14


Q2 • 2024


FEATURE


That’s why, in addition to knowing an audience’s pain points, you need to have at least some demographic and psychographic information about them. “If you understand your audience, the communities they’re part of, the culture they identify with, the artists they look to, the food they enjoy, those insights are a solid jumping-off point for all the marketing you’ll do to make your product or your brand relevant and desirable to them,” Lack says. “You’ll know what kind of UX or graphic design they’re likely to respond to. You’ll know where to advertise because you’ll have an idea of where they’re hanging out—both digitally and in real life. You’ll know what press to target because you know what they’re reading. You’ll know what influencers to develop partnerships with—people with whom they likely feel familiarity or connection.” Once you understand the problems each sector of your audience is trying to solve with your product or service, you can move on to identifying and marketing the solutions. “It’s not about pushing your product,” Keenan insists. “It’s about making a recommendation to solve a problem.” And how does one effectively make


a recommendation? By telling a story. “It’s the solution that’s the answer,”


Sichel says, “and because it’s a solution, not a product, that’s where the emotion in the storytelling comes in.” And it’s the storytelling that shows your target market why your offering, not that of your competitors, is the solution to their problem—and why your audience should change their behavior by purchasing your product or service.


Sweet Emotion Maybe you don’t want to position your brand or offering as a solution. Or perhaps the problem it’s solving


is too apparent or too mundane: a supermarket, for instance, is solving the problem of consumers’ lack of food in the house. That’s why supermarket chain Publix sells groceries by selling happiness. “Where shopping is a pleasure” is the brand’s slogan, which it reinforces by ensuring its stores are well lit, well stocked, and well staffed with genuinely friendly workers. Beyond that, its advertisements focus less on the food and more on the people enjoying being together at an occasion that is made even more joyful by the inclusion of food. The product is secondary to the emotion. “The best way to get someone to change their behavior is through emotion,” says Tim Ito, Cofounder/ Principal of digital marketing agency Marketing Nice Guys. The emotions he finds most effective to tap into, particularly for smaller businesses, are love, hate, fear/anxiety, and ambition (“what somebody wants to be”). Similarly, a long-held tenet among copywriters is that the seven most effective emotional drivers are fear, greed, anger, guilt, flattery, exclusivity, and salvation.


r ge g m o t r b motions tap into


businesses, are and ambition to be”). mo


mong os


ost In the case of the negative emotions,


you’re selling not them, but rather what Ito terms “the antidote.” By addressing prospective customers’ fear of driving children in an unsafe vehicle, for example, Volvo sells security. By speaking to the anger many women feel about the unreal beauty expectations set by media, Dove’s Real Beauty campaign is selling empowerment, inclusivity, and self-esteem. Keep in mind that this approach needs to be holistic; it’s not a one-and- done problem-solution case study. Publix’s heartwarming commercials and inviting slogan wouldn’t be effective if its stores were shabby and its staff rude. “Brand building for a long-term


They literally wrote the book on it. They call themselves a customer-service company that just happens to sell shoes and clothes.” And by selling exceptional service first and apparel and footwear second, Zappos sets itself apart from the myriad other purveyors of shoes and clothing while retaining a loyal customer base.


Which brings us to what is arguably the most important aspect of selling your offering and brand as something more than what it appears to be. “You need to understand where you are,” Ito says. “If it’s not authentic, you’re not going to be able to project it.” 


relationship with your customer should always be the goal,” Lack says. “And with every relationship—even the one between your brand and your customer—there has to be trust, consistency, and some emotional investment. So you need to keep showing up for your customer, as much as they are for you.” Lack cites e-tailer Zappos, where she


was formerly Director of Content and Partnerships, as an example. “Zappos is all in on excellent customer service.


Similarly, a long- held tenet among copywriters is that the seven most effective emotional drivers are fear, greed, anger, guilt, flattery, exclusivity, and salvation.


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