Every company wants to be in a position where its customers love and trust them. That’s where profits are high and loyalty is strong – critical considerations for the long-term health of the business.
But sometimes, companies make choices that diminish the relationship they have with their customers. Why would any brand willingly take steps that make their customers love them less?
Trouble Down on the Farm
We could ask John Deere – or, to be fair, any of the other major manufacturers of commercial farming equipment. These highly trusted brands damaged relationships with farmers – notoriously loyal to their tractor brand – by barring owners from repairing their equipment.
This decision imposed high costs on farmers, especially those operating at a considerable distance from an authorized repair service. The revenue realized from repairs represented a minuscule percentage, and when weighed against the damage to the brand’s goodwill amongst its small pool of target customers, hardly worth it.
So why was this decision made?
To Feel Less Fear, We Sacrifice Love
Businesses are led by rational people who strive to make intelligent decisions. Farming equipment manufacturers have legitimate concerns about their proprietary technology being stolen and replicated by competitors.
They also know their customers have relatively few options. There are only so many top-tier brands in this space.
To address the fears of industrial espionage, the decision was made that there’d be less love in the customer-brand relationship. People stay married even when they don’t like each other very much because each party somehow gets their needs met.
Until, Of Course, We Wind Up In Court
Dysfunctional marriages end when one party takes the issue to court. While there’s no direct equivalent here, farming equipment manufacturers have found their fear-based response – some would call this their Shadow – checked in the courts.
The Right to Repair movement has steadily gained traction, culminating in a presidential executive order in 2021. The changes allowing farmers to fix their own equipment haven’t made it far enough into the field yet to track the impact on how the brand is trusted and loved – but we will know before too many harvests.
What do you think will happen? I am interested in hearing your thoughts.
No product is appropriate for every market. Clarifying your ideal target markets is a vital element in formulating your Branding strategy.
Factors might include demographics, psychographics, ethnographics, drivers of need, buyer personas, online/offline, and geography.
Remember you can’t profitably pursue every market so you want to determine where you can most effectively differentiate your brand and attract the most profitable customers who resonate with your offering.
Force yourself to sacrifice and focus on what matters most.
Start by brainstorming a master list of all possible markets you could pursue. Then, determine how you will assess each market opportunity. You may use metrics like market size, growth trends, ability to compete, barriers to entry, and the economics of each market.
Consider:
Which markets have the biggest and most urgent pain?
Where are there gaps in the market?
Which markets are most aligned with your corporate strategy?
Which markets best match your core competencies?
Which markets can you most easily reach?
Which markets have the largest market size and least competition?
Next, assess each market for accessibility, alignment, and overall opportunity. Do what you can to test or validate each market opportunity with key stakeholders.
Review feedback from current and prospective clients as well as employees on the front line. Review trend data from available sources. Try using customer surveys and external focus groups.
Finally, prioritize your market opportunities and refine them on an ongoing basis.
Ultimately, your best opportunities will also attract your competitors, so defining your target markets is insufficient in itself.
You will still need to differentiate your offer and position your brand. But at least now you will have the confidence that you’re fishing where your fish are.
Crocs weren’t created to be beautiful. 200 pairs of distinctively shaped, lightweight footwear were created for the 2001 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. They sold out quickly. This was the brand’s first step to superstardom. More than 720 million pairs of Crocs have been sold since then, and the company is enjoying its fourth straight year of impressive revenue growth. This despite the fact that the fashion world deemed Crocs hideous, one of mankind’s worst inventions ever. How did this happen?
Know What Your Customers Love About You
Crocs may not be pretty, but they are durable, comfortable, and easy to clean. These characteristics, along with the shoe’s iconic clunky silhouette, have remained a constant over the brand’s 20+ year lifespan. Crocs fans are legion in part because the brand has identified what is important to their customer and then improved upon it.
Case in point: Croc’s roomy fit and durable construction made them an early hit with people with diabetes, who often have foot problems. Knowing this, Crocs focused on creating specific styles for this audience, using guidance from medical professionals. Other styles were created for health care workers, who appreciated having comfortable shoes that could easily be hosed off after a messy day of work, but needed a solid top to protect their feet from any medical waste that might splatter or spill upon them.
