Be sure to check out the full Reality Distortion Field stats report for full details and to take advantage of all the filter options.

You're reading Reality Distortion Field [Infographic] from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

Clever marketers create messages and programs that evoke feelings related to freedom for individual products or product lines as well as for entire brands.

Harley Davidson is certainly one of the best examples of a brand that promises freedom, and all of the brand’s marketing messages and brand experiences support that brand promise. The brand is consistent across all customer touch points, and consumers know when they purchase a Harley Davidson branded product, they’ll feel a sense of freedom and get one step closer to achieving personal freedom.

Some brands are very successful in eliciting feelings of freedom by positioning their products as the solution to a previously unknown limitation. For example, the Sprite ad below positions the product as the solution to the problem of thirst. Don’t just quench your thirst with some other drink. The ad tells consumers they can break free of thirst with a bottle of Sprite. The copy communicates a more powerful solution to a consumer’s problem than they can find from another brand.

Brands can also take a promise of freedom and turn it into a product-specific message. Nike positions its brand as one that promises freedom, but the introduction of the Nike Free line of running shoes extends the promise of freedom to individual product messaging, too. It’s extremely clever as you can see in the Nike Free ads below.

Messages of freedom can also refer to more tangible instances of personal independence. In this case, brand messages are often similar to those used when trying to evoke feelings of control wherein consumers want to feel like they are self-reliant and making their own choices. For example, investment brands use messages like “financial freedom” and offer ways for consumers to take charge of their “financial futures” in order to elicit freedoms related to freedom.

Similarly, messages of freedom can overlap messages that evoke feelings related to consumers’ feelings of guilt and desires for instant gratification. For example, ads that hype products that “free you of doing housework” or any other time-consuming task that takes you away from doing more important things or more entertaining activities indirectly tap into consumers’ desires for freedom. In this case, the brand and its products free people from less desirable activities. Instead of choosing to vacuum the floor, a consumer can choose to purchase a Roomba, which frees up their day to spend time with their kids, exercise, go out with friends, and so on.

Bottom-line, consumers desire freedom in many different ways. Conduct market research to identify the types of freedoms your target audience wants and then identify how your product can directly or indirectly provide that freedom or create a perception of freedom. Creative, out-of-the-box thinking is often the key to building a brand based on consumers’ emotional desires for freedom.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to Get a Good Deal
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Love and Belonging
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Control
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire for Instant Gratification
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Fear

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, Harley Davidson, Sprite, Nike, iRobot

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire for Freedom from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

It’s important for marketers to understand that messages of fear don’t have to be negative. In fact, clever copywriters can flip the fear message upside-down and sell the opposite — peace-if-mind. In this case, the emotion of fear can be used with the emotion of security to satisfy consumers’ psychological desires.

Let’s take a look at some examples of generalized messages that brands use to stir up consumers’ emotions related to fear:

• You’ll have to work until you die because you won’t have the money you need to retire.
• You’ll end up owing huge amounts of money for medical bills, car repairs, home repairs, and so on because you aren’t insured or don’t have the products you need to keep yourself healthy and your home and car safe.
• You’ll die too soon because you aren’t using products that add years to your life or because you’re using products that are killing you.
• You won’t have any friends because you have bad breath, you have dandruff, you’re wearing the wrong clothes, you’re driving the wrong car, and so on.

There are so many ways to spin messages of fear, and that’s why it’s used in so many diverse industries to sell products and services. Brands that become synonymous with placating consumers’ fears are well-positioned for long-term success. For example, the sunscreen industry shifted its messaging from helping people get the darkest possible tans to helping people avoid getting skin cancer. By using a message that elicits feelings of fear in consumers’ minds, sunscreen brands turned what could have been a brand disaster into a brand opportunity.

Identifying the Right Messages with Market Research

Of course, consumers can respond negatively to messages of fear, which is why brands need to conduct market research to determine where opportunities to address feelings related to fear are appropriate and how to address those feelings. A subtle and indirect approach like the Wells Fargo ad shown below can be more effective than the blatant messaging used in the SunSmart ad above.

