Study: The science between emotions and communications – Algorithms don’t feel, people do.

When companies connect with customers’ emotions, the payoff can be huge. Consider these examples: After a major bank introduced a credit card for Millennials that was designed to inspire emotional connection, use among the segment increased by 70% and new account growth rose by 40%. Within a year of launching products and messaging to maximize emotional connection, a leading household cleaner turned market share losses into double-digit growth. And when a nationwide apparel retailer reoriented its merchandising and customer experience to its most emotionally connected customer segments, same-store sales growth accelerated more than threefold.

Given the enormous opportunity to create new value, companies should pursue emotional connections as a science—and a strategy. But for most, building these connections is more guesswork than science. At the end of the day they have little idea what really works and whether their efforts have produced the desired results.

The research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows that it’s possible to rigorously measure and strategically target the feelings that drive customers’ behavior. We call them “emotional motivators.” They provide a better gauge of customers’ future value to a firm than any other metric, including brand awareness and customer satisfaction, and can be an important new source of growth and profitability.

​At the most basic level, any company can begin a structured process of learning about its customers’ emotional motivators and conducting experiments to leverage them, later scaling up from there. At the other end of the spectrum, firms can invest in deep research and big data analytics or engage consultancies with specific expertise. Companies in financial services, retail, health care, and technology are now using a detailed understanding of emotional connection to attract and retain the most valuable customers. The most sophisticated firms are making emotional connection part of a broad strategy that involves every function in the value chain, from product development and marketing to sales and service.

High-Impact Motivators – Hundreds of “emotional motivators” drive consumer behavior. Below are 10 that significantly affect customer value across all categories studied.
 

Defining Emotional Motivators – Our research stemmed from our frustration that companies we worked with knew customers’ emotions were important but couldn’t figure out a consistent way to define them, connect with them, and link them to results. We soon discovered that there was no standard lexicon of emotions, and so eight years ago we set out to create one, working with experts and surveying anthropological and social science research. We ultimately assembled a list of more than 300 emotional motivators. We consider customers to be emotionally connected with a brand when it aligns with their motivations and helps them fulfill deep, often unconscious, desires. Important emotional motivators include desires to “stand out from the crowd,” “have confidence in the future,” and “enjoy a sense of well-being,” to name just a few.
Identifying and measuring emotional motivators is complicated, because customers themselves may not even be aware of them. These sentiments are typically different from what customers say are the reasons they make brand choices and from the terms they use to describe their emotional responses to particular brands. What’s more, as we’ll discuss, emotional connections with products are neither uniform nor constant; they vary by industry, brand, touch-point, and the customer’s position in the decision journey.

Why Emotional Connections Matter – Although brands may be liked or trusted, most fail to align themselves with the emotions that drive their customers’ most profitable behaviors. Some brands by nature have an easier time making such connections, but a company doesn’t have to be born with the emotional DNA of Disney or Apple to succeed. Even a cleaning product or a canned food can forge powerful connections.

The process, in brief, looks like this: Applying big data analytics to detailed customer-data sets, we first identify the emotional motivators for a category’s most valuable customers. High-value automobile customers, for example, might want to “feel a sense of belonging” and “feel a sense of freedom.” Next we use statistical modeling to look at a large number of customers and brands, comparing survey results about people’s emotional motivators with their purchase behavior and identifying spikes in buying that are associated with specific motivators. This reveals which motivators generate the most-profitable customer behaviors in the category. We then quantify the current and potential value of motivators for a given brand and help identify strategies to leverage them.

The model also allows us to compare the value of making strong emotional connections with that of scoring well on standard customer metrics such as satisfaction and brand differentiation, thus highlighting the potential gains from looking beyond traditional measures. We find that customers become more valuable at each step of a predictable “emotional connection pathway” as they transition from (1) being unconnected to (2) being highly satisfied to (3) perceiving brand differentiation to (4) being fully connected.

Although customers exhibit increasing connection at each step, their value increases dramatically when they reach the fourth step: Fully connected customers are 52% more valuable, on average, than those who are just highly satisfied. In fact, their relative value is striking across a variety of metrics, such as purchases and frequency of use.

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The pathway is an important guide to where companies should invest—and it reveals that they often invest in the wrong places. To increase revenue and market share, many companies focus on turning dissatisfied customers into satisfied ones. However, our analysis shows that moving customers from highly satisfied to fully connected can have three times the return of moving them from unconnected to highly satisfied. And the highest returns we’ve seen have come from focusing on customers who are already fully connected to the category—from maximizing their value and attracting more of them to your brand.
Four insights from our research are especially relevant to firms looking to build on emotional connection.
Emotional motivators vary by category and brand.Of the 300-plus motivators we’ve identified, 25 significantly affect customer value across all the categories we’ve analyzed. Anywhere from five to 15 additional motivators are important in any given category. For example, the sense that a home furnishings store “helps me be creative” inspires consumers to shop there more often. The wish to “feel revived and refreshed” drives loyalty to fast-food restaurants. Emotional motivators also vary within categories, depending on the desires of brands’ most valuable customers. Because brands differ in how well they align with their customers’ motivators, each may have a different starting point in any effort to strengthen emotional connections—and that point won’t necessarily relate to conventional measures of brand perception.

