Rethink Your Branding to
Create Crazy Love From
Customers
Tom Shapiro
A company can exist to merely sell stuff and make money.
And, certainly, many do.
But a special breed of brands that have transcended revenue
as a focal point have been transformed into uber-powerful
forces. So what do they focus on more than anything else?
Emotions.
And the business results are nothing short of astonishing.
Think about the success of brands like Nike, Red Bull, and
Lady Gaga, and you’ll immediately see the power of emotions
as a business driver.
The Power of Crazy Love
When Nike launched its most famous campaign with its
“Just Do It” message, it struck a chord with every sports
fan, amateur athlete, and weekend jogger. The marketing
message didn’t speak to the technical superiority of Nike’s
shoes, the results you get by wearing its shoes, or the reasons
its shoes were better than the next brand’s.
The message was 100% about evoking a surge of emotion
in the customer, making them feel different about themselves
and the possibilities in their lives.
This focus on emotions has scientific justification. Decisionmaking, it turns out, is an emotions-driven activity. In other
words, it’s impossible to make buying decisions without
emotion. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio studied people
who had damage in the parts of the brain where emotions
are generated, and he discovered that those people had
serious difficulty making decisions.
The result of Nike’s emotions-based marketing? Crazy brand
love! Millions of people have showed more than just love,
but a crazy kind of devotion that any brand would crave.
Nike focused on connecting emotionally with customers.
Nike’s website is gorgeous, inspirational, and visually
impactful. The launch of Nike Women empowered an oftenignored segment of the market, achieving huge success.
And Nike offers highly active customer support on Twitter—
another emotional touchpoint with customers.
As a result, Nike has more than $25 billion in annual sales.
It is the number one brand on Instagram (according to the
Nitrogram 50), and it has a massive advantage over the
competition when entering new fields. Nike has created a
cult-like following.
Red Bull has also created emotional connections with its
customers, engendering crazy love. More than just a drink,
Red Bull is a lifestyle. The brand produces a wide range of
video (including those on Red Bull TV) and other content
focused on extreme sports, including behind-the-scenes
footage, motivational videos, and sports-specific training.
Red Bull also sponsors many extreme-sporting events. All of
that creates a swell of empowering, fierce emotions among
customers and prospects.
As a result, Red Bull’s a brand that came out of nowhere to
sell more than 35 billion cans of its product. Red Bull has
more than 39 million Facebook Likes, more than 2.7 million
YouTube subscribers, and $2.7 billion in annual sales. Crazy
results!
Lady Gaga
is yet another example of a brand wholly
attuned to emotional connections. Always focused on her
loyal fans, Lady Gaga goes out of her way to make her
customers feel the love, whether surprising fans standing in
ticket lines, in the rain, by giving them free show passes;
providing her full support to unofficial fan clubs; or setting
up a social network (littlemonsters.com) exclusively for fans.
The result? Over 90 million singles sold, over 58 million
Facebook Likes, and a completely dedicated fan base that
will follow her no matter what she does next. Gaga has
transcended the traditional boundaries of a pop singer,
instead building a platform to launch new products, services,
and other endeavors.