Love means listening, and Crocs has demonstrated that they do that.
Focus on Keeping Things Fun
As part of their corporate values, Crocs promises to keep an open mind and look on the bright and colorful side. That’s definitely been demonstrated in their product mix. While you can get basic white and black Crocs, the vast majority of Crocs offerings are boldly colored, distinctively patterned, or otherwise eye-catching. Crocs builds trust by delivering on its brand promise to be completely practical and totally goofy. Product options for men include Real-Tree Camo, Classic Tie Dye, styles matched to your Zodiac sign, and more.
Crocs also boosts the fun level of the brand through collaborations and limited editions created with pop celebrities and popular brands. The range of options is very impressive, including shoes inspired by the Grateful Dead and Post Malone, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Peeps, Vera Bradley, and Lightning McQueen from Cars. No matter what it takes to put a smile on your face, Crocs likely has a collaboration that covers it.
In fact, some of the most popular Crocs collaborations have a deliberately counterintuitive feel, such as the ongoing project with top fashion brand Balenciaga. Platform Crocs aren’t for everyone, but for the people who pay attention to what runway models wear, they’re certainly something.
Gilding the lily, in 2006, Crocs acquired Jibbitz, a company that made small fun charms people could use to personalize their shoes. Today, Jibbitz sales represent a sizable portion of revenue and have even been credited with the brand’s strong performance during the pandemic.
Crocs’ fun, expressive footwear makes their customers and other people smile. This positive emotional experience has resulted in a cohort of fanatically loyal Croc collectors. While the ‘typical collector’ may have a few dozen pairs to brag about, Doogie Lish Sandtiger is on a quest to have the world’s largest collection – he has nearly 800 pairs!
Love Means Getting Close: Crocs Direct to Customer Experience
While Crocs are available via many high-quality retail outlets it’s important to pay attention to Crocs’ Direct-to-Customer shopping experience.
It’s very easy for shoppers to quickly find the products that are meant for them, whether they’re after that classic Crocs look or need a new pair of shoes for work. With special discounts for teachers, healthcare workers, and the military, Crocs effectively honors and recognizes an important portion of its customer base while simultaneously keeping the shopping experience cheerful and bright.
While working hard to maintain the love and trust of their core customer base, Crocs uses its website to effectively leverage the social media influencers they’ve been using to expand the brand’s identity and grow market share. This is a smart way to keep customer experiences in alignment with expectations: the shopper who sees a pair of shoes on Instagram that they want will find those same shoes in the influencer’s collection on the website.
Other features to pay attention to are the Crocs Club, the Say Hi feature that directs shoppers to the nearest brick and mortar retail location, and importantly, an opportunity for customers to have their own Crocs images included on the site. The invitation to and celebration of community gives Crocs brand Lovers an easy-to-access way to deepen their relationship with the brand.
Going Forward: Growth Based on Core Values
Crocs has conducted itself fairly consistently since the beginning. The focus has been on continually improving product quality and keeping the fun factor high. Over the years, strategic acquisitions and partnerships have helped Crocs achieve and maintain a High Trust/High Love position.
Crocs core audience includes teachers and health care workers. What professions would you identify as being part of your core audience? How do you recognize and honor these individuals?
Shortly on the heels of the Joe Rogan debacle, in which Spotify found its user base in conflict over the podcaster’s misinformation, the brand announced it was now in partnership with Walmart. In the deal, new and existing customers of Walmart Plus – the membership program built to take on Amazon Prime – would receive six free months of Spotify Premium.
Why Did These Two Brands Join Forces?
There are obvious benefits for both brands. Walmart Plus is at a severe disadvantage in terms of streaming content; Amazon Prime has original video content as well as partnerships with the world’s most famous studios in addition to Amazon Music, Amazon Gaming, and more. Adding Spotify Premium makes Walmart Plus more competitive.
