Reasons Why Consumers View Brands As Relationships

Of all the success metrics, if we measure brands the way we measure healthy relationships, we can easily outperform the competition.

Metrics are an integral part of a brand’s strategy. They help businesses understand how their brand is performing within the framework of customer values and expectations. Unfortunately, however, the brand’s performance metric is limited to only share of voice and brand loyalty.

What about brand relationships?

Organizations should consider their branding efforts as a relationship with consumers. Similar to human relationships, brands must take elements of traditional relationship building and apply them to the overarching brand strategy.

For instance, think about the relationships in your life…

• Do you look forward to seeing that person?
• Do you care about them?
• Do they share your values?
• Do you speak well of them to others?

To truly understand your brand perception, you should ask yourself these questions:

• Does your brand presence compare to the relationships you have built over the year?
• If not, what can you do to mimic the positive dynamics of such relationships?
• If so, can you identify what actions it took to get you in your consumer’s good graces?

Given the abundance of competitive information and the content available online, today’s consumers are more informed than ever. This has resulted in a drastic shift in consumer power and has altered the selling process by placing a greater emphasis on the customer experience.

Here are 2 reasons why consumers view brands as relationships

1. They Have Moved Beyond A Traditional Purchase Process to Organic Discovery

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Today’s consumers come to a brand through many online sources such as social media, search engines, reviews, peer recommendations and more.

Marketing is no longer leading us to brands, it’s the relationships we have with one another that are leading us to brands.

Recently, content marketing has played a major role in building consumer relationships by placing brands in the middle of a consumer’s purchasing journey. Great content will provide answers to consumer’s questions or help them with a challenge as they search for a solution online. Your content can draw a consumer’s attention during their search. By providing relevant content related to their purchase, you are instantly building a positive relationship.

Here’s another reason consumers view brands as relationships…

2. They Have Moved Beyond Traditional Marketing to User Generated Demand

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Today user-generated content is more trustworthy than traditional media. Simply put, consumers believe high-end productions are fabricated and only convey the positive attributes of the product or service advertised. Overall, they would rather trust their peers than brands.

Also, there was a significant market shift after the financial meltdown. Consumers lost trust in major corporations when financial and housing institutions’ unethical business practices were exposed. There was a negative connotation to the word ‘corporation’ and consumers felt bamboozled.

Do you recall the Occupy Wall Street movement?

Ever since that movement, companies across all business sectors had to revamp their communication strategies. They were forced to become more transparent.

And that’s where the shift began.

Consumers wanted their voices heard and, as a result, it shaped our current market situation. Companies transferred the power to the people and had them play a key role in the companies product offerings.

After this trend caught fire, many companies began leveraging the consumer’s voice when developing new products.