It’s the marketing team’s job to gather the necessary consumer insights and perceptions in order to create the right brand experiences and messages that won’t offend the target audience but instead will motivate them. Concept ads and message testing are critical before ads and programs are launched as is ongoing performance analysis to gauge consumers’ reactions to the messages over time.

It’s also important not to jeopardize the brand’s long-term success on short-term shock advertising messages intended to stir up feelings of fear for short-term gain. These types of brand campaigns often do more damage to the brand than good. Instead of trying to make people scared, look for ways your brand can solve their existing fears (some of which they might not even realize they have).

For example, did anyone realize that the color of their teeth was offending people and causing them to lose friends? It’s probably safe to assume that less than perfectly white teeth wasn’t a common concern until tooth whitening products like Crest White Strips debuted and evoked fears consumers didn’t even know they had. In the long-term, this is a far more effective brand building strategy.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to Get a Good Deal
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Love and Belonging
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Control
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire for Instant Gratification

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, SunSmart, Wells Fargo

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Fear from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

Today, instant gratification isn’t just a desire; it’s an expectation in many industries. With the rapid spread of the Internet and mobile devices, younger generations of consumers can’t fathom having to wait five minutes to get a fax, search for 20 minutes to find a pay phone, or wait 30 minutes for a slice of pizza to reheat in the oven.

The world has changed, and every brand needs to find creative ways to tap into consumers’ desires for instant gratification. For example, a brand without a website is practically unheard of today — if a brand wants to survive and thrive, that is. Consumers want a place where they can instantly find information about a brand, products, locations, and so on. Mobile apps, online shopping, and more are standard parts of a brand marketing plan today.

Entire industries have evolved around the growing demand for instant gratification among consumers of all demographics. Product, brand, and company names like Slim-Fast and In-n-Out Burger make it clear that consumers will get instant gratification when they pull out their wallets and make a purchase.

Other brands weave the desire for instant gratification into marketing programs, slogans, and creative copy. Sometimes those messages are just creative wording but other times they are actually integrated into products. Weight loss products, quick muscle building products, and products that reduce signs of aging are perfect examples.

Incorporating the word “now” or similar words and phrases like “instant,” “get it now,” and “don’t wait” can create a sense of urgency that piques consumers’ desires for instant gratification. It’s a technique that can be used in nearly any category to hype most products.

Using Market Research for Success

The trick for marketers is to make sure messages and perceptions related to instant gratification accurately reflect the brand promise.  That’s where market research becomes so important in identifying not only areas where the brand can hype the instant message to pique related consumer emotions but also which areas are appropriate for the brand to hype.

For example, a luxury brand like Tiffany’s shouldn’t hype a program that offers instant credit approvals. The high-end audience that Tiffany’s attracts is unlikely to need instant credit approvals and is likely to see such an offer as running completely counter to the exclusive brand promise that they expect from Tiffany’s.

Therefore, market research should occur in two stages. The first identifies what elements of the brand and its related products and services that current and potential customers want instantly. The second identifies what elements consumers feel accurately reflect the brand promise. The marketing team’s job is to collect and analyze that data and find opportunities to tap into consumers’ desires for instant gratification with messages of real or perceived importance.

For example, no one knew that instant approval for a retail credit card was something consumers would want and be happy about getting until marketing teams tied discounts into those instant credit offers. In other words, even products and brands that don’t seem to fulfill anything that could be instantly gratifying can be perceived as instantly gratifying with thorough research data and creative marketing messaging and programs.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to Get a Good Deal
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Love and Belonging
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Control

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, In-n-Out Burger, Slim-Fast, L’Oreal

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire for Instant Gratification from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

In other words, creating the perception that the consumer is in control can be just as effective as putting the consumer in the driver’s seat.

Simple customization or personalization of products, services, and brand experiences is often enough to make consumers feel like they’re in control of their purchase decisions. In fact, the previous sentence includes the most important word in creating marketing messages and branded experiences that put consumers in control — literally or figuratively.  That word is decisions.

For consumers to feel like they’re in control, they need to feel like they’re calling the shots. They need to feel like there are choices available to them, and they control the entire decision-making process. This makes them feel like they’re in control of their relationship with a brand from end-to-end.

