BRANDING   |   POSTED ON 10.12.2014

If your business is not performing as well as expected – you’re having trouble garnering interest, converting sales, getting repeat custom, or you find yourself discounting just to get a sale – it could be due to one, important underlying issue…your brand.

Brands that connect and resonate are those that talk to the audiences’ heart, their emotions. This connection is the reason people often make brand decisions they can’t quite articulate, explain, or justify.

By speaking directly to the emotional side, a brand engages the right brain thinking and it is here that purchase decisions are not, cannot be rationalised by facts and figures.

‘A brand is what the emotional response your company receives. The emotion behind what someone feels, sees, tastes, etc when they come across your brand. A memorable logo is just the beginning – yet an amazing beginning – that sets the overall tone for your new or existing brand.’ – Wright Touch Designs

To ensure that your target audience is connecting with your brand, you need to take care of its intangible assets – the feelings it evokes, its visual cues, the sensory experience, the emotional benefits it can offer.

‘Brand is the promise, the big idea, the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service or company. Branding is about making an emotional connection.’ – Alina Wheeler

Have a branding specialist conduct an audit of your brand’s positioning strategy. They will be able to determine what aspects are successful and which need revision in order to connect on an emotional level. An audit will provide direction and clarity, and help plot a course of action to make your brand the brand of choice.

Successful brands are those that have purpose, demonstrate humility and emotion, unlock human voices, and have open, honest, comfortable and supportive leadership.

‘If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.’ – Zig Ziglar

Consider the 10 most influential brands in Australia in 2014 and see how they connect on an emotional level with the market:

10.  Telstra – offers familiarity, recognition, consistency

9.  Visa – offers trust and presence – ‘It’s everywhere you want to be’

8.  Australia Post – offers trust and meets community obligations

7.  Apple – offers excitement, innovation and is viewed as a trendsetter

6.  Coles – offers presence and instills Australian pride

5.  eBay – ‘Introduced me to something I never knew I needed’ – 30% of consumers surveyed

4.  Woolworths – recognised for its support of local communities and environmental responsibility

3.  Facebook – offers a feeling of connection, sharing and being ‘leading edge

2.  Microsoft – offers innovation, reliability, relevance, trust and being part of daily life

1.  Google – consumers felt that this brand ‘helped them make smarter choices’, ‘changed what they do every day for the better’ and was credited with ‘making lives that little bit more interesting’.

By ensuring that your brand positioning considering consumers’ emotional side you stand a much better chance of becoming a pantry must have, a go-to place, an essential service, a default choice before their brains even have time to rationalise why. Talk to your local brand agency Liquid Creativity to determine how your brand can connect on an emotional level.