Rethink How Your Brand Makes People Feel

Emotions and feelings

Right now your brand is making the people important to its success feel one thing or another. The question is, are those feelings a help or a hindrance? If sales are slipping, good employees are leaving, loyal customers are defecting, or it’s getting harder to recruit top talent, it’s time to rethink how your brand makes people feel.

Feelings and emotions lie at the heart of emotive brand strategies. In our most recent white paper, “Transforming your brand into an emotive brand”, we explain that emotions and feelings are key drivers of our approach to brand strategy. Here we explain why.

Understanding the two levels of feeling: “feels right” and “feels good”.

The first goal of emotive branding is to get people to say that your brand “feels right”. This happens when they consciously realize and internalize your brand’s purposeful promise. The second is to get them to sense that they “feel good” when they reflect on the emotional experience of dealing with your brand, your products, and your people.

Meaningful brands seek to operate on both levels:

– First, they generate positive, heartfelt feelings that flow as people realize new levels of purpose and meaning in their lives thanks to the brand.

– Second, they also actively create feelings that surround their brand with a distinct emotional aura that draws people in, and makes them want more.

The first level flows from how well your brand adds to the emotional, physical or spiritual lives of people, and/or the collective wellbeing your brand creates for society and the planet. Helping people feel they are part of this goodness will fill them with significant feelings, and change the way they think about, feel for, and act on behalf of your brand. It is important to note that these positive feelings won’t be generated purely through messages you send proclaiming your good deeds, but from the real and tangible outcomes those deeds lead to. As such, brand-building messages need to be centered more on the outcome than the brand.

The second level flows from the intentions, attitudes, and behaviors of both your organization and each person working within it. These feelings are only generated as people within and outside the organization experience the brand’s corporate and employee decisions, actions, and gestures. Again, it is not about communicating a promise of making people feel one way or another, it is ensuring that both your brand and workplace behavior leave people feeling something unique, positive and memorable about your brand.

Don’t fear emotions and feelings

Emotions and feelings have been traditionally inhibited within the business world. We like to think that logic and reason are the prime modes of behavior in corporate dealings and consumer decision-making. However, science proves we are essentially emotional beings who are seeking to feel more secure, to feel connected, and to feel as if we’re growing. Brands that take steps to address these core needs through meaning will not only make people think their brand is great, they’ll also make people feel great about being a part of the brand’s world.

Seek to touch more than just brain cells and wallets. Reach out and touch lives in deep, rich, and meaningful ways. And watch your brand thrive.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm.