The biggest challenge in building a brand’s appeal isn’t how to attract consumers for whom brandings have no cachet; that answer is obvious. Instead, it’s figuring out how to build a brand that can appeal simultaneously to consumers with totally different demands and requirements. This applies to nearly two-thirds of all consumers, split roughly down the middle between those seeking practical vs. emotional relationships with brands.
In our last column (DIRECT, February), we looked at consumers at both extremes of brand involvement. Fervents care about brands in every way while Indifferents don’t care at all. Between these extremes, Yankelovich Monitor research finds two other groups of consumers with different approaches to brands: Practicals and Emotionals.
Consumers relate to a brand along four dimensions
Network