Benchmarking Brands

Remember the old Burger King tagline that successfully positioned it against its top competitor and fast food market leader McDonald’s? “Have It Your Way.” Four simple words allowed consumers to feel like they were in control of their choices, purchases, money, and experience at Burger King.

Progressive provides another great example of a brand that effectively taps into consumers’ desires to be in control. At first glance, you might think that Progressive focuses only on consumers’ desires to get a good deal and a great value for their money, but the brand also evokes feelings related to consumers’ desires for control.

The Progressive Name Your Price program allows consumers to pick and choose what they want to include in their Progressive insurance policies. They’re in control of their coverage, pricing, and relationship with the brand. Even though Progressive is in control of what options and pricing are offered to consumers, its customers feel like they have control of the relationship, and that’s what counts.

Progressive makes consumers feel even more like they’re in control using copy like you see in the ad below telling them, “You have the right to name your price.” Why do business with another brand that dictates what your insurance policy and payments will be when Progressive let’s you choose? It’s a great marketing strategy that effectively positions Progressive in consumers’ minds against the brand’s competitors.

Conducting Market Research

Using market research, brands can ask consumers what aspects of the buying experience, features of the product, and parts of the ongoing relationship with the brand they’d like to control. Survey questions that ask consumers to identify the things they want to have choices about can reveal a wealth of opportunities for competitive differentiation.

The data you gather can help you create marketing programs and marketing messages that increase existing customer loyalty and attract new customers who can’t get the level of control your brand offers from the brands they currently use.

Remember, it’s just as effective to make consumers perceive that they’re in control as it is to actually give them control. That’s where clever marketers and copywriters come into the picture who can create amazing programs and craft compelling copy that makes consumers believe they’re in control.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to Get a Good Deal
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Love and Belonging

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, Burger King, Progressive

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Control from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

Do you use a Mac or some other type of computer? What about an iPhone? Are you part of the Apple cult (where the word “cult” in the term “cult brand” is positive and means culture) or not? This is another great example of a brand that you wouldn’t immediately think could be a relationship brand that provides consumers with a sense of belonging. However, Apple has leveraged this strategy to achieve amazing success.

Whether you’re watching an old Mac Guy vs. PC Guy commercial or you stumble on the iTunes ad shown below, you know you’re part of a larger group of like-minded people when you choose an Apple product. At least that’s the perception that Apple wants to create in consumers’ minds, and so far, it’s working.

The trick for marketers is determining how to make consumers feel loved and feel like they belong to a larger group. How do you turn a tech brand like Apple into a relationship brand with a strong sense of belonging?

It starts with market research that identifies how the brand fills gaps in consumers’ lives and how consumers experience the brand independently as well as with other people. Use open-ended, rating, and ranking questions to identify opportunities for your brand to begin creating a sense of community around your brand.

Today, the social web offers amazing opportunities to create a sense of love and belonging for brands. Online forums, Twitter tweet chats, Facebook Pages, and more give consumers ways to talk about the brand and experience it with other people. Whether online content, conversations, and communities are created by brands or by users, consumers have an opportunity using social media to share their experiences with the brand and make new experiences with each other.

Keep in mind, building a brand based on the emotion of love can also be extremely direct. The entire theme of an ad might be based on getting or receiving love. As you might expect, this type of message is used frequently in jewelry ads.

However, it could be used to evoke emotions related to a person’s sense of entitlement, too. Messages such as “love yourself” or “you deserve it” are popular for a wide variety of brands.

Most people remember the classic McDonald’s ad that told consumers, “You deserve a break today.” That campaign is a great example of how brands can create the perception in consumers’ minds that they deserve to do or buy something. In other words, love can come in the form of self-actualization and the value of oneself.

Evaluate how you can fill gaps related to love and a sense of belonging for your target audience, and you’ll be on your way to building your brand into a powerful relationship brand! Just be careful that you don’t let down the consumers who buy into your messages of love and belonging. Your brand must consistently meet their expectations or the emotional damage created when the brand fails to meet expectations could damage your brand in the long-term.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to Get a Good Deal

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, Apple, McDonald’s

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Love and Belonging from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

Market Research, Perceptions, and the Justification Moment

Market research plays an important role in identifying the cost vs. benefit analysis that happens in consumers’ minds as they evaluate brand choices. Pricing questions as well as feature and benefit questions are critical to gathering the data you need to create the perception in consumers’ minds that they’re getting a good deal when they buy your brand.

