Creating Emotional Ties with Customers

Companies today have to do more than just sell or create publicity – that is if they do anything at all –. Companies seek to present their best offers or promotions so that the consumer will react and execute a purchase, but each time, these reactions are becoming less. Consumers today require more than an offer, they require empathy, a connection to the company, and they require something more that will unite them to the product or service.

It is no longer enough to have the product, it is no longer enough to find a competitive advantage, it is no longer enough to exhibit the product without promotion, it is no longer enough to be the pioneer, it is no longer enough to have the company’s image designed, it is no longer enough to state that the product is the best of all, and it is no longer enough to reduce the sales price of the product or service. Customers now look for something that will allow that connection between what they consume every day and the brand that provides the solution to a given need.

Among other strategies to overcome the needs of today’s consumer, we will focus on one of the most important: creating emotional ties that stimulate a consumer to purchase. The consumer purchase cycle can be interrupted sometimes by different factors. For example: the lack of information the consumer requires to make a decision. The consumer is uncertain about the product because of the lack of information.

What is the consumer looking for? He or she looks for pleasant attention, a fair deal, information, help and orientation to make an effective purchase, to feel like his or her purchase is adequate, harmony in the place where he or she shops, a fair price, the product or service, a tie with the product, something that will make him or her have a connection, and something that will make him or her repeat the purchase. He or she wants to see in the chosen brand, something that cannot be seen in a competitive brand.

The establishment of emotional ties with the customer, helps build a faithful relationship with the brand. Emotional ties are anchors between consumers and companies. We are talking about a big difference between a brand and its competitor, between a product and all others.

It is important to seek these emotional ties, seek a competitive advantage where customers feel like they are a part and connected with the company. Regularly I recommend clients to be careful with the way they develop these emotional ties. You cannot promise what you cannot give. Branding consulting is a useful tool to develop strategies that help:

• Find a tie between the product or service and the customer.
• Make the customer feel important.
• Never mislead him or her.
• Never make a promise you will not keep.
• Generate experiences that will seduce him or her.

Customers have a peculiar way of chastising and manifesting their discomfort when they are mistreated. They simply do not purchase again. And what is worse, they tell others to not purchase as well. That is what is most complicated, the negative image that is generated by the customer’s unhappiness.

It is fundamental to take care of customers, in the same way you take care of a plant: you have to treat the plant with kindness, water it, and cultivate it. This is how you establish long lasting relationships with customers.