And for Spotify, this partnership is a smart way to increase the customer base without exerting a lot of effort. Six months is certainly long enough for a new user to become hooked on the service and continue enjoying it after the free trial has expired.
But Wait…There’s More!
It’s certain that this relationship was navigated well in advance of the Joe Rogan episode. However, subsequent to it, there are additional benefits Spotify is realizing from this partnership. We’ve talked before about how users’ trust in Spotify has been diminished. People who aren’t personally familiar with the brand have certainly heard negative media coverage.
However, Walmart’s reputation is much the same as it always was. While people may not love the Walmart experience, the mega-retailers performance and pricing are consistent enough that people trust them.
Right now, for people who are dubious about Spotify – in a position where they’re not sure whether or not they should trust the brand – their faith in Walmart may be strong enough to overcome any hesitation. Admittedly, getting someone to enjoy a generous free trial effort isn’t that high of a bar to clear, but if you’re in this business you know it’s not always a sure thing. During this time of crisis, Spotify’s leadership surely appreciates the assistance Walmart Plus gives to its credibility.
Considering Trust in Strategic Alliances
Brands do business with each other in an endless number of ways. Whether it’s a partnership of the sort we see Walmart Plus and Spotify engaged in or a different model, it’s critical to always consider the impact these relationships have on the trust the public has in your brand. Will you be assisted, the way Spotify currently is, or will your brand suffer? The time to have this conversation is before the deal is made, of course, but it’s also continually relevant to keep an eye on existing relationships to make sure they’re in your best interest. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – what other high-profile brands have you seen working together to enhance how trustworthy they appear?
Of all the factors that go into creating Brand Lovers – those shoppers who will come to your store time and time again, even when they have other convenient options – trust is the one that’s entirely within the brand’s control. No matter what’s happening in this world, you can always choose to be trustworthy.
Every single interaction you have with your customer is an opportunity to demonstrate trustworthiness. There are a couple of ways to illustrate this idea. Let’s pick two – pricing and policies – to point out opportunities to create trust.
Pricing & Policies – Understanding The Infrastructure of Trust
Pricing first. No matter what you’re selling, from diet soda to diamond tiaras. Your customers are going to be aware of the price. Trust is established, at least to a minimal degree, if the price they encounter aligns with their expectations. When things don’t line up, trust starts being damaged right away. If a diamond tiara only costs $20, you don’t trust that it’s the real thing. This can work in your favor. If you’re a specialty gourmet foods retailer, let’s say you might be able to sell a diet soda for $20 to the connoisseur looking for a particularly unique flavor. They may have never heard of the brand, but they’ll buy it because they trust you & your store. That being said, if they pay that $20, that diet soda better be the best one they ever had.
If your pricing deviates significantly from the market, there needs to be a credible reason why your customer won’t trust your prices. And if your prices can’t be trusted, the relationship you have with this customer will not go too far. More than half of all shoppers price check; two-thirds will check prices online while shopping in-store. Is Will having trustworthy prices close the deal? Not necessarily, but even the opposite appearance will lose your business.
The Power of Policies
Policies are precisely what I’m talking about when we get into discussing the infrastructure of trust. Every business has policies – how do you return merchandise, is it acceptable to bring a pet into the store, is it necessary to wear shoes in the establishment, and so on. In terms of establishing and maintaining trust, what the policy is isn’t nearly as important as if the procedure is clearly communicated and consistently applied.
Consistent application of policy allows your customers to trust that the experience they have in your establishment is one that they can expect to proceed in a specific fashion. If your fine dining restaurant has a dress code, your guests can reasonably expect to eat their dinner without looking at someone wearing a bathing suit, flip flops, and towel. People who are underdressed can trust that they’ll be able to dine comfortably once they too are suitably attired – and that no one else is getting away with dodging the standard they’ve been asked to meet.
Assuredly, these seem like simple points – but they’re the points that make or break relationships on a day in, day out basis. If your customer retention rate is just not there, it’s a good time to do that close perspective examination of your operation, focused on whether or not your customers trust you on that granular level. If the answer is not yes, the good news is it’s entirely within your control to improve.
