Do consumers trust your brand?
We are exposed to an estimated 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements per day. Branding and advertising are crucial to the success of businesses, but the trust that your brand builds with consumers carries a heavy load when it comes to the success of your efforts. Do consumers trust your brand?
Building Brand Trust
Create an experience
We don't buy products, we purchase experiences. We are emotional beings, and often make decisions to fulfill an emotional need, whether it's to relax and unwind, have a lively social experience, find entertainment, or ease a heavy heart. You must know the kind of experience you want to create in order to sell it.
People like consistency and familiarity. Returning customers do so because they enjoyed a previous experience. Identifying the kind of experience you want to create for your customers allows you to consistently deliver an experience worth coming back to.
6 steps to creating an awesome brand experience:
- Discover your purpose
- Focus on storytelling
- Be consistent
- Find opportunities for engagement
- Put experiences over sales
- Adapt and evolve
Connect on a personal level
Humans thrive on emotional, personal connections -- and these aren't limited to human-to-human relationships. An article in Foundr points out that, "Consumers crave personal relationships with brands..." How can you foster these personal relationships? Sharing your common values is a great place to start.
Consumers today are growing increasingly environmentally conscious. As a SIP Certified sustainable winegrower, you share this value of caring for the health of the people and the planet. Through her research at Penn State University, Kathy Kelley, Professor of Horticultural Marketing and Retail Business Management, found that building stronger connections with your customers can be as simple as talking with them about the specific things your company does in regard to sustainability and why those practices are important. This can even increase the willingness to pay more for wine (listen to the podcast)!
Be open and authentic
The Internet has become an integral part of our lives and can be a wonderful tool for showing transparency and authenticity. Use your online channels (website, social media, eNewsletter) to connect, not just to market. We often pull up the Internet to fulfill emotional needs like decompressing, catching up with others, and exploring our interests. Use the creative platforms available to you to welcome your followers to learn more about your business -- things that a one-time visitor may not have the opportunity to learn. This will help your followers to form a stronger, more personal connection with your brand.
More branding tips
In our last Marketing Tip, we shared 3 ways you can strengthen your brand. Building brand trust is a crucial step in creating loyal supporters.
More branding tips to come! Keep an eye out for the next Marketing Tip.