When Steven Tyler and Joe Perry
of Aerosmith penned the lyrics to “Sweet
Emotion” back in 1975, they probably thought they were composing
a paean to forbidden backstage... relationships. Thirty
years later, however, the middle-aged (but still rockin’) duo would
probably be shocked to learn that their song has gained a newfound
relevance in the world of...branding?
In case you haven’t heard, sweet emotion is
everything. Emotion makes grizzled old men weep, coupon-clipping
housewives shell out $4.75 for a cup of coffee and pencil-pushing
CPAs drop $500 for a hotel room because it makes them feel
like they were cool in high school. (They
weren’t.) Welcome to the dawn of the “emotion economy,” where
every marketer worth their weight in cappuccino is desperately
trying to create the bond between customer and company
that causes customers to act...well, emotionally. And spend irrationally.
This phenomenon is not simply
a product of Madison Avenue, where ad campaigns have long held the capacity
to elicit emotion. (Admit it, you watched
the serial Folger’s ads hoping those two crazy kids would get together,
didn’t you?) While emotion may originate in an ad campaign,
the true connection with the customer is developed in the
delivery of the product or service. The promise of an emotional experience
without execution likely will elicit an emotion – anger.
The best brands deliver the
emotion without trying, as it has long been an intrinsic
part of their product offering. At this point, Harley
Davidson’s emotional connection to its customer base is almost a
cliché, but the company is very conscious of the fact that they
aren’t selling motorcycles. For each and every customer – from
the tattooed Hell’s Angel to the yuppie weekend warrior - Harley
is selling the ability to channel their inner badass.
Others have recognized the trend
and have put their money where their mouth is in an effort to tug at
customers’ heartstrings while they
tug at their wallets. The hospitality industry trades have
been buzzing about a new $20 million Sheraton ad campaign focused on
the “warm
welcome” associated with a Sheraton stay, where you, as a guest “...don’t
just stay here – you belong.”
And how does that warm welcome
play out operationally? Aside from
the free pre-paid phone cards and postage-paid postcards – all
the better to stay connected to those you really care about – each
Sheraton will feature “ambassadors” in the lobby designed
to make the arrival process less of a transaction, more
of a greeting. How
do you think you would feel about a hotel check in experience
conducted from a leather arm chair, sipping on a Manhattan.
It certainly makes me feel warm and fuzzy...and I’m not just
thinking of the cocktail.
As Ken Blanchard - one of my
favorite speakers on the “customers
are important” speaking circuit - explains, companies need to once
and for all internally identify what business they are
in to create the type of emotional connection that creates
customers for life. So
the hotel determines that “heads in beds” is secondary to
being in the “home away from home” business. The baseball
team sheds balls and strikes for the business of creating
memories. And the homebuilder realizes that bricks and
mortar are just a means to an end of entering the “lifestyle” business.
Again, this may sound like Donnie Deutsch and his “Big Idea” toying
with your affections, but each and every one of these concepts
needs to be grounded in some sort of real-world delivery
and superior execution in order to turn “emotion” into “engagement”...
and dollars.
Hmmm. Is “emotional engagement” just
a sexier replacement for “brand loyalty.” Not quite – there
is a subtle difference. It’s one that can probably best be
illustrated via every emotionally-stunted male’s favorite emotional
outlet – sports. I
have a colleague who hails from Boston and is a huge sports
fan; needless to say, the recent run of good fortune for
that region’s
professional sports teams has given him much cause to celebrate.
Are all celebrations created equal, you ask?
When the Patriots won the Super
Bowl, he took a victory lap around his neighborhood, bought the championship
DVD and contemplated naming his cat “Brady.”
When the Red Sox won the World Series, he flew to Boston for a victory
lap, cried like a baby for three months, bought (and watched) an 8-DVD
box set commemorating the occasion and contemplated naming his child “Big
Papi.”
Now he is loyal to
the Patriots, and would sooner lop off his pinkie than
root for another football team. Like many other New
Englanders lacking in perspective, however, the Red Sox
inspire more than loyalty. They make him think of his father,
his father’s father
and a connection to untold generations of Red Sox fans.
They make his eyes well up and his mouth quiver...when
they win or lose. And his proudest day as a father wasn’t when his
son said “Daddy” for
the first time, but when he recognized Johnny Damon batting
leadoff. (Damn Yankees!)
Cat named “Brady.” Son named “Big
Papi.” That’s
the difference between loyalty and emotion.
In his book Married to the Brand,
William McEwen likens the relationship between a company
and a customer to a marriage, taking the metaphor about
as far as you can go without violating decency laws in
some states. He explains that trust and loyalty are the foundation of
the customer relationship (and marriage), and that the customer relationship
(or marriage) won’t
last without either. But to truly sustain the customer
relationship (or marriage) for the long-haul, there must be an ongoing
emotional connection that drives passion.
Exactly.
So what do you do to deliver an emotional connection
if you don’t
have $20 million burning a hole in your pocket? It’s not rocket
science (unless you’re working on the NASA customer experience)
and it’s probably nothing you haven’t heard before. Focusing
on a combination of these customer experience fundamentals
can help you build the emotional connection with your customers on a shoestring
budget.
- Deliver what you Promise: Nothing
breaks up a potentially beautiful emotional engagement like unfilled
expectations. And the promises needn’t be all champagne and caviar – Target
inspires the same fervent
emotional attachment in its devotees as Nordstrom’s does. Why? Because
they’ve "operationalized the
brand," consistently delivering on a primary emotional need of its customer
base –
"I can discount
shop…and feel stylish at the same time!"
- Seize the Opportunity to "WOW": Delivering
a WOW experience has almost become a cottage industry in its own right, to
the point where it’s hard to define where a regular experience ends
and a WOW begins. The only thing that you need to remember is that
a WOW experience can be large or small – it just needs to be “sticky,” or
memorable, to the customer. So you don’t need to provide a fanfare
every time someone makes a deposit or orders room service. You do need
to train your staff to identify opportunities to provide an unexpected (and
unscripted) added value to your customer interactions and empower them to
act on that opportunity independently. So your WOW experience may be
as simple as slipping an extra lollipop “on the sly” to a shy
kid at a bank teller’s window….or arranging for the USC Marching
Band to march in formation to respond “I Do” to a marriage proposal
at a football game.
- Know your Emotional Touch Points: Regardless
of the industry, most operators will claim at least a strong
working knowledge of the many and varied touch points at which their company
interacts with the
customer. What is typically lacking is any real sense of the relative importance
of those touch points in how
they forge and reinforce the emotional engagement between the company and customer.
Not all touch
points are created equal, and focusing on the ones that have the greatest potential
to impact the customer’s
emotional engagement with the company or brand is not just wise – it’s
required.
Before “emotion” becomes as nebulous a concept
as “satisfaction,” it might be helpful to
determine the exact response we are trying to elicit.
In an effort to get all of the cards on the table, let’s
relate one of the dictionary definitions of “emotion,” which
describes “a psychic and physical reaction…physiologically
involving changes that prepare the body for immediate
vigorous action.”
Physiological changes. Immediate
vigorous action. Maybe
Aerosmith knew a bit more than they let on when they
were singing about backstage liaisons 30 years ago. Everyone
knows that sex sells; Aerosmith figured out that emotion
does too.
Reprinted with permission from www.hotelexecutive.com |
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