Evaluate consumers’ reactions to various price points, and ask them to rank the importance of various features and benefits. Massaging your marketing messages to promote one benefit might tip the scales in your brand’s favor (in terms of justifying the cost vs. benefit evaluation) than others. Without this knowledge, your messages won’t position your brand effectively and sales will suffer.

The goal is to help consumers justify their purchases by creating the perception that they’re getting a good deal based on what your brand’s products or services deliver. If you don’t know what’s most important to your audience and what motivates them to spend more, you can’t create messages that enable them to reach that moment of purchase justification.

Of course, the moment of justification can vary between diverse segments of your consumer audience and your marketing tactics need to address those differences. Think of it this way — the iPhone is priced at a premium, in part due to the fact that the Apple brand name is on it. Different consumer segments justify the cost of the iPhone over less expensive smartphone alternatives for a variety of reasons.

For example, an audience segment that is not tech-savvy might justify their purchases of the iPhone due to its perception as being easier to use than other branded devices. On the other hand, the tech-savvy audience wants to know that the iPhone can meet their intense gaming needs, work-related needs, and so on. These two audiences have different justification points based on their perceptions of the iPhone brand. Apple must create distinctive messaging that reaches members each of these unique audiences. Therefore, those consumers feel like they can justify the purchase decision by believing they’re getting a good value for their money.

Manufacturing Good Deals

Marketers can also manufacture good deals by creating promotional discounts. These discounts could be used to position the brand as the loss leader. They could be used for short-term goals such as depleting overstocked inventory. They can also be used to create the perception that consumers are getting a good deal.

This last example is used by retailers frequently. Prices are artificially inflated and then short-term promotional sales and discounts are offered to make consumers think they’re getting a good deal. In fact, JC Penney tried to move away from this retail strategy earlier this year with a rebranding that presented its prices as “fair and square” rather than artificially inflated (as shown in the image below).

Even luxury brand purchases are preceded by a justification moment, but often that moment is completely based on personal perceptions. When a consumer purchases a Bentley, the decision is based less on the dollar value and more on the emotional value vs. price. Bentley owners have a role to play, and the price of the Bentley matters less than the belief that the Bentley brand will enable them to look and feel the role.

Bottom-line, building a brand based on consumers’ desires to get a good deal or good value for their money doesn’t come in the form of sales and discounts only. Think beyond short-term tactics and determine how you can position your brand so the moment of purchase justification creatively encompasses the desire to get a good deal.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, JC Penney

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to Get a Good Deal from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

As explained by Martin Lindstrom on Branding Strategy Insider, “Guilt strategies appeal to consumers on two levels. The first is emotional, where consumers feel that by buying the shirt, coat, trousers or iPod, they’ll gain self-confidence, whether in the form of a perfect appearance or a cutting-edge style (which is hard to justify when a consumer has maxed out her credit card). The second is rational, and is linked to a product’s practical dimensions, which not only come as a pleasant surprise, but also promise to justify the purchase to others once the consumer gets home.”

Building a Brand by Creating Emotions of Guilt

Marketing messages that successfully make consumers feel guilty can be very effective. Nonprofit organizations use this tactic in their ad campaigns frequently. Would you really choose to spend your money on a cup of coffee each day rather than use it to save a starving child? Are you really not willing to pick up the phone and donate to save abused animals? Are you really going to throw that plastic bottle in the regular garbage can rather than the recyclable can?

All of these are examples of guilt used in nonprofit advertising, but brands in other industries can appeal to feelings of guilt in their ads, too. Even the juice you purchase for your children can be marketed using messages that are intended to stir up feelings of guilt as you can see in the Juicy Juice ad below.

Building a Brand by Solving Problems of Guilt

Selling based on messages of guilt doesn’t have to be a negative thing. In other words, the message doesn’t have to make consumers feel guilty about something. Instead, those messages could position the brand as the solution to a consumer’s existing guilt as demonstrated in the Sears Craftsman ad below.

