Building connections to get consumers falling in love with your company

Estimated reading time
4 minutes
9th February 2022
Author: Ellen Montgomery
Posted in: Strategy & Planning

Holidays and national celebrations often mean happy, excited people. It is the perfect time for marketers to connect with prospects in gratuitous celebrations. Effectively utilized, holidays and national celebrations can help brands build credibility, taking customers on an emotional journey. 

Throughout the year, connecting with customers remains key. Building a brand personality that customers can relate to and linking campaigns with popular culture, major events, and holidays all help to create positive interactions throughout the customer journey. Driving those connections forward, a jargon-free, down-to-earth approach creates a campaign much easier to resonate with. But how can you incorporate this to make customers fall in love with your brand?

Create undeniable brand value

Elicit emotional responses from users and potential customers by taking them on a journey. By creating a campaign or content that is truly relatable, people immediately begin to feel more involved. 

Nobody needs to be introduced to Google, but back in 2009, the multinational technology giant created their first television advert which aired during the 2010 Superbowl. Lacking physical characters and dialogue, the heartwarming 52 seconds demonstrates how vital Google is as a tool in the most important life decisions people make. Clearly showing Google as a trusted source for pretty much anything, the advert is simple and effective.

Build intrigue with variations on the day

Whatever holiday, event, or national day it is, remember that not everyone will be celebrating. For some festivities such as Valentine’s Day, alternative versions of the day are becoming increasingly popular. Galentine’s Day, for example, celebrates women, empowered further by a strong presence on social media platforms. 

Brands such as The Body Shop have previously created their #SendAKiss campaign. Here, people are encouraged to post pictures of themselves with their friends, family, and even pets instead of only their romantic partners. The User Generated Content helps to build brand trust as it is seen as three times more authentic than brand-generated content.

While Valentine’s Day typically celebrates love in the romantic setting, more inclusive marketing campaigns such as this are gaining traction. By including everyone, instead of just couples, more people feel listened to and understood. As a result, the consumer-brand relationship is strengthened. 

Let personality shine through

Sticking with Valentine’s Day, getting people to share their ‘love stories’, particularly funny anecdotes or unique dating stories can make for some hilarious customer interactions. Similar to running a contest, followers are encouraged to tag loved ones to join in.

British cosmetics retailer Lush puts a ‘fizz-ical’ slant on their marketing campaigns. For Lush, national holidays and days of celebration are more opportunities to have fun with their products. For Valentine’s Day, they offer a range of romance themed products, from their lobster and jelly heart bath bombs to a ‘love-bug’ in the shape of a VW Beetle and chocolate body wash. While their competitors often focus on overdone and exclusionary romance, Lush has a more friendly, tongue-in-cheek approach that anyone can get behind. As a result, this generates abundant customer interaction. 

Differentiating your brand from competitors with cohesive marketing builds a strong brand personality that becomes familiar with consumers.

Keep things sincere

Every person has their own identity. No organization should be telling individuals how they should be feeling or who they are. However, brands should promote their relatability and values. By dropping the ‘we will change the world’ jargon, in favor of a philosophy people can support rather than themselves adopt, brands can empower people.

This sincerity shows consumers the brand is confident in the ideologies it promotes. People are not pushed to feel a certain way. This is something that charities often do very well.

Wildlife charity WWF, for example, launched their ‘Love It or Lose It‘ campaign Valentine’s Day week in 2021, calling upon people to show their love for nature. The campaign clearly shows the brand objective by showcasing elements of nature that evoke an emotional response from consumers.

By starting with the issue or pain points and presenting available solutions, customers can make their own decisions as to what is best for them. This transparency brings invaluable credibility to the brand.

Say thank you by rewarding brand loyalty 

Holiday festivities often center on sharing love with other people. In the same breath, people love getting things for free. However, giving away free products would not make for a successful business model. Instead, multi-buy promotions and loyalty reward schemes can work in the same sort of way. 

Aligning products with the ever-evolving needs of the customer will encourage them to return, effectively creating brand loyalty. A 2017 study found that adding a loyalty program to a marketing campaign can increase sales by up to 319%.

Offering customers subscriber-only incentives can be another way of encouraging loyalty. People don’t just want to sign up for your newsletter – they want to understand what they stand to gain from doing so. 

Fast-food chain Chick-fil-A spells it out for their customers. People spend money and they can earn points. Points mean rewards. Rewards equal tier style benefits with silver, red, and signature member statuses. Receiving a birthday reward, being able to participate in challenges to gain bonus points as well as being the first to know about new menu options are all incentives for Chick-fil-A members. 

Starting the Conversation

Keyboards are the new handshakes. Video meetings are the new eye contact. Friends are simply numbers on screens. Despite all of this, the next new business trend won’t come from a computer screen. It will come from the heart.

With any holiday or national day on the horizon – there is always something – why not start making your community swoon by sending a personalized, interactive Turtl Doc their way?

Not sure where to start? Try the Turtl content personality quiz to learn how the power of personalization can help to build better relationships.

Listen to people. Follow through. Execute the basics. They are surprisingly effective.