Emotional motivators vary across customer segments.Recall the credit card designed with Millennials in mind. Our model uncovered desires to “protect the environment” and “be the person I want to be” as key motivators in the banking category for that age group. (Traditional industry motivators such as desires to “feel secure” and to “succeed in life” are more typical of older groups.) The bank crafted messaging and features to connect to those sentiments, leading to its fastest-growing new credit card.

Emotional motivators for a given brand or industry vary with a person’s position in the customer journey.In banking, the desire to “feel secure” is a critical motivator when attracting and retaining customers early on. When cross-selling products later, the wish to “succeed in life” becomes more important. To maximize results, companies must align their emotional-connection strategies with their specific customer-engagement objectives—acquisition, retention, cross-selling, and so on.

Emotional-connection-driven growth opportunities exist across the customer experience, not just in traditional brand positioning and advertising.For example, social media can have a big impact on emotional connection. One condiments brand found that 60% of its social-network-affiliated customers (especially followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest)—versus 21% of all customers—were emotionally connected. It accelerated growth in a matter of months by increasing its focus on its social media network, developing its online customer community, and pointing customers to the website for recipes and promotions.

Putting Emotional Connections to WorkLet’s look at how an emotional-connection strategy paid off for a national fashion retailer. The company was struggling with common industry challenges. Although it had a well-known brand and a strong market presence, same-store sales were stagnating, and promotional pricing was shrinking margins. So it focused on cost management, logistical efficiency, and streamlining the merchandise and store mix—with limited success. Over the past two years we worked with the retailer on a four-part strategy to identify, understand, and quantify the value of the most emotionally connected customers. This exposed large, unexploited opportunities and allowed the retailer to better direct investments across the firm.

1. Target connected customers – We set out to answer two basic questions: How valuable were the retailer’s fully connected customers, and could the company attract more of them? We used statistical techniques to measure the strength of customers’ emotional connections with the retailer and with its competitors. The process began with surveys to discern how consumers related to key motivators in the category and with analysis to see which motivators best predicted purchase behavior. We then modeled the financial impact of building emotional connections with customers at each step on the pathway from unconnected to fully connected.

Our analysis showed that although fully connected customers constituted just 22% of customers in the category, they accounted for 37% of revenue and they spent, on average, twice as much annually ($400) as highly satisfied customers. Enhancing emotional connection could be a viable growth strategy if the retailer could attract fully connected customers from competitors, transform satisfied customers into fully connected ones, or both.
Further segmentation revealed a group of especially valuable customers. We labeled them Fashion Flourishers, because apparel connects to their deep desire for excitement, social acceptance, and self-expression. As a group, Flourishers are the most emotionally connected segment by far; half are already fully connected to the category. Comparing the ratios of various emotion-based segments’ spending to those segments’ size highlights extraordinary differences in value: Flourishers have a ratio of 1.9—nearly twice the market average and more than nine times that of the least-connected group (whom we called Can’t Please Them, and whose ratio is just 0.2). Given the relatively fixed cost structure of retailing, acquiring and retaining Flourishers represented an opportunity to boost revenue and margins.

A detailed profile of Flourishers underscored their attractiveness and exposed ways for the retailer to target them. Customers in this segment:

• have a high lifetime value, spending an average of $468 a year in the category, versus $235 for other customers.

• shop more often and advocate more: Fully 46% of Flourishers shop key fashion categories at least monthly, versus 21% of all shoppers. Flourishers are 1.4 times as likely as other customers to recommend retailers to their friends and family members.

• are less price-sensitive: They are 2.3 times as likely as other customers to say they are “willing to pay more for the best fashion products,” 1.7 times less likely to make fashion purchase decisions solely on the basis of price, and 1.3 times less likely to shop for the lowest prices.

• are predominantly female and younger, more ethnically diverse, and more likely to live in urban centers than other customers.

• are more digitally engaged than other segments: They are 2.3 times as likely to research a fashion retailer online, 2.9 times as likely to shop for fashion products through their mobile devices, and 3.7 times as likely to follow a retailer on social media.

Drawing on these and other insights, the retailer created a blueprint for pursuing the most valuable customer opportunities. By applying the category segmentation scheme to the more than 25 million people in its customer database, it determined the financial value and behaviors of its own Flourishers, confirming that they spent substantially more than other customers and had the highest lifetime value and the lowest attrition and price sensitivity of any segment. It estimated that moving satisfied Flourishers up the pathway to full emotional connection could increase annual sales by 3% to 5%, and that luring Flourishers away from competitors could increase revenue by 5% to 8%. Because members of this group spend more per capita than other customers and turn over less often, the analysis also predicted improvements in operating margins and returns on capital.

2. Quantify key motivators – Next, by analyzing tens of thousands of Flourishers across the category, we quantified the impact of more than 40 motivators on the group’s purchasing, spending, loyalty, and advocacy. We identified the most important category motivators—the ones that bore the strongest relationship to purchases—and assessed the retailer’s competitive position in each. The financial analysis and modeling showed that further investments to strengthen the customer experience around the desires to “feel a sense of belonging,” “feel a sense of thrill,” and “feel a sense of freedom”—the motivators driving category purchase behavior and for which the retailer already had the strongest position—were likely to yield the highest ROI. Those motivators therefore became the focus of specific customer-experience investments.

3. Optimize investments across functions – To maximize opportunities from emotional connection, companies must look beyond the marketing department. The retailer examined every function and customer touchpoint to find ways to enhance high-ROI emotional motivators. This brought four major investment areas into focus: stores, online and omnichannel experiences, merchandising, and message targeting.

