Understanding the relationship between a brand and consumer behavior is one of the most valuable insights an entrepreneur can have on a market. The brand must connect with the consumer on an emotional level to register as important on their radar. Here's a look at the elements that emotionally connect a consumer with their favorite brands.
Developing a Memorable Brand
It's important to remember that the consumer's mind is where the relationship begins with a brand. Getting into the mind is achieved through marketing and packaging. People find out about most products either through shopping at a store, media exposure or real-world experiences. Usually for people to connect with a brand and develop an ongoing relationship with it, they must identify with the values the brand stands for.
Manufacturers have come and gone the past century, often in sync with product life. The brands that equate to one product often don't last long, whereas brands that encompass different product lines often become part of consumer culture. Such brands integrate definitively with consumer lifestyles and values.
Brands become memorable when they deliver reliable satisfaction to customers over a period of time. The key to becoming memorable is to be better than average or the bare minimum of what the customer expects. The designers of the product and package must understand this relationship by communicating the product's most compelling benefits on the package.
Resonating on an Emotional Level
Not only does a brand need to trigger thoughts in the mind of the target prospect, but it must also trigger emotions. The utility of the product gives the consumer something to think about while the emotional cues on the packaging generate feelings of excitement and urgency.
Communicating on an emotional level creates a closer bond between the brand and consumer. It creates the sensation of a partnership and that the consumer is on a winning team. Emotional communication can be achieved through color and other visual elements. Color is important because of each individual associate's certain colors with certain emotions. In some cases, it's predictable that bright red is associated with excitement while light blue equates with relaxation and serenity.
Winning Consumer Trust with Metal
The most important aspect of how a brand relates to consumer behavior can be summarized by the trust. How much does the consumer trust what they see in the packaging and what they've heard about the product from others? The more the consumer interacts with the brand positively, the more they can develop a level of trust that leads to the purchasing activity.
Metal packaging helps build trust in a brand because it's such a durable solution that keeps the product safe from environmental elements. Consumers have come to learn that a product is less likely to be damaged in a metal container than one made of cardboard. So there's already an awareness level among the general population that metal is a strong packaging solution.
Some people like to ship candy as gifts to friends and family members. Choosing candy in metal packaging adds more value to the gift because it assures the recipient that food is well protected.
Conclusion
The relationship between brand and consumer behavior is intriguing because in many ways it's the key to a successful brand. The more a brand mirrorbran
References
[1] Relationship between color and emotion: A study of college students (2004), by Naz Kaya and H. Epps
[2] Analysis of cross‐cultural color emotion(2004), Xiao-Ping Gao, J. Xin, Tetsuya Sato, A. Hansuebsai, Marcello Scalzo, Kanji Kajiwara, S. Guan, J. Valldeperas, M. Lis, M. Billger
