It’s that time of year when love is in the air. Or at least when everyone is scrambling to get a last-minute reservation on OpenTable for an over-priced prix fixe dinner. Reflecting on my own relationship, not long after my girlfriend and I first started dating, after an evening of dinner and dancing, we exchanged “I love yous” for the first time. I was over the moon. I couldn’t be happier to be in a committed relationship. Two weeks later, after another wonderful dinner, she casually mentioned she was going on a date with someone else. It turns out I completely misunderstood where we were, and at the time, she wasn’t quite ready to be exclusive.
While this story turned out to have a happy ending (we now share a house, a dog, and three kids), many brands find themselves in my shoes, guessing where their relationship with their customer stands. Do they love my brand and would never switch to a competitor? Are they uninterested in trying me out, happy to stick with their current brand? Do they even know who I am? This Valentine’s Day, every brand should take stock of where their brand sits on the “Brand Love Curve.”
According to consulting firm Beloved Brands, the Brand Love Curve is a way to think about where the majority of your customers reside in the brand funnel. The typical funnel would look at awareness, consideration, purchase, repeat, and loyal, whose stages map to the points on the Brand Love Curve. An indifferent brand would be skinny throughout the funnel, with low awareness and purchase, and little in the way of repeat or loyal customers. A liked brand would be full at the top of the funnel, with plenty of purchases, but lack real loyalty. A beloved brand would be full all the way through, with strong emotional attachment driving loyal customers to never go elsewhere, and to recommend to their friends.
Here at Brown Bag, we help our clients figure out where their brands sit on the Brand Love Curve, by analyzing their brand funnel at every stage. We recommend you map your brand’s position on the curve too, because it will help indicate potential strategies to move more of your customers further down the funnel. If your customers are indifferent, you need to capture their attention and establish your brand’s positioning in their minds. Change your message, or launch something new. If you are liked, motivate customers to try your other products or services. Heed my advice and, hopefully, you’ll never hear your customer tell you over crème brulee that they’re seeing someone else.
Where does your brand sit on the Brand Love Curve? What have you tried to move your customers from indifferent to like, or from like to love?