Stores – To estimate which of the retailer’s more than 700 stores had the most Flourisher customers, we scored each one according to the presence of this segment in the store’s trading area. We found that high-scoring stores generated up to 25% more revenue than others. Their same-store sales were growing twice as quickly, and their operating profit was 30% greater. Their profit margins were enhanced by 10% higher inventory turns and—consistent with expectations—by lower coupon usage. (Flourishers don’t just say they’re willing to pay more—they actually do pay more).

​These analytics changed the retailer’s store location strategy. We mapped the concentrations of Flourishers in all U.S. markets and submarkets, along with the segment’s propensities to shop at more than 150 other retailers. The company’s real estate team now uses a predictive model to identify sites near Flourishers and also near other retailers they frequent.

The change is paying off. New stores in trading areas with high concentrations of Flourishers have first-year sales that are 20% higher than historical averages, leading to faster break-even times and higher returns on capital. Further analysis has revealed opportunities to open hundreds of stores catering to underserved Flourisher populations. To free up capital for new stores, the retailer is closing ones in low-Flourisher areas.
Emotional-connection analytics have also allowed the retailer to understand which aspects of the in-store shopping experience are most important to Flourishers. Because those qualities often aren’t recognized by customers themselves, they had not informed store design. Flourishers say it’s important that sales associates are easy to find, that clearance items are easy to locate, and that stores have free Wi-Fi. However, analysis showed that those aren’t actually the features that drive their visits and purchases.

Mind the (Emotional Connection) Gap.

​The “emotional connection score” (ECS) of a brand measures the share of customers who are fully connected. A gap between a brand’s ECS and the share of customers who consider it a “good brand” signals an opportunity to transform satisfied customers into fully connected—and more valuable—ones. Gaps between a brand’s ECS and competitors’ indicate opportunities to seize (or maintain) advantage by attending to emotional connections.

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On the basis of its modeling, the retailer predicted that the option to purchase online and pick up in-store—something that few customers say is important and that was available only on a limited basis—would be a key driver of emotional connection (it speaks to Flourishers’ desire to “feel a sense of freedom”). It tested targeted communication and in-store promotion of the option and saw a material lift in sales; it has now committed capital to a nationwide rollout of the capability. Similarly, the retailer predicted that seeing imagery in-store of “people like you” would drive emotional connection and purchasing among Flourishers (although they say that this factor is unimportant). As a test, it expanded its presence on photo-sharing social media sites and encouraged customers to submit selfies showing their favorite outfits and styles. Selfie slide shows are (with subjects’ permission) displayed on large screens in test stores, thus addressing Flourishers’ desire to “feel a sense of belonging.” Research indicates that the segment has responded to this motivator and increased purchase intent.
The retailer is now designing and testing store experiences to leverage nearly a dozen other drivers of emotional connection.

Online and omnichannel experiences – Like individual store environments, online and omnichannel experiences can be optimized for emotional connection. To this end the retailer quantified the impact of more than 100 omnichannel touchpoints on customers’ emotional connection and spending. These included mobile app browsing and purchasing, visits to the retailer’s social media pages, e-commerce site navigation, and in-store returns of merchandise bought online. Each touchpoint was scored according to its potential impact on emotional connection and spending. Statistical models then revealed the most powerful combinations of touchpoints at each stage of the customer journey, allowing the retailer to hone its omnichannel strategy and prioritize investments. For example, Flourishers say that using a computer to shop online via an easy-to-use site is important to purchase decisions. In reality, the ease and allure of the mobile site and the availability of services such as ApplePay have a far greater impact on emotional connection and spending levels. The retailer is using such insights to design investments across e-commerce, mobile, and social media that will build emotional connections with Flourishers. For instance, it developed multiple concepts for the navigational redesign and aesthetic reskin of its mobile app, tested how effectively each version enhanced feelings of “freedom,” “belonging,” and “thrill” and drove purchases, and rolled out the best one.

Merchandising – Merchandise selection, from the broad category level to specific labels, can be optimized to drive emotional connection. The retailer now tracks the purchasing habits of Flourishers nationwide through point-of-sale data collected from hundreds of retailers by independent research companies. By applying the Flourisher segmentation to these POS databases, it has modeled the segment’s purchase behavior across more than 20 product categories and 100 labels and learned which of the approximately 10 competitive retailers these consumers buy from. The resulting insights have exposed gaps in merchandise important to Flourishers, and the retailer is working with its manufacturers to rebalance its mix.

Message targeting – Having identified its Flourisher customers, the retailer can now send them personalized messages designed to resonate with the emotional motivators that drive behavior at each stage of the customer journey. For example, when Flourishers are initially considering the retailer, “having fun” while shopping is paramount. At the point of purchase, “helps me feel creative” emerges as key. Working from such insights, the retailer has developed a series of messages targeting Flourishers and timed according to their position in the journey: A rules engine sends out e-mails tailored to browsing, transacting, and servicing interactions. Response rates to this direct-marketing campaign are 40% to 210% higher than historical averages.

Media selection can also be finely tuned to boost emotional connection. We profiled the media consumption of Flourishers across 500 TV shows, 100 websites and social networks, 50 types of mobile apps, 80 print publications, and 20 types of radio programming. Working with its ad agency, the retailer is executing emotional-connection-based media plans. For example, knowing that Flourishers are enthusiastic users of Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, it has scaled up its programs on these platforms, which has increased its marketing ROI.

