How to Ace Brand Intimacy in 2020

“Brands Matter, Emotions Count” – Brand Intimacy Study. When emotions are the driving factor of most human decisions, it becomes crucial for brands to strengthen the emotional bonds with their customers. Let’s discover how you can ace brand intimacy in 2020.

Brand Intimacy is an important factor for a business’s growth and success, according to the brand intimacy firm MBLMOpens a new window . The Brand Intimacy 2018 Report was the first such report that captured how top brands delivered superior results in terms of revenue and profit.

The Brand Intimacy 2019 ReportOpens a new window , reported that technology, media, and automotive brands such as Amazon, Disney, and Apple continued to dominate the Top 10 Most Intimate Brands in 2020. “We know that customers who form strong emotional bonds with brands are willing to pay more and are less willing to live without them. Insights from our annual ranking of brands are providing lessons and new strategies for business leaders and marketers,” stated Mario NatarelliOpens a new window , managing partner, MBLM.

In this article, we talk about how you can improve Brand Intimacy for 2020 and beyond.

Learn More: 3 Tips to Take Cognitive Biases Into Account While Developing a Customer Experience StrategyOpens a new window

What Is Brand Intimacy and Why Is It Important?

Brand Intimacy is how brands appeal and connect to prospects’ emotions. It is the science of emotions that captures how they influence the human decision-makingOpens a new window process and how appealing to people’s instincts can help form strong bonds with them.

Brand intimacy is a marketing paradigm that keeps emotions at the coreOpens a new window to shape the way customers ’emotionally’ connect with a brand to make purchase decisions and form long term relationships with brands.

It is different from brand loyalty, which may be driven by loyalty programs, rewards, or sometimes a customer’s inability to opt for another brand. While, brand intimacy, is how intensely and positively a customer ‘feels’ about the brand.

According to the Brand Intimacy 2019 Study findings:

• The top 10 most intimate brands have outperformed the Fortune 500 and S&P index, in terms of revenue and profit in the last decade.
• Twice the number of customers are willing to a pay premium price for top intimate brands
• Media and entertainment brands are more intimate with millennials and users of age 35-54
• Brands that have a presence on the smartphone ecosystem have an average intimacy quotient as high as 38.8, which gives them more opportunities to foster emotional connections with users.
   

Based on these findings, we discuss how you can improve your brand intimacy quotient for 2020 and beyond.

How to Ace Brand Intimacy in 2020?

Brand intimacy score in the said report demonstrates how a brand performs in terms of prevalence – the percentage of users who are intimate, intensity – the depth and degree of intimacy, and the nature of relationships – fulfillment, identity, enhancement, ritual, nostalgia, indulgence.

We spoke exclusively to Rina PlaplerOpens a new window , partner at MBLMOpens a new window , about how marketers can ensure they get it right while also making a connect with users. Here’s what she had to say, “Our Brand Intimacy research has shown that it is most important to build an emotional connection with your customers, regardless of gender. And that top intimate brands outperform top Fortune 500 and S&P brands across profit and revenue. The top 5 intimate brands for 2019, Apple, Amazon, Ford, Netflix, Harley Davidson, don’t necessarily market to women; rather, they ensure their brands are building powerful emotional bonds.”

Keeping this in mind, here are a few pointers to get you started with improvements in forming deeper emotional connections with your consumers.

1. Building Emotional and Lasting Relationships with Users
 

Intimacy starts with the users who have engaged or interacted with you at some point. Consumer behavior is dynamic and heavily driven by emotions. A modern consumer performs thorough research to guide her purchase decisions. But eventually, how a customer feels during each interaction with the brand steers them to form an emotional bond.

ChevroletOpens a new window was number 1 in the automotive industry last year. Nearly half of Chevrolet’s users felt an emotional connection with the brand. This is because the brand can propagate sharing and bonding among users and has been able to reach out to a broader pool of users (income group of $35K – $100k). Chevrolet has been successful in striking the right balance between style, performance, and value, and aligning its products and services with new audiences.

