A heartfelt and authentic message is the most effective marketing tool around, Laurence Knight, principal and founder of marketing innovation consultancy Fletcher Knight, tells ECM.
The way that marketers are thinking about brands today is shifting. Whereas previously the goal was simply to sell products, marketers are now considering how to build loyalty to a brand and are discovering that when it comes to brands, word of mouth sells.
Fletcher Knight has dubbed this authenticity and empathy with consumers Brand Soul. “Brands with soul truly share a passion and motivation with their consumers. Such brands have a clear reason for being that allows them to talk with an authentic voice. A brand without soul relies on the hard sell of products and services built only on
benefit-based statements and forgettable pay-offs that, on their own, can be construed as a little shallow. Just as importantly, when you walk into a company’s HQ you can sense and feel a brand with soul. There’s a clear, uniting sense of purpose that translates into everyday actions,” explains Knight.
In the beauty industry, where brand loyalty is considerably lower than many manufacturers would like, Brand Soul can be a useful way to inspire fidelity in consumers. “By aligning clearly with consumer interests your brand positioning will become more authentic. This translates directly into increased customer commitment and loyalty, all the way to having a fan-base prepared to evangelise the brand – this is the true measurable commercial pay-off. Brands with soul jump right off the curve and have higher levels of loyalty than expected for their size. Most retail beauty brands show a set level of conversion of traffic, but retail beauty brands with soul have a higher number of planned trips and therefore show higher conversion rates.”
But Brand Soul is not just about increasing sales. “Brand Soul can steer employee activity and commitment, particularly in the areas of customer service, sales, customer discovery, product development and innovation. It can also be used to steer authentic equity development in sponsorship, alliances and cause-related activities,” suggests Knight.
Some beauty brands have already achieved Brand Soul status, says Knight. Avon, for example, is associated with equality, being a company set up to provide women with a source of income, while Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is aimed at raising self-esteem. “Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty presents a real shift in brand development. The Dove team has discovered their brand’s passion, which is the passion for being real. Dove is developing a deeply authentic, empathetic, heartfelt link with its consumers,” says Knight.
Soul survivors
Other brands that have achieved Brand Soul include The Body Shop for its fair trade and humane cosmetics campaigns, Natura, Origins and Aveda for their use of organic or sustainable ingredients.
However, hope is not lost for brands lacking in soul. Brand Soul can be created. “The best way to feel it is to tap into the grass roots passion for the brand that your consumers feel, and work with them to build and nurture that authentic voice. We’ve recently worked with a strong women’s advocate beauty brand to reposition it across three continents.”
Brand Soul may be threatened by radical changes in personnel or a parent corporation, but these won’t necessarily entail a loss of integrity. Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s was bought by Unilever but has retained enough autonomy to maintain Brand Soul, while benefiting from the greater resources a large corporation can provide. The Body Shop suffered a backlash following its sale to L’Oréal, but Knight predicts that the bad press will subside in time. “It may have worked against it in the short term, but in the long run L’Oréal has a track record of success. L’Oréal needs to ensure that the missions of both companies are completely aligned and reinforce one another. The long term relevance and leverage of beauty without cruelty needs to be clearly understood, particularly in the US and Europe. With the rapid expansion of brands with soul like Natura, it should be encouraging that the Body Shop can stand for something broader,” he says.
A major risk to Brand Soul, says Knight, is an over-inflated ego. “Becoming too obnoxious is one of the biggest risks to soul. The classic example is where entrepreneurs believe too much in their own success and fail to understand that Brand Soul lives in a community of consumers and is not completely and predictably controlled at the centre.
And losing Brand Soul can be fatal to a brand. “If you lose your soul with consumers you should consider it the same tragedy as a marriage break-up. You had their complete trust and you likely let them down. To remain strong Brand Soul needs to be nurtured with a unique combination of marketing, PR, sponsorship and cohort management. Finding this magic mix again takes a unique approach. It’s very tough,” says Knight.