Upsize is a magazine with a single mission: to help Minnesota's small-business owners build bigger and more profitable companies, and to connect CEOs with the people, products and ideas they need to grow.
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/233484
branding Bb "Any product or service that makes people feel cooler or more popular by association is appealing to emotion." Dawn Wagenaar, Ingenuity Marketing still cool by staying with you. Intelligence: This will make me look smart to others. Intelligence brands show how the buyer can save time, improve productivity, improve health or avoid trouble. In essence, consumers are smart by working with this company or choosing a product or service. Companies with intelligence brands "educate" consumers about aspects of their industry only insiders know. They showcase experts who share important news and information to help customers make better decisions. They create their own publishing channels so customers turn to them first for information. Intelligence is a great emotion for service providers who want to attract more sophisticated, discerning consumers, ones who enjoy learning better ways to live or run a business. Your brand can be enhanced through expert content on your website, video tutorials and studies that support the use of your product or service. is a powerfully motivating brand. A protection brand helps customers move forward with estate planning or buying enough insurance, reducing debt or losing weight, activities that truly improve their lives and peace of mind. If your brand message is peace of mind and protection, showcase it through powerful customer stories in which the product or service did result in more security when it mattered. Use images that show happy, empowered people enjoying life because they have your product or service working for them. Offer tips that support a customer's sense of security. Develop and talk about each improvement to your business that enhances customer security. Know your customers well enough to understand their values and interests, then tap into ways they can do good by doing business with you. If those ways of doing good also match your company's values, then you will build a strong company culture along with your altruism brand. Try to fake altruism, and the potential negative publicity could put you out of business. Messing with "warm fuzzies" makes people feel insecure, dumb and uncool. Which one fits? Now that you know some of the primary emotions consumers use to justify purchases, think about how one of these might fit the logic of your brand. With your website and social media channels, you can easily idenDon't mess with 'warm fuzzies' tify with and promote these emotional Altruism: I can help and make a aspects. difference with this. Marketers and Research your customer base and nonprofit organizations talk about the competitors for the key emotions they "warm fuzzies" of doing good. Cusemploy. Create consistent messages tomers feel good when their purchase and design that appeal to those emosupports a cause or value they believe tions as well as the logic people will Where's the boogeyman? in, but they must truly believe the use to justify buying your product or Protection: This will make me more cause is legitimate and just. service. Tying emotion to logic will secure. The boogeyman isn't out With an altruism brand, show how make your business stand out from there; it's in your customer's mind. people can make a difference in very competitors and lead to stronger sales. If you can tap into fears or insecurispecific ways: buy a pair of shoes ties, you can boost the power of your and another pair goes to a child at a brand. Cosmetic companies get wom- specific shelter. Purchase this haircut en to shell out billions for anti-aging and offer the same service to active products. Home security companies military families for free. A portion of reenact burglary scenarios to show proceeds to an animal shelter or food their team responding to the homeshelf is also concrete because it is owner. Some might view these tactics local and delivers a direct benefit to as unfair to human emotion, but fear actual animals or people you can see. Contact: Dawn Wagenaar is principal of Ingenuity Marketing Group in St. Paul, delivering strategic branding, marketing, media and growth services to help professionals gain a competitive edge: 651.690.3358; dawn@ingenuitymarketing.com; www.ingenuitymarketing.com www.upsizemag.com december 2013 • january 2014 upsize 7