2. Nurturing Customer-Brand Relationships
 

The Brand Intimacy Report identifies six patterns that are consistently present among intimate brands. Identifying and focusing on the character and nature of brand relationships can help brands strengthen customer-brand relationships.

A. Fulfillment means that a brand exceeds users’ expectations and delivers superior service, quality, and efficacy.

For instance, AmazonOpens a new window , along with Prime, brings to the table superior shopping and viewing experiences and other value-added services. Amazon, with meticulous planning, has been able to deliver quality in execution and customer service. Moreover, Amazon can tie up with local partners (retailers) to curate products, services, or offerings tailored to regional requirements. This end-to-end experience right from product selection to delivery is fulfilling and delightful for end-users.

B. Identity reflects an aspirational image or values that resonate deeply with customers.

38% of AppleOpens a new window users can’t live without the brand, while 23% are willing to pay more for the brand. Moreover, Apple, equally popular among men and women, has been able to build strong bonds with users in the age group 18-55 and making it to the top for both the income groups. Apple has been successful as it delivers premium utility products and services (smartphones, computers, smart devices, etc.). It projected itself as a brand that everyone desires – a status symbol. Plus, it has been able to deliver what they stand for and demonstrate continuous improvements in terms of products, services, and values (privacy and security).

Learn More: Customer Experience learnings from Apple, Tesla and Disneyland!Opens a new window

C. Nostalgia is rekindling the memories customers have grown up with.

DisneyOpens a new window has been able to dethrone Apple to be the most intimate brand this year as it has been able to strike an emotional chord with consumers across different age groups and genders. Moreover, Disney has been able to adapt to the modern-day idea of storytellingOpens a new window by adding new dimensions to their characters (old or new). For example, Disney princesses can now lead, challenge, combat, and win for themselves. The stories are for everyone and less gender-targeted, so you see more of the likes of The Incredibles. They have been able to recreate content that resonates well with audiences that grew up with Disney’s stories and also connect with a younger audience, making it a strong, highly emotional brand.

D. Enhancement means adding value to customers’ lives and helping them become smarter, more capable, and more connected.

YouTubeOpens a new window has scored 52 on enhancement as users spend more time on YouTube and see it as a functional platform. The success of YouTubeOpens a new window lies in its ability to get intimate and ubiquitous with seamless mobile experiences. YouTube has been able to bring video content that is educational, informative, and entertaining to users wherever they are. A strong smartphone presence, coupled with engaging content, can help you enhance your customers’ life and cultivate emotional relationships with them on their personal devices.

E. Ritual is how a brand becomes a vital part of a users’ daily existence.

NetflixOpens a new window expanded its user base with diverse and original content and seamless technology, which makes it ideal for streaming and binge-watching. Netflix ranks number 1 in ‘ritual‘, and is interwoven in the audiences’ daily lives. How? With an algorithm that caters to audience preferences and interestsOpens a new window and recommends content by understanding the user and interpolating from similar users’ tastes across the world. With flexible viewing experiences like offline viewing and in-app subscription (for iOS), and personalized content for its users, Netflix has become a staple in people’s lives.

F. Indulgence is when a brand can pamper and gratify its customers.

Chick-fil-AOpens a new window was number one in indulgence in the fast-food category. Keeping aside controversies, if we focus on how delicious their waffles and fries are and how their crew relentlessly greet and treat customers, it’s not a surprise that Chick-fil-A has emerged as the most intimate fast-food brand. Apart from indulging customers in delicious offerings, Chik-fil-A employees go beyond by offering free refills, carrying large loads in their cars, and holding doors for them. Naturally, customers feel pampered and keep going back to them.

3. Bringing in Depth and Intensity
 

Another vital pillar of brand intimacy is the stage of the customer-brand relationship. The MBLM study identifies three stages in which an intimate relationship transitions – Sharing to Bonding to Fusing.