4. Systematize, measure, and learn – Leveraging emotional connection does not require turning your business processes upside down; you can embed relevant strategies into existing work streams. This is most effectively done by making emotional connection a key performance indicator and including it on the cross-functional senior-management dashboard.

The retailer developed a scorecard that gives the CEO and the executive team a single-page view of customers’ progression on the emotional-connection pathway, along with the increase or decrease in connected customers of the company and its key competitors. The scorecard shows the correlation of customers’ emotional-connection scores with lifetime value measures such as annual spending, churn, and tenure. It also shows how the business impacts of specific emotions are trending and how Flourishers engage with key in-store and omnichannel touchpoints that drive emotional connection. In addition, the retailer includes emotional-connection metrics in its ongoing testing of media messages, store designs, and digital and mobile experiences. The results of these strategic and operational changes are startling. Same-store sales for stores serving Flourishers realized growth of 3.5% over the past year, whereas annual same-store growth over the past five years has averaged just 1%. Inventory turns increased more than 25%. Market share and customer advocacy also grew (the number of customers recommending the retailer is up 20% year-over-year), contributing to record-high customer lifetime values. Underlying all these gains is a 20% rise in the company’s emotional-connection score—largely the result of moving satisfied customers to full emotional connection.

The Management Imperative – Embracing an emotional-connection strategy across the organization requires deep customer insights, analytical capabilities, and, above all, a managerial commitment to align the organization with the new way of thinking. It’s important that marketing not hoard the strategy as “its” domain (although the function can and should use emotional connection to demonstrate the direct financial impact of its spending). Instead, marketing must partner with other functions, teaching and socializing emotional connection. The retailer we profiled now uses emotional connection to drive alignment across the operations management team, the C-suite, and the boardroom. At the outset the CEO identified emotional connection as a strategy to restore profitable growth. The CFO and the chief strategy officer then “sized the financial prize,” leading the heads of marketing, stores, customer experience, and merchandising to collaborate on an integrated strategy.
The advent of big data analytics brings clarity, discipline, and rigor to companies’ long-held desire to connect with the customer emotions that truly matter. Emotional connections no longer have to be a mystery—they can be a new source of real competitive advantage and growth.

Source: ​Harvard Business Review.

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Branding and design are inseparable.

• Branding and design are, to a large extent, inseparable.  A brand is not your logo or ID system, it's a gut feeling people have about you. When two or more people have the same feeling, you have a brand. You get that feeling through intelligent design, which creates the experiences people have with the brand. Everything you do creates the brand-experience, ergo design is your brand.

• If design is the brand, stop thinking of branding and design as distinct disciplines.  It's all about integrating design and brand, we need to cease thinking of them as different disciplines. The essence of the Apple brand comes through its design. Take the logo off a BMW and you still know it's a BMW.

• Brands need to create an emotional relationship with people.  We are all emotional beings and we have emotional relationships with brands we trust. Designers need to make that happen. A designer must take the values and assets of a company and transform them in a special way that connects with people emotionally.

• Designers need to "get" the essence of the brand.  For designers to build a great brand, they have to understand it. You need to understand its history, its values, and what it means to people. Can you imagine designing the latent Jeep without understanding the brand archetype of what it means for a product to be a Jeep?

• Design needs to be strategic from the outset.  For design to have a major impact, it's got to get involved at the strategic level. It can't be an afterthought or superficial trappings to be put on post product creation. Samsung's brand became powerful only after they put a Chief Design Officer in place and made it a priority for the company.

• Integrate design early in the process to drive innovation and create solutions.  Good designers approach design as an opportunity to ask questions. Solution generation starts by questioning initial assumptions. Rather than ask myself 'How should I design Widget X?' I need to be asking 'Do we really need Widget X or is there a better solution to this customer problem? A designer needs be there at the beginning and be connected to the decision-makers.

• Don't overdesign. With the increasing emphasis on design in the world today, it's important to avoid the 'over-designed syndrome.' A simple, well-thought-through, authentic design is often the best. Everything doesn't need to be redesigned; sometimes what we have in hand is better than what we seek. It's not all about being different; it's about being better.

• Use design to continually reinvent the brand.  Brands need to allow themselves to constantly update, and be much more fluid. Look at Google; they morph their logo for special occasions. Constant change is a big part of who they are.

• Use design to make a difference.  Design can make a difference in how we live. Take sustainability. A lot of what is done in that area is 'making bad, better.' We're taking wasteful things and seeing how we can make them not so bad. We need to start thinking about how we can use our design tools to encourage people to change. You do that by making 'doing better' also be fun, interesting and (importantly) the path of least resistance. And you do it in an encouraging, not controlling, way. Design needs to do that in order to reach a larger audience than just the small group that is socially driven.

While these steps may require a new way of thinking about design for some, they're key steps to the path for those who want to build a great brand and make life better for those who experience them.

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The effectiveness of video as it relates to your brand.

If you are like most discerning marketers...you always are questioning the validity and value of the many choices of media available. Check-out these stats and you will understand that video is not just a medium to consider, but an effective medium that delivers a huge upside.

Keeping up with the latest marketing practices can seem impossible when you’re focused on creating phenomenal content, connecting with your audience through social media, and researching the hottest topics for your niche.

