- A brand must establish a relationship with consumers beyond just price and promotions by giving them a unique reason to buy the brand's products and services. This allows the brand to sell to consumers repeatedly over time.
- There are five bases for building good consumer relationships: substance (delivering on promises), usefulness, meaning, value (functional, emotional, and social benefits), and significance (transformative impact).
- Examples are provided for each of the five bases from brands like iPhone, Tiki, Dove, Vitamilk, and Trung Nguyen to illustrate how they connect with consumers.
2. CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS
Nowadays, having a good product or service is far from
enough. It’s not about WHAT people buy, it’s WHY
they have to buy ours. A brand strategist had better
give the consumers a good reason to buy, one that is
unique and different from others who offer the same
product/service.
A good salesman makes consumers buy ONCE.
An attractive promotion makes consumers buy TWICE.
But a well-established relationship makes them buy
AGAIN & AGAIN. Without this relationship, it’s just a
war of price and promotion.
3. OVERVIEW
There are several ways to establish and maintain a relationship with consumers. In this paper, we are
about to analyize 5 bases of a good consumer relationship:
- substance: the ability to stay true to what we promise
- usefulness: the effectiveness of a product/service
- meaning: the emotional/spiritual value
- value: the added value, tangible or intangible, we offer to consumers
- significance: the transformative/greater impact of the product/service
4. 1. Substance
Substance is the ability to stay true to what we promise. It’s the core of the
promise. We can not execute the promise to consumer if we don’t have the ability
to do that. It looks like “A Singer” has to have a “Voice” – the core of being
sustaining a real singer. As we seem singer who doesn’t have a voice – but
he/she uses other tools like dancers, scandal, body to be famous often does not
maintain the sustainable success
5. 1. Substance - Example
Iphone:
With the “core” hardware – run
with the exclusive OS. And it
create an wonderful interaction
between hardware and OS so it
always run stably without lagging
So it can easily demonstrate for
their promise “Simple”
Bphone:
An Unstable hardware and
software make it rapidly boycott by
consumer because the brand can
not keep their promise
So it can easily demonstrate for
their promise “The World No.1
Phone”
6. 2. Usefulness
A product/service’s usefulness is its ability to meet a certain need or solve a
problem of the consumers. Usefulness is also about the convenience and
enjoyment in product/service experience.
In today’s cluttered world, usefulness is also about the ability to ease the pain of
decision making for consumers. They don’t have to weigh the pros and cons of
various products, instead, they will simply go for the one with greatest usefulness.
7. 2. Usefulness - Example
Tiki is considered as one of the leading sites in terms of online shopping. The usefulness of Tiki can be
seen in:
- The variety of items: On Tiki website, an online shopper can find almost anything they need
ranging from a book, shampoo, a smart phone to a top-up card. Spending hours browsing through
the stores to find something is now outdated.
- Rating and testimonials: Tiki had great effort to build rating and testinomials for each product,
which is much more impressive as compared to Lazada or Adayroi. This special feature on Tiki
becomes a great source of reference for the next shopper who intends to buy that product. More
than that, it also helps to build trust towards Tiki’s credibility.
- Product’s image and information: Tiki uses the actual image of the product with detailed
information, not only helping consumers in decision-making but also building Tiki’s credibility.
- Fast delivery: Not only offering free delivery for a certain basket size, Tiki also offer 24-hour
delivery for those who cannot wait any longer for a new item.
- Various payment methods: online payment and cash on delivery
- Always-on promotion activities that create more value for consumers/shoppers
8. 3. Meaning
Meaning is critical in building trust as well as love of customers for a brand. But to
do that they have to keep their brand promise to create credibility, confidence on
customers in a long time.
Besides, it is Brand metaphors operate at a much deeper and less obvious level
than surface metaphors. You may not be consciously aware of them, but as soon
as they’re pointed out they become obvious.
9. 3. Meaning - Example
Dove - The house of true beauty
"Beautiful" is not defined by shape, measurements, color skin - but only when you feel you are the most
beautiful. Honest. Unique. Authentic.
When using dove, consumer feel gentle, feminine and simple because they will think that this is the true
beauty.
10. 4. Value
Following by the
research of BAIN &
COMPANY there
are 30 “elements of
value” categorized
in four kind of
needs that help
Brand make a
good connecting
with consumers:
functional,
emotional, life
changing and
Tangible
Intangible
Value
People expect to resolve their
functional problems
People pay for it
BUT
For What they experience and what they care about
Functional : What does it
do?
Emotional : How does it
make me feel?
Life Changing: How does it
help to change mylife
Social Impact: What value
does it bring to the society ?
11. 4. Value - example
Functional : What does it
do?
Emotional : How does it
make me feel?
Life Changing: How does it
help to change mylife
Social Impact: What value
does it bring to the society ?
Functional : It helps my height grow,
improve brain and resistance for my
health
Emotional: Friendly, fun, Cute,
Close to end-users (childrend) – the
image send the message “mắt sang
dáng cao”
Social Impact: “Vươn cao việt nam”
funds has run from 2013 to now? It
helps to bring milk to poor children to
help them grow
Life Changing: Every Childrend
always want to explore the new
outside the world so VNM brings
hope to them
12. 5. Significance
According to Oxford Dictionary, significance is the importance of something,
especially when this has an effect on what happens in the future.
A brand with significance can be understood as one that leaves greater impact,
surpassing its functional or emotional benefit.
13. 5. Significance - Example
Trung Nguyên with ‘the life-changing books’ (Tủ sách đổi đời)
In 2014, Trung Nguyen had an initiative to give away free portable books for
young coffee goers. Those books were famous names in youth empowerment
genre. Trung Nguyen’s vision was to initiate a wave of change in Vietnamese
young people, inspire and empower them to contribute to the society.
The initiative created big buzz in the market for a while. However, it did not sustain
in the long run. In this case, we learn that significance is not among the priority is
connecting with consumers. The top priority of a brand should focus on the
product/service itself and make sure that it has substance, usefulness, value and
meaning to its consumers.
14. Analyze
- Value: its popular, and easy for use.
- Substance: its important, and when we have any product, must have substance. Its like fuction benefit. If we dont have
it, this product no need appear
- Meaning: dont use it when brand staring or no long term in market. Use it when brand is big and influential. At this
time, this function benefit of product is familiar. Brand want to new. So they connecting with meaning
- Usefullness: easy for find, but hard for do
- Significance: this so hard, but when your brand use it for connecting => so WOW if success and you can control
customer by significance weapon.
15. In past, people think successful people use expensive pen
(feature is pen in pocket man). But now, although have
more expensive pen but its not necessary and people cant
discern what pen is expensive of fake => people dont care
In past, people think rich people use creadit card (for
storage money. But now creadit card is popular => people
dont care
Its true but still false. (special in VN market). But we view
in true angle: In past, people think rich people use luxury
watch, so they care but now, apple or samsung watch
appear that have more feature. => People dont care about
luxury watch like Vespa.
In past, people says nothing about chair, television and
cell phone until expensive products have more function
benefit like Smart TV or Iphone. So people impress
and they think what people in good life (more money)
can owned it. Ex: owned Iphone is hierarchy
=> This explain same like smart watch in bottom table.
We must have great vision and strategy to be able to
reasonably create revolutionary products, have stegament in
market and make people say a lot about this.
The easiest way is find things what people don’t care, then
make a product have BIG function. For cunsomer WOW and
think: “This stuff can get these breakthrough features ??”
Conclud
e
