Responding to a universal emotion, the key to making brands relevant to people
What is the tension?
The pandemic changed the consumer/brand relationship: buying products and “tangible” items in general became irrelevant and how products are presented as part of the construction of individual aspirations changed completely. More than ever, it became essential to connect with emotions and the “intangible” to preserve and develop the relationship between brands and consumers.
Brands discovered that the key Is to promote, respond to and champion a universal emotion that is linked to a perspective emanating directly from the brand’s DNA and expressed in its products.
This places people at the heart of the brand and builds a unique universe around this emotion (its visual identity, its products, and its culture) In order to respond to this universal emotion/tension.
By focusing on an emotion (and not on a product or category) the brand can broaden its focus, moving into a range of businesses, expanding its scope and portfolio to provide a 360º response.
What do we need to know?
Our experience shows us that connecting with an emotion is key to interacting with today’s consumers. How do we do this?
- Find a latent emotion in our target public or in society that we want to champion, and which truly helps to satisfy the need for freedom, adrenaline, representation, demystification, breaking taboos, etc.
- This emotion must, without fail, be linked to a universal consumer need and there must be a way our product or service responds to it.
- We need to be able to support the proposal extrinsically and intrinsically.
- Go beyond saying and doing! Products, content, experiences, and services must all feed into the emotion.
Who can we learn from and what should we look at?
- New drink brands like Kin, for example, which connects with the universal need to care for, generate balance in and empower the mind. A non-alcoholic drink with natural ingredients that improve mood, enhance clarity, and stimulate creative freedom, it helps users to focus mentally. Recess, on the other hand, connects with the universal desire to reduce anxiety, applying a holistic approach that builds on calm, with drinks that have CBD as their main ingredient.
- Bumble: focusing on the universal emotion of connecting people, this brand that started as a dating app, now also helps people meet using physical spaces such as cafes and bars.
