4 Keys To Turning Customers
Into Brand Evangelists
Paulette Bluhm and Kristi Elliot-Heitman
TO GROW YOUR BRAND, KNOW WHAT PEOPLE FIND MEANINGFUL, CONNECT WITH
THEM THOUGHTFULLY, CREATE JOY THEY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT, AND BELIEVE IN YOUR
EMPLOYEES.
Every day, we see signs that doing business today is more
complex than ever. The developed economy continues to
be sluggish, with 2.4% growth in the first quarter of 2013,
and injections of liquidity are commonplace.
That means in order to retain market share and keep up
profitability, business leaders must continually look for new
and innovative ways to engage their consumers. These
are real, rational concerns for any organization. They are
indicators of how your business is performing, but they are
not why you’re in business.
People are why you’re in business.
Don’t forget about people. People have real emotional
desires that companies need to know intimately. Whether
you’re in a B2B or B2C business, without people, you
wouldn’t have any indicators to monitor at all. The only
way to get to know the people who, in the end, are the
genuine drivers of your business decisions, is to spend
time with them. That means all of them--the mainstreams,
the extremes, the buyers, the influencers, the trendsetters.
Knowing these people will help reveal a vision for your
brand that new customers will also want to be a part of.
How that vision comes to life is where the magic happens.
The best and most strategic companies today care
deeply about people’s needs and desires. They display it
honestly and overtly in their brand’s behavior. They design
experiences that consider how consumers may feel at every
moment with their brand. They also recognize that feelings
run deeper than emotions--feelings are visceral. It’s what
drives people to choose, buy, use, and share--in the store,
online, at home, and with friends.
To grow in a sustainable way in your relationships with
consumers, it’s critical that you clarify and understand all
the nuances of what your brand stands for. We’ve identified
four best practices to help you transform your business into
a brand that people will fall head-over-heels in love with.
1. BE PERSONAL: WHY DOES YOUR
PRODUCT MATTER TO USERS?
Your business mission and brand vision should be rooted
in deep insights about the people you’re trying to reach,
established by learning firsthand about who they are and
what they desire.
When a company first establishes its business model, the
initial questions answered are usually “What do we do?”
or “For whom?” and “How?” The “what” and “how” tend
to get addressed first. That’s because many companies
assume that if they have a great product or service idea,
they can find a market segment that might benefit--and
then they start pushing their product to those people.
But if you begin instead by thinking about why people
need your product and why your product will--or should-matter in their lives, you have a much better chance of
connecting with people at the right moments. You will be
able to get through to them in more meaningful ways, on
a more intuitive level--in ways that are less rational and
which appeal more to their core sense of themselves.
BuzzFeed, for example, understands that its readers aren’t
one-dimensional. People read and share silly content about
cute kittens when they are bored at work or when they
need a break, but they’re the same people who are also
interested in global news and cultural events. In response,
the site transformed its offering in the past year to meet its
readers’ many interests. It offers everything from politics to
sports and to music but still includes silly lists and videos.
BuzzFeed’s evolution taps into people’s different versions
of themselves. As a result, it now has more than 25 million
monthly unique visitors.