However, video marketing might be the answer to many of the problems and roadblocks your website faces. If the advantages of video marketing seem out of reach for you, it’s time to rethink your perception of video. Whether your goal is to convert, educate, or inform, it’s time to learn how videos created specifically for your brand and website can work in tandem with your current marketing methods to improve your website
performance.

The most impressive stats that represent the reasons why video should be included on your website are that 98% of users say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. That is why 45% of businesses who use video marketing said that they have an explainer video on their home page. Of those businesses, 83% said that their homepage explainer video was effective.

The Top-Line Benefits of Video

Video inherently delivers a powerful combination attributes:
• Attention
• Emotion
• Perceived Value
• Clarity

Not just any video will generate ROI or increase conversions. You must know when to use each of these attributes in the right place, at the right time, to see success.

Attention – Without a doubt, getting your audience’s attention is one of the most difficult parts of marketing your products and services. They’re already overwhelmed with marketing messages. Your prospects don’t want to read another lengthy sales email or product description. If you want to get their attention, you have to deliver your information in a way that they actually want to engage with — video. A product video is 4x more likely to be watched than read about in text and 59% of executives say they prefer video to text. Studies show that video doubles time-on-page.

Emotion – When was the last time a piece of copy tugged at your heartstrings? Laughing aloud or holding back tears aren’t typical responses to marketing and sales messages, no matter how well-written they are. But video? That’s a different story. The combination of visuals and sound evoke emotion much more effectively than text alone. Viewers connect to video in a way that is unparalleled by other forms of content, which is why it’s the perfect tool to get an audience to take action.

For example, video increases email click-through rates by 200-300% and 64% of people say they are more likely to buy a product or service online after watching a video about it. If you want to pull your viewers in, connect with them emotionally, and then get them to take the next step

Perceived Value – Simply put, video is perceived to be more valuable than text. It’s no secret that video is harder and more expensive to produce. So when you decide to share a video, your audience will notice. People will give you more time, more contact information, and even pay a higher price when you use video. Not only that, but its perceived value can give you a major boost in organic website traffic. Video attracts 3x more organic inbound links, drives 200-300% more unique monthly site visits, and increases click-through rates from Search by 41%

Clarity – Back in 1971, the dual-coding theory of education revealed that people learn more, and at faster rates, when information is simultaneously delivered verbally and visually. Furthermore, about 65% of the population are visual learners, and another 30% are auditory learners. If there’s one type of content that complements the majority of learning styles, it’s video. In fact, Forrester researcher has found that just one minute of video delivers as much information as 1.8 million words. Knowing that you have a complicated product or service, video will help your audience follow along and understand your message.

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The Benefits of Video Marketing – With many companies looking to find that last piece of their marketing plan that will help them be successful, many are turning to video marketing. Statistically, it’s no surprise since as many as 76% of business owners and marketers have said video has a direct impact on their business.

When it comes to actually utilizing the platform, you’ll find that the benefits of video marketing far outweigh many other platforms for content. With that being said, here are a few of the major benefits that you can expect to find.

Helping People Find You – In an ever-changing digital world, the eternal struggle is always reaching your customers – cutting through the noise of cold calls, social media broadcasts, visual bombardments, and every other marketing and advertising piece we see daily. When it comes to reaching your customers, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video than read about it. This major rise in video consumption has been heavily attributed to mobile phone usage with just over 50% of all video plays being on mobile devices. This major platform change from desktop consumption to mobile consumption has prompted an overall shift in the way we consume content as a whole today.

Promoting Your Brand Online – It’s widely known that Google stands as the world’s largest search engine however, what most people don’t realize is that YouTube ranks second. Video offers a whole new promotional format that’s often overlooked by companies because of the barriers to entry. The demand is there…video content was actually predicted to represent 74% of all internet traffic this year. Today, the medium is there, the resources are at your disposal, all you need to do is leverage it to the benefit of your business.

Video Builds Trust – Trust is the foundation of conversions and sales. But building trust should be a goal on its own. The whole concept of content marketing is based on trust and creating long-term relationships. Stop selling and let the people come to you by providing them interesting and useful information. The new era demands a focus on ignition, not just content, on trust, not just traffic, and on the elite people in your audience who are spreading and advocating your content. Video does it all. Video content is likely to engage us and ignite emotions. And when we talk about elite people in the audience, YouTubers have become the most powerful social media figure to promote your brand. So, if you are serious about content marketing, you must be serious about video, too. Promotional videos can foster trust as well. Some consumers are still skeptical about buying products and services on the internet because they of the fear of being cheated, but effective marketing videos present your products in a conversational form. That creates a sense of individual approach which is why 57% of consumers say that videos gave them more confidence to purchase online.

Video Shows Great ROI – 76% of businesses say that video provides good return on investment. Even though video production is not yet the easiest nor cheapest task, it pays off big time. Besides, online video editing tools are constantly improving and becoming more affordable. And even your smartphone can make pretty decent videos already.

Google Loves Videos – Videos allow you to increase the time spent by visitors on your site. Thus, longer exposure builds trust and signals search engines that your site has good content. You’re 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. Since Google now owns YouTube, there has been a significant increase on how much videos affect your search engine rank. Make sure to optimize your videos on YouTube for SEO. Write interesting titles and descriptions. Add a link back to your website, products, and services. Give potential customers the way to take the next step. 

