Building a brand is about connecting with your customers emotionally. Boiled down, brand loyalty is a feeling. Without the emotional connection, customers slip away, vendors lose their commitment, partnerships fade. A brand built on trust and loyalty however will form a bond that is tough as nails.
How do I build a brand that causes others to rally behind me? Any good designer and smart marketer will tell you that consistency is key – your message must be clear, your logo needs to inspire. But why do customers stay with us? It is not because our colors are impactful or our logo is used consistently and is memorable. All that is important but ask a long-time customer why they are loyal and often they will simply say it is because you do what you say you will do or they always have a good experience when they work with you. Those are pure emotions of trust and confidence. I would also contend they are sound, smart business reasons.
When building your brand, intelligent design is of the upmost importance because it allows us to communicate who we are and what we do in a way that connects emotionally to our customers. Good design fires the imagination and binds the intellect with feelings that we want others to have about our business.
When communicating your brand, strong advertising will build the awareness needed to communicate who you are and what you do. And advertising is highly emotional, providing a method to inspire our customers and provoke them to action.
However, neither good design nor smart advertising will create those pure emotions of trust and confidence. Good design cannot keep the promise of doing what you say you will do. Smart advertising cannot create good experiences for your customers. They are simply foundational pieces of the overall marketing and sales puzzle. My job is to keep my promises. My focus is to create great experiences for my customers. My challenge is to do it consistently over the long term. Do that and you build trust. Build trust and you will have brand loyalty – the kind of brand loyalty that doesn’t fade or die but forges the rock solid relationships on which our businesses are built.