In a Harvard Business Review article entitled “The New Science of Customer Emotions” by Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, and Daniel Leemon, the authors identified 10 “emotional motivators” that solidify customer loyalty across various industries.
The Top 10 Emotional Motivators:
1. Stand out from the crowd
2. Have confidence in the future
3. Enjoy a sense of well-being
4. Feel a sense of freedom
5. Feel a sense of thrill
6. Feel a sense of belonging
7. Protect the environment
8. Be the person I want to be
9. Feel secure
10. Succeed in life
I learned about this during a webinar offered by dealerinstitute.org. I read their white paper that referenced this subject and I decided to go look at the original article. It’s from 2015, by the way, and while marketing articles these days are all about how consumer preferences have been changed by COVID-19, I think the underlying principles are sound.
Creating Brand Connection
Anyway, the article states that they tested 300 motivators and identified 25 that are pretty important. These motivators vary by product category and sometimes even among brands in the same category. And it’s a combination of these motivators – not just one – that creates brand connection.
Sounds like a lot of market research work, doesn’t it?
(Call me 😃)
To return to the article: What I found interesting in the research is that the authors differentiated between highly satisfied customers and fully connected customers.
“Fully connected customers are 52% more valuable, on average,
than those who are just highly satisfied.”
This might be why a lot of ag companies are seeking new ways to “connect” with farmers. I’ve written a lot about the emotional drivers of farmers and how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs fits in.
How Connection Is Created
Connection is created by understanding needs and wants and underlying drivers that individuals don’t even know they have, and seeking to fill those needs and wants with a response that satisfies them. And this can’t be done with just marketing or another cool website. This connection has to extend throughout the organization, at every customer touchpoint, which now everyone is calling the customer journey or the customer experience.
All the great marketing in the world doesn’t help when the counter is backed up, when the people staffing the store are clueless and rude, and when the manager is nowhere to be found. What that says to the customer is “we don’t care about you.”
Compare that to the signs that some places have to display now: “We are short staffed; please be kind to the people who chose to come to work today.” It sets a different tone, doesn’t it? It says “we are trying as hard as we can, and we’re sorry we’re not as good as we want to be for you.”
Start with Care
What farmers want – what everybody wants – is to do business with a dealer or a brand that cares about them – their success, their security, their well-being.
A famous business guru tells us to “start with why.”
I say, start with care.
Farmers won’t be emotionally connected until you are.
