“
FUSING
Red Valentino represents a way of life that is very important to me. Wearing them is an expression of me.
Japanese consumer
BONDING
I spend a lot of time using computers and I feel intimacy with my mouse. It has never let me down. It’s is easy to use and helped me accomplish a lot of things. It has also brought me a lot of delight.
Japanese consumer
SHARING
I feel like Nike understands my needs and I have a good idea what this company stands for and represents.
U.S. consumer
”
FINDINGS:
6/9
INTIMACY IS NOT PERMANENT
(WITHOUT WORK)
Like human relationships, even when intimacy is gained, it does not mean it lasts forever. Brands must work hard to maintain their relationships with consumers, or risk losing them. This involves everything from keeping quality levels high, adapting to consumer needs, rewarding those who are deeply involved with you, and apologizing when errors are made. Violating or betraying consumer trust can have grave consequences. We do believe, however, that when a brand relationship is intimate, there is a greater chance of forgiveness by consumers. Still, continuous grievances will inevitably result in a broken or dysfunctional relationship. The opposing state to intimacy is not rejection—but as we learned, it’s indifference, which we will detail next.
“
I may be more likely to forgive minor transgressions like getting a poor quality product (once) knowing, or at least thinking, that this is not the norm for this company. If I get more than one disappointment, though, I will likely look elsewhere the next time I need a product that the company offers.
U.S. consumer
”
FINDINGS:
7/9
INDIFFERENCE IS THE OPPOSITE OF INTIMACY
We identified through reading consumer stories detailing their brand relationships that the opposite of intimacy is indifference. This comes after temporary feelings like anger and frustration have dissipated. Indifference is a sense of irrelevance, feelings of apathy and detachment, or being aloof and disinterested. It can happen at any stage of the journey toward intimacy and is a risk that needs to be considered at all times. Brand relationships, like human relationships, are never static. They are in a constant state of flux, moving closer together or further apart.
Nothing hurts a brand more than bad quality and disappointment in product/service performance. When a brand is not reliable in a consumer’s own experience, it spells trouble. This can undo years of goodwill because the brand is no longer delivering on the most basic attributes of functionality and reliability. See section 3.2 Failures, Perspectives and Lessons for more insights on indifference.
Failing to evolve can also increase the chance of indifference. Brands that rest on their laurels based on former successes and miss opportunities to develop further will oftentimes find a dearth of loyal consumers.
“
The brand just failed me too many times to remain a valued part of my life.
U.S. consumer
I’ve outgrown a few brands. They didn’t change with the times.
U.S. consumer
”
FINDINGS:
8/9
BRAND INTIMACY IS RARE
Today brand intimacy is limited and not common. During our initial screening process to find appropriate research respondents, nearly 4,000 consumers were considered. Among them, less than one quarter of people demonstrated the potential of having brand-intimate relationships. In addition, the pool of intimate consumers is reduced further given the fact that one must be a user of the brand to be considered for inclusion. The percentage of intimate users increased later in our quantitative research; however, it’s not surprising given that there has been little concerted effort up to this point regarding building intimate brands.
“
These brands all make products that I use, but I don’t have an intimate relationship with any of them.
U.S. consumer
I wouldn’t say I’m intimate with any brand.
German consumer
”
FINDINGS:
9/9
TECHNOLOGY ENABLES—BUT ALSO CAN DIMINISH—BRAND INTIMACY
While technology can facilitate brand intimacy, it can also harm or end the relationship; it’s a double-edged sword. Most consumers seem to take for granted that brands use technology to reach them. People are talking to brands, brands are communicating to them, people are talking to each other about brands...this engagement is going on 24 hours a day, whenever and wherever you are. That has fundamentally changed the methods brands have to engage people and create close relationships.
Technology also reveals a downside, such as when a brand communicates to you in a way that is uninvited, or feels obtrusive or intrusive. When that happens, it actually pushes consumers further away. Marketers must find the sweet spot between annoying and meaningful communication. They must also do a good job of managing any data they are privileged to receive. This includes protecting privacy and not leaking consumer information to other parties.
“
I think the interactions you have either with email or a website can really affect how you feel about the brand.
Japanese consumer
The ideal brand would use technology to establish a regular communication channel with me. This would usually be email, and offer regular rewards for my loyalty, provide an easy way for me to submit feedback and give the brand an opportunity to show an appreciation for my feedback.
U.S. consumer
”
These nine findings framed our understanding of how people form intimate relationships with brands. Reading detailed explanations and 20,000 stories from consumers about their feelings, connections and bonds with products, services and companies provided invaluable insights. From there, we moved to concretize the idea and model data to quantify the mechanisms and drivers of intimate relationships.
