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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Dawn Wagenaar
December 2013-January 2014

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What’s your brand EQ? How to develop the emotion quotient

People make buying decisions based on logic, right? Actually, they justify their decisions with logic, but will keep products and services on the short list based on emotion.

Consider your favorite kitchen appliance. You probably looked at price and function, but you might have also considered the color, packaging and an emotionally appealing image of a family blending up a smoothie or cooking together. When you explain your choice, you will use logical reasons, but the emotions motivated you to act.

There are lots of ways a brand can appeal to emotion to get the sale. Decide which of the following techniques could improve your company’s brand EQ.

Scarcity: I’ll be left out or left behind. A scarcity brand plays on a person’s fears about being left out of a really great opportunity or deal, or getting left behind. You will see this brand paired with messages such as “limited time,” or “don’t miss out.”

You’ll also see it in direct response marketing when an offer “expires” or is “exclusive.” Scarcity works well if your company appeals to a limited number of prospects because you are making the offer appear even more exclusive. Offer an event with limited seating or a “bonus” for the first 50 people/registrations to give your offer more appeal; nobody likes missing an opportunity. Discounts for early birds also work well.

Coolness: I’ll be ahead of the game, popular, loved. Any product or service that makes people feel cooler or more popular by association is appealing to emotion. Think about your teenager’s favorite brand of jeans or athletic shoes. Think about the cars people drive. In the world of cool, you have to demonstrate how the product or service brings the customer prestige with peers and loved ones or popularity in business.

Creating coolness

Products or services connected with a popular celebrity can have a coolness factor. Use endorsements and testimonials of your work to build coolness. Your company can also create coolness just by having the most recognizable name in your market. To stay cool, you have to continue innovating products or services — proving that your customers are still cool by staying with you.

Intelligence: This will make me look smart to others. Intelligence brands show how the buyer can save time, improve productivity, improve health or avoid trouble. In essence, consumers are smart by working with this company or choosing a product or service.

Companies with intelligence brands “educate” consumers about aspects of their industry only insiders know. They showcase experts who share important news and information to help customers make better decisions. They create their own publishing channels so customers turn to them first for information.

Intelligence is a great emotion for service providers who want to attract more sophisticated, discerning consumers, ones who enjoy learning better ways to live or run a business. Your brand can be enhanced through expert content on your website, video tutorials and studies that support the use of your product or service.

Where’s the boogeyman?

Protection: This will make me more secure. The boogeyman isn’t out there; it’s in your customer’s mind. If you can tap into fears or insecurities, you can boost the power of your brand.

Cosmetic companies get women to shell out billions for anti-aging products. Home security companies reenact burglary scenarios to show their team responding to the homeowner. Some might view these tactics as unfair to human emotion, but fear is a powerful motivater.

A protection brand helps customers move forward with estate planning or buying enough insurance, reducing debt or losing weight, activities that truly improve their lives and peace of mind. If your brand message is peace of mind and protection, showcase it through powerful customer stories in which the product or service did result in more security when it mattered.

Use images that show happy, empowered people enjoying life because they have your product or service working for them. Offer tips that support a customer’s sense of security. Develop and talk about each improvement to your business that enhances customer security.

Don’t mess with ‘warm fuzzies’

Altruism: I can help and make a difference with this. Marketers and nonprofit organizations talk about the “warm fuzzies” of doing good. Customers feel good when their purchase supports a cause or value they believe in, but they must truly believe the cause is legitimate and just.

With an altruism brand, show how people can make a difference in very specific ways: buy a pair of shoes and another pair goes to a child at a specific shelter. Purchase this haircut and offer the same service to active military families for free. A portion of proceeds to an animal shelter or food shelf is also concrete because it is local and delivers a direct benefit to actual animals or people you can see.

Know your customers well enough to understand their values and interests, then tap into ways they can do good by doing business with you. If those ways of doing good also match your company’s values, then you will build a strong company culture along with your altruism brand.

Try to fake altruism, and the potential negative publicity could put you out of business. Messing with “warm fuzzies” makes people feel insecure, dumb and uncool.

Which one fits?

Now that you know some of the primary emotions consumers use to justify purchases, think about how one of these might fit the logic of your brand. With your website and social media channels, you can easily identify with and promote these emotional aspects.

Research your customer base and competitors for the key emotions they employ. Create consistent messages and design that appeal to those emotions as well as the logic people will use to justify buying your product or service. Tying emotion to logic will make your business stand out from competitors and lead to stronger sales.