Customer emotion is predicted to be the next big thing in customer engagement strategies. It's everywhere at the moment, and it makes perfect sense.
It’s all about creating a connection between your brand and consumers, so that you can retain existing customers, attract new ones and get them to spend more money with you. And if you can create an emotional connection with your customers, you'll find this much, much easier to achieve.
To give you a bit of inspiration, here are six companies really tapping into the emotion of their customers...
The Banks
Banks and customer emotion are not two things you would naturally connect, but when dealing with something as personal as money, there's a big opportunity for banks to connect with their customers on an emotional level.
Lloyds are celebrating their 250th anniversary this year, so they've created an advert which takes their customers back in time. Using the symbol of the black horse, combined with a powerful soundtrack and personal emotive stories, creates an iconic brand celebration. This kind of appeal to history helps to build trust and loyalty with customers, making them feel that they've been part of this brand journey and that they're secure as part of a long and safe past. By being a Lloyds customer you are not simply investing in a brand, you are investing in a slice of history.
HSBC have also recently launched a new campaign entitled, ‘The Museum of Procrastination’. The advert shows a museum guide showing customers around artefacts of what, ‘could have been’; gym memberships that have only been used once, unfinished novels and ideas or inventions long forgotten about. Rather than an opportunity to shame or nag customers as it initially may appear, the campaign instead acts to unite the audience. We’ve all set ourselves targets or expectations that we can’t fulfil, and HSBC are using this advert to say, 'let’s put a stop to that', you can achieve something, and we’ll help you do it. They appeal to emotions of motivation and potential, encouraging customers. Plus, when did they created this campaign? January, the month of resolutions – it’s all connected.
The One’s that are selling happiness.
It’s an obvious emotion to want to evoke, but a tricky one to pull off. Looking cheesy or contrived is a potential pitfall here, but there are some companies that have cracked the secret.
Coca Cola. Think feel-good brands and you think of them. From picking the best soundtracks to appealing to history, they've done it all and rarely fail to put a smile on their customers' faces. The addition of names to their iconic bottles meant that suddenly an everyday drink became a gift, a talking point and even a collectible item. Plus, they work with the seasons. There aren’t many brands that people can say, ‘embody Christmas’, but they have customers queuing all over the country simply to have a picture with the Coca Cola Christmas van. It makes people smile, and there’s no denying that it works.
Disney. With one of the most iconic brands for magic in the world, it’s no wonder that Disney seem to have cast a spell on consumers all over the world. Take a closer look at their marketing strategies and it isn’t just fairy dust that they’re relying on. By repeatedly using the symbol of family, Disney connects emotionally with its customers to remind them of traditional ideals. Their most recent ads appeal to the idea of nostalgia and the magic of childhood, working twofold to suggest that Disneyland brings that magic back at any age, and creating urgency by reminding customers that their children are growing up fast. It’s all about selling the dream.
The One’s that are selling you
Perhaps the trickiest way to appeal to customers emotionally, but the most effective, is by using customers' own lives. Appeal to consumers on a personal level and they’ll feel more connected to you in the long run.
Dove. We all know the success of the real women campaign, but it truly can’t be overlooked. What Dove did all those years ago, and continue to do, is use customer emotion to sell customers back to themselves. Sounds strange? Well it is a little, but it’s effective. All too often as consumers we’re told that we’re not good enough, that we need to be enhanced, to try harder, to buy this or change that. Dove decided to tell its customers that they were perfect exactly as they were, and that all they were doing was celebrating that. A powerfully emotive and real campaign with fantastic outcomes.
Facebook. It doesn’t seem that such a huge name in social media would even need to sell themselves, but Facebook’s recent campaign proves the power of the people is as influential as ever. By focusing their advertising on the idea of ‘friends’ they managed to connect to millions of customers that they don’t even know, all by using people that their customers do. They've never met their customers' friends, but their customers have. By simply reminding people of the power and magic of friendship, Facebook managed to create a personal and emotional campaign that seemed to speak directly to everyone that watched it. By deciding not to sell social media, and instead sell the concept of your own friends back to you, they managed to skip the corporate giant image and jump straight to a real and emotional watch.
There's no doubt that the way your customers feel is important, and there are companies all over the world tapping into this as a way to enhance their customer experience.
If you're looking for some inspirational customer experience ideas, take a look at our CX in 2015 roundup, which focuses on 25 different companies from 25 different countries, all excelling in providing a great customer experience.