• Sharing is when a person and brand interact and there is attraction through reciprocity and assurance.
• Bonding is when a person moves from mere knowledge and interaction with a brand to a stage of acceptance and trust is established with the brand.
• Fusing happens when a person and brand merge to be co-identified.
   

Example: Nike has been able to bring more customers to the sharing stage and cultivate relationships with them. A lot of this ‘attraction‘ can be attributed to Nike’s focus on mobile as a conversion tool, members-only Nike LIVE store, scanning shoe-sizing technology (Nike Fit) to recommend the right shoe-size to the shoppers, and many more.

Nike has also been successful in bonding with customers and winning their trust by taking a stand (Colin Kapernick controversyOpens a new window ) and continually and consistently building the brand around the ideas that resonate well with customers. For instance, their LED running track in ManilaOpens a new window where runners could compete with their larger than life digital selves to motivate them to compete against themselves.

The brand is yet to improve its fusing score, but it seems it’s not too far when Nike users will merge with the brand to become one. Nike has already taken initiatives to offer hyper-personalized experiences by understanding their users better and helping them customize their gears with Nike by YouOpens a new window . In an attempt to marry the digital and physical personalized shopping experiences, they opened an experimental store, Nike, by MelroseOpens a new window that had a curated collection of city-specific style with the user data from the Nike Plus app.

Learn More: Building a Robust Customer Experience Management Strategy: Lessons From NikeOpens a new window

Time to Get Intimate with Customers

What marketers can learn from the top 3 intimate brands for 2019 is that there is no one formula for building emotional bonds with consumers. There are many ways brands can leverage emotion to be successful and foster strong relationships. Disney, for example, leverages nostalgia very effectively to associate its brand with warm memories many of us have with our childhood. Apple is strong across many archetypes, notably enhancement (people become better through use of the brand-smarter, more capable and more connected) and ritual. Amazon is also associated with enhancement and fulfillment (exceeding expectations, delivering superior service). These brands are also able to connect across age and income levels, highlighting broad appeal.

~ Rina PlaplerOpens a new window , partner at MBLMOpens a new window , exclusively to MarTech Advisor

Like any relationship, the customer-brand relationship too requires care and nurturing, persistently and consistently.

1 . It starts from the very first step of letting users know you exist. Your wingmen could be your existing customers or your brand image (and values) that make them notice you.

Leverage curiosity.

2 . The next step is to attract them and offer themOpens a new window something they cannot refuse – your brand’s Unique Selling Proposition.

Leverage attraction.

3.Then, forming deep emotional bonds by exceeding their expectations, becoming aspirational, adding value to their lives, being a part of their daily routine, occasionally (or regularly?) indulging them, and taking them down the memory lane.

Apply the classic rules of a loving relationship.

4. Share and bond. Create an environment where you grow from mutual admiration to feeling of trust and loyalty. Here the relationship is becoming mature, and you can contribute to it by ensuring that not only do you fulfill their expectations but assure they are cared for. It could include expressing gratitude, special offers, improved customer service, on-time delivery and address resolution, etc.

Leverage emotions of trust, loyalty, and partnership.

5 . Identify as One where a customer becomes synonymous with a brand and vice-versa. Fusing happens when brands and consumers form a mutual realization and expressions. By delivering hyper-personalized experiences, understanding their preferences, and anticipating their needs you can form an intimate relationship with your customers. Encouraging them to ‘flaunt’ their love for your brand can help them better associate with your brand.

This is where you will be able to form intimate brand-customer relationships.

Also, seamless mobile experiences help you connect intimately to your customers, so do not forget to include a mobile strategy.

For your 2020 strategy, invest in understanding the customer’s emotions and how to turn them into positive peaksOpens a new window to form, strengthen, and nurture relationships with your customers and build intimacy for a long term success.

What is your idea of Brand Intimacy? Tell us on Twitter,Opens a new window LinkedInOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window ; we’re always listening!