5 Good Things: What We Want From Brands
The era of aspirational brands has hit a brick wall. As the designer luxury market has proved, price gauging handbags and apparel is in fact not sustainable for a business, whether it sits under a conglomerate or is a boot-strapped owned start-up. As trends evolve each year, and even repeat itself, in this modern life of cancel culture, brands need to be extra careful and strategic in how they capture an audience, turn them into shoppers and then how to keep them as loyal customers - without forsaking the values of their business model.
However, since the pandemic when many brands began to really show off their true colors (some good, some very bad), consumers can now opt-out in real-time through posting a video, visually highlighting an experience with a brand. Of course customer service is on the top most valuable assets, but there are other reasons for smart shoppers, such as myself tend to look for in every brand, whether it’s Prada, Loewe or an Etsy shop. My time and money is valuable, so if you own or manage a brand, take notes.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
From product quality, intention of each product, thoughtful copy and clean, streamlined e-commerce/digital platform is necessary to grab my attention long enough to consider purchases.
EMPATHY
Staying silent during a cultural crisis is nearly a dealbreaker for a brand. This is a tough lesson that everyone learned in 2020. Personally, I’d like to know that I’m spending my hard earned money giving it to people, not an AI who’s void of compassion towards its customers during a time of cultural or natural crisis.
ENGAGEMENTS
You can ask me questions. I’ve only seen a few small brands do this on IG reel, which always made me feel like the brand was really trying to market itself to the right customers - me. Also, teach me something, about your business, the way you source products, a look into the day in the life of your workday. Sometimes you can show us how the sausage is made.
CREATIVITY
I am more likely to open a newsletter email with a clever, or thoughtful subject line. If your subject header is just about the sale, I won’t delete it, but I won’t open it right away. Because as I am trying to be a conscious consumer, it takes more than halving another sale to keep me as a customer. I need to know that you get me. I need you to know who your customers/subscribers are, what they like, what they laugh at, what they’re possibly going through emotionally, physically and geographically. That is a lot of course, but being a brand means you’re also telling a story, not just about your company, the products/services, but also of the community that you’re hopefully trying to build and grow. So, having a good copywriter on your team will help you do all of that.
COMMUNITY
At the end of the day, everybody shops on Amazon, practically a given. So once we’ve gotten our consumer fill at the supergiant, we then shop at quality-focused brands that makes us feel wanted. You know that feeling, when you discover a brand’s shop filled with things you haven’t seen before, you feel good having discovered it. Then you simply want to buy it. The shopping cart is activated faster when you already know more about the brand. For example there’s a TikTok of the brand’s team delivering donated goods to a shelter. We want to see that you’re actively part of a community, while building one around your brand. You get back what you give, that’s a rule of thumb. We want to know that at the end of the day, the people, your customers, your neighbors, etc.. matter more than the money.
If you’re just trying to sell products to us, we’ll get bored. Simple as that.