Because I have small children, I have seen The Walt Disney Company movie Encanto about 37 million times. And this experience has made me wonder: does every brand have a Bruno?
We Don’t Talk About Bruno – What’s That About?
A quick summary for those who haven’t seen the movie. Encanto is about a family that has magical gifts. Bruno’s gift was the ability to see the future, which sounds fantastic, but most of his predictions were negative. His family began to believe his predictions caused the bad outcomes, and after one especially notable conflict, Bruno left. Ever since, the family’s most famous song says, we don’t talk about Bruno.
In every group, each person has a role to play. Bruno’s role was that of the truth-teller: the person who, genuinely out of a sincere desire to help, says things other people don’t want to hear. These people are often dismissed from the conversation, brushed off, as Bruno was, as the crazy uncle no one listens to.
Who Is Your Bruno?
What does that mean for a brand? Who is your organization’s Bruno? Who don’t you talk about?
Bruno could be a customer, quick to write harsh reviews pointing out even the smallest flaw.
Bruno could be an activist, loudly demanding your company conduct itself in a way they see as more humane, ethical, or otherwise correct.
Bruno could be an employee speaking up about working conditions and pay rates.
Bruno could be a manager pointing out that changes need to be made because the in-store experience is suffering.
Bruno could be in leadership, taking a stand and telling the others the organization isn’t going in the right direction.
In the movie, it becomes clear that Bruno’s predictions weren’t causing the events that happened. He merely spotted the clues of impending events ahead of time and did his best to let people know. But it was easier for the family to become angry with what they were hearing and stop talking about Bruno.
This dynamic plays out in every human setting, including within our organizations. Perhaps you can think of times within your career when you’ve seen someone who’s been acting as a truth-teller phased out of the organization or otherwise disregarded. This is a thing that happens, but it doesn’t need to be that way.
As part of our ongoing conversation about trust, we need to reach a point where brands trust themselves enough to be able to listen to the Brunos of the world without shutting them out. We have to trust that the people in good faith relationships with us – our customers, our communities, our employees, team, and leadership – tell us things we don’t want to hear because they want us to do better.
We don’t talk about Bruno, but we have to if we want to grow.
Pull up almost any major corporation’s Facebook page and look at how they respond to negative feedback. Often, it’s ignored. When it’s not, it’s usually a copy-and-paste response that reads like it spent several weeks losing its humanity in the legal department: “Sorry you didn’t have the perfect experience we’re committed to delivering. Please call 1-800…”
In the latter case, not only does the customer have to make the effort to call, but they also have to re-explain the issue. And, they’ll likely get put on hold. This is hardly a commitment to a great customer experience.
This isn’t just reserved for negative posts; positive posts usually get the same responses: no answers or cookie-cutter answers that aim just to try and make the algorithm see a boost in engagement.
Behavior like this should be shocking at this point: experts have warned companies for well over a decade to use social media to primarily communicate rather than broadcast. Yet, most still predominantely use social media as little more than a glorified broadcast platform.
In October 2012, I attended AdAge’s Social Engagement/Social TV Conference in Los Angeles. The most interesting thing I heard there was an offhanded comment by Kay Madati—then the Head of Media and Entertainment for Facebook who later worked for Twitter and LinkedIn and now works for FIFA. He said that internally Facebook refers to posts and their threads as stories.
In that context, most of Facebook’s moves—even the controversial ones—over the last decade make sense: how do we allow our users to better tell the stories they want to tell and see the stories they find meaningful?
But, social media isn’t just great for customers to tell their stories; it’s great for brands to tell their stories too. How much different would your brand’s Facebook page be if its only goal was to tell the story of your brand in a way that’s meaningful to your customers’ lives?
If customers are trying to tell their stories, how can you use your brand to help them tell their stories? And, how can their stories help you tell your story better?
Next time you consider your social media, think about the platforms as tools for co-authorship and storytelling.
Marketers have asked the perennial question: What makes customers happy?