Key Findings:
1. BRAND INTIMACY PARALLELS HUMAN INTIMACY
2. BRAND INTIMACY MIMICS FORMS OF HUMAN INTIMACY
3. RECIPROCITY IS KEY
4. SIX MAIN ARCHETYPES DELIVER BRAND INTIMACY
5. BRAND INTIMACY HAPPENS IN STAGES OR PHASES
6. INTIMACY IS NOT PERMANENT (WITHOUT WORK)
7. INDIFFERENCE IS THE OPPOSITE OF INTIMACY
8. BRAND INTIMACY IS RARE
9. TECHNOLOGY ENABLES—BUT ALSO CAN DIMINISH—BRAND INTIMACY
IMPLICATIONS
Brands have tremendous impact and the capacity to build powerful bonds.
90 percent of decisions we make are driven by emotion.
The democratization of brand today, the role of technology, and advances in neuroscience have dramatically altered marketing and commerce.
Established marketing approaches and models, while valuable, do not reflect new market forces or consider the important role emotion plays in brand building.
Intimacy and intimate relationships are a compelling new way to examine and explore the consumer-brand dynamic.
People form relationships with brands the same way they develop relationships with other people.
2
THEORY & MODEL
Dimensioning and detailing the
components of brand intimacy and
how we got there provides tangible
answers as to why we need
a new marketing paradigm and the
importance of leveraging emotions.
2-1
DEFINITION AND MODEL
BRAND INTIMACY DEFINITION AND MODEL
When defining brand intimacy, the explanation that left the biggest impression was Erik Erikson’s articulation of intimacy—that “intimacy is the ability to fuse your identity with someone else’s without the fear that you’re going to lose something yourself.”78 This felt significant because it identifies two ele
ments that are essential to understanding brand intimacy:
Sense of Security: This describes the lack of fear, or the sense of security people develop in a relationship through experiences over time that enable them to let their guard down and be more open to sharing.
Sense of Fulfillment: The idea of fused identities describes a relationship in which there is a close personal connection and a feeling of belonging together.
This core definition served as our foundation. We then wanted to further our approach by creating a model to build and measure brand intimacy.
This started with our online communities and initial thinking, and then was deepened through extensive quantitative research. In total, we have conducted research with more than 12,000 consumers in the U.S., Mexico, the UAE, Japan and Germany. We have read over 20,000 qualitative brand stories and interpreted more than 100,000 quantitative brand evaluations.
The quantitative survey was designed to complement and extend our previous qualitative work. We wanted to further understand the extent to which consumers have relationships with brands and the strength of those relationships across a variety of industries. We also wanted to see which brands excelled at creating intimacy with their customers. Through factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and other analytic techniques, this research enabled us to identify which dimensions need to be leveraged to build intimacy between brands and consumers most effectively.
The Brand Intimacy Model comprises key components that contribute toward building intimate brand relationships. It was developed based on the understanding that the world around us has drastically changed, and leverages the knowledge that emotions play a fundamental role in our decision making. While proposing that brands have an emotional component is not new, establishing a new approach built on emotion and intimacy is.
The model builds on the fact that you must be a user of the brand to be intimate. Anyone who has a strong emotional connection with a brand has already passed through a series of earlier, more introductory phases (which pre-date actually forming a relationship) including things like awareness, consideration, preference, and purchase. Thus, brand intimacy is a more select and advanced approach, already assuming a relationship exists.
Let’s review the Brand Intimacy Model in more detail.
A NEW MARKETING PARADIGM
BRAND INTIMACY:
BRAND INTIMACY IS
A NEW PARADIGM THAT
LEVERAGES AND STRENGTHENS
THE EMOTIONAL BONDS
BETWEEN
A PERSON AND A BRAND
2-2
MODEL: USERS
The user is the first component in our model. It is a critical part and already different from most other approaches, which generally are broader in their focus. To be intimate with a brand, you need to have repeatedly tried it or used it. Intimacy presupposes consumers are already aware and familiar with a brand. Think of this in terms of human relationships; to be intimate with someone, you must already be involved with them. Because the very nature of intimacy presupposes a relationship, and usually a significant one, our model is by necessity more specific and more elevated. This ensures that the way we look at, rank, and diagnose brands is based on those people who are already involved and in some form of intimacy. While what constitutes a user will vary depending on the audiences of individual brands, this is our non-negotiable starting point: you must already be a user of the brand to be considered intimate in any way.
