Feelings create meaningful customer experiences

When creating impactful customer experiences and brand connections, the first thing you need to do is create a meaningful brand.

July 15, 2021
Executive Vice President of Brand Strategy

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Feelings are the core of any of your customer experiences and brand connections. Feelings are meaningful. And they create meaningful brands. After all, consumers are connected to humans, companies and ideals that they care about – that they feel strongly about. These customer experiences are ultimately defined by the feelings audiences have for a brand. Connecting with your audience can create a lifetime value that is double that of a highly satisfied customer.

Every day, consumer expectations of brands continue to grow. Consumers want to hear from brands and that means that brands are being given permission to lead. Now, more than ever, consumers want to know more about their mission, purpose and the tangible impact they’re having in the world. How the brands they connect with are helping. The audience wants to understand the social contribution that goes along with a brand’s financial success. So, give them a reason to believe in the brand and to believe in the social mission – give them a reason to connect and the confidence to trust.

Emotional motivators drive customer experiences and behavior

“Given the enormous opportunity to create new value, companies should pursue emotional connections as a science—and a strategy”, and The Harvard Business Review’s The New Science of Customer Emotions offers ten high-end motivators that can drive consumer experiences. Here are three:

  • How to stand out from the crowd: Project a unique social identity; be seen as special
  • Have confidence in the future: Perceive the future as better than the past; have a positive mental picture of what’s to come
  • Feel a sense of belonging: Have an affiliation with people they relate to or aspire to be like; feel part of a group

Positive customer emotions will result in positive customer experiences. These timeless emotional motivators help to identify where to begin.

How can your brand communicate feelings to create impactful customer experiences?

The following tactics can assist in making strategic choices to establish meaningful connections with your audience by providing smart, relevant content that educates and inspires audiences and creates positive customer experiences.

To start, a brand should ask itself these five questions:

  1. “Which of our brand attributes does our consumer base cherish the most?”
  2. “Can our brand bring all consumer segments together in a meaningful and responsible way?”
  3. “How can our brand’s key differentiation be relevant to our customers today?”
  4. “Does our brand have uplifting and inspiring stories that can be shared?”
  5. “Does our brand have the ability to encourage support people in a way that is meaningful to them?”

If a brand can answer these questions and feel it is appropriate to communicate to their audiences, then we would offer the following advice:

Be Knowledgeable. Stay current on the latest trends and needs of your customers.

Be Honest. Tell the truth with transparency. Respect the connection your audience has with your brand and appreciate the trust that has been extended.

Be Empathetic. The appropriate tone of voice, in all communications, will strengthen brand connections.

Be Flexible. Being able to respond to the audience in a variety of communications channels is essential. Anticipate shifts in channel preferences as remote environments continue to grow.

As time is ever-changing, the importance of customer experiences hasn’t changed. Emotional motivators transcend time in many aspects. It’s the basic definition of branding: that gut feeling a person gets when they think about an organization.

We can provide resources and assistance

If you are not sure where to begin or need some help honing in on how to make customer experiences a key driver of your emotional connection, reach out. In the meantime, here are a few resources we think you’ll find useful:

An Emotional Connection Matters More than Customer Satisfaction

How to Create Emotional Connections with Your Customers – 22 Experts Weigh In

Building Brand Intimacy: How to Emotionally Connect With Customers

Learn more about our capabilities.

Chernoff Newman has deep category experience in agriculture, food and beverage, education and workforce development, energy, economic development, financial/insurance, healthcare and infrastructure. We design integrated marketing and strategic communications that are impactful, thought-provoking and influential. We marry ingenuity with business know-how to influence beliefs and behaviors for brands, companies and their many stakeholders. We influence attitude and inclination. We influence opinion and outcomes. And when needed, we also influence to quell contention.