Cult Brands have already cracked the code. By definition, Cult Brands sell lifestyles and provide opportunities for their brand lovers to make experiential purchases. When you’re buying a Harley, you’re not only purchasing a material good, you’re also buying into the lifestyle personified by freedom on the open road. By participating in HOG rallies, bikers create a rich scrapbook of memories in their minds that they can always return to, time and time again.
What are some of the happiest moments of your life? You might recall the backpacking trip you took through Central America, forgoing a travel itinerary, and following the muse wherever she took you. When you remember all of the fellow backpackers you met along the way and roaming off the beaten track to experience the local culture, you can’t help but smile.
Fun memories of a summer camping trip might also come into focus, with days spent fishing and hiking, and late-night talks around the campfire with a group of your closest friends. It’s these types of experiences, magical moments you could say, that enrich our souls and our spirits.
Material Possessions versus Experiences
Psychologists Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University took an empirical approach to examine the question: What makes people happier: material possessions or experiences?1
The researchers compared experiential purchases, those made with the primary intention of acquiring life experiences or an event to live through, with material purchases, those made with the primary intention of acquiring a material good or a tangible possession.
In a self-report survey, participants who were asked to evaluate an experiential purchase reported feeling happier compared to those asked to evaluate a material purchase. These findings were supported by results from their laboratory experiment. Participants were asked to describe a recent experiential or material purchase, after which they rated their current feelings. One week later, they were asked to read their description, think about the purchase, and rate their feelings again. Participants in the experiential purchase condition reported that thinking about their purchase made them happier than did participants in the material purchase condition.
Van Boven and Gilovich explain, “‘The good life’ … may be better lived by doing things than by having things.” Experiences, rather than possessions, tap into a reservoir of deeper personal meaning. For example, going to the opera or visiting an art museum may be associated with higher-level pursuits, such as intellectual stimulation and cultural growth. With material possessions, you may feel momentary satisfaction after buying a new shirt, but the positive feeling quickly dissipates after a few wears.
The Power of Experience
For one, the researchers explain that these experiential purchases tend to be more open to positive reinterpretations. Even if your trip to Disney World was dampened by a rainy day, the memory of that experience is malleable over time. In hindsight, families may remember the creative ways they were able to enjoy themselves despite the lousy weather. In the words of one survey participant, “Material possessions, they sort of become part of the background, experiences just get better with time.”
Secondly, experiential purchases are more meaningful parts of one’s identity. Van Boven and Gilovich explain, “Experiences can provide greater hedonic value because they contribute so much more to the construction of the self than material possessions.” With this perspective, we may define ourselves by the experiences that we have, rather than by the clothes we wear or the car we drive.
Finally, experiences have greater “social value.” The story about your expedition through the wilderness is vastly more pleasurable to talk about, and more interesting for others to hear, than the suit you purchased at Armani. The sharing of personal experiences can help foster social relationships because the likeability factor in these types of exchanges is higher.
It’s the experience of meaningful events, filed deep in the recesses of your mind that have staying power. Unlike material goods, these experiential purchases don’t lose their luster or their wearability over time. Like a fine wine, the associated memories improve with age.
Is your company only in the business of selling products and material possessions? Leverage your brand by offering experiential purchases, and creating experiences that the customer will remember, enjoy, and talk about, for years to come.
Cult Brands Are inclusive and actively make customers feel welcomed
In Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, the Macedonian King upset his military compatriots and childhood friends by marrying Roxana.
Roxana was the daughter of a minor Persian baron. That is, she was not from Macedonia; she was not of Greek blood.
This outraged Alexander’s men who felt that he was disrespecting his homeland. But, Alexander didn’t identify himself exclusively as Macedonian or Greek. This great military strategist had a grand vision to create an empire that united the world as one people.
Alexander understood one of the fundamental principles of Cult Branding: Be Inclusive.
Inclusive vs. Exclusive
Destructive cults are exclusive. You are either in the group or you’re not. It’s a classic “us versus them” mentality that plagues humanity with feelings of superiority, specialness, judgment, and prejudice. If you’re in the group, you’re special. If you’re not, you’re nothing.
Benign cults—and Cult Brands in the commercial world—operate in the opposite fashion: they are inclusive. That is, they are open and inviting to anyone that wants to join the fun.
