Most companies would like better results from their marketing efforts. After carefully designing a campaign, and releasing it into the wild, it is not uncommon for a business to find that their expectations for the campaign’s results are not met. One of the primary reasons for this is that the majority of companies fail present the potential customer with a clear, concise, image of the company and its products or services, an image which will invoke the proper feelings in the customer.
Marketing is not just telling the customer about your product or service. More than that, marketing is getting your customer’s senses and feelings involved with your offering, and stimulating them to want to deepen that involvement (learn more or make a purchase). In order to boost the effectiveness of your company’s marketing efforts, you must use visual, auditory, and other sensual methods to pique your customers’ interests. This is because, as every salesperson knows, customers buy with their emotions, not their analytical minds.
In its most recent marketing blitz, targeting the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Coca-Cola launched a marketing campaign which ties its soda to the excitement felt by all of those who love World Cup soccer. Its marketing pieces show people engaged in soccer at all levels, from the street level to the pros. Its ads are accompanied by uplifting Brazilian rhythms, punctuated with motivational and inspirational quotes to produce a euphoric effect.
Let Coca-Cola’s World Cup campaign serve as a guide as you continue to craft your company’s marketing message. Use colors which convey the kinds of feelings your brand wishes to invoke in its customers. Much research has been done on the way certain colors make people feel, and this research can be easily found online. In addition to the visual, present your offering accompanied by music, or rhythms, which convey the feelings your company wishes your customer to feel when they think about your product or service.
Overall, marketing is about feeling. This single realization should guide all of your business’ marketing efforts. If, on analyzing your company’s current marketing and branding schemes, it becomes clear that the picture painted by them does not convey the kinds of feelings you wish for your customers to associate with your company, it may be time for a reboot. Though starting from scratch, or even tweaking, may involve a significant cost or change in company culture, it must be acknowledged that the only way your company will have the success you desire for it is if your customers are properly emotionally connected with it.