Video Appeals to Mobile Users – Video and mobile go hand in hand. From 2012 to 2014, mobile video views have increased by 400 percent. YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year. Since people like to watch videos on the go, and a number of smartphone users is growing, your video audience keeps getting bigger and bigger. In addition, Google tells us that smartphone users are twice as likely than TV viewers and 1.4 times more likely as desktop viewers to feel a sense of personal connection to brands that show video content or ads on their devices.That being said, brands need to be sensitive to the personal experience people have on their smartphones. 

Video Marketing Can Explain Everything – Launching a new product or a service? Create a video to show how it works. 98% of users say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. That is why 45% of businesses who use video marketing said that they have an explainer video on their home page. Of those businesses, 83% said that their homepage explainer video was effective.

Video Encourages Social Shares – In the 8th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report Michael Stelzner stated that 60% of the social marketers used video content in 2015 and 73% of the total respondents planned to use it in 2016. And they sure did. Social networks also encourage video content with their new features. Facebook has launched 3600 Video, Live Video, and Lifestage (A Video-Centric App for Teenagers). Instagram put in place 60-Second Videos & Instagram Stories, Twitter has Periscope and YouTube is the second most popular social network in the world. However, in a social media context, video marketers must remember that people share emotions, not facts. 76% of users say they would share a branded video with their friends if it was entertaining. Emotions are not exactly ROI but social shares can increase traffic to your site.

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How to create a meaningful difference for your brand.

To be different is to be not the same. To be unique is to be one of a kind. Be different and be unique with a meaningful difference for those most important to your future. Everybody wants a brand that’s different. The irony of that statement is intentional. It belies the conservative manner in which most brands approach competitive difference. They say they want to be distinctive to consumers but often, in their heart of hearts, they actually want to align with the rest of the industry. One of the key issues for that is an uncertainty on the part of brand makers and decision makers to find a starting point.
 
In some ways that’s actually less difficult and daunting than it first appears. Begin with a premise that is truly one degree away from your rivals. By logically progressing that premise over time, and with strong discipline, you will build a brand that is consistently and markedly different.

Here’s a brand checklist, 50 aspects and cited examples on how you can create a meaningful difference for your brand:
 

1. Go slow in a world of speed. Each Rolex takes a year to manufacture. The perception that a longer process is needed to build the world’s best timepiece also reinforces the value.

2. Use country of origin to your advantage. Brands from Switzerland are highly associated with precision and fine craftsmanship. Seek to build brand associations with countries that support your reputation for service, manufacturing, innovation etc.

3. Behave differently. Online shoe retailer Zappos has built its advantage on an iron clad return policy and customer service that goes above and beyond, breaking down the perceived barriers of selling and buying shoes online.

4. Look different. Apple always looks like Apple. Diesel always looks like Diesel. Absolut Vodka always looks like Absolut. They’re in a sector but they don’t look like part of the sector.

5. Be the underdog in a sector where everyone else wants to be top dog. Nantucket Nectars started “with only a blender and a dream,” and Clif Bar proclaims that its founder once lived in a garage. Underdogs win the compassionate consumer. Look for the underdog story you can tell.

6. Be truly and unapologetically shocking. Benetton’s “Unhate” campaign ruffled feathers on almost every front. But – and this is critical – the outrage you generate must link to a solution and that solution should be your front. Otherwise, you simply risk shouting into the wind.

7. Expand your appeal. “Discover” an untapped audience in your sector and, by drawing them in, intensify the sense of community around your brand and the interaction that people have with the brand. Enterprise Rent-A-Car did just that by offering leasing at a time when competitors did not. By serving this unmet need with attention to customer experience, Enterprise became the world’s number 1 car rental company. Apple too saw what others did not. No one was asking for an iPhone, but an untapped audience emerged when new value in the form of a cell phone was introduced.

8. Re-Invent a category – and own it. UFC became the fastest growing sports organization in the world by redefining the reach and the audience for mixed martial arts. Today, UFC produces more than 30 live events annually and is the largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. Swatch differentiated from other watch brands by focusing on self-expression rather than precision.

9. Create a new category. The Toyota Prius, the Nintendo Wii, and Red Bull are all brands that created new categories, outside the established norms of their product category. By stepping outside the bounds of their categories, these brands created a space that they can call their own.

10. Tell a story that defines you and is unique to you. The story may be about your founder as in the case with Virgin and Richard Branson, your heritage like Hickory Farms or the value you bring to the world like Coca-Cola’s Open Happiness. It may also be based in imagination – like the thought that Keebler elves make Keebler cookies. Or perhaps it’s a story based on your highly guarded secret – only two people in the world know Coca-Cola’s formula. Your story may also be about the source of your product, service or inspiration.

11. Forge new ground in the spirit of your founder. Chanel continues to personify the philosophies, ideals and legend of Coco Chanel long after her death.

12. Leverage your history to define tomorrow. National Geographic have redefined what it means to experience the world we never see by expanding their channels and offerings while still holding their history close.

13. Own an eternal idea. Red Bull expresses in every action its belief in, and addiction to, excitement. Ingredients, spirit, sponsorships and the human desire to do things that make the heart race are inextricably linked. Dove owns and serves the idea of real beauty. Lululemon finds its eternal idea in the mind state of yoga and has built a powerful athletic apparel brand on that concept.

14. Change the possibilities. This is about more than just product innovation. It’s about the introduction of technologies that completely change how people can live. Boeing redefined travel forever with the 747. Google may well redefine how we can see with Google Glass. Dyson changed the possibilities by reinventing old technologies like the vacuum, hand dryer and fan.

