Your Brand Needs Emotion

Yep. We’re still talking Digital Transformation. But it’s not just us- we swear! Last week, MarTech put out an article concerning Yamaha’s notable DT efforts during the last year. The company’s transition to an ‘emotional brand’ paves the way for a more reformed, more customer centered marketing style. And how exactly, you ask, does one’s brand get ’emotional’? Before you put on black eyeliner and crank up the Jimmy Eat World, consider this. Get to know your customers. Set your product to the side and lean in on the customer. Yamaha shifted “(their) mindset to be truly customer-centric.” And now, with their customers at the center, as the heroes, the brand has positioned themselves as more inviting and more approachable- in other words, more successful.

Yamaha’s marketing tech strategist, Athan Billias, stresses the importance of customer data in driving & personalizing your marketing. I know, data tracking seems incredibly impersonal. No one ever got that second date by being able to recite all of her last known addresses. Less personal, more terrifying. But when it comes to gathering info to better reach your clients, it’s an invaluable tool. The information data tracking provides can help us meet the consumer’s needs in a way that best serves…and here’s the kicker…the consumer.

You have to use data to know your customers, to be able to address them in an emotional way-thats why a customer data platform is so important.

While the pressures of COVID-19 have forced all businesses to re evaluate how they reach their customers, truth be told, the digital marketing landscape has always demanded adaptable strategies. And in today’s world, where toddlers have tablets and grandparents are face timing, businesses must stay in front of their audience to survive.

This month’s addition of Facebook Shops is yet another example of the new lengths we must go to get our products to the customers. And the platform is genius because it’s just about as close as you can get to the customer without setting up shop on their actual front porch (something we do not recommend). The customer is already on Facebook. Everyone and their dog has an account- seriously. My neighbor’s dog, Scooter, is actually on Facebook. His entire page is dedicated to selfies and posts ‘from Scooter.’ Absolutely ridiculous. Am I looking into creating one for my own pups? Absolutely yes.

But the new FB sales platform invites an incredibly intimate experience between companies and their customers. Quit thinking about a Love is Blind scenario- that’s not where I’m going with this. Example- say you walk in the actual, physical store for your items- you chat with the cashier, you check-out and you leave. I bet you a bottle of hand sanitizer the cashier never even caught your name. But you complete a transaction on Facebook Shops? With just a few clicks, they know not just your name, but your wife’s name, your children, who you voted for and how lame your office Christmas party was last year. The sea of information available is almost overwhelming. And with proper intentions and even the smallest amount of effort, the great advantage it can bring to how we connect with our customers is, well, almost overwhelming.

To compete in today’s market, we must follow Yamaha’s lead. We must meet our clients on an emotional level. With Instagram, Twitter, Tik-tok and now Facebook Shops, we are certainly in no shortage of places to engage. But, we have to show up. And we have to be willing to get personal.