How to use emotions to build brand loyalty with your target audience

Emotion can be a powerful tool in business, if you know how to use it. Using emotion to connect with your audience is a great way to build a relationship that can lead to brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is the result of an emotional decision to use a specific product or service again and again. According to www.circles.com, over 70 per cent of consumer (audience) loyalty and spending decisions are based on emotional factors.

These emotional decisions are derived from the consumer’s experience when interacting with a company. How the consumer (audience) feels is just as important as the product or service provided.

If the target audience has a positive experience with a company, they can become advocates or cheerleaders for your brand, and start to promote the product or service by word of mouth, it can lead to increased exposure and opportunities to create loyal followers.

Apple Inc.’s loyal brand following is the result of an emotional connection created with its audience. Even though issues with their products sometimes arise, Apple’s customers will continue to buy them due to the passion for the brand and the personal identification the consumer feels when using the product.

So how can you emotionally connect with your audience to create brand loyalty?

Research
Before doing anything it is important to know who your target audience is. By understanding the target audience, the company can communicate in a way that speaks directly to them, connecting on an emotional level. Conduct demographic research to determine the target audience’s likes and dislikes, how they connect with the company and why. By doing this, the company can create a tailored approach to connecting with the target audience and creating brand loyalty.

Find out who it is you are communicating with, who is your target audience, what are their likes, dislikes and how do they connect with the company. By identifying the target audience, the company can establish the reasons why they engage with the brand and can create a specific approach to connecting with them.

Be genuine in your relationships
Determine what it is your company stands for, what the core values and beliefs are, and how that can be translated into emotional connections and a continued relationship with the target audience consumer. Don’t rely on your product or service to create brand loyalty, the company has to do the talking.

Virgin Airlines mantra is to ensure the customer experience is a priority, which has been achieved by integrating it into the company’s core values and beliefs. This empowers the employees to go above and beyond for their customers, creating a positive experience and listening to their needs, which translates to a continuing relationship with the company and can lead to brand loyalty.

Exceed expectations
When building trust with your target audience consumers it is important to show you truly care, ensuring you are meeting and hopefully exceeding their expectations every step of the way. Listen to what the target audience is saying, and try to assist in making their experience with the company as positive as possible.

Not all company, product or service issues are easily fixed, however it is the approach to the problem that the target audience will remember – how the company made them feel while dealing with the issue.

Connect through stories not products
Create stories that evoke the core values, beliefs and personality of the brand, this will help to connect with the target audience on an emotional level showing the human side of the company.

Proctor and Gamble (P&G) used the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to build an emotional connection with their target audience by creating the #BecauseOfMom campaign. This campaign was designed around a basic emotional desire that the target audience could relate to, a mother’s role in forging a future champion simply by taking care of her child.

By understanding how the brand and its products makes the target audience feel, P&G were able to produce an ad that tapped into the basic instincts of a mum, and using this emotional factor they were able to create a connection with the audience.

Emotion is a basic human instinct and is a good tool for companies to use to attract a new audience and create brand loyalty. It is almost like a committed relationship, between company and target audience, as long as the company is delivering a positive experience for the target audience, brand loyalty should remain.