Anyone that’s ever been in a relationship will tell you there’s an enormous difference in what you will do for someone you “like” vs. someone you truly “love.” The same goes for consumers and their relationships with brands and causes.
Just ask a company like JetBlue. Last week, they were staring down the barrel at a public relations nightmare. JetBlue has over 1.5 million followers on Twitter and over 300,000 fans that “Like” them on Facebook. Had it been any other airline, it would be easy to envision an uprising that would paralyze the brand in social media and characterize Steven Slater’s behavior as endemic of the state of the service levels of airline industry, in general. Why didn’t that happen in this instance? Because JetBlue’s fans don’t just “like” the brand, they love the brand.
Sure, it’s great to have a large following in social media. You can even consider a consumer establishing a direct link with a brand or cause through a “like” a reasonable measure of engagement. However, when a crisis occurs, it’s easy to see the difference between a fan that has a casual relationship with a brand or cause and one that has true feelings and passion for it.
For instance, “liking” a brand or cause can be well-correlated with a purchase consideration or a willingness to take action. The problem with “consumer consideration” is that it shouldn’t be confused with “consumer preference.” Also, “like” does not necessarily imply a willingness to advocate or, for that matter, forgive for a brand or cause – both of which can be considered critical end goals for marketers.
In other words, engagement is great but endearment will get you much, much further.
The question is: how do you engineer endearment? Much like love itself, it’s a hard thing to just MAKE happen. However, there are three elements of consumer endearment marketers CAN control that can get beyond “like” and closer to “love:”
1) Empathy
The first thing we look for in a relationship is something we can identify with. If we can’t readily see ourselves as a part of a brand or causes’ narrative, there’s little we can do to make a consumer love us.
2) Aspiration
We don’t fall in love with something we find ordinary. Instead, we fall in love with something we find exceptional, and we constantly aspire to find the exceptional. No matter how common the product, if it solves a problem or addresses the right need at the right time, it will be exceptional in the eyes of the consumer.
3) Empowerment
Finally, the best relationships empower us. If your brand is viewed as overly engineered, then chances are it feels very inaccessible to consumers. Alternatively, if the consumer has accessibility to answers on-demand or participates in social platforms, they are much more likely to feel they can “own” a piece of the brand. When consumers feel like they own a piece of the brand or have a stake in its success, only then do they feel truly empowered.
As consumers' preferences become more fickle, it’s important to look beyond transactional engagement and look towards building long-term relationships with consumers. It’s not easy and it’s certainly not as straightforward to measure, but building endearment will soon become a primary goal of brands who want to translate their social efforts into sustained lifts in sales.