15. Make active plans to be where others aren’t (yet). This article looks at the fact that while Chinese consumers are now overwhelmed by Western brands and doing business in Greater China has become very expensive, other countries in Asia with booming economies like Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines remain largely overlooked.

16. Solve a global problem. “Big bang” solutions in areas like pharmaceuticals or biotechnology require huge investment and scary timeframes, but when they work, they deliver huge distinction, kudos and profits. A “Big Bang” solution can come from any brand — TOM’s seeks to solve the problem of children without shoes. TOM’s matches every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes for a child in need. One for One.

17. Build groundswell. Do something startling to generate attention. Use attention to build a crowd. Use a crowd to gain credibility. Use credibility as the jumping off point for your next distinctive act. Red Bull, Virgin and Apple should come to mind.

18. Redefine how people buy. With millions of products, 24/7 access, superior search and browse technology, user reviews and many other sources of in-depth product information, Amazon.com offers a superior purchase experience.

19. Bring unprecedented optimism to a sector. Nike redefined what people believed they should be capable of.

20. Connect the previously unconnected. LinkedIn brought business people together so that they could network and share ideas in a way that was effortless, credible and global. In doing that, they resolved a problem that no-one realized they had until they saw the potential for what they would now be able to do.

21. Rewrite the experience. Southwest Airlines put the fun, the quirkiness and the savings back into the serious and process-packed world of travel. Starbucks differentiated not on coffee, but a ‘third place’ – a respite between home and work.

22. Make what you sell feel even more personal. This great infographic hints at how much further retailers could take personalization.

23. Link your brand to specific occasions. Habits are powerful, but occasions may be even more so. They engage us so effectively because they combine time and focus. And because of that, they provide permission – it’s OK to behave this way or that. It’s OK to do something you wouldn’t do on any ordinary day. De Beers, Hallmark, Mercedes, Hershey, Cadbury, MACY’s and others have tapped into occasions or created occasions and have made themselves synonymous with the celebration of those occasions.

24. License to brand. Brand licensing can bring valuable new meaning to a brand, further differentiating it from its competitors. Pillsbury licenses the Cinnabon brand to do just that for its cinnamon rolls. Colgate licenses Disney characters to increase its brand appeal.

25. Breakaway from conventional wisdom. Breakaway brands bring new meanings to the party and make the most of the stretch, holding on to enough of the old to avoid category defection. Breakaway brands stretch the boundaries and live as outliers. These brands are the opposite of the well-behaved brands in the category and consequently provide radical differentiation from the status quo. Cirque du Soleil is one such brand. It falls into the “circus” category, but this brand has skillfully crafted a highly valued and differentiated positioning as everything a circus is not. There are no tents, tigers and elephants. No ringmasters. Instead it borrows attributes from other entertainment categories like, dance, music, opera and theater. It becomes something altogether different–far outside the bounds of a conventional circus.

26. Change the name. Sometimes your original name doesn’t sound like it would be something you would want to put in your mouth. Like a Chinese gooseberry. When the name was changed to kiwi fruit, the world suddenly had a new favorite fruit that it wanted to put in its mouth.

27. Personify. The Green Giant character became the difference in a family of vegetables in many forms. Frank Perdue became the tough man behind the tender chicken. The Gecko became the much-loved spokesperson for GEICO.

28. Create a new item. The cantaloupe people wanted to differentiate a special, big cantaloupe. But rather than call them just plain “big,” they introduced Crenshaw melons. Tyson wanted to sell miniature chickens, which doesn’t sound very appetizing. So, it introduced Cornish game hens.

29. Reposition the category. Pork was just pig for many years. Then the industry jumped on the chicken bandwagon and became “the other white meat.” That was a very good move when red meat became a perceptual problem.

30. Identify, identify, identify. Ordinary bananas became better bananas when a small Chiquita label was added to the fruit. Dole did the same for pineapple with the Dole label, as did the lettuce people by putting each head into a clear Foxy lettuce package. Of course, you then have to communicate why people should look for these labels.

31. Be the expert or specialist. The specialist can focus on one product, one benefit, and one message. This focus enables the marketer to put a sharp point on the message that quickly drives it into the mind. Domino’s can focus on home delivery. Pizza Hut has to talk about its different pizzas, home delivery, and sit-down service.

32. Price with pride. Starbucks prices its coffee higher to raise perceptions of the quality of its coffee.  Singapore Airlines, the most profitable airline in the world, does the same thing and always sells at a premium. In each case, the price is a signal of supremacy – differentiation via perceived quality.

33. Use Ingredient Brands. The North Face uses Gore-Tex technology to differentiate. In the PC space the Intel brand adds to the product’s perceived performance. Each brings noticeable differences in their own right.

34. Highly target a market. Who you focus on can create a unique point of difference. Consider FOX News, an American news outlet designed to serve the Republican Party and its supporters. This laser focus has made it synonymous with conservative views and policies, creating by far the strongest commercial brand associated with those views. Wegmans Supermarkets believes that happy customers are generated by happy employees. They have built their powerful brand on the mantra that their employees are number one.

35. Change the reach. How your product or service reaches a customer can set you apart. Redbox specializes in the rental of DVD’s and video games. Through an easy to use kiosk it differentiates from its competitor Netflix and helped seal the fate of Blockbuster. Amazon has a futuristic plan to deliver some orders via drone.

