Brand - Customer Relationship. First Things First.

The reason why for-profit brands set up shop is fundamentally to get their identified prospective costumer to buy (products or/and services) from them.

From the outset, brands set out to get their customers to buy from them. The focus of all activities from product/service design and package, distribution channel (s), pricing and positioning is essentially aimed at getting the customer to buy from them.

While there is nothing wrong with working towards getting customers to buy from you, it is rather a case of putting the cart before the horse. This is because, before any customer would even get to the point where he/she considers and decides to buy from you, he/she needs to first buy into you.

Expecting a customer to buy from you when he/she is yet to buy into you, is like expecting a girl to accept to marry you when she has not dated you, gone out with you, nor being on dates with you.

The act of a consumer buying from you, is akin to someone investing in a business, because in the real sense of the world, the consumer is investing in your brand when he/she decides to buy from you.

The customer’s decision to buy from you would essentially entail investing money, time, social equity, and social standing, things that cannot be invested in a brand if there is no level of brand trust and assurance.

What does it mean for a brand to buy into something or someone?

According to the Cambridge dictionary, to buy into primarily means to BELIEVE. So, a brand buying into you, into your idea, into your product/service/offering, is simply a brand believing you (what you say), and believing in you.

According to the same dictionary, To buy from, means, to frequent, to buy, to habituate, to be a client of, to be a customer of, to deal with, to give business to, to purchase from, to shop at, to shop with and to trade with.

Consequently, if a customer must give business to you, purchase from you, and shop with you or trade with you, the customer must first believe you.

So, how does a brand get the consumer to buy into the brand? I present 7 steps to get the customer to buy into a brand and consequently inspire the customer to buy from the brand:

1.    Communicate Clearly: Communication is very key in every relationship. The story is told of a Naval Captain who was at the helm of a heavily armed battleship approaching a still light in the middle of the sea and in the dead of the night. Believing the still light belonged to a smaller ship, he radioed the source of the light requesting that the “small ship” change course. When the ‘ship’ would not change course, the captain was infuriated and threatened to run the smaller ship over, or worse still, blast it away. Then the very junior officer at the source of the light radioed back, informing the angry captain, that she was a lighthouse. Greatly humbled by realization, the captain changed his course without any further orders or threats. It is pertinent that a brand clearly defines self, sets and manages expectations, truthfully articulates features and benefits without exaggeration. Clear communication is essentially because it helps the customer have a realistic expectation.

2.    Be Original: Nothing permanently pisses off the customer than brand fraud. Customers like to believe that what they see is what they get. They do not want a mainstream brand giving off the impression of premiumness. While it is quite admirable, and perhaps expected that a brand is aspirational, customers can always tell the difference. As a brand, be yourself. Be authentic. Don’t try to pattern yourself after another brand. Do not try to mean something other than who you are. Originality is embracing your true identity, and living it out at all touch points.

3.   Be Valuable: Customers buy into a brand because they identify a value the brand has the capacity to add. So, what value are you adding? What difference are you making in the life of the customer? What gap are you filling? If you are temporarily off the shelf, would you be missed? Are there a set of customers to whom you are a necessity? Your answers to these questions would determine if your target customer would buy into you, and consequently buy from you.

4.   Be Proactive: Proactivity comes from a place of deep consumer understanding. As a brand, until you get to the point where you deeply understand your customer, such that you anticipate their needs, their feelings, their reactions to both internal and external occurrences, they can never really buy into your brand. It means mirroring their thoughts and being able to act in ways that get them thinking you have to be a mind reader to accurately anticipate and fulfill their needs. Effective proactivity has the advantage of deepening brand affinity and brand loyalty, ensuring that the consumer is completely dependent on the brand, and completely believes in whatever the brand does, completely accepting all of the brand’s decision.

5.   Make them feel special: As a natural rule, humans gravitate to wherever makes them special. That explains rural – urban migration. This is because the urban area appreciates the existence and quality of the productive capacity you have, as well as it helps it appreciate in value. When as a brand, you make your consumers feel special, they definitely would buy into you, and consequently buy from you. In romantic relationships too, people gravitate to people who make them feel special, even if they are already married to someone else who doesn’t make them feel special.

6.  Be Social: Humans are naturally socially. We like to talk. We like to share. The advent and proliferation of social media has only enhanced and amplified our social tendencies. A brand that is social is seen to be more like the consumer, more like the society, and therefore with an improved acceptability ratio. The mobile phone has also democratized social media by ensuring that about every person who can afford to buy even the lowest of mobile phones, is connected to social media on the go. Looking at this, coupled with the high engagement level of social media platforms, it is clearly fool-hardy for any brand worth its salt to not be social.

7.     Be Dramatic: Humans abhor monotony. This explains why consumers are constantly flirting between brands, why consumers have different brands of the same product. Particularly in a world inundated with media messages from every conceivable channel, the need to be dramatic has never been more important. If a brand is not dramatic enough, the brand may not be noticed. If it is not noticed, it would not be considered. If it is not considered, consumers would not buy into it. And, if it is not bought into, consumers would not buy from the brand.