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The basics of a marketing strategy to achieve Lovemark status
Today’s market is saturated with products, so competition remains fierce in almost every niche. Companies have to fight for every customer and devise different approaches to attract the public’s attention. In such conditions, it is important for a company not only to win a new customer but also to earn his trust. To do this, it is necessary to take the brand to a new level and make it a Lovemark for consumers. Only then can you count on long-term cooperation and customer loyalty.
The Lovemark concept represents a new stage in brand development beyond mere trust. It involves a close emotional connection between a company and its consumers. The customer’s refusal to use other similar products expresses this type of interaction. The consumer chooses only the brand’s goods, is ready to pay a lot of money, and waits for the release of new models. In the case of Lovemark, the customer wants to surround himself as much as possible with the company’s products to feel part of the brand.
How the concept came about
Kevin Roberts first described the Lovemark strategy in 2005. He believed that most companies at the time were focusing on sales rather than the emotional aspect. This approach had a short-term effect, and then consumers lost interest and went elsewhere. Roberts decided to create a strategy that would not only attract customers but also keep them. And so the concept of a Lovemark was born. It involved a mechanism for influencing the consumer on several levels:
- an attractive story of the company’s creation;
- impact on the buyer’s different senses – sight, hearing, smell;
- focusing not on the product’s functional characteristics but on the consumer’s feelings and emotions.
For example, when advertising a sofa, it is essential not to focus on the quality of construction and comfort. Marketers should play on the emotions the product will evoke in its future owner. They can describe how comfortable it is to watch a favourite film on the sofa with the whole family and relax after a hard day’s work.
Stages of business transformation
In the implementation of a brand strategy, the company’s image is the result of a series of stages:
- trade mark;
- brand;
- trustmark;
- lovemark.
Roberts did not provide clear actions for each stage in describing the concept. In his view, building a creative process that relies on the emotional component is necessary.
In the branding phase, people buy a product purely on its merits. A company becomes a brand when it has established a positive image. This encourages the consumer to pay more because of a certain level of loyalty.
A brand becomes a trustmark when it gains its target audience’s trust and establishes a relationship between them. By reinforcing a positive image of the company and communicating closely with consumers, it achieves Lovemark status. In this case, the level of engagement and trust is at maximum. However, to maintain it, a company must work regularly to strengthen the emotional bond with its audience.