Overview

Every brand wants their customers to feel “True Brand Love”. The benefits have been proven in multiple studies and include the highest levels of brand loyalty, willingness to pay a price premium, more positive recommendations, and willingness to forgive mistakes.

However, most marketers recognise that not all consumers will treat their brand like a lover, and in fact, there are multiple levels of brand engagement.

Leveraging extensive research, this report looks to the future of brand engagement, exploring the key trends and defining actionable insights on how to build better brand engagement for success in 2023 and beyond.

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What’s inside the report?

Accidentally in Love

Brands that have high levels of emotional engagement with their customers enjoy multiple competitive advantages. Central to developing this level of Lover-like customer relationships is the differentiation of the brand on its functional attributes, the sensory experience of using it, and how it communicates with the market. The more intensely that a brand can separate itself from its competitors on these drivers, the higher it can climb the engagement ladder from being a Nobody, to a Servant, to a Friend, and ultimately, to having a Lover-like relationship with its customers.

Who Are You?- The Nobody-Like Relationship

A Nobody brand can be distinguished by its lack of significant distinguishing characteristics. Generic in its function, sensory experience, and communications, having the lowest price becomes the USP for these brands.

The major supermarkets are actively developing what were previously effectively generic brands and giving them unique attributes. These “own brands” already makeup a significant share of sales and their continual move “upmarket” will increase the pressure on established brands to enhance the differentiation of the products.

Takin’ Care of Business.- The Servant-Like Relationship

Consumers have a servant like relationship with a brand when they chose it because it is different to its competitors, however, they fail to develop an emotional attachment to it.

Typically, this occurs either when there is only minor brand differentiation, or when the differentiation has limited significance to the customer, e.g. I don’t care what colour it is.

You’re My Best Friend – The Friend-Like Relationship

Brands can achieve friend status when their customers experience the unique characteristics of the brand with sufficient intensity that it creates an emotional bond.

Over time, however, various factors including advancements in technology can erode the perception of the brand as an “individual”. Typically, this downgrades the status of a brand from friend to servant and can ultimately lead to it becoming the generic category name, e.g. Kleenex, and even losing its legal trademark.

I Was Made for Loving You – The Lover-Like Relationship

The ultimate goal of all brands, a lover like relationship is characterised by feelings of genuine affection, and the capacity of the brand to create separation distress.

The prerequisites for brand love are high levels of brand satisfaction and pleasure, a strong fit with the customer’s inner self, and personal experiences with it.

Welcome to the Machine – Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality

Sensory and communications uniqueness are both central to developing a lover-like brand engagement.

The application of Artificial Intelligence can help brands to increase the personalisation of their brand and thus increase the intensity/effectiveness of its communications.

Augmented/Virtual Reality can have a similar positive impact on the sensory experience of engaging with a brand.

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Executive Presentations and Workshops

Book an in-house executive presentation where we will further expand on the insights, industry trends, and drivers identified in the Power of Love report. Whether you need assistance with new product developments, repositioning or brand messaging, this session will enable you to workshop strategic opportunities for your brand with our Senior Strategist, Grant Davidson. The presentation will be tailored to best suit your current needs, the key focus being to help you build successful and resilient brands in 2023 and beyond.

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