In addition to being a user of a brand, having a strong emotional connection to the brand is also required. Emotional connection is at the heart of brand intimacy and aligns with all we’ve learned about decision making from neuroscience and behavioral science. Very few models address emotion and even fewer make it a core component. Emotion is everything. It leads, focuses and motivates our decisions. The more people feel, the more it impacts their relationship to brands. To start an intimate brand relationship, a consumer must exhibit a strong emotional connection with a brand. Not everyone who has an emotional connection with a brand is necessarily intimate with it; however, everyone who is intimate with a brand has a strong emotional connection. The greater the emotional connection between a brand and consumer, the more powerful the relationship. A strong emotional connection is determined by the degree of overall positive feelings a customer has toward a brand and the extent to which a person associates the brand with key attributes. We asked respondents in our quantitative survey to describe how they felt about brands in terms of having a strong emotional connection, a positive relationship, neutral feelings or negative associations. Only those with positive and strong feelings would proceed to evaluate the brand further.
Why is this so important? Definitions of intimacy require a strong emotional connection. For example, Sharon Brehm, former president of the American Psychological Association, who notes, “The defining characteristics of an intimate relationship are one or more of the following: behavioral interdependence, need fulfillment, and emotional attachment.”79
2-3
MODEL: ARCHETYPES
Brand archetypes appeal to individual psyches; they help us to make sense of the world and identify patterns and connections that can lead to intimacy. Psychologist Carl Jung theorized that people have a tendency to use symbolism to understand and process concepts. And while our brand archetypes are similar, in that they are markers and cues, it is important to reiterate that we did not invent these archetypes nor are they arbitrary. They were observed, self described and summarized by consumers when detailing their brand relationships in our qualitative research, and later validated by our quantitative factor analysis.
Archetypes are important because they are a unique lens or filter on brand associations. They represent our fundamental needs and desires; they are shortcuts that can bring us closer to brands. Since people are driven by instincts and are emotional decision makers, archetypes are the key initial ingredient to building more intimate brands.
We discovered six patterns or markers are consistently present, in part or in whole, among intimate relationships. They identify the nature and character of these relationships. Structural equation modeling from our quantitative research then revealed how these six archetypes drive the intensity of the relationship between consumers and brands. The brands that are most effective at fostering intimate relationships do a great job embracing or adopting one or more of these archetypes. Since we know that brands need to connect with consumers quickly and instinctively, archetypes also provide an effective shorthand to build bonds and form attachments.
This idea is not dissimilar from Christopher Booker’s thesis in The Seven Basic Plots, which suggests that all stories follow seven basic themes, that stories mirror psychological development, and that we process information in an instinctive and primal way.80
What does this mean for brands? In brief, it means that it is advantageous to understand what a brand’s underlying story is. It means that relating your brand to as many archetypes as makes sense is a good thing; that these anchors create powerful territories for brands to express themselves and be identified with. By understanding the impact of each archetype, marketers can better determine what levers to push to more effectively move brands from indifference to intimacy. Archetypes help ensure you have an emotional component as part of your brand’s DNA.
Archetypes are the foundational elements to the bonds that we form with brands. They are the glue that attracts and connects. Each is unique, powerful and fundamental to how brands can thrive. Here, we’ll dive deeper into better understanding them by dimensioning each through real examples. You’ll see that a brand doesn’t necessarily need to think of archetypes as overt or literal messaging or a campaign; rather, think of them as ways to imbue or orient the relationship between brand and people. For each brand selected from our rankings, we’ll explore a detailed view of their brand performance and the role that these archetypes play in helping them achieve stronger bonds with customers.
Fulfillme
nt is about exceeding expectations and being reliable. For Amazon, it means much more. The Amazon brand has not only built a unique business proposition (a combination of retail, cloud services, entertainment, and technology); it also dominates our brand intimacy rankings. But if we asked you to think about the warm and fuzzy attributes the Amazon brand connotes, could you name any? Probably not.
So how does it perform so well in driving what ultimately matters most—how consumers feel about the brand? Unquestionably, it is a successful business, with the brand valued at nearly $70 billion, a 24 percent increase from 2015.81 Is it performing some brand “mind tricks’” that have been concocted in its labs (along with drone delivery squadrons)? Can any retail brand, online or other- wise, catch Amazon? What drives its unique blend of brand performance?
To understand this, let’s bear in mind that Amazon leads our retail category, and is a top three overall ranking brand that has fast risen across our study. Amazon leads its category in the fulfillment archetype. At first blush, this seems both obvious and basic—a table stakes requirement for a business in online retailing. However, exceeding expectations and being reliable provides confidence, trust, and assurance. These are all critical in building bonds and deepening relationships. Delivering or over-delivering on expectations for a brand can take the basics of “good service” to a whole other level. Brands that innovate in this space enjoy the benefits of becoming verbs in our everyday vocabulary (e.g., Google). Fulfillment is a popular archetype with many of the top-ranked brands, across many industries in our study. It is also perhaps the broadest archetype, compared to more focused alternates like indulgence or nostalgia, suggesting that in order to master it, a brand must do many things well. For Amazon, this resonates with their operational efficiency and technological prowess.
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