Appealing to emotions related to guilt is particularly popular in brands that can fulfill consumers’ desires for more free time to spend with their families. The Sears Craftsman ad below is a great example of that method of building a brand based on the emotion of guilt.

It’s important to tread carefully when you create messages intended to evoke feelings of guilt in order to sell your brand. Guilt is a powerful emotion, and consumers can react strongly to ads that tap into their personal guilt. However, when implemented effectively, building a brand based on the emotion of guilt can work extremely well.

Think of it this way. How many exercise products or healthy products have you purchased based on marketing messages that made you feel guilty that you weren’t exercising enough, eating healthy enough foods, or taking care of yourself as well as you should? Yes, those brands are also likely to focus on emotions related to self-confidence and vanity in their marketing messages, but for many consumers, the guilt messages work even better.

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, Juicy Juice, Sears

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Guilt from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

Building a brand based on emotions related to competition is one of the easier strategies that a brand can implement. That’s clear based on how many brands and products rely on selling the need to keep up or be better than others. The key to successfully selling competition is taking the time to develop the perception that your brand can deliver something that will make consumers better than their peers.

No one needs to have Starbucks coffee in their cups, but there is a perception that the Starbucks brand is cooler, richer, and better than other brands. The perception of the Starbucks brand is why consumers think they need it in order to be perceived by their peers as equal or better.

Therefore, perception matters in two ways when you’re selling feelings associated with competition:

1. The perception from a consumer that your brand delivers something better than other brands and that “something” will make them feel and look equal to or better than their peers.
2. The perception from the consumer’s peers that your brand successfully boosts the consumer to a level that is equal or better than the peers’ statuses.

Think about some brands that you’ve purchased in the past that were purchased primarily out of a feeling that you needed to compete with your peers. For example, it’s probably safe to say that the majority of iPhone and iPad owners purchased them at least in part due to feeling the need to keep up with the Joneses.

Feelings related to competition can also go hand in hand with a person’s desire to be a leader or be first. That’s why people stand in line at midnight to buy the newest iPhone. Appealing to emotions of competition are very effective in motivating consumers who like to be early adopters of new products, services, and brands.

Luxury Brands and Evoking Feelings of Competition

As you might expect, luxury brands often leverage the emotions evoked based on feelings of competition in advertising and marketing. Want to be better than everyone you know? Want to be envied by friends and strangers alike? Then no watch brand can help you achieve those feelings better than a Rolex. As you can see in the ad below, Rolex lets you “Live for Greatness.”

Coach, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. — all of these brands create a perception that having their branded products will make consumers feel like they’re better than their peers and will make consumers’ peers envy them. The Tiffany & Co. digital banner ad shown below makes it clear that the brand isn’t for everyone. It’s for “someone extraordinary.”

Evoking Competitive Feelings for Non-Luxury Brands

Eliciting feelings related to competition is a natural fit for luxury brands, but it’s actually something that just about any brand can do. Have you gotten a tablet device yet — simply because everyone has one? Are you wearing “the right” jeans, carrying the right bag, and buying the right sneakers?

Even tools can be sold by leveraging feelings related to competition as you can see in the Craftsman ad to the right, which tells consumers they’ll be the envy of their suburban neighborhoods if they buy a Craftsman tractor.

Think about how you can create perceptions of competition in consumers’ minds for your brand. For some brands, it’s incredibly easy to do. For other brands, it will take some creative thinking, but it can be done!

If you missed other parts of the ongoing Building a Brand Based on Emotions series, follow the links below to read them now:

• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: A Lesson in Brand Strategy
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Security
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Trust
• Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Desire to be Trendy and Cool

Images: Abdulaziz Almansour, Rolex, Tiffany & Co., Sears

You're reading Building a Brand Based on Emotions: Competition from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook

It seems the perceived iPhone 5 excitement continues to lives up to it’s hype: those planning to buy an iPhone 5 are twice as likley to declare they “can hardly wait” compared to those planning on buying an Android smartphone.

As an overview of our reseach findings we put together the below infographic:

Be sure to check out the full Smartphone Market stats report for full details and to take advantage of all the filter options.

You're reading Smartphone Market 2012-2013 [Infographic] from AYTM Stay Connected: AYTM blog Twitter Facebook