come and do business with you, not only is it what your brand is displayed on but how it looks.

Here’s another story that ties into my last post and brand image.

There is a luxury condo development in my city. They’re currently advertising on all of the squash courts at one of the clubs in town. This club hosted a tournament a few months back.

Talking with a few players at this tournament revealed that the many thought the courts were not nice to play in. It was true. The walls were dirty, the floors were dark and the paint was chipping off the walls and the area where this brand’s logo was displayed.

On a couple of courts you couldn’t even make out the name of the brand. Their logo had been hammered with squash balls that most of the paint was gone from the logo.

They’ve slapped their brand all over a product (poorly marinated squash courts) that doesn’t align at all with luxury.

This really makes no sense to me. The brand image is off. Nothing about the courts is luxurious at all. Most importantly, there’s no connection to the squash players playing on those courts.

Create Value or an Emotional Connection

 
So what does it take to succeed in your future branding, marketing and advertising efforts?

  1. Create value – Here’s an example of how to increase value in advertising. Here are seven great examples from companies increasing value through their marketing.
  2. Create an emotional connection – Here’s a way the luxury condo company above could create an emotional connection with the squash player. John Morgan had another great quote in his book. “People are emotionally tied to brands and not products.”

Just because someone see’s your logo doesn’t mean they’ll automatically remember your service and call you up when they need it.

In branding, marketing and advertising you don’t have long to capture one’s attention. Do your best to make a great first impression!

What do you think?

 
Do you form opinions of brands like you do of people?