36. Give unprecedented access. The reason people flew Concorde was the opportunities that could come from who you would sit next to. You weren’t paying for a faster flight; you were paying for the company. Country clubs in Asia are the same. It’s not about the game of golf; it’s about the networking. For Citibank’s Citi, Private Pass card holders, the unique value is in the preferred access at entertainment events.

37. Share values. When a brand is built on shared values it can differentiate on those values and enjoy perhaps the strongest bond in the marketing world. Think of any brand that really matters and you’ll discover the type of people buying the stuff are the same type of people who design, make and sell the stuff. This is the awesome sauce of brand values and brand identity alignment. Apparel brands like Patagonia, L.L. Bean, and The North Face understand the importance of shared values. The bond that binds is a deep inter-personal connection between the users and the makers.

38. Stand for something your customers want to stand for. In the same manner as the enthusiast apparel brands mentioned in #37, Kashi cereal customers see themselves, their values, and their identities in complete harmony with the Kashi brand. They’re one and the same. Likewise, the Kashi people care about the same stuff as their consumer–greater health and well-being for themselves and the planet. For Kashi, making food that enhances life is sacred business. For Kashi customers, living well is sacred business. More people are waking up to caring more about others and our planet, and buying Kashi products too. Your brand can differentiate as being the do-good brand in your space.

39. Give them something to unwrap. Package design offers one of the biggest opportunities for brand differentiation. Color, shape, size, functionality, texture and materials can influence purchase decisions. There’s no mistaking a Tiffany & Co. box and its distinctive blue. Innovative packaging proves another signature differentiator for Apple as well as Tropicana which learned the value of this difference when it attempted to redesign its packaging.

40. Engage the senses. Every marketer should explore the senses when ideating brand differentiation strategies. Each of the five senses offer a channel to connect with your target customer and flex a point of difference. The more each of these are engaged at any one time during customer contact the more your brand and what it stands for will be remembered. Scent branding in the hotel world is one example. Sofitel, Le Meridién, The Ritz-Carlton, Westin, Sheraton and Marriott are some of the hotel brands employing a signature scent strategy to further move away from their competitors.

41. Put a famous face to your famous brand. The age-old strategy of pairing products and services with a well-known celebrity continues to be a viable option for brand differentiation. However, the rules have changed. There must be an authentic alignment between the brand and the celebrity. Case in point: Tiger Woods and Nike Golf: Yes. Tiger Woods and Buick: No. The association between brand and celebrity must be clear and obvious.

42. Redefine usage. How your product is used can serve as a key differentiator. Arm & Hammer Baking Soda became much more when customers discovered it also made for a powerful air freshener. This helped Arm & Hammer not only extend into new categories but also create a multi-use brand that is more meaningful to its target customers.

43. Introduce simplicity and purity into people’s cluttered lives. Stand for good things. Market highly valued values. With deep customer insight, you will know what your target customers value most. That insight can help create highly valued brands. Honest Tea was born from the insight that simple and pure refreshment was missing from the market. The Method brand came to life through a quest to create household cleaning products that were not harmful.

44. Tap into the power of emotions. Linking your brand with customer emotions can prove an effective differentiator. It was humor that helped GEICO pull away in the me-too world of insurance brands. While their competition focused on fear, GEICO used witty and funny campaigns to differentiate itself and gain an advantage. Brands like Hallmark found brand differentiation based on human emotions could lead to a 92% mind share.

45. Control the accessibility. Brands can differentiate on when they make their products and services available and who they make that accessibility for. Elite luxury brands will limit how many of its signature products are manufactured. The most influential customers will have access to those products first. This all builds into the frenzy that drives desire and purchase of the brand. It also helps command a premium price. Brands like Coca-Cola use accessibility on the other end of the spectrum. They desire to be the most accessible brand and have distribution channels into the deepest regions of the world.

46. Focus on design and aesthetics. Consider Hermès scarves, Vilebrequin men’s swimwear, Robert Graham shirts and Alexander McQueen fashion wear. Or how about the Michael Graves Design’s collection at Target? This helps college and university brands too. Beautiful campuses tend to attract students. For municipality brands, “attractive neighborhoods” rates as one of the top things people consider when deciding where to live. Camden, ME, Niagara-on-the-Lake (ON, Canada), Quebec City (QC, Canada) and Bruges, Belgium are very popular as tourist destinations, in large part due to their superior aesthetics. Never underestimate the power of superior aesthetics to differentiate.

47. Convey status. If you knew I went to Philips Academy, Andover, Harvard and Stanford, lived in Atherton, CA, summered in Nantucket, drove a Mercedes-Benz model S-class, and sailed a Nautor’s Swan53, would these brands effectively communicate my social status?

48. Create a unique product purchase experience. How different is purchasing a teddy bear with a child in a Build-A-Bear Workshop versus buying one off the shelf in a typical toy or department store? Very different. And very differentiating.

49. Create an unusual theme or twist to your brand. Consider the following unusual restaurant brands – Opaque (dining in the dark), Ice Restaurant (in Dubai), Underwater restaurant in Maldives, Magic Restroom (toilet-themed) Café in CA or Dinner in the Sky (suspended 50 meters above the ground). For more creative restaurant themes,

50. Treat people differently than your competitors do. We love Ritz-Carlton’s “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” mantra. This alludes to a level of gentility, civility and respect not often experienced in product purchase or usage experiences. If an opportunity to serve your customer better does not exist — create one.

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Source: branding strategy insider

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