Emotions are numbers. How to measure love to a brand?
Some marketers believe that the brand is an emotion, and some believe that brands deceive consumers into setting unreasonably high prices. The consumer focuses on rational benefits such as price and quality.
But consider whether this is the case in the customer decision journey. From which we know that the consumer is in a different state at different times. And there are two fundamental states: non-actualized need and actualized need. Depending on this, marketing works differently with the consumer.
Unformed / actualized need – passive consumption of information, including advertising communication of brands (commercials on the Internet and TV, outdoor advertising, PR). In this case, the emotional response from this information is essential because it is the emotional information that is best remembered.
A formed need is when the client has a need and is looking for a solution. Here the key is the criteria for choosing a solution that the consumer puts forward to this decision. Criteria can be product characteristics, payment terms, delivery speed, availability of the range, etc.
Both of these states are measurable, and both can be digitized. We measure the state of the generated demand by visits to the store, the volume of demand on Google, conversions to our site, etc. Everything is simple here, and most businesses already know how to do it.
And what about marketing at the stage of unmet needs? So far, this is understood only by mostly large businesses with mass products. But in fact, any company that wants to grow must be able to work with this tool. This is the top stage of the sales funnel, and the wider it is, the more customers will get to the following steps. But how to do it? First, digitize the brand knowledge and attributes at the relevant entry points into the category. The entry point into the category is when the customer needs your product. So, step 1 is to study the entry points into the target audience category. Step 2 measures the level of the brand perception as a solution at each entry point into the category. The more points the brand covers, the greater the target audience perceives the brand as the best solution, so the market share is more significant.
These indicators can be digitized through research – a sequence of qualitative and quantitative analysis, which can digitize knowledge, perception, and love for the brand.
And the final step is to track sales dynamics, depending on these indicators. In each case, the dynamics will be different, but in the long run, the brand will see an increase in the number of customers at all stages of the funnel and sales growth.