“Tell me somethin’, girl…are you happy in this modern world?”
Does reading that line automatically make you finish the song? Or go watch Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga fall in love? Even if it isn’t quite your thing, that one line alone has the ability to make thousands of people get incredibly emotional. There’s a reason A Star is Born was one of the biggest and most successful films of last year. When that song begins playing in any bar in the country, you better believe that half the patrons are going to start singing along.
What’s your customers’ outwardly emotional moment?
It can come in many forms. Does your customer show pleasant surprise when a bill is less than they expected? Do they express relief when you show up early to fix an urgent problem? Do tears ever well up in their eyes when they see that finished kitchen remodel for the first time? Do your customers ever laugh out loud—at the right time with you, not at you?
Knowing what drives your customers emotionally is incredibly important when building a small business brand.
Let’s take Coca Cola’s “Happiness Machine” ad for example. One of Coke’s biggest emotional pulls with their ad campaigns is happiness. Sharing, humanity, community: happiness. And, it always works.
Or what about Always and their #LikeAGirl campaign? This is highly emotional for different reasons. It taps into women’s deepest feelings about themselves and celebrates everything it means to be a female.
Or what about the dog food ads that really pull at the heartstrings? After seeing those commercials, you’re basically going to buy only one brand of dog food for your dog forever.
Yes, these are all giant companies, but the principle is the same. The truth is, if the public loves your emotional marketing, they’ll most likely try your product or service. Creating emotional connections to your audience with your small business branding will make your business stick in people’s minds. It’s one of the proven small business branding strategies that work the best.
WATCH: A Tear Jerker of a Nonprofit Campaign
Here’s the catch. You can’t just sit around and wait for the emotional moment. You determine what actions on your part will result in the emotional results you want from your customer. Then you work to achieve it.
When it comes to either large or small business branding, the marketing that stays with people and has the most success is emotional marketing. And it doesn’t take a corporate giant like Coca Cola or MetLife to do it, either—you can tap into it with your own business.