12 Jun How Creative Brands Make Customers Feel Good

As I write this, Tony Bennett is singing “Make Someone Happy” which I realize is the essence of this post and the point of customer experience. If you make customers feel good they are likely to stay and more likely to share, like, subscribe, re-post and buy more.

Make Customers Feel Good Through Unique Experiences

Customers don’t just want products they want experiences. A great example is Dollar Shave Club. They were founded in 2011 and sold to Unilever in 2016 for $1 billion dollars. Seriously. Many other startup companies that have succeeded and sold haven’t even touched that. Plus they aren’t selling a new product. They sell razors, great f**king razors, according to their ads. With 3.9 million subscribers as of 2018 the product is probably good, but let’s be real. You can buy a razor at a dollar store.

What they provide is an experience. From the first video ad to their budget for customer service gifts to customers, they make razors fun. Their approach was unexpected and took the boring out of a daily drudge of an activity.

As a result, their customers are loyal to their company as a personality, not just their their product and service.

Make Customers Feel Good Through Creative Re-branding

Even long-standing companies can update their personalities. Fruit of the Loom pulled a unique marketing campaign using LinkedIn’s feature of celebrating member job changes. The underwear company offered those who changed jobs a free ‘change’ of underwear which also came with a $5 off coupon for their next purchase. A memorable and fun brand experience.

How about Old Spice? Quite a challenge to make a product that’s been around since 1937 feel fresh and new. The product even has ‘old’ in the title. In 2010 they brilliantly re-branded their product from something only your grandad might wear to a sexy, fantasy-fulfilling scent with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad.

 They doubled-down on this with an interactive Youtube campaign that caused them to blow up, in the good way: “The stats show that Old Spice’s ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ campaign was the fastest growing interactive campaign in history. There is no denying that the campaign was a huge success for the brand, catapulting them into the number 1 spot for men’s body wash and making Old Spice a legend in the world of online marketing.”

The love of these ads brought love to the product. Old Spice is still kicking it with an interactive online game called Big Lavender, to boost their new lavender scented body wash (wait…what was that about not smelling like a lady again? Lol. I like lavender.). Give it a try. I just blasted digital lavender with an energy bazooka for research and I feel good.

Make Customers Feel Good Through Authenticity

Though clever, trendy ideas are good your customer base is smarter than you might think. If it’s not authentic it smells bad. More than ever customers wants to buy from trustworthy companies and part of trust is authenticity. If it feels like a company is just jumping on the bandwagon people are less interested.

Customers may even blacklist or social shame a company. A 2019 example, Wet n Wild, has been touting it’s cruelty-free platform for years. However, blogger Cruelty Free Kitty discovered the brand is selling in China, which allows post-market animal testing. Wet n Wild plastered their Instagram with images of bunnies and captions indicating they are cruelty free. This resulted in a backlash of customers calling them out for this and for not being forthright about how they are being sold in China. The issue is not giving the customer base clear information from which to make a purchase in line with their values.

People purchase on the basis of more than just price and availability. Many purchase items in line with their lifestyle and beliefs they are passionate about. They develop relationships with a brand and become fans. Fans are a huge asset to a brand. If they feel betrayed they can also be a brand’s greatest detractors.

Make Customers Feel Good by Making Customer Service Agents Feel Good

Feeling good is contagious. Investing in how employees feel is investing in customers also. Treating agents like customers and giving them excellent tools enables them to provide customers with feel good experience.

Are your creative juices flowing? What are your ideas to make customers feel good? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.