This doesn’t mean that a Cult Brand is for everyone. Since Cult Brands are distinct in the market—another of the principles of Cult Branding—they stand for something. They have a core set of ideals. As such, they only appeal to certain people who resonate with the ideals.
Cult Brands Are Inclusive
The ideals of Vans shoes, for example, probably aren’t going to speak to you if you’re not in the skateboarding community.
The annual, week-long Burning Man event now attracts around 70,000 attendees to the Black Rock Desert each August. Anyone is able to participate. As written in their ten guiding principles, “Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.”1
And the wide range of attendees—from artists to billionaires, hippies to Silicon Valley CEOs—demonstrates that Burning Man is true to its word.
Big businesses like Google and Walmart also understand the power of inclusivity. Google seeks global inclusivity, a drive that only gets thwarted at the level of national governments. Walmart is inclusive of every neighborhood it builds a store, finding ways of working with as many local demographic and ethnic groups as it can.
Every organization, like every individual, has its limits and boundaries set by its beliefs, opinions, and worldviews. Inclusivity is not easy and it’s a challenge for any organization committed to this path.
How To Be Inclusive
Brands with loyal customers don’t alienate customer groups. They strive to be as inclusive as possible, constantly learning how to reach new customer segments.
The more inclusive you are, the more customer groups you open your business to and the larger your market potential becomes.
To become a more inclusive brand requires diligence. Being inclusive means gaining insights into new customer groups and then collaborating with your teams to discover ways of relating these new customers to what your business stands for, and serving them with respect.
Each new customer segment needs to be invited before they will do business with you.
How inclusive is your business today?
How inclusive do you want your business to be tomorrow?
What are fairy tales? Simple stories to keep children entertained in the nursery, perhaps—tales of giants and princesses spun out of simple fancy and wayward whimsy? Perhaps, they’re something more.
Fairy tales are some of the oldest stories in existence. These are tales that have been told since the beginning of time. In one form or another, these stories have been told time and time again to entertain, but also to teach.
The details vary from culture to culture: Europe gave us Hansel and Gretel using their wits to get away from a ravenous witch, whereas Brer Rabbit and his tricky antics originate in the antebellum American South. But, the underlying messages remain the same: there is no obstacle that can’t be overcome if we’re smart, steadfast, and not above being strategically committed to objective truths.
Brand Lovers and their Cultural Stories
Another way to refer to fairy tales—and other old, eternal narratives—is as cultural stories. Although we seldom articulate our connection to cultural stories—the rare exception, perhaps, being the prom or bridal dress shopping experience that leaves us “feeling like a princess”—the truth is that these tales play a pivotal role in our decision making.
Cultural stories connect us to our ideal selves. These are symbolic road maps we use to navigate our way through life—strategic touchstones to reference as we move forward from where we are to where we want to be. Cultural stories provide the framework we see ourselves in, both as individuals and in relationship to others.
It’s critical for brand managers to read this narrative and understand that our customers do the same thing. Consciously or otherwise, the tales we learned as children play a pivotal role in guiding our responses to things that we can’t understand.
Why Fairy Tales Are Important
We use cultural stories to help us understand life experiences. We also use these cultural stories to guide our actions to better navigate what life throws at us. This is where cultural stories guide purchasing behavior.
For example, the man who feels trapped and without choices in a complex world may identify deeply with and long to be the rugged hero who rides out and takes on the unexplored frontier, ready and able to meet the challenges of the world, always confident and capable.
In an effort to alleviate internal tensions—feeling powerless, yet being desirous of change—he may “take on” aspects of this strong hero, in the hope that following the example may endow him with some of the qualities he most admires. Lighting up a Marlboro may deliver a satisfying smoke, but it also lets the zero become the hero. There are twenty opportunities in every pack to be bold, to be fearless, to be the agent of change in one’s own life, to step into the spotlight and star in the story.
What are the cultural stories that most influence your customers? When we know what stories are near and dear to our customers’ hearts, we know how to better communicate and connect with them.
