In Branding, First Impressions Count
At the recent NEMOA spring conference in Boston, Glenda Sasho-Jones, president of Sasho Jones Direct, told attendees that brand building and dating have a lot in common.
The goals are similar, she said. After all, in both cases it’s about falling love, and you need a system of common beliefs and behaviors to make both a date and a brand interaction succeed.
“Branding starts at the first interaction—and blowing it at the beginning is hard to get over,” she said.
First impressions count, which means marketers must pay careful attention to design elements like landing pages, catalog covers and outer envelopes.
“Every time I see marketers put time into these types of things it pays off,” she said. “Don’t come up short at the last minutes.”
Once a brand has that “first date” and a relationship begins, knowing your customers interests and preferences and attending to their needs are essential.
“Satisfy me,” said Sasho-Jones. “Eighty-nine percent of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after poor customer service, according to the RightNow Customer Experience Impact Report.”